You guys! I have 5 books to review this month…and four of them are just meh. I wasn’t feeling it. Now that I’m sitting down to write this review, I wonder if I was just grumpy for the whole month, or if I just didn’t hit the jackpot in books this month? Not sure.
As always, this is my honest review. We could have completely different tastes and styles, so what I say is just my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own, especially when reading books. I also know and understand that every author puts a lot of work into their books. I hate writing negative reviews because I know someone worked hard to write the book and I hope that they never read my review. LOL. So this is just one person’s opinion, and it can be taken or left behind. Completely up to you.
***
My friend recommend this book to me, and I just found out it a major motion picture. It might be a very interesting movie, and I actually would like to watch it!
Tom and his wife Isabel are the light keepers on an isolated island off the coast of Australia. They receive a supply boat once a season, but otherwise they are completely on their own. After two miscarriages and still birth, they are both lost deep in grief when a baby (with her dead father) washes up on shore. Isabel believes the baby is God’s gift to them, and Tom simply wants to make his wife happy, so they keep the baby and cover up all traces of having found her. Their choice leads to many rippling consequences for the baby, the baby’s mother and themselves.
This book was so very interesting, although a little slow. It gave me SO much to think about. I especially related to this book as a foster Mom, and thinking through grief and where children may thrive the best..is it with who they know, love and trust, or is it with someone that they are related to by blood? Overall, the plot was excellent and the writing was great, but the whole story was just a bit slow…I also didn’t like the ending much as it felt like it was just tacked on instead of plotted from the beginning.
***
**
I’ve heard so many great things about this book and so when I picked it up and started reading…I was disappointed. Shauna Niequist is a very successful author and speaker, but it turns out she was driving herself to the ground in her elusive search for success. This book is all about her decision to slow down and step back. To say no to all the things that would make her appear “perfect” and instead say yes to the things that would make her present. I love the underlying concept of the book, but I felt that I couldn’t relate to her story at all. Sure, she can say no to 10 speaking gigs butttt that’s not really an issue for me. I also found her writing to be very poetic, which is not a bad thing, but it didn’t read as much like a fiction book and I found it to be rather choppy from chapter to chapter. So, all in all, I was disappointed with this read, but I have heard that her other book, Bread and Wine, is absolutely fabulous. I think I’ll give it a try soon.
**
***
I have read this book in the past, but never actually finished it, so I decided that I needed to go through the entire thing this time! This is a 40 day challenge to grow closer to your spouse and strengthen your marriage. I do love the idea of a 40 day challenge, but some of the challenges are rather elusive and far to general for me to accomplish. For example, one challenge was to “encourage your husband today”. While there are a million ways to do this, I would have preferred the challenge to be, “write your husband a note telling him three things you love about him”. Or something more concrete than that. I worked through this book this time with about 60 other ladies, and by the end I think there were only 3 or 4 still doing the challenges. Some of them were dumb, some of them were great, but overall I think that it’s a great book and a good challenge for spouses to go through. I did find that what you put in is what you get out. If you don’t do much of the work and just skim the chapters, you won’t get much out. But if you are willing to actually do the work of the challenges, it will reap many benefits.
***
****
This book was an excellent look into what it is like to love a cop. It goes into great detail about the job stressors that they face on a daily basis, and how this can play out in the family life. It was very factual and had a TON of information on cops, how they do their job and what they need from their family members at home. Honestly, this book was very heavy, and almost a little bit depressing. Reading all about the unique challenges that my officer faces on the job and how he does bring this home, it’s a heavy weight to be a police wife (not to mention being an actual officer!). I do highly recommend this for everyone who loves a cop, although I will give you fair warning that it focuses on the dark and hard parts of being a police family, and there is NO rainbows and butterflies to be found in this book (and I believe that there are some to be found in real life).
****
****
OK. I have some strong opinions on this book! First- the title and the cover of the book are not doing this book any favors. That title and cover give me zero desire to read this book. I also was feeling a little nervous about a popular bestseller after reading Present Over Perfect. I hate hearing everyone rave about books only to find that they are just meh. So I was honestly expecting the same of this book. But Jen Hatmaker does it again and I LOVE this book. I love Jen’s writing style, her humor and her refreshing perspective and advice on life. I love her chapter on raising teenagers and how honest she is about mistakes that happen. As I’m reading this book, I can’t help but think that we might be emerging into a new genre of literature? This book does not read like fiction, because each chapter could be read independently and out of order. It’s almost like a serious of blog posts that are completely unrelated but all put together into one book that flows cohesively. I have laughed, I’ve teared up and I haven’t been able to put this one down. I recommend it!
****
And that’s a wrap on my November book review! Next month is December which means I get to start thinking about my top 10 books of 2017! Hooray!!!!
I feel like most months I have books that were ok, but that I can’t rave over. This past month I really hit the jackpot and thoroughly enjoyed all of my books. Next month will probably be back to meh. LOL