Week 28: Fun Activity for Reading a Novel Together

 

 

Week 28: Fun Activity for Reading a Novel Together

This week's fun activity is: Read a novel out loud.  Take turns reading, use the “text-to-speech” option on your Kindle, or listen to an audio book.  I realize that a lot of books (not even the so-called Christian ones) are clean and innocent, so you need to use your own discernment and discretion on this one.

I am choosing two books for this post because the photo above is from my favorite book last year and the below is my favorite this year (so far).

Novels can be fiction or non-fiction such as an autobiography, or even a devotional, so anything you choose to read together this week counts, even magazine articles!

We chose this book because I am a huge fan of the southern gospel group The Happy Goodmans, especially Vestal Goodman. I only started watching the Gaither Homecoming concert series on YouTube in 2024, but it did not take me long to switch my style of music to all new-to-me artists. YouTube kept playing Gaither videos based on one song I chose (Til the Storm Passes By), and the more I watched them, the more I was hooked. To make a long story a little shorter, I now watch at least one concert every night before bed and listen exclusively to all the singers from those videos (or past groups represented by former members such as the original Happy Goodmans with Rusty and Sam, and The Statesmen), the above mentioned Goodmans, The Cathedrals, Greater Vision, The Gaither Vocal Band, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, The Martins, Russ Taff, Guy Penrod, The Easters, Legacy Five, etc. But of them all, I love the late Vestal Goodman the most. I cannot hear her sing Rock of Ages without making me cry. Therefore, I was thrilled when my hubby got me this book off of E-bay for an anniversary gift in 2025.

With all that said, I highly recommend Vestal Goodman's autobiography. It is the best non-fiction book I have ever read (other than the Bible, of course). I want you to read it on your own so I don't want to give you any spoilers.  It is so incredibly inspiring. She was such an honorable woman of faith and experienced many miracles. This book made me laugh and cry and I am sure I will read it many more times.

We just finished reading "Steal Away Home" two days ago.  We had checked it out as a digital copy from the library.  It is such an amazing book I had to include it in this week's fun activity.

This is historical fictional book but supposedly is full of facts from real conversations and diary entries from both Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson, so it could also be considered non-fiction. I am not a Calvinist, but this book never pushes Calvinism (unless I missed it) and simply tells the stories of these two men and actually gives great snippets of messages on holiness and treating others with love and compassion.  

It is an eye-opening book on the evils of slavery.  It is not detailed as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which is also a book I read about 7 years ago, and I highly recommend.  But it tells enough of what Thomas had to endure to make you feel great compassion for him.

I really did not know anything about Charles Spurgeon before reading this book and was very impressed with all he did for the poor people of England.  His messages were inspiring.  He and his wife both suffered a lot of physical pain in their lives and Chales also battled depression off and on, and yet he still faithfully served God.

I don't want to give anything away on how Thomas and Charles' lives are connected, so please read it on your own.  As with Vestal's book, it will make you cry (a lot) and laugh as well.