In this post, I share my August book club takeaways: one fiction and one nonfiction, both with perspectives on an unhurried life.
Summer is just about in our rearview mirror–or backup camera, if you don’t use your rearview mirror anymore. (I still do.) After a life of scheduling myself around the traditional school year (student, teacher, parent), I appreciate that summertime has a free-flowing feel, no alarm clocks, and late nights filled with sunlight. Summer is traditionally slower and lazier. It’s an unhurried time.
But for me, that’s actually a challenge. What? I don’t like lazy mornings? A full day ahead with no plans? Sort of.
You see, I tend to have one speed. Go. And when it becomes slow-go, I creep into feeling that something is off. Something’s not right if I’m not doing or producing or creating. For me (and possibly you, too), the end of summer means I get to kick it into productivity mode again. For some, it’s back to school season. Summer vacations are complete and visitors dwindle. It means a new chance to focus, a fresh start on my goals, a new notebook, freshly sharpened pencils.
So it’s good timing that I’m processing my two August reads right now at this threshold. Both of these books face an end-of-summer question: what comes next? How shall I walk into this next season? Metaphorically, should I grab my planner and run? Or perhaps I can walk into the coming days thoughtfully.
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August Book Club Takeaways
An Unhurried Life: Following Jesus’ Rhythms of Work and Rest by Alan Fadling
Alan Fadling’s An Unhurried Life was a workhorse of a book, readers. For that reason alone, it was not the best book for my summer reading. It wasn’t a good sit-on-the-beach book because I wanted to highlight and take notes and read slowly. But, because mine was a crazy-busy summer (all good), I hurried through the nearly 200-page book about an unhurried life. Ouch. I needed this.
I heard about this book first from a podcaster whose book choices I often like. The main reason I added it to my TBR list is because the author’s words on the back cover hit home. “I am a recovering speed addict.”
Recovering Speed Addicts
As I said earlier, I can be a speed addict. (Except when I’m driving.) I sometimes feel like I rush from one writing project to the next, one volunteer meeting to another, folding laundry to thawing the ground beef, one more email and just another errand. I used to think this was because my husband traveled, and so I was often a single mom juggling all the things. But recently, when I said this in a matter-of-fact-way to a friend, she wisely suggested that this was perhaps just my way, my personality, to hurry, always doing, doing, doing.
Fadling, the author, writes about his own frenzied life as a pastor and leader. “Staying busy seemed easier than becoming unhurried, at least at the time. And it was a lot less messy” (24). He is transparent about his struggle with doing the Great Commission. “To be honest, I’m afraid that I have, in the past, tried to carry out this commission of Jesus without much communion with him. It has been much activity without much abiding” (33).
That’s sometimes me. Do I have much activity without much abiding? I kept reading.
“Unhurried Isn’t Lazy”
The chapters cover everything from productivity and temptation to suffering and rest. One of my favorite phrases is “unhurried isn’t lazy.” So good to hear. The author spends a lot of time in Scripture looking at how Jesus walked on this earth and how we too can follow his unhurried pattern of life, retreating for prayer, waiting, watching, and listening. The author shares numerous stories from his own experiences as a leader.
This book is especially good for those who lead – small groups, work organizations, classrooms, families, and more. But it is also a good reminder for all of us because we live in these fast-paced instant-feedback, get answers quick 21st century days. We live in a culture that values productivity, efficiency, and success. Those things don’t seem to come with an unhurried life.
But the good things do come when we live a “grace-paced” life.
Practical Spiritual Practices
As a practical person, I appreciated his final chapter which offers spiritual practices in a quest to live an unhurried life. He encourages retreating, slowing, and sleeping. (I do that last one well) He reminds me that “it’s hard to set my heart and mind on things above when I’m racing from earthly thing to earthly thing down here below “ (185).
This book reminds me that it’s not about the finish line but it is about the heart. A beautiful take-away is summed up here: “I’m learning, as I watch Jesus’ unhurried way, that keeping in step with him, living with him at a walking pace, is a way to sink into and enjoy the abundant life in him that he wants me to know.”
Still, I will not be really good at this, so it’s good to remember one thing. In Christ alone, my hope is found. Even if I am hurrying.
The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh
What kind of books do you love to read in the summer? Beachy books, right? Easy to read, light, page-turners, romantic, fun, and usually set where there is water, boats, barefeet, and cottages. Sometimes there’s a murder but mostly there’s a few quirky characters, a budding romance, a break-up, a bit of tension, and sand. Always sand.
I suppose these are books that invite us to sit back, relax, feel the sand between our toes, and enjoy.
Your Last Summer Read of the Year
So here you go, The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh. Summer isn’t over yet. We still have weeks left before the official start of autumn, and you still have time for an official summer book like this one.
Especially if you like a story that has some depth but is definitely a happily-ever-after romance. Not sappy. No triggers. No R-rated scenes or language. Somewhat predictable but solid and clean and happy. In fact I follow this author on social media and this is her mission – she writes books with an uplifting message of truth and beauty. And women all over love to read them!
A Sweet Romance
Walsh is a New York Times best-selling author of sweet, small-town romances. On her Instagram account, she explains her goal: “I want sensitive readers to feel safe picking up my books because they know there’s no steamy scenes, no graphic descriptions, no swearing, no cancer, no tragic endings, no violence or gore. If you’re looking to exhale with a sweet romance that won’t stress you out or make you super emotional, we should be friends!” She has about a dozen other books, so I’ll be sure to check out more.
I’ll admit. I haven’t always read squeaky clean, G-rated books. But that’s mostly because I had a hard time finding good, solid storytelling in some I discovered. But in the last decade, I’ve found hundreds of mysteries, romance, women’s fiction, and more that fall into this category. Check out some of these authors here.
But sometimes I get myself caught up with what everybody’s reading this year. Reese, Oprah, Jenna. This year I read a few Elin Hildebrand and Emily Henry books, for example. Definitely not PG books, readers. I originally had chosen a beachy book by Emily Henry but decided it was way too R-rated for my taste and probably your taste too, so I picked up my first Courtney Walsh novel. (And I will be back for more!)
The Summer of Yes is published by a Christian fiction publisher, Thomas Nelson, but it is not overtly Christian. There are no altar calls, no “give your life to Christ” and all will be better. Nothing like that. I’m not even sure the characters step into a church, come to think of it. But it’s clean and filled with wholesome values. The teenage girls in your life can safely read this.
A Story of Two Speed Addicts
You’ll meet two women from two different generations–speed addicts who teach each other to live unhurried lives. (They didn’t even read Fadling’s book!)
Kelsey Worthington is a single New York City gal who’s struggling to find her place in the publishing world, eager to work-work-work and get ahead. She reminded me of a 20-something me except I didn’t crave a big-city lifestyle. She’s living an iconic big city 21st century life but it’s all work. Few friendships. No relationship. No fun.
After one not-at-all-serious accident, Kelsey ends up in the hospital with a fortuitous roommate, Georgina Tate, a sixty-something business mogul who needs a kidney transplant and lives with her own regrets.
As she heals, Kelsey decides it may be time to step off the fast-paced workaholic train and start saying “yes” to new experiences like eating street food and swimming in the ocean. She invites Georgina into this summer experience with her, and their friendship grows.
That’s one of my favorite parts about this book – the two generations connecting and learning from each other. I also love Georgina’s say-it-like-it-is character and how she invites Kelsey to find her words, literally and figuratively.
And Georgina has a rather handsome–and estranged–son, so you can probably predict some of what happens in the story. It is a romance, after all. And in true romance trope fashion, you can count on an HEA (happily-ever-after).
It’s a delight to see how Kelsey and Georgina live their “summer of yes” together. But ultimately, Kelsey and Georgina discover that “sometimes a yes has to start with a no,” and that just might be a key to an unhurried life
I’m going to remember that.
What’s all this about Beth’s Book Club? Let me fill you in.
In case you missed it, this year I chose 24 books to highlight for a “reading club,” two per month. One fiction. One nonfiction. Because that’s what I love to do. Then I write a blog post about those two books at the end of the month. I chose a variety of books, and I realize you might have zero interest in reading some. That’s okay. Read what you want, if you want, before or after I post. My blog post are filled with my Beth-review and takeaways. Nothing fancy. No quizzes. Just reading fun!
Playing catch up? Here’s what you might have missed:
February Book Club Takeaways: Remarkably Bright Creatures in a Dark World
Breath and Life: March Book Club Takeaways
The Divine Proverb of Streusel Book Review: April Book Club Takeaways
May Book Club Takeaways: Love Well
