The Alchemist - Summer 2010 - Genre: Fantasy

Genre #1 -- Fantasy
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
read 5/28/2010

I really enjoyed this quick-read fable. Coelho kept my imagination going; I almost felt as if I were travelling the world with the little boy. I was highly intrigued by the quantity of Biblical references in this book. God is portrayed as deeply caring about His creation and being intimately involved with it. I would not, however, recommend this book to immature Christians, as it mixes universalist doctrines, alchemy, and Islamic thought with Christian ideas and could cause confusion if one were not solidly grounded and were to mistake the teachings for reality rather than the fable that the book is.

This book was part of my 2010 summer reading program.

The Screwtape Letters - Summer 2010 - Genre: Fantasy

Genre #1 -- Fantasy
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
read 5/28/2010

I love C.S. Lewis's unique perspective in this book (writing from the perspective of a devil). There is a lot of food for thought for Christians (live in the present, it's the "little" sins that cause us to stumble, one of Satan's primary goals is to cause us to be self-focused, etc.). At times I got bogged down by the reading; it seemed to drag a bit--could be partially due to Lewis's academic-type sentence structure and vocabulary. The chapters, however, are very short, so it was easy to take a break when I needed one.

This book was part of my 2010 summer reading program.

 

Library Summer Reading Program 2010

I first began participating in my library's summer reading program in 2010. That was actually my most "prolific" year to date. (It was before I had kids; need I say more?)

I really enjoyed the format of the 2010 summer reading program. The library selected 15 genres, dividing them into 5 groups. So, each little group had 3 genres. The goal was to choose 1 of the 3 genres in each of those 5 groups (thus, reading 5 books by the end of the summer). Well, since I've always been an over-achiever, I decided I wanted to read all 15 genres. It was such fun! The library gave recommendations of books and authors in each of the genres.

I originally posted my reviews on Facebook, but now that I have a blog, I'll also post them here.

Here are the 15 genres:
Fantasy (I actually read 2 for this one)
Historical
Horror
Literary
Mystery
Adventure
Thriller
Gentle Reads
Women's Lives
Suspense
Romance
Sci Fi
Western
Inspirational
Crime

Hope you enjoy the reviews! What's your favorite genre to read?