If you ever wonder what I do (beyond homeschooling and taking care of my family) this shirt sums it up :). Awhile back as I was reading a personality book, when I got to the strengths chapter, mine all landed under the category of thinking. Wow I thought sarcastically: so impressive. But I am learning I need to have faith that God will use that for His kingdom. I am also learning, you need to know alot of things to be a historical fiction writer!
As I share books I have read each month it is my hope you can find some good reads. I keep bouncing back and forth between wanting to leave a number review and not. I just recommended a book to a friend. To me it was a 5/5, for her it was a 3/5. I want to know why some people love books and others don’t. Honestly, it probably simply boils down to the fact that some books just resonate with some people and some don’t. With that said, it’s hard for me to rate it simply because you may love something I don’t and vice versa. I hope to share a few thoughts on each and let you decide if you want to read it. If I really loved a book I will let you know, if I would not recommend a book I will also let it be known.
Now with no further ado, here are my November reads…
A Woman’s Place by Lynn Austin
Topic: A band of unlikely friends finding their God given place on the home front during world war 2.
Who it may interest: World war 2 Historical fiction lovers who want a good read on the healing touch of friendships and finding confidence in their life.
Entertainment: I enjoyed it, it was heart warming and I could resonate with the characters struggles and growth.
Ease of reading: Easy. There were four point of views and I think the author did great at weaving them together.
Main takeaway: Life isn’t about striving for big moments in our own power. It’s about taking slow persistent steps toward a bigger goal with the help of community. It’s in working together, supporting each other both through exciting times and also hard times. It’s seeing the good in people while also walking with them through broken.
Extra thoughts: This isn’t a book filled with action, rather a book of normal lives colliding with each other in a path of redemption and growth. Sometimes stories like this are my favorite.
Topic: Creating good habits getting rid of bad. The science behind how habits form.
Who it may interest: Anyone wanting to break bad habits and stick with good ones without being overwhelmed
Helpfulness: The author has so many great thoughts around habits. He also includes many great studies and analogies. I was fascinated and motived by them, I have already put into place three things I’ve learned from this book.
Ease of reading: Easy but impactful
Main takeaway: Tiny habits may not seem life changing but at some point they are if you don’t stop doing them.
Extra thoughts: As a Christian I didn’t agree with the authors stance on certain things. As a whole I would recommend this book but I personally ate the meat and spit out the bones so to speak.
I rate it a 4/5-would recommend but didn’t agree with everything.
Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti
Book review: Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti
Topic: Finding beauty in the broken. Recovering from loss, grief, healing. The power of friendship and Gods love.
Who it may interest: Anyone who loves contemporary fiction with a Christlike foundation. The main character starts as someone who thinks she can handle it all and is in no need of help. She’s strangled with shame and guilt often. She learns so many good lessons along the way. I personally could very much relate to the main character.
Entertainment: I loved the characters. They were real but funny. It wasn’t the type of book I was glued to but I did enjoy it.
Ease of reading: Easy
Main takeaway: Good things can come from bad. We are never truly alone, we are always gifted with someone whether they be more in passing or with us for the long haul. Love is the antidote to fear John 4:18
Extra thoughts: I loved how the author artfully wrote what the character would do verses what they were feeling and thinking. I could so relate to that inner battle, outward smile.
God Knows My Path by Silvia Tarniceriu
Topic: The ongoing story of the life of a woman from communist Romania.
Who it may interest: Anyone who loves reading stories about how God works in peoples lives.
Helpfulness: It is so good to read people’s stories that have come from a different background than I have as an American. To read people journeys who have suffered and still found ways to rejoice and trust in God gives me a much better perspective on what life really is all about. I also loved the perspective this book gave on different christians. Sylvia interacted with all types of Christians: Amish, Romanian, people in the white-house, policemen, etc. They didn’t necessarily look alike or have the same customs but she saw the spirit of God on them. I loved her open eyes perspective on all different kinds of people serving God in the way God created them to.
Ease of reading: Easy but impactful
Main takeaway: I love Silvia’s faith. It’s so simple yet so deep, so gentle, so surrendered. So happy. reading her story of the radical difference between Romania and America I was struck by the fact that she was grateful in both places but she also struggled in both places with different things. I believe she was happy because she was completely surrendered to Gods path for her, not her trying to find a path toward happiness. While on the path God has for us we will struggle and it will be hard at different times in different ways but I believe he will provide us with delights on whatever path he leads us down. Sylvia had eyes to see it. She didn’t see happiness only through her eyes, she saw how God provided what she actually needed, not what she thought she needed. Through this book the theme of Gods path for us (not a path we think looks good) is where we find peace and happiness stood out to me.
Extra thoughts: I loved the fact that she saw miracles everywhere. Things that growing up in America could seem like little things. But God is wanting to bless us, I want to always have eyes to see miracles and find gratitude in the smallest things like someone coming from a communist poor country.
This was a moving story and would recommend it (along with her first book God knows my size).
Topic: Replacing broken identities with true identity.
Who it may interest: Anyone who knows the need more healing in the identity department.
Helpfulness: I wouldn’t say this is a how to guide to reclaim your identity. Id say it’s walking through the authors story and seeing yourself in different elements or learning lessons as she shared what she learned. It was helpful for me but maybe not in the way I was expecting it to be.
Ease of reading: Easy
Main takeaway: Culture doesn’t define our identity. Even if it feels like it’s the loudest voice. The thing God calls each of us to do does matter, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Are we brave enough to follow?
Extra thoughts: Healing takes place over years, through many different means. I enjoyed reading her healing story and could see many elements of my own healing playing out in hers. It also gave me eyes to see areas of healing God blessed me with that I took for granted, or pain blinded me to.
As many books do, this helped me take more steps in the right direction.
I wasn’t normally planning on sharing any of my world war two non fiction research reads but you guys, this one was so amazing! The end had me in some serious tears. I was blown away by the stories told.
Topic: A walk in the shoes of a tanker in world war 2.
Who it may interest: Anyone interested in learning more about world war 2 or anyone who had relatives who were tankers and want to learn more about what they went through.
Helpfulness: At the beginning of the book the author says this is not a book about machines or how one tank stacked up again another, this is a story about people. He was true to his word. He put the reader in the shoes of the tanker, he brought in emotions and real life not just logistics of war. Honestly it kinda read a bit like fiction. The author taught not through dry facts but through telling peoples stories. That’s my favorite way to learn so it was so helpful for me! He also wove in perspectives of German soldiers a bit as well, which was helpful for me to learn different aspects of what Germans went through. It showed humanity.
Ease of reading: It was an easy read for me.
Main takeaway: War is brutal and it doesn’t affect faceless people. You do what you have to do but it scars, wounds, and hurts deeper than anyone can know who didn’t go through it. But even amidst the broken there are pockets of beauty. I was blown away at some of those stories, it seemed like fiction but it wasn’t.
Extra thoughts: The end had me in tears, it was so neat. As I read this book I felt like I understood my Grandpas expierience a bit better and that was really neat too.
I loved this story and the author did amazing at teaching history and telling peoples stories in a moving way.
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Topic: Loneliness, the path to belonging. Internment camps in America for American Germans and Japanese suspected in sympathizing with the enemy during world war 2. Life after being sent back to Germany as a repatriation. The rebuilding of a stolen life.
Who it may interest: Those who enjoy World War Two Historical fiction.
Entertainment: I struggled to get into it. The first half of the book didn’t engage my feelings and suck me in like other books. I felt it almost read more like a non fiction book that was telling me about (interesting) things that happened but didn’t pull my emotions into it like I was taking a walk in their shoes. About 3/4 of the way through it started pulling in my emotions and empathy more. I began walking in the characters shoes and deeply caring about the story at that point.
Ease of reading: Medium. Not because she used hard or confusing language but because her writing style was different than my preferred style so it didn’t keep my attention the best at first. Again later in the book it seemed to switch to a style I prefer more.
Main takeaway: Good things can come from bad. We are never truly alone, we are always gifted with someone whether they be more in passing or with us for the long haul.
Extra thoughts: this book was interesting. It took me forever to get into but the ending tied everything together nicely.
I would give this book 3/5. It wasn’t a bad read, I learned interesting things, but it didn’t resonate with me deeply, I wish the whole book read like the last 3/4.
