School is back in session! Although, for us, it means starting year two of homeschooling … We started just a few days after their friends started back at school just because we could. I spent a lot more time cleaning and organizing before we started school. I “only” read seven books in August, but many of them were heavy topics – WW2 historical fiction and non-fiction about current events, communism and totalitarianism. Here are the books I read in August:
“Live not by lies,” is a quote from Aleksandr Solzehnitsyn before he was arrested for speaking out about communism in the Soviet Union. Dreher explores his quote as it applies to life today for Christians. When our worldview is often at odds with the current trends, we have to decide when we should speak out and stand up. It should always be for the truth. This book is a good companion to Dreher’s book The Benedict Option.
Written in 1958, The Naked Communist has been updated for current times. The book goes over the history of communism in the world and lays bare how it can only be installed as a system of government by force and how it has never been successful. The book also lays out 45 goals of communism for America and how most of them have been accomplished. This book is eye-opening to see behind what is currently going on in the world. I highly recommend this book for everyone!
There is a Christian history of fasting as a spiritual practice. It’s also one of the newest diet trends with people doing intermittent fasting. Richards looks at fasting from both aspects in Eat, Fast, Feast. He does a good job of addressing fasting from both a spiritual and physical perspective. The book also offers a six-week plan to try fasting and see how it works with your body.
The first book in The Lilac Girls series, Lilac Girls, focuses on Caroline Ferriday who works at the French consulate in New York City. When war breaks out, she works hard to find a way to help French refugees. The book also follows women in Ravensbruck – a young Polish teenager and a German doctor assigned to the camp. Their lives intertwine as the teenager is one of the girls the doctor decides to do medical experiments on at the camp. The book is not easy to read, but important to read for history’s sake.
The second book in The Lilac Girls series, Lost Roses, focuses on Caroline’s mother, Eliza. Eliza is friends with Sofya, a cousin of the Romanovs. The book is set during the fall of the tsars in Russia and shows the absolute anarchy that was taking place in Russia during that time. Another main character, Varinka, shows the plight of the lower class during those times. Again, all three women’s lives intersect as Sofya tries to search for freedom – and for her son, who has been kidnapped by Varinka. There are dark-themes in this book, but it is true to the historical time period.
Three Sisters is the third book by Heather Morris about people who were in concentration camps. The book comes out Oct. 5, 2021. Morris wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey. Three Sisters follows a Slovakian family and how they struggled with two of the girls being taken away and not knowing anything about them as they end up in a concentration camp. Survival is a daily struggle. This is a book that would be work pre-ordering!
The Origins of Totalitarianism was listed as a must-read in The Naked Communist. It was available to check out from my library, but I didn’t realize it is quite a long, academic book. I skimmed through parts of the book, but other parts were fascinating as Arendt studied how Germany and Russia came to have so much power over their people leading up to WW2. It would be a good book for serious study.
What did you read in August? Share in the comments!
