It’s my February reading list! I have SEVEN books to review this month! But before you get all amazed, I started doing something new this month…I let myself quit books that just weren’t working out for me. And I quit TWO books this month! I used to never, ever do that. Once I started a book, I always finished it. But as I found myself D-R-A-G-G-I-N-G through these books, so I quit. I’ll still list/review them, but I automatically give them two stars or less, simply because they were too boring to even finish.
I’ve also started using my Goodreads account this year, which is super fun! You can go friend me/follow me over there!
The Forgotten Seamtress
I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads, and now that I’m sitting down to write this review, I can hardly remember what the book was about! A young orphan is selected to be employed by the royal family. This young lady then gets involved with the actual prince and a child is born. The young lady is then forced to live life in a mental asylum and her child is taken from her. The ending was surprising, and I kept reading just to see how it ended! Otherwise, the book was just ok. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t memorable, either.
The next book I picked up was Luckiest Girl Alive
I heard a lot of great things about it, but this one of the ones I quit. I quit because the characters were flat, there was really no plot and the plot that did exist was creeping me out. I truthfully didn’t enjoy it at all.
After that one, I decided to read one my friend had given me- Loving God with All Your Mind
This book was great! I absolutely loved the concepts and it really, really is helping me change my mindset to not let anxiety rule over me. It’s something I’ve really struggled with since I started having kids, and this book will have a permanent home on my shelf. It’s one that I will need to consult over and over again just to continue to remind myself of the truths contained in Scripture and written about in this book. I will say, however, that the book is incredibly repetitive. I think it could have done with 3 or 4 less chapters because everything that needed to be said was already said. Still, four stars!
Next up, A Window Opens
This was the second book I quit this month. I actually got pretty far into it, but it was so boring I decided I was wasting my time. This story was about a family in which the father loses his jobs, so the Mom goes back to work. She navigates motherhood, being a wife and working a job, all portrayed in a realistic way throughout the book. The problem is that it was SO REALISTIC, it was boring. Perhaps the plot got better later in the story, but it was too late for me. Two meager stars.
I really wanted a good novel to read, so I grabbed You Will Know Me.
You guys…this book. I cannot even describe how I feel about it because I’m still so confused. First, I couldn’t put this book down. I wanted to know what happened, and I wanted to know what was going on. But beyond that, I didn’t love it. And I’m confused how I could be so compelled to devour a book, but at the same time not love it. It’s about a young teen who is hopefully headed for the Olympics in gymnastics. It seems that the pressures of the whole town are on her, and while her mother sees her as a polite and innocent teen, there is a lot more under the surface. There is also a murder, a lot of strange characters and interesting perspectives on each situation. I did enjoy seeing a teenager through the eyes of her mother, and then seeing the flip side- the teenager not in the eyes of her mother. It was enlightening for me, as the mother of a pre-teen! Overall, I give this one three point five stars.
Give Them Grace
This book is another one that my friend gave to me. She recommended it and it has been sitting on my shelf for a few months now. I finally picked it up, and I was hooked by the first three paragraphs. While this book is also VERY repetitive, I absolutely loved it and it changed my mindset about parenting. It gave a lot of tools and great examples of how to discipline in light of the gospel. I have never read another parenting book like this one, and I recommend it to anyone who is a follower of Christ and is parenting children. Most of the examples were for older children, but even having this mindset for younger children will be really helpful.
If You Only Knew
I pre-ordered Jamie Ivey’s book If You Only Knew because I am an avid listener to her Happy Hour podcast. This woman is a powerful example and has given a voice to so many women (both ones who are guests on her show, and the ones who listen to her show). This was her first book, and it is POWERFUL. Jamie Ivey shares her past- all of it. She shares about decisions that she made, the consequences that led to, the shame she felt, and how she has been able to find freedom in Christ alone. I read it in less than 24 hours, and I really enjoyed it, but I felt like I wasn’t the primary audience. I love her, love her podcast, and like her book. If you are struggling with shame or feeling like your sin (past or present) is greater than Christ, then I highly recommend this book.
And that’s it for February! I am so glad that I finally found some books that I enjoyed (although it took some duds to get there.). I’m excited for the books I have on my shelf to read next!
What are you reading lately?
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