For a little while now I’ve been trying to maintain a reading regimen. I try to study through two or three books each month. There have been a few reasons why I’ve found this to be a valuable effort – first, it helps me grow my ability to cook healthy and nourishing meals, to be better steward, and most importantly to grow in godliness and Christlikeness. I think it will be fun to use a bit of space on the blog each month to review some of the books I’m reading. Of course, while I don’t necessarily endorse all things written or said by the authors, I have been encouraged by these book. They all come recommended to me. I hope you will share with me your recommendations, too!

The books are linked for your convenience.

The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution

by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

The Lord’s Prayer is indeed radical and still relevant to our times. As I read this book, the Lord’s prayer became less of a rote passage I’ve recited so many times and more like a Gospel message, a cry for God’s justice and power to be shown. The author brings theology, conviction, and understanding to the prayer. This short book on the Lord’s Prayer emphasizes that our prayers are the best evidence of our theology.

“The Lord’s Prayer takes less than twenty seconds to read aloud, but it takes a lifetime to learn.”

“Prayer is never an isolated event. When we pray, we convey our entire theological system. Our theology is never so clearly displayed before our own eyes and before the world as in our prayers. Praying forces us to articulate our doctrines, convictions, and theological assumptions. These aspects of our Christian life come to a unique focus in prayer because when we speak to God we are explicitly revealing who we believe he is, who we believe we are, what his disposition toward us is, and why he has that disposition.”

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Knowby Emily Oster

In the pregnancy world, there’s a lot of “probably fine” and “low-risk” vagueness. Since the author’s profession is to find and analyze research, she started reading studies about pregnancy and drawing conclusions. The result is an easy-to-read story of her own pregnancy experience, the choices she made, and the research she found.

“Pregnancy seemed to be treated as a one-size-fits-all affair. The way I was used to making decisions — thinking about my personal preferences, combined with the data — was barely used at all. This was frustrating enough. Making it worse, the recommendations I read in books or heard from friends often contradicted what I heard from my doctor.”

“When I got pregnant, I pretty quickly learned that there is a lot of information out there about pregnancy, and a lot of recommendations. But neither the information nor the recommendations were all good. The information was of varying quality, and the recommendations were often contradictory and occasionally infuriating. In the end, in an effort to get to the good information — to really figure out the truth — and to make the right decisions, I tackled the problem as I would any other, with economics.”

with love. Damaris