What's (Been) On My Bookshelf (Lately)

I thought I'd give all you lovely readers out there an update on my book life--just in case you're looking for some new reading material. However, it's 8pm and I haven't stopped moving since 5.30 this morning, so we will make this fast and furious. Also, the Man is in the kitchen threatening to cut a slice out of the cake I made for Bible study tomorrow, so accept the fact that I am distracted by his impending lack of self control, and just hang in there with me.

So, drum roll, please. What I've been reading...lately...ish.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: best fiction read I've picked up this year. I know it's all over everywhere--and I hate to be a lemming--but sometimes there's a reason behind the popularity, and in this case it was totally worth following the crowd.

Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer: still powering through this book in my spare time. It's not that long but I got side tracked and needed a break from dissecting what I liked and didn't like. Definitely a thought-provoking read on vocation, but prepare to wade through a lot of humanism, if that's not your thing.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I do love this classic, random "Magic" references aside. I just finished reading this with the big boys, and Littles was especially entranced. I loved getting to talk with them about Mary's change of character. At the beginning, they disliked her so much they didn't want to read the book at all, but by the end she was one of their favorites.

What Women Fear by Angie Smith: I just picked this up last week for our new Bible Study. I'm only a few chapters in but I'm so enjoying being back with Angie Smith's warm narrative voice. Her writing always challenges me spiritually, and so far this book has been true to form.

Simply Tuesday by Emily Freeman: I pre-ordered this book several months ago, and I rarely pre-order. But I found it in the mailbox on my way to a meeting I was more than a little nervous about, halfway through a week that had really thrown me for a loop, and, wow, was I glad I preordered. Sunday, I was walking the twins around the lake during the sermon (they rarely make it more than halfway through the service), and I was reading while I walked and found myself crying as I read and walked and pushed fifty pounds worth of twins up and down a dirt path as her words repeatedly hit home.

Dear Mr Henshaw by Beverly Cleary: I made Littles take a break from Beverly Cleary (he kind of went overboard for a while), but now we're reading Dear Mr Henshaw together and having a great time. Plus, I'm really enjoying not having to bust out a Yorkshire accent every other line.

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown: seriously, this is now on my "suggest to everyone" list. Vulnerability, shame, courage. These are the things we need to talk about, learn about, think about. Go get this book.

And I know I'm missing a few here and there but for the most part, this is what I've been doing in between the laundry and the homeschooling and the cooking and the diapering. And sometimes during the laundry, the homeschooling, the cooking, and the diapering because not reading? Ain't nobody got time for that.