Best of the Bunch: October 2015

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in October.

Of the 13 books I read this month, I had three 5-star reads:

Positive: A Memoir by Paige Rawls

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber

I highly, highly recommend all of these books, but for the best of the bunch I'm going to choose...

I chose Bolz-Weber's first book, Pastrix, as my favorite read of last November, and she has hit it out of the park again with her latest. Structured over the course of a liturgical year, beginning and ending at All Saints' Day, Bolz-Weber tells stories of finding God in other people, especially the people she disliked, tried to avoid, hurt, or otherwise would have liked to forget. My takeaway from this book is that I don't need to try harder to "be a good Christian/person" — I need to work harder to internalize grace, mercy, and love, and then God will be able to use me in the lives of others regardless of what I myself try to do. She challenges those who think they can find God and live faith without being in community with other people. Her raw honesty, complete with appropriately placed curse words, is like balm on the soul of a Christian who wants to follow Jesus' example but can't figure out how to apply typical Christian platitudes to real life. I'd recommend it for basically everybody.

(But seriously, you should also read Positive and Between the World and Me.)

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

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