Reading

Stories That Shape Me

Characters Matter

Stories serve many different purposes. For me it has always been the characters. How they respond to challenges leaves me spellbound.

Sigrud Undset’s Nobel Prize winning novel Kristin Lavransdatter introduces the complex conflict between Nordic pagan mythology and Christianity. Throughout her life Kristin engages in a spiritual battle trying to reconcile both. Perhaps the finest piece of character development in the Twentieth Century.

Evelyn Waugh explores suffering love through Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited. The youthful Oxfordian’s chance meeting with a deeply flawed family brings about both a conversion and revelation about an imperfect world in need of God’s mercy.

Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting is a frigtheningly poignant exploration of immortality through Winnie Foster’s intriguing choice.

Below are the books stacked on the table in my home library. It is winter now, and you will find me looking out over snowy meadows as I read beneath blankets and write novels.

Books On My Kindle

The Life She Was Given, Ellen Marie Wiseman

Foster, Claire Keegan

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

Mary Jane, Jessica Anya Blau

The Story of a Soul, Saint Therese de Lisieux

The Liturgy of the Hours (Daily)