Since I have so many books to review today, I thought I would switch it up a little bit! I’m going to split my review up into several categories: highly recommend, recommend, do not recommend, and kids chapter books!
Highly Recommend
Women of the Word
Wow. This book. It’s one of those books that I will buy and have on my own shelf because I plan to read it over and over again. Instead of simply pushing the need to be IN the Word and studying the Word, Jen Wilkin walks through several practical (and often skipped-over steps) to reading, understanding and studying the Bible. Things like cross-referencing, re-reading, taking notes…the book really opens up some incredibly practical and extremely beneficial things to do to increase our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. Highly, highly recommend.
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You
Another non-fiction that has changed my life. It’s funny…I actually really prefer fiction, but I find that my top 10 books of the year usually include quite a bit of non-fiction, because when I find a book that has so much hard-hitting practical TRUTH, it feels life-changing. This book is all about the ways that our phones are changing us. It is written from a Christian perspective, but many of the points he gives apply to anyone, regardless of religious beliefs. Some of his points throughout the book were incredibly eye-opening, convicting and challenging. If you have a smartphone, this is a MUST-READ.
Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World
Phew, this one was also an incredible read! As someone who grew up in a third world country, I am incredibly grateful for the things that my childhood showed me and taught me. I learned from a young age the perspective that comes with knowing different people from different places and understanding what poverty and wealth can really look like. I sometimes feel like I’m doing my own children a disservice raising them here in the United States without that global perspective. This book was just the kick in the pants I needed to shift my mindset of how I’m raising my kids. So much of our culture says that when kids get things/opportunities, they will excel. But much of this book reminded me that less is more. Living simply, exposing our children to people who are different from them (racially, socioeconomic, culturally) and saying no to our children can actually give them exactly what they need to grow up in this world and NOT live as if they are entitled to anything and everything. Again, I highly recommend this book.
Salt Fat Acid Heat
I got this one for Christmas 2019 and only just now finished it! It is an interesting book because it’s half “how-to” and half “cookbook”, but they have to go hand in hand. I loved her tone and cadence in the writing and felt like I learned A LOT from her principles of salt, fat, acid and heat. I felt that my cooking has drastically improved over the past few months just from applying those principles into my cooking. I haven’t cooked any of the recipes and don’t know if I ever will, but I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who cooks!
Beholding and Becoming
This book is BEAUTIFUL and full of so much truth. As I was reading this book, I found myself texting my friends to ask if they had read it yet! Ruth Simons does such a great job of communicating the realities of motherhood and womanhood on this earth- it’s full of both beauty and brokenness. She speak with so much encouragement that what we behold is what we become.
Twelve Years a Slave
This was one of my heavier reads this year, but I can truly say that it was eye-opening and educational. Soloman Northup is a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. He spends 12 years as a slave, living under both kind and harsh masters. He details the day in and day out work of slaves in the southern United States until he eventually finds a way to get a letter back to his family and friends in the free states. This is some heavy stuff, and much of it was hard to read. However, I do think that a book like this should be required reading for all Americans, especially in this time. I also want to write a caveat that this book was written long ago and is not a novel. There were pages upon pages of descriptions about daily occurrences like picking cotton, writing letters, cooking food- fascinating things, but also it was slow reading.
Recommend
The Tatooist of Auschwitz
I have heard some really, really great recommendations about this book and was excited to finally read it! It was an amazing story based on the true story of the man who was chosen to tattoo the new prisoners at Auschwitz (while being a prisoner himself). Because of his position, he was able to have some privileges which he used to help as many people through the camp as he could. This was an incredible and powerful story, and it was especially touching to me that it is based on a true story. The only reason I didn’t highly recommend this one was because there was certain points in the story that just seemed to be skipped or that didn’t fit the narrative (he was able to sneak away with his girlfriend to shack up on numerous occasions). I felt like it was a great story and plot (and obviously, it was real!), but I didn’t feel the emotion from this book. For this reason, I feel like this would be a good read for a YA crowd.
Beach Read
I heard rumors that this one was “steamy” so I thought for sure I would have to put it down. But it actually wasn’t as open door as I expected, so that was a pleasant surprise for me! This is about two college rivals who are now both authors with writers block from extremely difficult life situations. They end up spending the summer living next door to each other and challenge one another to write an entire book in the genre of the opposition. Oh, and no falling in love. Well, I’m sure you can imagine how that goes! I really enjoyed it and found it a fun and compelling page turner. I also LOVED the ending.
Parable of the Sower
Hard to believe that this was published in 2000 because it seems as if she is writing about our country in it’s current state! This book in set in 2025, and the United States has deteriorated drastically, although we are never told why. Most people are refugees or living in walled communities with only their own weapons to protect themselves and their own gardens for food. It’s a bit eery, and I think that is one reason I didn’t love the story. It just seemed too realistic. Lauren Olimina flees from her family home after it is attacked. She runs with some acquaintances who become friends. They decide to head north where they feel they will be safer. Along the way, they pick up a strange band of travelers who end up forming themselves into a little band of people who begin to form their own religious views (led by Lauren). It is an interesting tale and had a lot of food for thought, but really just wasn’t my style of book! There are several more books in the series, and although I want to know what happens in the end, I’m not sure I will pick the rest of them up. I much preferred Octavia Butler’s Kindred. That was a powerful and phenomenal read!
The Discipline of Grace
I read through this one over several months time. I am not a very critical thinker and sometimes struggle with deep theological reads that I find hard to practically implement into my life. However, this book contained so many necessary and timely truths about the need to implement grace into my own life and how to do it. I do recommend this one, but it’s a “took a few months to read” book for me.
The Year We Turned Forty
Three best friends. The year they turned 40. One friend made a terrible mistake, had a baby with another man and lost her marriage in the process. The other two friends went through equally drastic and tragic circumstances that year. The year they turn 50, they are offered a chance to go back and have a do-over. What would they do differently? How would that affect their lives going forward? At first, I didn’t like this book, but as it started to pick up, it ended up being an extremely thought-provoking novel for me! If given a chance for a do-over, would I take it? And if I was able to make different decisions, would I be any happier? Maybe not….
Such a Fun Age
Ok, guys. I’ve got some thoughts on this one. I know that it has been highly acclaimed. It’s a debut novel and it brings to light much of what is happening in culture today: namely, race and class disparity. Emira nannies for a rich, white family and is involved in a “situation” at a grocery store. Throughout the rest of the book, Emira works through what it is to be black and stuck in a job that she loves but doesn’t provide her with enough benefits. Meanwhile, the rich family she nannies for happens to have a previous connection to her current boyfriend. It becomes convoluted and there is a lot of character assassination through the story. Listen…I just did not enjoy this book much at all. I felt like it was very one-sided, with one character developed much more than other characters. I felt like we were made to hate one character the whole time, but I just felt like I wasn’t even given a fair chance at liking that character. I don’t know…I’ve got thoughts. I would love to hear from someone who really loved this book and felt like it was incredibly thought provoking. I much preferred The Hate U Give as a conversation on race and class.
Bachelor Nation
If you have ever watched the Bachelor/Bachlorette and been absolutely fascinated by it, then you must read this book. This book goes completely behind the scenes and is written by someone who has never been involved in the franchise, so appears to be more “neutral” and not bound by contracts. It talks all about how contestants are chosen, what it’s like to live during the filming, how producers can manipulate the story line, and what it is like to live in the world after being on the show. I quit watching the show a long time ago, but this book was FASCINATING to me.
Caddie Woodlawn
I have been trying to read through more classics and books that are not written in the last 10 years, and I added most of the Newberry medal winners to my TBR list. I don’t think I have ever read this one, and I really enjoyed it! It’s Laura Ingalls Wilder-ish, but I think I might Caddie Woodlawn more! It is full of stories of the adventures of a pioneer family in Wisconsin. Of course, the main issue with this book nowadays is the language about Native Americans in the story. They are referred to as “savages” and “half-breeds”, which is obviously very problematic. That being said, it is revealed in the story that the Woodlawn family actually works hard to develop good relationships and rapport with the Indians and work amongst the settlers to abolish the notion of them being “savages”. Overall, it’s something that needs to be discussed and I can absolutely see where it would be challenging to require this as reading in a public school classroom where the language in the book could be extremely offensive to some.
Do Not Recommend
Saint X
I strongly disliked this book!!!! AG! I read the entire book hoping for an entirely different ending and about threw this book across the room when I finally got to the end. A young girl is killed on a Caribbean vacation with her family. No one is ever caught for the crime, but everyone suspects it was the two resort workers. 20+ years later, her younger sister finds one of the men and begins a weird stalker-ish relationship with him. In the end, we finally discover who it really was (with a couple twists). I just felt like this book was SO LONG and went so slow and then to be so disappointed in the end? Nope. I’ve got strong feelings about this one.
A Long Time Coming
This is a story about a family. Granny B appears hard-hearted from the outside, and in fact she has managed to chase most of her family away. They love her from a distance, but only her granddaughter can seem to get close. As her granddaughter starts to discover secrets about Granny B’s life, Granny also begins to discover secrets about hers. I actually have no complaints about this book except that it was very character driven and I got really bored. I couldn’t keep track of who was who and I just kept wishing SOMETHING interesting would happen. Alas, it never did about 90 pages in, and I gave the book back to the library. Bummer!
Kids Chapter Books
We’ve been enjoying an almost daily read aloud time at lunch in our house. We’ve had some total wins and some total misses, so I thought I would share those here, too!
A Boy Called Bat
We LOVED this one! All about a boy who has autism, and written from his perspective. I LOVED how he described his thinking patterns and why he chooses to do what he goes, even though from the outside his actions might seem different. Bat’s Mom is a vet, and one day she brings home a baby skunk that needs to be cared for. Of course, Bat falls for the skunk and spends most of the book figuring out how to care for it and how he might keep it. Along the way, he learns a lot about people, family and friends. This book was an absolute DELIGHT.
Lulu and the Brontosaurus
This book was a total miss. I almost gave up and stopped reading it several times throughout, but thought for sure it couldn’t be THAT bad and it would redeem itself. But, nope. Lulu is a spoiled rotten brat who wants a brontosaurus for her birthday. When she doesn’t get it, she runs away and finds her own (and treats everyone that she meets along the way terribly). She doesn’t treat the Brontosaurus very well, and he doesn’t treat her very well. So she goes home where she gets what she wants and maybe learned a lesson. Do not recommend.
Zoey and Sassafrass
Ok, we officially LOVE LOVE LOVE Zoey and Sassafras! What a delightful book, and we were THRILLED to learn that it is an entire series! Zoey discovers that she can see magical animals, like Gronks and Unicorns and Dragons. The magical animals come to her for help to solve their various medical problems. Zoey has to use the scientific method and research strategies to discover what is wrong with the animals and help them get better! Oh, it’s such a delight and the pictures are perfect for my age group (6 and 4). When we finished the first one, we immediately skipped all other books we had in our read-aloud line-up and snagged another Zoey and Sassafras from the library!
And that’s all for now!