Kevin bought me a Nook about this time last year. I absolutely LOVE it! My favorite time to read is right before bed. It is my "me" time after the girls have gone to bed. Here are some of my favorites I have read this year:
1. Jesus Calling
This is a wonderful devotional book that I highly recommend. This may be terrible to say but I like it because the devotionals are short. I know that is not a good reason to like a devotional book but it is to the point and I always get a great message from it every night. It takes about 5 minutes to read it but I LOVE how it always speaks to me.
2. Fat Chance
This book is about a former Biggest Loser contestant who also happened to adopt a baby. She is very inspiring because she makes it seem like if she can exercise and lose weight, then anyone can. She just seems to be one of those normal "moms" who I can relate to. She mentions the spiritual side to her journey as well.
3. The Kind Diet
This book was written by Alicia Silverstone. She is a little far out in her "vegan thoughts" but she did have some good things to say about meat and the important of eating healthy.
4. Kisses From Katie
This book is a MUST READ!! Katie is an 18 year old girl who decides to move to Uganda rather than attend college. She is the most remarkable person I have ever read about! She ends up adopting 13 Ugandan girls and her faith is simply amazing! She will make you feel like you should drop what you are doing and sell everything you own to serve in another country. She is simply amazing and I highly recommend this book to everyone!
5. Escape
This book is about the group of Mormons who arranged marriages, had multiple wives, and many children. The woman in this book is very courageous as she tries to escape this life she is living. Very good and interesting book.
6. Skinny Bitch
This is another book like the Kind Diet. It gives advice about how to eat healthy. It also gives details about how animals go from the farm to the grocery. It is very graphic and could turn anyone into a vegetarian. My favorite chapter is called Meat is Nasty. I love it because it is so true. LOL! This is a good book because it is straight to the point and does not beat around the bush as you can tell from the title.
7. Stolen Innocence
This is another memoir about the Mormon religion. The poor girl in this book had to marry her first cousin when she was only 13. She does escape this lifestyle in the end but it was heartbreaking to hear all she went through during her childhood.
8. Secrets in the Cellar
This memoir is about a crazy father who locks his daughter in a cellar for many years. She ends up having several kids by him. The girl and her children do eventually come out of the cellar but it is after many, many years down there. This is a very good book that will definitely bring tears to your eyes.
9. Left to Tell
This is one of those books you stay up half the night reading and cannot put down. I think I read it in about 2 days. It is about a young girl who is in the middle of the Rwanda Holocaust. She and 7 other women spend over 90 days hiding in a pastor's bathroom just to survive. I highly recommend this book! Her faith in God becomes so strong as she realizes the power of prayer during those terrifying days.
10. Jesus Land
I am not sure how I felt about this book. It is also a memoir where a white family adopts a couple of black children. The children end up getting sent to a reform school in the Dominican Republic. The book is more about the bond between the siblings and how they don't let color keep them apart from being family. It was a good book, just really sad.
11. The Color of Rain
This is another memoir about a husband who loses his wife to cancer and a different wife losing her husband to cancer. The surviving spouses find and support one another through it all. This book was a little slow at parts but a very good book.
12. My Life Deleted
This book is about a man who slips and falls at work hitting his head. He ends up losing his entire memory. He doesn't even know his wife, parents, or his kids. It is a great story to read. My favorite thing about it is that this man had so many material things such as a boat, many cars, a big house, expensive watches, etc. Since he has no memory of any of those things, he realizes that material things are not important.
13. Forever Lily
This book is about a woman adopting a baby from China. Her husband cannot make the trip with her to China so her friend goes along with her. The woman ends up not bonding with the baby but the friend feels an immediate connection to her and ends up adopting her. I cannot imagine being on either side of this story.
14. Water for Elephants
I am sure most people are familiar with this book. I read the book before I went to see the movie which actually made the movie a little boring. I knew everything that was going to happen. It is a good book that I do recommend.
15. Not Afraid of Life: Bristol Palin
This book was an easy read since it was written by a young Bristol Palin. It was a good book but not wonderful.
16. Thin Places
This book is about a girl who has a terrible childhood. However, she calls these horrible experiences that she goes through "thin places". These thin places are the times when she felt closest to God.
17. A Stolen Life: Jaycee Duggard
This is the story about Jaycee Duggard who was kidnapped as a young girl and kept in a sick man's backyard for years and years. She even birthed 2 children in a tent in the backyard. This is another one of those books you cannot put down. However, it was very detailed and graphic in some places which made it difficult to imagine all that happened to her.
18. Daddy, Come and Get Me!
This book is about an adoption from Guatemala so you know it had my attention. The interesting thing is it was written by the dad so it was all from his point of view. The dad had a dream that his daughter was calling him from a mountain top to come and get him. This is what inspired him to pursue the adoption of his daughter from Guatemala.
19. Secret Daughter
When I first started reading this book, I thought it was a true story. However, it was not true but still a very good story about adoption. It is about a girl adopted from India. Her parents let her travel back to India to discover her roots. It was a great book with a great story line.
20. Food, Inc.
So this is the book that started it all with my switch to being a vegetarian. It was actually the movie that did me in, but the book helped as well. If you don't want to know the details about how that chicken got on your plate, I suggest you do not read this book.
21. Mamlita
This was one of the most powerful and difficult books to read. It is about a girl who travels back to Guatemala with her mom to meet her birthfamily. It left me with very mixed emotions about the whole adoption process from Guatemala. It also left me feeling like Guatemala did the right thing when they closed their doors to adoption. I just wish they could straighten things out so babies will not continue to be stolen or continue to grow up without a mom and dad.
Wow, I have read a lot of books in the past year. I think it is interesting how you can tell so much about a person based on the books on their Nook. I think it is obvious that my passion is God and adoption. I also have a new passion about not eating meat. So, what is on your Nook?
No comments:
Post a Comment