Summer Reading Challenge

I may be impulsive, but I'm going to take the challenge. Will you?

If I can do half of these this summer I will be happy, but I want to do half in each category, because half overall would probably result in my reading all the fun ones and few of the tougher ones. :-)

I'll report here whenever I finish one. Please comment if you want to warn me away or urge me on. :-)

Devotional, etc.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: After Forty Years
Shanks et al.I have been enjoying my new Archaeological Study Bible and wanted to peruse this title. FINISHED 6/12 (Interesting but poorly written/transcribed).

Pursuing Holiness in the Lord
Jonathan Edwards
I've dipped into this one in the past but want to give it a real go.

Signs of the Apostles
Walter Chantry
I want to see his Reformed perspective on Pentecostalism

History-related, Prep for our New School Year (Medieval focus)

The Silver Chalice
Thomas B. Costain
I love his editing of collections of short stories, and I need to find the Peggy Noonan intro in this edition that is not in my own. I want to get in the mood for our study of the early/medieval church, and I didn't realize this was such a popular novel! Abandoned about 1/3 through, when things popped up that just couldn't be right--the apostles commissioning a sculptured case for the True Grail, e.g.?

The Thousand and One Nights
I have always meant to read these...

Year of Wonders
Geraldine Brooks
One of my Paperback Swap titles, about a plague year Finished early October. Good, but implausible ending.
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Barbara Tuchman
It's about time I read this one...I've had it about for years

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
Dava Sobel
I got this mostly for dh, and I wearied of it at first, but I want to give it another try
The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
Daniel J. Boorstin
I got to hear Boorstin speak way back in the days when I was teaching at Auburn, and I like the concept of this big sweep through eminent "discoverers" including Herodotus and Freud, with Columbus in between. Finished early July. Good one, though I confess I skimmed over some of the later entries.
Writing-Related
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace
Joseph M. Williams
I got partway through this at one time and want to consider it to use with clients.
The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay
Scott F. Crider
I think this might be good for my more advanced students.

The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing
Gregory L. Roper
I have begun this one and want to finish it! I created a one-semester course out of the first half and I'm beginning on the second. :-)

Paperback Swap Fun Finds

Life and Death in Shanghai
Nien Cheng
I am reading this now and am fascinated and appalled and wiser for it. COMPLETED 6/8. Worth it.

Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
Boris Akunin
I've really enjoyed his Fandorin titles, and this is a new heroine. Finished July--lots of fun.

The Mind of the South
W.J. Cash
I want to understand myself better. :-)

Quite a Year for Plums
Bailey White
Because she understands me and people I know. :-) Finished August. The people are all alike! Tedious, unfortunately, but this Tallahassee girl enjoyed the recognizable local color.