Book blog part 2

I recently read two very different but great books. The first was "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak and the second  "A year of Biblical Womanhood" by Rachel Held Evans. These two books could not be more different but I couldn't put them down and they both made me stop and think about things.

"The Book Thief" follows Liesel, a young German girl during Nazi Germany.  As Hitler raises to power, Liesel and her foster parents have to make a huge decision between what is right and what is deadly. When an old friend, who happens to be a Jewish man, shows up on their door step looking for safety, they decide to do what is right and hide him in their basement. The story is narrated by Death, which I thought was a really interesting way to tell the story. Its one of those books that just sucks you in. You care so much about the characters, even though they are fictional. There are a lot of amazing themes in the books, like the power of words, friendship, family, and carrying on. But the best theme in the book is to love someone just because they are human. A person doesn't have more or less value because they meet certain requirements. They are valued because they are a person.
 

The second book, "A Year of Biblical Womanhood" is Rachel Held Evan's year long account of trying to live the bible literally. It is impossible to live the bible literally in our modern world. You just can't do it. What I love about this book, is she did try to literally live out the bible, all the rules and demands it has for women. But she also looked to see how you could apply it to today and live a Godly life, rather than a biblical life. This book made me crave God. I wanted to dive into scripture. I saw passages differently. It was great! Throughout the book, she had a ton of great quotes, lessons and comments. My book is underlined and multiple pages are flagged. But two statements stood out to me. The first, came toward the end of the book when she was wrapping things up, but also when she was addressing the issue of women's roles in the church. Rachel said "Like the rest of the bible, the Epistles were written for us but they were not written to us." The bible was not written for 21st century America. We have to look at the culture and the context. That doesn't mean we should regard the bible as ancient.But we should value the bible enough to understand the passage. The second quote comes from her chapter on marriage and roles between husband and wife. "But roles are not fixed. They are not static. Roles come and go; they shift and they change. They are relative to our culture and subject to changing circumstances. Its not our roles that define us but our character."  I have never believed that a man has the final say in a family just because he is a man. that view is reflected in my family, there isnt one more important than another, its equal. 

These books are extremely different but they have both stuck in my head. I really enjoyed reading them.