Calling all Book Lovers

I love books. In fact I have a shirt that says so many books, so little time.

True Story.

Since I love books so much I thought I would post some short thoughts on the recent books I have read…incase there is anyone else out there who is a book nerd like me.

I have a list on good reads that I mark off books and leave reviews. The problem is, I struggle ever giving anyone a bad review. I mean I am so proud of them that they wrote a book I can hardly bring myself to give them anything less than a four star. If I am being completely honest, all the books Ive read until recently got five stars. Unless I totally disagree with something they say they got five stars. My opinion does not deem someone a good writer or a bad writer. That’s why I really don’t like leaving reviews. But at the same time I want to be honest with what resonates with me and what doesn’t. So I am beginning to give lower star ratings based on my preferences and what resonates with me, not on if the writer is a good writer or not. I want to start doing this to be helpful to others who many be similar in my own tastes. So as I share about books that I have read on my blog, I don’t want you to think if I didn’t necessarily like a book you wont either. Different books reach different people.

But if you get to know me better and you have similar dislikes, likes, and struggles, you may find these books lists valuable. Main takeaway: don’t think a writer is a bad writer if I don’t love the book. A book is not good or bad just because I didn’t love it or loved it. It simply didn’t resonate with me the way it will resonate with another reader. Or it may resonate with me and not you. Also, just because I loved a book doesn’t mean I agreed with everything the author thinks. I don’t nitpick through books based on my own opinions. When reading my reviews, be prepared to filter it through your own opinions, I am not going to weed out all I agree with or don’t. I believe my place is to share what I love, the reader is the one that needs to weed out what they may not agree with. Again, if there is something major I will say, otherwise, minor things I am not nitpicking.

I am hoping to begin posting my monthly reads each month. For now I will share recent reads.

I like to rate my books based on a few different things to help you decide if it is a book you would like to read or not: Topic, who it may interest, helpfulness or entertainment, ease of reading, main takeaway, and extra thoughts.

With that being said, here are a few books I have read lately:

Mother Culture by Karen Andreola

Topic: How a homeschool mom can nurture her own heart so she can make a household full of love and responsibility.

Who it may interest: Homeschooling moms.

Helpfulness: Motherhood is messy. Homeschooling with a one year old in tow is messy. Often I can feel like I’m drowning in chaos. Mother Culture helps bring clarity in the chaos and confidence where doubts creep in. It was like a mentor gently giving me assurance while also giving me fresh ideas to implement.

Ease of reading: Medium, it was a book I had to stop and ponder at times but it wasn’t hard to read.

Main takeaway: Nurturing myself is not selfish, it pours over into the atmosphere of my home. The atmosphere of my home matters.

I gave this a 5/5 on goodreads.

Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

Topic: Contemporary practice of Charlotte Mason methods of teaching

Who it may interest: Homeschool moms who are interested in learning more on applying Charlotte Mason’s philosophy to their homeschool.

Helpfulness: There is a TON of information in this book. It gave me a lot of ideas and thoughts to ponder. It was a bit like drinking from a firehose though. So much of it I don’t think I digested completely. So I would for sure say it’s helpful because I was able to grab some key concepts, but at the same time there was so much it felt a tad overwhelming. For someone newly diving into Charlotte mason methods it will need referenced again. For someone who understands it more it will be a very valuable companion!

Ease of reading: I would not say this was an easy read. It wasn’t hard in the sense of weird language or anything, more hard in the sense of it is a topic I didn’t know much about so I stopped and pondered a lot as I was reading.

Main takeaway: A child has a brilliant mind. Give them ideas and room to express their thoughts from ideas. Narration is a powerful way to learn.

Extra thoughts: I often teach teach teach. As I pondered the thought that children’s minds are big I stepped back from what I wanted to teach based on something we just read and let my kids express their thoughts. I have been a bit blown away by their abilities. All because I gave them the space to think for themselves instead of telling them what to think.

I absolutely love books. Living books are the heartbeat of a Charlotte mason education so for me to learn more about this style of learning is going to be incredibly beneficial to our school days. It’s not an education that mimics the classroom but I believe it’s an incredibly strong education, one I’ve already seen benefits from.

I give this book a 5/5 as it helped me understand better and practically implement this style of learning in my children’s education.

Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe

Topic: Mental illness and the power and importance of community.

Who it may interest: Anyone who wants to understand better what it’s like to deal with mental illness and the toll it can take on families if covered up instead of seeking help.

Entertainment: This was the first book I read by this author and it had me deeply interested, hard to put down. The characters have big personality and what they are walking through had me wanting to keep reading every chance I got. It is a hard topic but she wove enough hope and joy in that it all weaved together very nicely.

Ease of reading: Easy peasy.

Main takeaway: Steady, faithful love in the midst of broken may seem small and hard but it’s wildly important. “You can’t fight hate with hate.”

Extra thoughts: It’s easy for me to want to fix things. For example, with my kids when I know their behavior needs to change it’s easy for me to think the worst of them and demand change instantly. But I’m learning getting to their heart is much more important and lasting…but it’s usually way more messy. I see this played out in the story: willing to walk through the messy to get to the heart.

I loved this book I give it a 5/5.

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

Topic: How to write an impactful novel.

Who it may interest: Anyone who wants to learn to write great fiction.

Helpfulness: This book has been the most helpful how to book on writing fiction I’ve read yet. It is written by a literary agent who has read countless manuscripts. He knows what makes fiction good and he articulates it in a way that makes sense.

Ease of reading: it took me awhile to read this because it gave me so many thoughts but It is structured in a way that flows and makes sense and it isn’t hard to read.

Main takeaway: A good fiction book is not merely a good plot, it is an art that needs well crafted depth and strong characters.

Extra thoughts: writing fiction isn’t just about sitting down and writing a story, it’s an art that beautifully weaves together emotion, conflict, morals, character growth, and more. After reading this book I was able to better visualize why there were some fiction books that totally drew me in and why some where merely a good read.

This book is a hands down 5/5 for fiction authors.

When Making others Happy is Making You Miserable by Karen Ehman

Topic: breaking free from people pleasing

Who it may interest: Anyone who knows they struggle with people pleasing or anyone who thinks it’s a good Christian thing to do to say yes to every good request while feeling burnt out and frazzled.

Helpfulness: This book will be extremely helpful for those who need to break free from people pleasing. It pointed out many things God laid on my heart/others told me that helped me break free from people pleasing. For example: people pleasers are great liars (smiling and saying yes while inwardly resentful), people pleasing can be an idol, we are responsible for our actions but not others reactions. When I picked up this book I was hoping for more on how to live confidently vs breaking free. It touched on it, but I didn’t feel it helped me live confidently in it. Maybe that’s just on me to wade through and have faith in.

Ease of reading: It was an easy yet thought provoking read.

Main takeaway: We need to love God first then people, not the other way around.

I give this book a 5/5 for those still in people pleasing. For me at my current stage a 4/5 as it reassured me more than taught me how to live confidently this new life 🤗.

Nice by Sharon Hodde Miller

Topic: The dismantling of being nice and the building up of being kind.

Who it may interest: I personally think absolutely everyone could glean something (or many things) from this book.

Helpfulness: I promptly began reading Nice after I finished Sharon’s other book free of me. This author has an amazing way of identifying the tangly lies mixed with truth we can so easily believe. She identifies them then teaches the truth in amazing, easy to understand ways. She exposes idols that can be hidden easily because they look good. But an idol is anything but good. The first part of the book covers rotten fruit that comes from the idol of nice. The second half covers how to cultivate good fruit. This book gave me a lot of food for thought.

Ease of reading: Easy, again I can’t say it enough, this author has a gift with words and teaching. She explains hard things in easy to understand ways.

Main takeaway: Nice can become an idol. Nice is different than kind. Kind doesn’t shy away from the truth, it holds firm with love and grace. Nice smiles and looks the other way to hold the peace—in big or little things. Sharon calls us out of the shallows of Christianity into the deep.

Extra thoughts: Maybe she simply speaks my language but I believe Sharon has such a gift with words. She artfully blends them together to paint understandable analogy’s. She tackles with grace and truth Biblical “paradoxes” and opposite views with Christlike wisdom and shows us how it’s both, not one or the other. She unwraps truths and shows us how lies can be hiding below the surface undetected. God has truly given her a gift and I bet she’d say it’s all for his glory.

This book is an easy 5/5

Free of Me by Sharon Hodde Miller

Topic: Finding freedom from insecurity through self forgetfulness. It hinges on the thought that self focus fuels insecurity. Self focus makes things about ourself…even in subtle ways. This book covers an array of topics that we can make about ourselves feeding our insecurity: family, appearance, possessions, friendships, callings, and the church. Next it dives into how to be free of that self focus by loving God, loving others, purpose, passion, and how to forget yourself without neglecting yourself.

Who it may interest: Anyone who wrestles with insecurity.

Helpfulness: so so so good. My friend says she has a pile of life changing books. This is one I’d add to mine. I love many books, but then there are a handful that seem to be exactly what I need said in the exact way I need it…life changing.

Ease of reading: Easy, I flew through it in two days. The thoughts and topics themself weren’t easy per say, but she presented them in such a way that opened my eyes and gave me understanding in very easy ways. Many of the topics I had thought about but they were still a wrestle for me, I didn’t completely get. The way she brought them out brought so much clarity and understanding for me.

Main takeaway: It’s not about me. I have made too many things about me in my life. Not too long ago I reviewed the book “When making others happy is making you miserable” and I made the comment it would be helpful for those who struggle with breaking free from people pleasing, but I needed an extra step to get through the messy middle. This book gave me that. She opened my eyes to the fact that yes we need to heal from hurts, but at some point we have to look outside ourselves and to the Healer. I realized while I was no longer people pleasing I was still looking at myself, my limitations, etc and trying to fix them instead of looking at the limitless One. The reason I was still in the messy middle was because I was still making certain things about me. When I’m so busy trying to figure out what’s wrong with me I’m missing out on seeing what other people need. As Rick Warren says, humility is not thinking less of ourselves it’s thinking of ourselves less. When it’s not about my glory and all about Christs I have nothing to lose. When my self worth is not on the line, I am free.

Extra thoughts:
I make it about myself when I fail to set healthy boundaries on my kids out of fear I will be a bad guy. It’s about me when I beat myself up over a mistake and hope someone forgets instead of going to them and apologizing. It’s about me when I say the things I know others want me to say (or do) over what God is asking me to say (or do) to keep a good reputation. This book helped me see my me monsters (Even the sneaky ones that look good), I don’t want to feed him anymore.

If I could I would give this book a 6/5.

House of Dreams by Liz Rosenberg

Topic: Biography on the life of LM Montgomery

Who it may interest: LM Montgomery fans

Helpfulness: I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I picked it up in the kids section at the library excited to read to my 7 years old daughter the life of the author who wrote Anne of Green Gabels. I quickly realized it was not for her age. I would put it high school on up. I didn’t read it to her but I read it myself. Couldn’t help getting to know another author 💓.

About 3/4 of the way through I didn’t think I liked LM Montgomery very much. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about her life anymore, it seems dark and maybe a bit depressing. Honestly it was, but I realized something at the end. For someone whose mom died while she was 2 and whose father abandoned her, she spread so much optimism to the world. Her own life was overshadowed by depression but she didn’t let it overwhelm her as a whole. Her life was broken and that makes me really sad but out of broken came beauty. As I sat the book down instead of not liking her I left with empathy toward her and admiration that she fought it for so long. She could have spewed despair but instead she chose to shine a light and for that I admire her.

Ease of reading: Easy

Main takeaway: LM Montgomery didn’t have an easy life and wrestled with many things but produced many beautiful novels out of her big imagination and desire to shine optimism into the world.

Extra thoughts: It had really pretty illustrations and I gleaned a few nuggets and empathy from this book but I’m still torn as to if I would have picked it up and read it initially now that I’m through it.

Based on my own personal opinion it was a 3/5 for me. Die hard LM Montgomery fans may feel very different 🤗.

A Warriors Heart by Misty M Beller

Topic: Two people from totally different lives falling in love.

Who it may interest: Those who like historical romance.

Entertainment: I never really got into it. Sure I wanted to know what happened in the end but it wasn’t page turning for me.

Ease of reading: Easy.

Main takeaway: I am not sure I have a takeaway, it didn’t go deep with me or grab my emotions. The overarching principle was God provides and orchestrates and protects and that’s beautiful and true but to me the way it was portrayed was a bit too fluffy for my preference.

Extra thoughts: I never like leaving book reviews on books that didn’t resonate with me. Just because it didn’t resonate with me doesn’t mean the author writes poorly or it won’t resonate with someone else. It’s simply my opinion. That being said a few things I didn’t personally resonate with: it was more of a love story as the main plot with other things as smaller plots. I prefer books with a bigger plot…life and deep struggles with love woven in as part of the plot, not the whole. There were struggles but they felt shallow, maybe not super real. Everything also seemed to go right, it didn’t feel like there were any major disappointments or it was easy to work through them. What I did like—it was a good clean easy to read romance if you like that kinda story! I’d say it’s more of a easy feel good love verses real raw hard love. I prefer the latter 🤗.

My personal opinion of this book is 3/5. Not that she wasn’t a good writer, it simply didn’t resonate with me.

Introverted Mom by Jamie C Martin

Topic: Learning how to find the peace and calm introverts crave while being a mother.

Who it may interest: Introverted mothers 🤗.

Helpfulness: I have read this book multiple times. The very first time I picked it up it opened my eyes to the world of introversion and gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe introversion isn’t bad. Each time I read it I glean something I need at the moment. This book lands in the stack of counselor, mentor…life changing.

Ease of reading: Easy. The author tells stories and her writing flows smoothly.

Main takeaway: Introversion is not something that needs to be fixed. It’s not something to get over and it doesn’t make you a bad mom. Learning to grow into the person God made you and honor your needs is a healthy and good thing to do.

Extra thoughts: This is a book I pick up almost yearly and gives me the reminders and courage I need to stop trying to be someone I’m not.

This book is an easy 5/5