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Summer Reading

Summer Reading

by The Reverend Beth Anne Nelson on May 25, 2022

Summer is quickly approaching, and with it comes free time to read books, either by yourself or with your children. I have two books that I would like to lift up today in my review. 

As many of you know, my husband, David, is utterly perfect, if I reviewed his book it would be completely biased and read like a sappy love story on my page. No one wants that. Also, many of you have already read his book.

Fr. Roman’s book, The Blind Man and His Monkey, is excellent. If you have not already read it, the writing is excellent and the story is superb. It is a captivating tale about how to be courageous. The book also has moments of deep faith. When I arrived, most of the church was already reading his book, so reviewing the book seemed unnecessary. Now, summer is approaching and I think that means it is time to read some fiction. 

What I enjoyed about Fr. Roman’s book was that it truly drew me into a world that I did not know existed. My social location stands in a white suburb and has for most of my life. My cultural background is strongly midwestern with a peppering of eastern European. My dad jokes that his ancestors are potato farmers. Given the little that I know about my family history, I think we must have had some money because my great grandfather immigrated here from Slovakia with his first wife and then a decade or so later encouraged another woman, my great grandmother to come and marry him. 

Fr. Roman’s book paints the picture of immigration from a different view: it was pre-immigration status. It is set in Colombia and speaks to the cultural cues of the 1970’s and 1980’s. There were secrets and subtleties in communication that I had to read over and over again. Alex, the main character’s mother, consistently knew what to do and communicated without blunt conversations. The social status of different members of the community is both heartbreaking and true. 

Mostly, to me, this is a book about friendship and what happens when someone we love experiences tragedy. When this happens there are options to ignore or face the truth. Alex chooses courage and loyalty. With this choice there is justice. The book ends leaving me wanting more to the story. I hope Fr. Roman writes a second part.

Now, perhaps you think that all readers are not ready for The Blind Man and His Monkey, well you are correct. Faith is a little young. Summer is also a time to work on reading. Faith is enjoying reading A Bus for Miss Moss. This book is about taking trips, which is very appropriate for summer. Faith reads one side of the book and I read the other side. This book is part of a series from Usborne that slowly teaches children to read using phonetics and very basic site words.

My prayer for you is to find a deeper relationship with God through your reading this summer. I hope these books give you space to do just that.

For His Sake,

Beth Anne + 

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