Books...

...are my new favorite friends. I always wanted to be an avid reader. However, when I was in high school, I was one of those readers who would scan my eyes from the top left hand page of the book all the way down to the bottom right hand side of the other page and then realize that I had absolutely no idea what I just read, because, quite frankly, I was thinking about other things like sports and boys and clothes and what Mom was making for dinner.

My dad, the author, is an amazing reader. I'm not sure there's a book out there (well, non fiction at least) that he has not read. The entire basement of the house I've grown up in is FILLED with books. But when I read, I would either yawn so much that my eyes would water so I couldn't read the words or I would be thinking so much about how exciting it is that I'm actually reading that I would, yet again, fail to pay attention to the words while my eyes went back and forth over them.

But I think I've figured out why it is that now, I can't seem to put books down (and why I have trouble reading one book at once). High school and college were required reading. And from those readings, I knew I was going to be tested on it. And that made it miserable. But the minute I was given the opportunity to a) pick what book I wanted to read, and b) read it simply for the pleasure of the book or the knowledge that it had to offer me, it's been like a whole new world has opened up for me.

So these are the books I've read in the last two years since I graduated from college. They have been beautiful, formative, redemptive and energizing. I admit that I go a bit heavy on the non-fictions (I'm trying to play catch-up in the executive and community develoment world, since, well, I'm 24 and supposed to fill the title of "Executive Director"), but I am discovering the relief and joy of escaping into fiction novels and entering into great literature that reminds me of our universal human condition. I certainly don't have as many books as my dad, I never will, but these will certainly stay in my personal library.

Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner
The Lexus and the Olive Tree - Thomas Friedman
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Traveling Mercies - Annie Lamott
A New Kind of Christian - Brian McLaren
To Kill a Mockingbird (read three times, okay, I'm a nerd) - Harper Lee
Bird by Bird - Annie Lamott
Blue like Jazz - Donald Miller
A Grief Observed - CS Lewis
Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck
Terrify No More - Gary Haugen
The Chosen - Chaim Potok
Mountains beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
The End of Poverty - Jeffrey Sachs
Winning - Jack Welch
King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hoschild
Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
Redeeming Love (I admit, I loved it) - Francine Rivers
The Irresistable Revolution - Shane Claiborne
Courage: The Backbone of Leadership - Gus Lee
Execution - Larry Bossidy and Ram Charam
To Own a Dragon - Donald MIller
A Tale of Three Kings - Gene Edwards
Romans - the Bible
Good News about Injustice (twice) - Gary Haugen
The Kite Runner (currently my absolute fav)- Khaled Hosseini
Strength to Love - Martin Luther King, Jr.


The Economist - less-biased-Britain
The New York Times

*I'm currently reading*
East of Eden (heavy book) - John Steinbeck
Good to Great - Jim Collins

*Books I started but didn't finish, but really want to finish*
Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

*On Deck*
The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond


*In the Hole*
Walking with the Poor - Bryant Meyers
Khaled Hosseini's new book, due this fall