The weather went from fall to winter during November. Basketball games started, the garden got put to bed and Thanksgiving week was a nice break from homeschooling. I read nine books in November ranging from fiction to true crime and holiday to taking a Sabbath from a smart phone. Here’s what I read in November:
Fr. Nathan Cromly is a great speaker. I’ve been to several retreats that he has led and have always come away challenged spiritually. His book, Coached by Paul, is an encouragement in living our lives without fear. It’s a great book of encouragement for Christians. There’s even a study guide for a group discussion.
Set in the future, The Hurricane Keeper is about a teen trying to figure out where her missing father is. He left on a mission 10 years ago to help the government figure something out about the hurricane that’s been stationed over Florida for 50 years straight. The storm is weakening just as it did 10 years ago and now that she’s 18, she wants answers. I really enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to reading the second book in the trilogy next month.
I saw A Murder in Amish Ohio in a bookstore and then checked it out from my local library because it looked interesting. An Amish man was murdered in his home one night when two men came looking to steal horses. His wife and 18-month-old daughter were in the house, too, and he probably died trying to defend his wife’s honor. The book, however, focuses more on the Amish as a whole and several other murder and crime cases involving Amish or nearby people. It got a little confusing, but in the end, it was interesting to see how the two men changed their lives because of the Amish response to the murder.
Carlos spends three weeks in a monastery, two weeks with an Amish family and two weeks at home without his phone. Trying to figure out how to live without a phone is a challenge at first but then he finds out his reason why – to live life more fully and pay attention. It was interesting to read about his experiences and challenge myself to think about my relationship with my own phone. I highly recommend Reconnected.
In 1327, Brother William and his novice are sent to a monastery to investigate heresy, only to find a monk has been possibly murdered there the day before. Brother William is set up as a type of observant detective. The monastery houses a library with ancient books that only the librarian has access to. However, when two more monks die, Brother William is determined to explore the library, thinking something up there is the cause of the deaths. While the mystery of the book was intriguing, there are long passages on the possible heresy and the book discusses sordid details of happenings at the monastery. The Name of the Rose is only for adults.
Detective Lindsay Boxer is hoping for a quiet Christmas, but that isn’t in the cards for her this year. A man is caught shoplifting and lets Boxer and her partner know that he’s heard a big heist is going to take place on Christmas Day. As they try to track down who, what and where, the clock is ticking. The book covers just the few days before Christmas and Christmas Day and while the reader gets glimpses into the wild goose chase, Boxer does not. The 19th Christmas was a decent holiday read, but crime/mystery novels that give a little too much away aren’t my favorite.
Edmund and Lucy are back in Narnia, along with their cousin Eustace. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they are on a mission with Prince Caspian to find his father’s friends who traveled to the ends of the Earth. As they visit various islands, they are confronted with different dangers and adventures, including Eustace turning into a dragon. Aslan appears when they most need him. I’m enjoying re-reading these classical books.
Winfrey writes books set in Columbus, Ohio, which makes them fun for me to read since that city is just one hour away from us. In Faking Christmas, Laurel finds herself consoling her boss about an impending divorce and inadvertently invites him to join her family for Christmas Eve Eve dinner. The problem with that is that she has been writing articles for their magazine based on her sister’s life – and now to keep her job she needs to pretend to be her sister. Dinner turns into a weekend as a snow storm traps them at the farm. Oh, but her sister was not willing to even pretend her own husband was her sister’s husband, so a friend stepped into that role – a person Laurel despises. Faking Christmas was a very fun read for a holiday rom-com.
Grace is living alone in her 70s after her husband passes away. She has a simple, quiet life until she gets notice that an old friend has left her a house on Ibiza in Spain. She decides to visit just for a change of scenery only to find magic on the island. She finds out that her friend may have actually only disappeared and not died and now she wants to find out what truly happened. To do that, she has to scuba dive at night near the island’s rock formation. What happens next is hard to explain. The Life Impossible is a fun read about learning how to truly live and let go of the past.
What good books have you read recently? Share in the comments!
