November feels like a long month in some ways. There’s the Thanksgiving break week (we don’t do homeschool that week) and there’s a small break in sports for our children. I had a lot of relaxing Sunday where I could read and with it getting dark earlier, I often settled down in my chair to read earlier in the evening. I started holiday books a bit earlier this year because that’s what I had available from my library holds. Here’s what I read in November:
Gretchen Rubin explores how people can use their five senses to enhance their enjoyment of life. She takes the time to delve into each sense and how she focuses on using that more in her own life. One of my favorite parts of the book is the idea of creating a sensory profile for a person you know – when you think of them, what smells, sights, tastes, sounds and feels do you think of? Life in Five Senses is a very interesting book.
Libby leads two lives. One day she is in Colonial Williamsburg before the Revolutionary War and the next she is in 1914 New York City. Every day when she falls asleep she switches back. She loves her life (and Henry) in 1774 and plans to stay there when she gets the choice of where to stay when she turns 21. However, a marriage plan by her mother in 1914 might thwart her plans. When the Day Comes was an enjoyable fiction read.
I was looking for an audiobook and chose to listen to Troublemaker. I’ve been a fan of Leah Remini’s since King of Queens and have wanted to read this book for a while. It’s a fascinating story of how she came to realize Scientology was a cult. I highly recommend it, although there is a lot of language and she doesn’t hide the rough spots in her life.
I read Mary, Teach Me to Be Your Daughter with a book club at my church. It was an interesting contemplation of Mary’s life through the lens of being a wife and mother. The author imagines herself in several of the scenarios in Mary’s life to see how that can be applied to today’s life. It is meant to be an encouraging book and there are discussion questions in the back.
If there’s an anti-Christ movement, might there also be an anti-Mary movement targeted at women? The Anti-Mary Exposed explores this concept and how womanhood is under attack in our modern society. The antidote would be to follow in the footsteps of Mary to focus on Jesus. It’s a very interesting book for Christians.
One day, everyone 22 years and older wakes up with a box at their doorstep with a red string inside. After months of investigation, it’s determined the length of the string is the length of the life you have remaining. The Measure follows several people as they decide whether or not to look at the string, and if they to, what they do about it. Short-string people start facing discrimination and they have to fight back against it. The plot was very unique and fascinating, but the book does feature several same-sex attracted couples, including the main characters.
I’ve been reading this slowly since the beginning of the year and it’s been interesting to see the Jewish take on the book of Genesis. If studying Genesis, The Rational Bible would make a good addition to the research pile.
Sara is a working for the American public affairs department in Germany after WW2. She meets two brothers who have had their shopped ransacked because they are Jewish and connects with one of them. She finds out they are searching for the man who held them prisoner to work on the nuclear program but has escaped from justice so far. While the plot was interesting, the characters who were supposed to be the bad guys were too likeable and there were several twists that waited until the very end of Before the Storm that left me shaking my head.
Beckett Walsh lives a quiet life on her father’s apiary farm, even after he passes away. She can’t deal with the anxiety she has when she leaves home. When her father’s will reveals he left the farm not just to her, but also to a woman she doesn’t know, she is forced to learn more about her past and face an uncertain future. He Should Have Told the Bees deals with mental illness and addiction’s effects on children in a delicate and believable way.
Project Alliance is a fantastic sci-fi read! The characters and planet are well-developed. The story is told by two main characters – one human who is living on the planet due to Earth’s sun dying and one native creature to the planet. As they try to find a way for their two cultures to work together to defeat a common enemy, it becomes clear that sacrifices have to be made. You would never guess the book is written by a homeschooled teenager – it’s as good as any sci-fi book out there!
I heard about Jesus Over Everything on a podcast and read it in an afternoon. The author proposes figuring out how to look at different areas in your life where you’re choosing other things over faith. Chapters are about being real over being pretty, loving over judging and choosing holiness over freedom and a few more. I found the book encouraging. It would be a great book study, especially if there’s a study guide to go with it.
If you’ve read Lord of the World, comment below so I can talk to you about it. I couldn’t believe the book was written in 1907 – it feels like it was written for today. It’s a dystopian novel about the return of Christ, but shows how the world falls for an anti-Christ figure. The imagery at the end is stunning and left me feeling encouraged as a Christian.
The Deal of a Lifetime is a short story that explores what a person would give in exchange for a life. I can’t give much away as it’s a very short story, but it’s from the perspective of a man with cancer who is estranged from his wife and adult son. He meets a little girl with cancer at the hospital and they see “death” – a woman in a grey sweater with a folder of names. It has a Christmas theme and I’d put it in the category of Christmas fables with The Gift of the Magi.
In Falling Stars, Emily is a 29-year-old ski instructor at her parents’ ski lodge. Even though the business has been in the family for two generations, Emily is surprised that when her parents announce their retirement, they say they’re turning the lodge over to her. Then, a movie star is in town who needs skiing instruction and they fall for each other in two days. Then, Emily decides to research her family tree and find lost relatives – who know the movie star’s family. I found this book very unbelievable and I never really liked the main character as she gets away with lying quite a few times.
In Snowed in for Christmas, Lucy Clarke is alone in the world after her grandmother passed away two Christmas’ ago. Her coworkers are her family and they are facing a possible downsize if they don’t get more clients for their marketing company. Lucy comes to the rescue, heading to Scotland for a photo shoot with reindeer and hoping to deliver a proposal to Ross Miller of Miller Active Wear. She gets pulled into their family drama by a miscommunication and then gets stuck with them after breaking her ankle and a giant snow storm traps them in. Throw in a funny grandmother with no filter and everyone may get exactly what they were wishing for this Christmas. A very fun holiday read (a little bit of romance, but not overly descriptive).
What books have you read recently that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!
