2014 Top Kindle Sales
In this day when we carry around more processing power in our back pockets than all of NASA had in 1969, we can order stories the moment we get a hankering for them. Here are the top 4 Kindle fiction sales of 2014:
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
Gone Girl: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
(Plot summary: Guy is corrupt; girl is corrupt; both guy and girl are corrupt)
Divergent (Divergent Trilogy, Book 1)
by Veronica Roth
The Goldfinch: A Novel
by Donna Tartt
Interestingly, I listened to three of these four on Audible. This is the first year I've had Audible, and I find it has enabled me to listen to a lot more fiction, because I can play it in the car and on the plane. The top two were so-so. Didn't read Divergent. Liked The Goldfinch, which I reviewed here. But my favorite did not make Kindle's list: Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. It did make the National Book Award finals, so maybe my taste is not so bad?
Probably the best non-fiction book I read/heard this year was Quiet, but a close second is the one to which I'm listening right now: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas. It's been out for about three years, and I was told it's a better "listen" than a read.
Bonhoeffer was one of the few people who saw the danger of Hitler from the start. It seems the more liberal the German church, the less likely its leaders were to see the danger. Listening to the German theologian's biography, I'm struck by the importance of separation of church and state.
Recently, The Washington Post ran an article on gay Christians choosing celibacy and it included a chilling quote in one of the captions: “When he came out in the mid-2000s, Josh Gonnerman says church leaders were not speaking about celibacy because they had 'sort of thrown their lot in with the Republican Party.'” Ouch!
Bonhoeffer gave his life trying to stop Hitler, and he saw firsthand what happens when the church gets too cozy with one political party.
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The semester has come to an end for students, but I've been slogging through a swampland of grading—in between trying to stop our now-12-pound kitten, Shadow, from climbing the Christmas tree and batting down the little ornament from Puerto Rico. Even when I put it near the top and way out on a limb he should not be able to reach, that little ornament appears about an hour later on my bed.
Despite the grading load, most evenings I'm slipping down to spend an hour or two of TV with my guy.
Quick movie recommendation: "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It reminded me of the basics. Cut through the commercialism. Everybody loves the guy who gets bullied. And —we laughed out loud because Shadow totally has Snoopy’s personality.
I also finally watched "Ushpizin," which is a ten-year-old film. Ushpizin, the Arabic expression for "the Sukkot guests," is about a childless, impoverished couple in the Hasidic community of Jerusalem who have no money to pay for Succoth ("Tabernacles") holiday preparations. In the middle of miraculous provision, they receive a visit from a couple of escaped convicts who knew the husband before his religious transformation. The story that unfolds says a lot about hospitality and grace—important themes this time of year.
Happy Hanukkah!