Seven-book-cover challenge

Quite a number of weeks ago there were different challenges flying around social media, when some people had a lot of time to spare and time to reflect. One of them was seven-day book covers, and alas I got "tagged". However, typically, I wasn't keen on doing it the same way as everyone else, "no explanation" is really very boring. It's easy for the person posting, but not that interesting for those who see it, who (if they are like me) want to know why the person has picked those books. 

The challenge was to post the covers of seven books I love. Quite a challenge for someone who reads as much as I do. I'm reading about two books a week at the moment, and most of those are books that have more than 300 pages. 

So, here are eight! With short explanations of why I love/loved them. I can't say categorically that these are the books I love the most, but they are loved. For some of them they represent a genre or a series of books that I love. You'll get the picture. This is largely a chronological list.

Both this and the next "Billabong" were favourites of my childhood that I've read to my kids. They are also parts of a series of books.

The Muddle Headed Wombat is a fabulous book, probably if it was published today it would be called a "Chapter book". There are three main characters: Wombat, Mouse, and Tabby. Together they have fabulous, hilarious adventures. I love the language. All three characters have interesting character flaws and Wombat in particular has a fun way of speaking.

The Billabong series is an enduring favourite of my childhood. Quite possibly the books that I've read most number of times. My maternal grandparents bought the most of the series and gave them to me bit by bit over several years: birthdays and Christmases. I looked forward to the next instalment each time and also re-read the whole series from the beginning each time. My grandparents have now long passed away and I treasure these books as many of them have the spidery writing of my grandmother on the first page.

It's a story of the Linton family, who live on a property in Victoria the early 1900s. The main characters are teenagers at the start, Jim and Norah, their dad (mum had died), and Wally, Jim's friend from boarding school in Melbourne. The books follow the family through the first World War (when they go to England). I love historical fiction and this really gives you a sense of what it might have been like to live in rural Australia back then. I grew to love the characters and the books still make me cry because not only do I love the characters, in most of the books at least one of them is on the point of dying, but there is plenty of hilarity also. Wally is a lighthearted chap, and the three have a lot of fun. There are very few fiction books that I will re-read, but these I will.

As a 20 year old I went on my first overseas trip. A mission trip to Indonesia. It was a study tour, actually, we weren't there to do anything except learn. It was a lot of hard work, but we did learn a lot: both book learning and practical learning. We learnt about some of the practical challenges of missionary work (eg. sickness, diet, language). We saw different religions and talked to missionaries about what they did. We saw various churches and ministries. We also had to read and do presentations. We were given responsibilities for the team. All of these were important parts of the tour and I learnt so much about myself, about mission work, and about God.

Second-Mile People was the book I was assigned to read and do a report on. It was very challenging. I'm short on details (that was more than 25 years ago). But the book challenged my thinking about living a comfortable life, about what I would do for God if he called me to mission. Reading that at a time when I wasn't particularly comfortable was very challenging. That trip and this book were key steps on my journey to becoming a missionary. Isobel Kuhn is not a modern writer, but she's worth seeking out.

This book is also one of a series. I discovered this Australian author when I heard her interviewed on the radio on one of my long car journeys in my early 20s. I've loved her ever since. This series is historical fiction of the Roman Emperor, around Julius Caesar's time, an era I enjoyed in my yr 11 and 12 years studying Ancient History. The series is challenging because it is stuffed full with details and many characters, but thoroughly interesting. 

The author is amazing, although sometimes a bit too crude for my taste. I've got a lot of her books. They aren't all historical fiction, though I do love her Morgan's Run, which is historical fiction, a saga about a man who was transported to Australia for a very small crime. 

So this book represents that genre, one that I love. Not all authors do it well, but when they do, I find it a fascinating way to learn about history. At present David and I are watching The Crown, a TV series about Queen Elizabeth II and really enjoying it.

Now for something very different. I got married at 24, became a mother, then left for Japan before I turned 28. Our second child was born before I turned 30, while I was still supposed to be studying Japanese full-time. It was a crazy time of life. While I kept reading—unless I'm especially exhausted I find it very difficult to shut my brain off long enough to fall asleep, reading is my secret weapon—I can't remember much of what I read in that period. 

However, parenting our challenging boys on our own in Japan drove me eventually to this book (after we had made two more international moves, had a third boy, and moved to Tokyo where I knew almost no one). It helped me with things like relabelling "stubbornness" as "determination" and many other things. There are very few parenting books that I've found helpful (to the point where I stopped reading them at all) but this was a book I kept going back to over the years when my boys were young.

This book is another Australian author. It's in the missionary autobiographical category. I read it early in my writing journey and found it such an encouragement to find another Aussie woman/missionary with a similar background to me (allied health), who also had three boys and was a writer! I love biographies, honest autobiographies by female missionaries is a particular soft spot.

This book is one that I've read in the last few years. I keep coming back to it. The author writes well and honestly about the key problem that underlies all our perceived problems: that we don't have an adequate sense of awe for our Creator. It's a profound book written in a very digestible format. Definitely worth getting your hands on!

And I couldn't end this journey of books I love without including one from another of my favourite categories. In fact I'd say in fiction it would be my most favourite: mystery/thriller/crime. I live in a family of fantasy/sci fi lovers, but not me. I read books like Memory Man as often as I can! And David Baldacci is one of my favourite authors in the genre.

I also read a lot in my job as an editor. So I'm find it increasingly difficult to read poorly edited or written books. I simply don't have the patience for that. There are so many good books out there that the half-baked ones, the less-than-honest, or ones that beat around the bush are ones are not worth my time. Also, because I read a lot for work, my recreational reading veers strongly towards books I can relax with. I struggle with reading challenging non-fiction books that aren't story-based, though I know there is still much to learn from many of them!