It’s Monday! What are you reading? Is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journey. Kellee and Rikki at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts gave the meme a kidlit twist. It’s a great way to reflect on what you’ve read and reviewed the last week and plan what you want to read next. Join up with us and discover what good books other people are reading.

Throughout the years, I’ve had several dogs adopt me. That’s how I usually get a new dog. I wait until the right dog finds me. This week, we had a new twist on that with a rooster making itself at home on our front porch. I think it likes the cedar branches that I cut and stuck in the pots by the front door. I liked listening to it crow, even early in the morning. (Let me tell you, roosters don’t crow just at sunrise!) My daughter, though, is not a fan of the crowing, especially in the morning!

I finished…

Tracks in the Straw: Tales Spun from the Manger by Ted Loder – This is one of my all time favorite Christmas books. I try to reread it each Christmas. My goal is to read a little each day of Advent (it is conveniently divided up that way), but this year I read it in several big gulps, all in one day. Loder imaginatively enters into the Nativity story from a variety of points of view of people who were probably there, but not mentioned: a serving girl at the inn, the stable-hand at the inn, a servant boy in the retinue of the wise men (do you really think they would have traveled without servants?), another woman who helped with the birth, even the donkey, a goat, and sparrow. Scattered among them are stories from Christmas present as well. Each time I read it, I take away something different that enriches my understanding and experience of Christmas.

The Christmas Troll by Eugene Peterson and illustrated by Will Terry – I never would have dreamed of a Christmas story featuring trolls, but this is a fun read. Andrew is sure Christmas is ruined because his parents won’t let him open just one present on Christmas Eve. So he grabs the hand of his little sister and runs away to the woods. He is a little worried about trolls, but discovers that trolls are nothing at all like he imagined. Instead, trolls are a gift–unexpected and unwrapped–that brings laughter and joy.

What Happened at Christmas? by Alan and Linda Parry – This is a very simple retelling of the Nativity in the form of questions and answers. The answers are revealed by opening a flap or pulling a tab. Once upon a time, the last page opened to play “Silent Night,” but the batteries have long since worn out.

The Fool’s Girl by Celia Rees – Decidedly nonChristmas (except that it does pull inspiration from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). Violetta flees her small country when it is betrayed from within and attacked from without. She and her fool Festes travel through London, seeking to catch the attention of a young playwright with the Lord Champberlain’s Men. When Will Shakespeare hears the first of his story, he is hooked, and Violetta and Festes reel him in, needing his help to regain a sacred relic and return to her home country at last. All the players find themselves caught up in a web of intrigue and power, and it might take a fool to save them all. Fans of Shakespeare and intrigue will enjoy this tale.

I’m currently reading…

What Have You Lost edited by Naomi Shihab Nye – I read just a few poems this week, each one haunting. I do want to finish this volume by the end of the year. I may have to read more than one a day to get there, but I can make it.

Soul Tsunami by Leonard Sweet –  At times hopeful and at times frightening, Sweet has his finger on the pulse of our times.. It is a fascinating glimpse of shifts in the culture from modern to postmodern. Even though it was published in 1999, many of Sweet’s insights are even more true today. Not only does he look at the seismic shifts in culture, but he presents ways for the church to be involved in this transformation rather than just complaining that things aren’t the way they used to be. I find myself thinking about many of the concepts explored as I watch the news each day.

God Is in the Manger by Dietrich Bhonhoeffer – This week’s reflections are on mystery. I enjoyed our discussion last week on waiting (still hard). As I read this week, I am trying to experience the mystery of Christmas instead of trying to control or even understand it all. The more I think, the more I am in awe of the mystery.

Coming up…

It’s been several years since I’ve reread A Christmas Carol, so that is high on my list of books I want to read this week. What is your favorite version of this classic?

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