100 Books - 85-81

85. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. We listened to Seabiscuit on our vacation to the North Shore earlier this summer. We had watched the movie with our church kids just a week before and really fell in love with the story again, so of course I wanted to do the book. Kris doesn't really enjoy audiobooks but we both had fun listening to this particular book - it's well written and very, very interesting.

84. The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz. My job during my senior year of seminary was as a teaching assistant to Dr. Jim Nestingen. He recommended this book to me and to many others, and when it was announced that a new version was to be published I thought maybe I'd give it a shot. A good read for a new pastor - I wish I had read it before I started here in Barrett. I might have avoided some rookie mistakes. But then, I'm sure I would have made others. It's a good story about three generations of pastors in a small town area of Sweden, and their ministry and changes in the community over time.

83. Tolkien: A Celebration edited by Joseph Pearce. This was a collection of essays about Tolkien, his writing, etc. I'll be honest - there's nothing too remarkable here. I enjoyed the book, but can't tell you anything earth-shattering I learned as a result of reading it. Perhaps I need to read it again? One would think that as much as I enjoy Tolkien I would remember more about this book!

82. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. What a delightful audiobook this was: read by the author in all his lilting, northern Ireland glory. Of course, the story is terrible; growing up poor in Ireland in the early 20th century was about as bad as one could get. But Frank McCourt is a charming storyteller, and you get the feeling listening to this book that he's just telling you another tale over a pint and a pipe.

81. Stationary Bike by Stephen King. A novella I picked up at audible.com a few weeks ago. An interesting theme on reality, the psyche and where the two intersect. As usual, King's descriptive characterizations take unbelievable situations and make them come alive. The main character, a commercial artist, is significantly overweight and in poor health. He buys a stationary bike, paints a landscape to avoid pedaling toward a blank wall for hours on end, and that's where the insanity begins.

So, I'm looking at this list and realizing that I listen to a LOT of audiobooks these days. But I've put a lot of time in the car this summer, I think - a 7 hour trip out to North Dakota & back can eat up a lot of words, and I've basically hijacked our other car trips this year for good audiobooks. Maybe this is why I'm having so much trouble actually reading books? At any rate, these are the latest I can remember...