Three more days of the year, three more posts to go. It’s gonna be tight, but I think I’m gonna make it!

This was our book club book for the month and it was so good! End of life care is something I’ve felt strongly about ever since we cared for my dying grandmother when I was in my mid teens, and I produced a documentary on the subject back when I was into filmmaking, so I was very interested in this one.

And it was excellent. Gawande is a doctor, and comes at the topic both from that standpoint and from the point of view of a son/grandson who has witnessed firsthand the difficulties that can arise when older friends and family members can’t care for themselves but still have a need for independence and respect. The book looks at the topic from many different sides and presents many different care models with their pros and cons. And the biggest takeaway he offers is this: Talk to the older people you are responsible for about what is most important to them before the time comes for making decisions about their care. It’s much easier that way to know what to prioritize for them.

I have been a Matt Walsh fan for nearly a decade now (way before the Daily Wire), and have followed his rise to prominence in culture issues with much appreciation. I saw this book was coming out before news of the documentary of the same name, and my husband got it for his birthday that same year.

Then we watched the documentary, and I didn’t feel much urgency to read the book. After all, I figured, it would just be the same information I’d already seen (three times). And yes, it does contain much of the same information, but when I did get to it I was pleased to see there was a lot in it that hadn’t made it into the film, and it really expanded on the subject in fascinating ways, containing more of the featured interviews, additional history, etc. I really enjoyed this one.

I was given this book many, many years ago, and read a few chapters then for some reason didn’t get around to finishing it, so I was excited to finally delve in and try to find some tools for helping my extremely introverted self. Ultimately, I didn’t find this one as earth-shattering as I was hoping, but it was still a fascinating look at the topic of what causes introversion and what makes us tick.

Parts of it felt a little outdated to me, and some of it might have been more useful if I’d read it earlier, since by this point in my life I’ve already figured out lots of ways to work with my introverted tendencies and use it to work for me, not against me. But I still liked the book, particularly the parts that get into the science of dopamine and the brain chemistry of introverts. It made a lot of things click for me, and that was helpful!

Not gonna lie, I had to look up the synopsis of this, book 16 in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, to even remember what in the world it was about. All I recall is that it was just okay, and that, as usual, there wasn’t enough of the Holmes/Russell relationship for my taste. I have vague recollections of the mystery, which wasn’t especially compelling, and a lot of characters who I didn’t much care for, and that’s about it.

Yet another book I picked up a long, long time ago. I found it on clearance at a Christian bookstore, and was intrigued by the title, so I grabbed it and it sat on the shelf for a very long time. I picked it up because it was next on the shelf, but it turned out to be very timely indeed. When I read it, I had just finished really delving into the book of Leviticus, and I had learned to actually love it and find so much more value and meaning in its pages than I ever had before.

And this book, while not perfect (ironically enough–or perhaps not), was a very good read. I especially loved the author’s contention that, despite what we often seem to think, then law was not SOLELY intended to teach us that we can’t keep it and need God’s grace, though that is an important function. No, God’s law actually does tell us something about Him and what He desires from us, and it’s worthwhile to seek out what that something is. I knocked off a star from the rating because the writing itself wasn’t the greatest, but still it was a very good and thought-provoking book.

Back tomorrow with the second-to-last post!