2015 was not a great reading year for me – I only finished 25 26 books in all (I forgot to include Sir Winston Churchill’s The Birth of Britain). Part of that was due to tackling the to-do list, and part of it was not disciplining myself to read books instead of stuff online. There were, however, a few excellent 2015 reads which I wanted to share here.
Best Non-Fiction
Hands-down this was Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child by Anthony Esolen. The big theme of this book: the contrast between what the world says is freedom (really bondage), and the true freedom found in submitting ourselves to God’s design. I have 15 pages of quotes from Life Under Compulsion in my commonplace book, and have read passages from it twice now to the ladies in my Charlotte Mason study group because his ideas meshed so well with Miss Mason’s. I have shared some quotes on previous WwW, but here is one more:
Tolerance is that important but subordinate virtue by which, instructed in our own weakness, we bear with what is bad without pretending that it is good.
Best Fiction
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book 1 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen further strengthened my love for the epic poem which began several years ago when I first read Paradise Lost and then later the Iliad. It reminded me both of Milton’s poem and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and I love this quote from C.S. Lewis about Spencer:
To read him is to grow in mental health.
Best Read-Aloud
The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander was enjoyed by all, and had some pretty profound thoughts mixed in with a great adventure tale. I shared quotes from it here and here.
Best Audiobook
I had never read Kidnapped before this year, having only watched the old Disney movie multiple times as a kid. So I decided to listen to the audiobook narrated by Michael Page along with Mr. D earlier this year, and was so glad I did. Here’s part of my Goodreads review:
…Kidnapped is a tale of survival against great odds, but in the end it’s about finding deep friendship in the unlikeliest places. It’s about overlooking and forgiving another’s faults. It’s about coming to the end of yourself and being humble enough to admit you need help. I absolutely recommend this audiobook, as the Scottish brogue can be difficult, and this narrator renders it beautifully, while differentiating between the different characters.
Here’s the complete list of books I read in 2015, in the order I finished them (RA=read aloud):
- The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill (RA to Miss A)
- As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (audiobook, fun!)
- The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (audiobook)
- Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (audiobook)
- The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (audiobook)
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (audiobook)
- The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
- The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis (audiobook)
- The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (audiobook)
- The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander (RA)
- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (audiobook)
- Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child by Anthony Esolen
- A Taste of Chaucer: Selections from the Canterbury Tales by Anne Malcolmson
- Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober
- Will You Be My Facebook Friend? by Tim Chester
- Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
- The Birth of Britain by Sir Winston Churchill (audiobook)
- The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (read along with the Arkangel recording)
- The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn (RA with Miss A)
- Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (RA with Miss A)
- Love the Home You Have by Melissa Michaels
- Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (RA)
- Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers (audiobook)
- Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (audiobook)
- Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book 1 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, edited by Roy Maynard
- Monk’s Hood by Ellis Peters (audiobook)
Wednesdays with Words is hosted by ladydusk.
