"All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment" - Book Thoughts

 From time to time, I write a blog post focusing on a book I've read recently.  These aren't reviews - they are a summary of some of my favorite thoughts from the book.  The goal of these posts is to help me remember the book better, and hopefully to encourage a few of you to check it out as well.  The book I'm writing about today is "All That's Good:  Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment" by Hannah Anderson.  

This book's main idea is that discernment doesn't just mean avoiding what's bad, but also learning to recognize what's good and beautiful - which can be hard to do in our noisy, chaotic, distraction filled world.  Anderson's framework for finding goodness and beauty is Philippians 4:8:  "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  When we learn to find the things that fit these descriptors (true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable), we will find what is good and beautiful.   The meat of the book goes through each of these characteristics, chapter by chapter, and gives us ideas for how to search these things out.  

Here is an example quote from each chapter (these are not intended to summarize the chapter, but just to give you an idea of the type of content):

• True:  Here, the idea is that if something is true, it should be able to stand up to questioning and contrary opinions.  And if we care about the truth more than being comfortable and right, we should be open to changing our mind if we are proven wrong.  P. 75: "We must be willing to test, question, doubt - not the truth, but our own certainty and our own motivations.  We must expect and even invite the Scripture and other people to confront and question us.  We must allow the truth to make us honest people."  
• Honorable:  There were two ideas that stuck with me from this chapter - 
• First, we need a source of honor that comes from outside other people's approval.  P. 85: "when we know that our worth comes from God, it frees us from needing to seek it from other people."  
• Second, she urges us to look carefully at who our culture encourages us to honor, and how that matches up with what the Bible says.  P. 90: "God regularly upends our cultural notions about who and what deserve honor, choosing instead to destroy the wisdom of the wise. Instead of using the rich, He uses the poor.  Instead of celebrating the powerful, He celebrates the weak.  And instead of calling those of noble birth, He sends His Son to a manger." 
• Just: This chapter talks about how we are bothered when things aren't right because we all carry a sense of goodness; and then it talks about how part of the mess comes from us; and how that points us to our justifier.  P. 106: "The problem with seeking justice is how quickly the process reveals our own injustice.  We want the world to be the way it should be only to find out that we ourselves are not what we should be...But here too, seeking justice leads to goodness, because when we seek justice, we will find the One who justifies the unjust."
• Pure:  This chapter focuses on how purity is having a whole and undivided heart, and that choices made in secret will flow out to our broader character.  P. 115: "whether we fulfill our promises to those closest to us predicts whether we will fulfill our promises to the broader community."  It also encourages becoming wise about what is good in this arena rather than just trying to avoid what is bad, and teaching kids the same - P. 120: "to be open and honest with the struggles, to celebrate the joy and security of lifelong commitment, to delight in the God-given goodness of our physical bodies."  
• Lovely: One part I loved in this chapter is how to treat the loveliness you see in other people.  P. 136: "So when we truly see the loveliness of our brothers and sisters, our hearts will respond as it does to any other form of loveliness: in celebration of their Creator - a Creator so wise, so imaginative, so kind as to create each one of us.  And when we celebrate their Creator, we will guard the loveliness He has made.  We will sacrifice for it, even if it means sacrificing our own desire for it.  This is something of what we mean when we talk about not objectifying other people.  Their beauty is not ours to possess; it is not ours to consume.  It is ours to protect."
• Commendable: This chapter focused on what do we read and what do we talk about, with a special focus on how we interact on the Internet and social media.  P. 142: "If we spend our days sharing trivialities, life will be trivial.  If we spend our days focused on what we fear, life will be filled with anxiety.  If, however, we spend our days talking about good, worthy, glorious things, there is the strong likelihood that our lives will be filled with good, worthy, glorious things."  

If this concept and these quotes stir you, I would really encourage you to check out the rest of the book.  This is just scratching the surface - I've got stars and underlines all over my book.  I absolutely love the idea of seeking out the good and the beautiful in our world, and I think these are some really helpful thoughts about how to do that.

Books I Read in 2022

Welcome to my annual favorite books blog!  I look forward to this one all year - it's fun to remember favorite books from the last year, and it's fun to hear from you about what you also enjoyed.  Here's pics of the books I read in 2022 (thanks Goodreads!), and here's a link if you want to learn more about any of them. Scroll down to see the list in writing!

First, I want to give a shout out to libraries.  Libraries, we love you!  I counted, and 47 of my books were library books this year.  And this doesn't count the many dozens of picture books we've checked out to supplement all the homeschool subjects, or cookbooks I previewed before buying, or (new this year!) sheet music that I attempted to play before realizing it was way beyond my abilities.  It also doesn't quantify all the story times we attended when the kids were toddlers, the craft projects and art displays and therapy dog visits we've happened upon when stopping by, and the warmth of the friendly librarians who make all of this happen.  Thank you, librarian workers, for all you do for our communities, and thank you libraries for the plentiful supply of books.

Now, we turn to my favorite books of the year!  I want to add - every book that appears above I would give a thumbs up in one way or another.  I quit early on if a book's not hitting for me, so if it makes it on the "read" list, then there was something compelling about it.  And I would be thrilled to discuss any of them, above or below.  Having said that, these are the ones that stayed with me the most.  Here we go...

Middle grade:

"The Silver Chair" and "The Last Battle" by C.S. Lewis

"Pony" by R.J. Palacio

"From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konsburg

"The Ickabog" by J.K. Rowling

Books I'm still Thinking About:

"Even Better Than Eden" by Nancy Guthrie

"Why God Makes Sense In A World that Doesn't" by Gavin Ortlund

"The Brave Learner" by Julie Bogart

"The Tech Wise Family" by Andy Crouch

"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius

"Out of the Silent Planet" and "Peralandra" by C.S. Lewis

Favorite books where you get swept up in the story:

"Illusion of Control" and "Loyal 2 Chaos" by Kenny Ching

"Greenwood" by Michael Christie

"Love and Saffron" by Kim Fay

"Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt

"Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century" by Kim Fu

Amazing Writing:

"A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean (specifically the first story)

"To Bless the Space Between Us" by John O'Donohue

"One Long River of Song" by Brian Doyle

"The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene

"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan

One Miscellaneous Other That I Really Liked:

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami

These are my favorites of the last year!  Please tell me if you've read any of these and what you thought, and also what books you've read recently that you loved.

Book Review: "12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You"

                                        

I just read "12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You" by Tony Reinke, and I liked it so much that I'm doing a book review.  This is a Christian living book that encourages us to think critically about our smartphone use.  I read this book in preparation for an upcoming book club, and to be honest, I was hesitant to read a book about how bad social media / smartphone use is.  I like seeing what my friends are up to, I like showing them what I'm up to, and I feel like it's been trendy for years to bash it.  I know there are ways that social medias and smartphones aren't the best for us, but I wasn't really looking to dive into it.  

However, this book overcame my hesitations by being what I needed even if it wasn't what I thought I wanted.  It's got a really fresh take that is both deeply practical and theological.  It acknowledges that phones can be great tools for work, life, and friendship, and it's not urging most of us to give up our smartphones or even (necessarily) our social media accounts.  Instead, in a series of twelve short chapters, it helped me think critically about why am I posting, commenting, or scrolling at any given moment, and what effect is this having on me and others (both virtually and in real life).  The bottom line question it asks the reader to consider is, "What is the best use of my smart phone in the flourishing of my life?"

There is a ton of good food for thought in this book.  Here are just some of the quotes / points that stuck out to me while reading the book:

• Real Life v. Online Interactions:  When most of our social interaction is online rather than in person, we're losing some important things, so we should make a point of prioritizing in person gatherings.  "We gather to be seen, to feel awkward, and perhaps to feel a little unheard and underappreciated, all on purpose...This feeling of awkwardness, this leaving the safety of our online friendships, this mingling with people we don't know or understand in our local churches is incredibly valuable for our souls." (pgs. 72-73)
• Approval junkie:  Most social media networks don't let you post without some kind of metric of approval attached, and it's really hard not to pay attention and start posting in ways that drive up the likes - we should pay attention to how much we're chasing approval as we post and comment.  "We will go on reproducing ourselves, bingeing on man's approval, and starting each day with an approval hangover.  Then we need the antidote of new affirmation from our friends to keep convincing ourselves that our lives are meaningful." (p. 76)
• Deep thoughts / wisdom v. the trivial:  I really want to spend my time and attention on thing things that make me able to think better / deeper / wiser thoughts, and scrolling through newsfeeds is just not a great way to do this - we should pay attention to when we've moved past actual friends giving actual updates, and on to filler.  "Online information is increasingly hyperpalatable, akin to alluring junk food.  Breaking news, tabloid gossip, viral memes, and the latest controversies in sports, politics, and entertainment all draw us to our phones as if they were deep-fried Twinkies held out on sticks at the state fair.  Digital delicacies are eye grabbing and appealing, but they lack nutrition." (pgs. 146-147)
• Emotionally shallow:  When you scroll through a newsfeed, you might jump straight from someone announcing a death (deep sorrow), to someone making a birth announcement (great joy), to a political post that makes you angry - we feel each of these things very briefly, and then keep scrolling to the next post and the next emotion.  Little by little, this takes away our muscle memory for feeling deeply those things that should be felt deeply and dwelt on for more than five seconds.
• Hope v. Despair:  A focus on God's promises helps us look to new mercies every morning; a focus on the news or newsfeed will instead show us new tragedies every morning (whichever side we are on), and get us caught up in the here and now.  This isn't to say that we should never act, vote, or speak up on behalf of injustice - this is more a question of whether we are allowing ourselves to drown in the despair of the temporal, or if we are being lifted by the hope of the gospel.  

These are just a few sample thoughts that I found especially helpful.  There are chapters about distraction, about time waste, about the bad roads that bad content can lead us down, and much more.  This all sounds pretty doom and gloom, but the good news is, much of this can be helped by thinking critically about how and why you're using your phone (which is what this book helps us do so well), and changing things up when you find things you don't like.  

For example, this book has encouraged me to edit what posts I'm seeing (getting to the hope v. despair point), and to pause and feel it or reach out if I see something that merits a deeper emotional response (getting to the emotionally shallow point).  I'm still working on reducing the amount of time I spend mindlessly scrolling after I've gotten through updates that I really want to see, and the approval junkie thing is still a big struggle for me. Those are both going to be hard ones to break, but it's a good start to even be thinking about it.  

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to think through the theme of the book:  "What is the best use of my smart phone in the flourishing of my life?"

Books I Read in 2020

 It's the annual book blog!  Here's a visual graphic of the books I read in 2020 (thanks Goodreads!).  Scroll down to read my favorites.  

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First, a few thoughts on this particular year in reading --

How my reading life was different in 2020

The first thing that was different for me was that I got caught up on a lot of backlist titles.  In a normal year, the vast majority of my reading is new releases.  I rely heavily on the library for this content, and then, thanks to library due dates, I fail to get to titles that we own.  This year, due to the pandemic, our local library did not loan out physical books for about half the year, so it "forced" me to get to many of these backlist titles that I sincerely wanted to read, but had been gathering dust on the nightstand table.  So there was less fiction, more heavy stuff, and less new releases in all genres.  (It felt really good to get through much of the backlist, but I am SUPER looking forward to the library opening back up.  I currently have 86 titles on hold, and if the pandemic spike lasts much longer, I'm going to have to rent a U-Haul to pick up all the waiting books :)

The second thing that was different was that there was a LOT of time at home with the kids, so many of the books on this list are middle grade.  With travel and activities all canceled, and with school looking different (particularly in the spring), we had a lot more home based family togetherness than usual.  One of the ways we used this time was to read several middle grade chapter books together.  I read a book a few years ago called "The Read Aloud Family:  Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with your Kids" by Sarah Mackenzie (highly recommend!), and she shifted my mind frame about when and how to read to kids.  Instead of trying to herd them all in when they're happily playing something else, it works really well to read at times when they are already having to sit still.  So we do a lot of read alouds during meals / snacks, and during bath.  Again, this is aided by pandemic life - if dinner was our only time together, we would just use that time to catch up - but when you're eating together six times a day and conversation topics include things like "what's your 4th favorite color", it's nice to sometimes have something else to fill the time.  As life returns to normal, it will be harder to do this as much - but it can still work well on breaks and vacations.  It had never occurred to me to combine eating and read aloud - I hope this tip works well for others! 

Without further ado, here are my favorite reads of the past year:

Favorite Fiction (in random order)

1.  "Jack" by Marilynne Robinson

2.  "Rodham" by Curtis Sittenfeld

3 & 4.   "Plainsong" and "Eventide" by Kent Haruf

5.  "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu

6.  "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid

7.  "Long Bright River" by Liz Moore

8. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J.K. Rowling

9.  "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennet

10.  "The Brutal Telling"  by Louise Penny

Favorite Other

Memoir - "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah

Christian Living - "New Morning Mercies:  A Daily Gospel Devotional" by Paul David Tripp

Poetry - "Why I Wake Early" by Mary Oliver

Humor - "Wow, No Thank You" by Samantha Irby

Other Non-fiction - "Hidden Valley Road" by Robert Kolker

My favorite thing about this particular annual blog is the conversation it produces, so I would love to hear from you!!:

1.  How was your reading life different this year?

2.  What was your favorite book (or books) you read this year?

3.  If you read any of these same books, what did you think?