What I've been reading, week 2

So here is week 2 of what I've been reading!

Finished:
The Centurion's Wife, by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke.  It has been awhile since I've read Christian historical fiction, and it is nice to be doing so again.  Bunn and Oke make a good team, and I found both the male and female characters to be reasonably complex and interesting.  So often in this type of book, the women are fairly complicated, and maybe the main male character is too, but the minor male characters are flat.  Not the case here.

Anyway, this is the first in a planned series of books (Acts of Faith, Book 1) that takes place around the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus.  This is the story of the centurion whose servant was healed as told in Luke 7:2.  A number of other Biblical people are involved in the story, also, both major and minor.  But not the primary female character -- she is a niece of Pontius Pilate, about to become betrothed to a man she's never met.  I found her railing against an arranged marriage a bit difficult to swallow, and I know I've read conflicting reports as to whether or not centurions were allowed to marry while in active service.  I chose not to let either of those bug me while I read though.

While you already know the main outline of events in the week before Christ died, and the six or seven weeks after he rose from the dead, and there are a few things you can assume about the main characters, the story is still compelling.  It was very hard for me to put down, which, I now remember, is one reason I stopped reading stories like these.  They take over my life until I finish.  Fortunately, it was a fairly quick read.

The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay.  I reviewed this one here.

You can learn about what other people were reading this week by checking the Mr. Linky's at the 52 Books in 52 Weeks reviews page.  Haven't read it yet, but I saw that Michelle reviewed Gospel According to Lost this week.




In Progress (I'm back to normal, with a million things in progress -- in progress means that I did read from the book this week):

The Iliad:  Connor has this assigned to him over four weeks, and I am reading along.
America-- The Last, Best Hope Volume II by William J. Bennett, my current audio book.
The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell
There is no Freedom Without Bread by Constantine Pleshakov
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg and Francois
Inside the Revolution by Joel Rosenberg