January:
The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens: This one was about a college student who has to interview a person and write a paper about them. He ends up going to a retirement home and interviewing Carl, a man who was let out of prison after 30 years for murdering someone. As he gets to know Carl and hears about his entire life, he starts to realize that he was probably wrongfully convicted. Joe and his neighbor, Lila, start to investigate the story further and are able to find out what really happened. I could not put this one down!
For the Love, by Jen Hatmaker: Jenny sent this one to me for Christmas last year and I ate it up! Jen Hatmaker is hilarious and I'm assuming that she writes the way that she talks. Some highlights from the book were her thoughts on current fashions, how she keeps her marriage thriving, and anecdotes from her early years as a mom. Since I follow her on facebook, I'm having difficulty remembering everything she wrote about, but I'll tell you that her thoughts on This is Us, Gilmore Girls, and parenting are the things that she's had me laughing about recently.
Hush Little Baby, by Suzanne Redfearn: This one was suspenseful from beginning to end. The main character, Jillian, runs away with her two kids from her abusive, police officer husband. He's a prominent and powerful figure in their community, so no one really believes that he's abusing her. He has a lot of connections who are able to track her down when she runs away from him and there was always a feeling that he was going to find her, even when he wasn't near her.
February:
Bossypants, by Tina Fey: Tina Fey is so funny and she also writes the way that she talks. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the whole book. Here's one of my favorite Tina Fey clips:
Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot: The Life and Times of a Sportscaster Dad, by Mike Greenberg: Andrew has watched Mike & Mike on ESPN pretty much every morning since we've gotten married, so I've also learned to love those two. Side note: from the time Elisha was about 1.5 years old, he has said, "Mike and Mike!" whenever he has seen the ESPN logo. Anyway, Greeny always makes me laugh with his self-deprecating humor, so I was happy to find out that our library carried this book. I loved his anecdotes about his family and sportscasting, but there were also times when I got irritated because he has lived a privileged life and has seemed unaware of it. The example that stuck out the most was when he talked about one of his kids being sick and throwing up all day, then going out to dinner with his wife and their friends later that night while the nanny took care of the baby.
March:
I started Me and Emma, but it was only meh.
April:
The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion: This one was recommended to me by Jess and since she was reading it soon after giving birth to Emmie, I knew that it had to be a good one... I say this because I only played Candy Crush in the months after having Elisha and had no desire to pick up a book. I LOVED this one so much and it's probably my #1 recommendation for the year. Don is an attractive and socially awkward genetics professor who decides to put together "The Wife Project" in order to find a wife who is the perfect match for him. His questionnaire is very specific and shallow, which results in most women being offended by him and uninterested in him. He ends up spending time with Rosie, who is the complete opposite of everything he's looking for, and there are all sorts of miscommunications between the two of them that result in laugh out loud moments.
May:
Bare Bones: I'm Not Lonely If You're Reading This Book, by Bobby Bones: I've been listening to the Bobby Bones Show on the radio almost every morning for the past 2 years and I love the chemistry that they all have on the show. This one is a memoir of Bobby Bones' life- from his childhood in a trailer park in Arkansas to college to the present day. It's basically a rags-to-riches story, which is always fascinating to me, and he talks about all of the hard work that he did in order to become the country's #1 country radio host. He tells a ton of funny stories throughout this book and I could hear his voice as I was reading all of them.
A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy, by Sue Klebold: This one scared the &8!$ out of me. Sue Klebold was the mother of Dylan, one of the killers in the Columbine massacre. From the way she described everything, it sounded like there was no way for her to know that her son was capable of murdering so many students at his school. He sounded like a regular kid who hung out with his friends after school and on weekends, he went to prom with one of his female friends the weekend before the shooting, and he had a good relationship with his parents. Since Columbine was the first school shooting to make national headlines, there was also no way that his parents could have known to look for signs that he was capable of doing something so horrendous. It was heartbreaking to read about everything that their family went through in the aftermath of Columbine, but I think it will be a very helpful resource for school counselors and parents of teenagers. I also appreciated the fact that all of the proceeds from her book are going to mental health agencies.
June and July:
The Walk Series- books 1-5, by Richard Paul Evans: These books were about Alan, a successful advertising executive whose wife passes away after she is in a horseback riding accident. She was his childhood sweetheart and the love of his life, so he's absolutely devastated when he loses her. He decides to walk from his home in Washington to the Florida Keys and each book talks about the people and places he encounters along the way. I loved these books because they were sweet and easy to read, but also because I've had a lifelong dream of taking a road trip and interviewing random strangers along the way to find out about their lives. Even though this was fiction, it gave me a sense of what could happen if I were to ever take that road trip.
August:
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living, by Shauna Niequist: This one was the biggest disappointment for me this year. I love love love the way that Shauna Niequist writes, but I was pretty bored during this one. Most of the book was about what she did to slow down her very busy life and about how she had become so anxious because of doing too much. I felt like I was reading her journal at certain points, which did not make for interesting reading.
September:
The Sunflower, by Richard Paul Evans: Everything from this book is what I hoped would happen to me on missions trips as a single girl. :) Christine gets dumped by her fiance and goes with a volunteer group to Peru. While she's there, she meets Paul, a doctor with a heart of gold who has dedicated his life to helping others in Peru. Basically, they fall in love and care for some orphans together and live happily ever after.
October:
The Mistletoe Promise, by Richard Paul Evans: I checked this one out of the library specifically because it was going to be a Hallmark movie (reason #152 that I'm an old woman). Elise was a lonely woman who had been dumped by her husband for another woman. Nick works as a lawyer in the same building as Elise and comes up to her in the food court one day to ask her to act as his girlfriend during the holidays. She agrees to this and as they get to know each other while pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, they fall in love (duh).
November:
Let me just take a moment to talk about this http://jennamissboyd.blogspot.com/search?q=donald+trunk and mention the fact that Elisha correctly predicted who the next president would be when there were approximately 10 people in the running. I'll tell him to predict someone better during the next election.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson: Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who has helped overturn the wrongful convictions of many people on death row throughout the past 30 or so years. I wasn't a huge fan of the format of this book because every other chapter was about Walter McMillian, who was on death row for a murder that he didn't commit and every other chapter was about the various reasons for people being in prison. Toward the end of the book, I ended up skipping the chapters that weren't about Walter because I was completely invested in his story and wanted to find out what happened to him. It was a VERY eye-opening book because it helped me understand the amount of power that there is in the criminal justice system and how hard it is to get justice if the people in power are unwilling to listen or are (even more scary) covering things up.
Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe, by Max Lucado: Emmy sent this one to me for my birthday and it was the perfect amount of mindless for me! It was another Hallmark movie on paper with Chelsea, a mom who was separated from her NFL football playing husband, and her two kids running a coffee shop. It turns out that the wi-fi at the coffee shop allows people to ask God one question, so people start coming in droves in order to do so. This opens their family up to encounters with all sorts of people and it was fun to see how everything tied together. There's also a clumsy cashier named Manny, who adds a little bit of comedy to this sweetly cheesy book.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson: Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who has helped overturn the wrongful convictions of many people on death row throughout the past 30 or so years. I wasn't a huge fan of the format of this book because every other chapter was about Walter McMillian, who was on death row for a murder that he didn't commit and every other chapter was about the various reasons for people being in prison. Toward the end of the book, I ended up skipping the chapters that weren't about Walter because I was completely invested in his story and wanted to find out what happened to him. It was a VERY eye-opening book because it helped me understand the amount of power that there is in the criminal justice system and how hard it is to get justice if the people in power are unwilling to listen or are (even more scary) covering things up.
Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe, by Max Lucado: Emmy sent this one to me for my birthday and it was the perfect amount of mindless for me! It was another Hallmark movie on paper with Chelsea, a mom who was separated from her NFL football playing husband, and her two kids running a coffee shop. It turns out that the wi-fi at the coffee shop allows people to ask God one question, so people start coming in droves in order to do so. This opens their family up to encounters with all sorts of people and it was fun to see how everything tied together. There's also a clumsy cashier named Manny, who adds a little bit of comedy to this sweetly cheesy book.
December:
Love Warrior, by Glennon Doyle Melton: This was a memoir about Glennon's past and about what she did to save her marriage. I got super-judgy throughout it because it seemed like a lot of the difficulties that she had in her marriage were due to some poor decisions she made during her high school and college years. She slept with her high school boyfriend before she was ready and it sounds like she's spent the rest of her life being detached when it comes to sex. She talks about sleeping with Craig, her future husband and father of her children, on the first date. She says that the two of them have difficulty connecting because he only seems to care about sex and she wants to have intimate conversations. They go to counseling and figure out the other one's wants and needs and they renew their vows. After the book was released, they announced they were separating and a couple of months after that, she announced that she was in a relationship with Abby Wombach. This book made me want to find every rebellious teenage girl and make them read it, then explain how actions can have consequences throughout the rest of someone's life. I would also tell them about God's grace and how you can be forgiven for those actions, but there needs to be some acknowledgement of how you got there and what you're going to do to improve things.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance: J.D. Vance grew up in Middletown, OH and his ancestors grew up in Jackson, KY. Since I lived in Kentucky for a year, I was dying to read this one and get some insight into the culture and traditions of the people who lived there. He was loved and cared for by his grandparents, even though he spent the majority of his life living with his mom and older sister. His mom had multiple husbands and live-in boyfriends throughout his childhood and abused prescription drugs during that time. His grandfather was an alcoholic while his mom was growing up, which may have added to the choices that she made in her life. J.D. spends a lot of this book talking about the working class in Appalachia and witnessing the cycle of poverty firsthand. He joins the military after graduating from high school, attends Ohio State University after he has served in the military, and then goes to Yale Law School. He meets his wife in law school and discusses what he did in order to develop a healthy relationship with her since he didn't have a good model of one during his childhood. This one was very inspiring and another eye-opening one.
Bridge to Haven, by Francine Rivers: Emmy gave me this one for Christmas and I couldn't put it down after about 100 pages (it was about 450 pages long, so it seemed like a daunting task at first). Abra was abandoned by her mother under a bridge in Haven when she was first born and Pastor Zeke found her. She's adopted by Pastor Zeke and Marianne, but Marianne passes away when Abra is 5 years old and Pastor Zeke decides that she would be better off being adopted by the Matthews family. Once he gives her to them, she feels that she's worthless to everyone and runs off with a boy when she's 15 years old. The boy is a terrible excuse for a human being who has connections in Hollywood, so he connects her to Frederick who turns her into a movie star. She makes every bad decision possible while she's in Hollywood and thinks that she can't return home to Haven. It gets super-depressing for awhile there and then it finally becomes a story of redemption.
In conclusion, those were the books that I enjoyed or had opinions on this year!
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance: J.D. Vance grew up in Middletown, OH and his ancestors grew up in Jackson, KY. Since I lived in Kentucky for a year, I was dying to read this one and get some insight into the culture and traditions of the people who lived there. He was loved and cared for by his grandparents, even though he spent the majority of his life living with his mom and older sister. His mom had multiple husbands and live-in boyfriends throughout his childhood and abused prescription drugs during that time. His grandfather was an alcoholic while his mom was growing up, which may have added to the choices that she made in her life. J.D. spends a lot of this book talking about the working class in Appalachia and witnessing the cycle of poverty firsthand. He joins the military after graduating from high school, attends Ohio State University after he has served in the military, and then goes to Yale Law School. He meets his wife in law school and discusses what he did in order to develop a healthy relationship with her since he didn't have a good model of one during his childhood. This one was very inspiring and another eye-opening one.
Bridge to Haven, by Francine Rivers: Emmy gave me this one for Christmas and I couldn't put it down after about 100 pages (it was about 450 pages long, so it seemed like a daunting task at first). Abra was abandoned by her mother under a bridge in Haven when she was first born and Pastor Zeke found her. She's adopted by Pastor Zeke and Marianne, but Marianne passes away when Abra is 5 years old and Pastor Zeke decides that she would be better off being adopted by the Matthews family. Once he gives her to them, she feels that she's worthless to everyone and runs off with a boy when she's 15 years old. The boy is a terrible excuse for a human being who has connections in Hollywood, so he connects her to Frederick who turns her into a movie star. She makes every bad decision possible while she's in Hollywood and thinks that she can't return home to Haven. It gets super-depressing for awhile there and then it finally becomes a story of redemption.
In conclusion, those were the books that I enjoyed or had opinions on this year!
