Hero on a Bicycle | WWII

War can harden or humble a person. Some of these characters allowed it to turn them into better people.

Rebekah: Women of Genesis | Book Club

It’s always the men, in the Bible, who make the big headlines, so I was excited to read Rebekah: Women of Genesis by Orson Scott Card and get a new point of view for the well-known Bible story of Rebekah and Isaac, Jacob and Esau. After all, there’s that quote about a strong woman behind every strong man. Overview:…

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The Girl from Venice | WWII

This book is beautiful and romantic with a thread of hope that weaves throughout the entire plot, turning the death and destruction of war into a glimpse of the human capacity for good.

Eat, Pray, Love | Italy

You can’t chase after happiness; it’s inside, a choice we make. Elizabeth Gilbert realizes this in time. She finds happiness not by exploring a new place, but by exploring an old one—namely, the walls and corridors and culture of her own soul.

Read the World Wrap-Up | India

When I think of India—especially now, after reading the literature and eating the food—I think of aromatic spices and colors, conquering sultans and rajas, sumptuous palaces and temples. I think of gold and jewels and steamy jungles. I think of a faraway world that’s perhaps not nearly as far away as I’d thought.

A Passage to India | India

I know that Forster was painting a picture of the racial tension between the English and Indians—a picture, I might point out, that didn’t turn every Englishman into a villain and every Indian into a martyr (both races had their good and bad points)—but it just wasn’t a picture that really captured my imagination.

Number the Stars | WWII

I could say something here about the beauty of Lois Lowry’s prose, the poetry in her writing, the depth in her characters. All good reasons to enjoy a book. But I’ll just go with this: it’s true and important.

India: A History | India

From about 1000 B.C. t0 1700 A.D., India history is a disjointed creature containing unpronounceable names and a multitude of different kingdoms and dynasties.

Midnight’s Children | India

Because the truth is, Indian life and culture is amazingly complicated. It’s a menagerie of different castes, religions, politics, boundaries, and cultures. It’s like a giant Gordian knot of humanity that you’re trying to unravel, only finally coming to the understanding that it’s impossible to fully understand and organize it.

In the Garden of Beasts | WWII

If you want a unique look into Germany right before the war and those events that led up to it, if you want to read about some of the everyday people who lived and loved and suffered in that country during that time, read this book. It was fascinating and entertaining and a little haunting.

Heaven Is Here | Book Club

Stephanie’s thoughts about love and happiness, discoveries that not many people make, are deep and abiding. Only those who are steeped in the furnace of affliction—truly immersed for months and even years of in that fire of suffering—can easily see those truths that others struggle to understand: you can choose happiness; it doesn’t choose you.