January Book Recs
- Sarah Boots
- Feb 8, 2020
- 4 min read
"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives only one." George R.R. Martin
It's that time of month already!!! Here are the books we made it through in January. The first four are books E and I enjoyed together, and the last three were just for me. As always, you can click on the title of the book or the on the picture itself, and it will take you straight to the book on Amazon. Enjoy!
I'm sure we all know this story so well. I watched the movie as a child a few times, so it was fun to "relive" those memories through the book. We read the Children's Illustrated Classics version of this one, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is the last book in the Beyond the Orphan Train Series by Arleta Richardson. She is one of our favorite children's authors. (She also wrote the Grandma's Attic Series.) Her books are always clean and teach fantastic life lessons! I highly recommend this whole series! It is excellent! And to top it off, this whole series is free on Hoopla!
These are the first two books of the All-of-a-Kind Family Series by Sydney Taylor. I had never heard of these books before until recently when I was searching my book list from the Good and the Beautiful for something new for E and I to read together.
The story follows the life a Jewish family of 5 girls in the early 1900's. It is really really fun! There have been many times E and I have laughed out loud. The family life is so good in these books--I would say comparable to the Little House Books. The family members love each other, and they just have a really good time together.
I will say the writing style is a bit more "modern" as sometimes the girls' attitudes are not right (most of the time they get punished), and there are a few times where the oldest girl has feelings for a boy. One of the girls has a wild personality and is a bit "loose" with her tongue using the words "gosh" and "heck" one time each in the first book and "gosh" one time only in the second book. I only point this out because these are words that we do not say in our home, and I'm sure some of you don't either.
Overall, we did really enjoy these books. Not only are they funny, but the Jewish lifestyle is very interesting as the books go into detail about specific Jewish holidays such as Purim and Hanukkah. They are a bit of a different style than what we are used to, but still a good read. I think one of the benefits of reading things like this together is being able to talk through the attitudes and actions of the characters. "Was that the right way to respond?" "How could she have said that differently?"
This is a free audio book series on Hoopla.
Disclaimer: Whenever I recommend books in a series, I am not recommending the WHOLE series. I haven't read them all yet, so I can't say whether or not the rest of them are good or not. :)
This book is SO GOOD! This is the story about how the Wilder family found their way out of the Mormon church. It is so captivating and extremely eye opening. If you've ever wondered what the Mormons believe, this book will tell you.
In the past, I was confused about the Mormon faith because on the surface, sometimes they sound like us...they use the KJV Bible, they believe in Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection, and so on. But like with most religions, their "salvation" is NOT through faith in Christ alone. I know growing up in a church and family that has always believed salvation is through Christ alone, I have never quite grasped the faith plus works aspect. This book explains it well! I think this is a MUST READ for all Christians. And guess what?! It's a free audio book on Hoopla! :)
Here is another must read particularly for home school moms and teachers. Honestly, I think every mother would benefit from it, but the target audience is for homeschooling mamas. I believe the author is Catholic as there are many references in the book that make it seem so, but the nuggets of wisdom she shares are invaluable. The key takeaway from this book is that we cannot do this is our own strength. We MUST rely on God to get us through each day whether we keep up with the curriculum or not.
Here is another EXCELLENT book! I think I could write an entire blog post just on this one! The point of this book is to reinforce that we have 168 hours every single week to fit everything we want to do, and that actually is a lot of time. This book stung a little as I realized how much time I am wasting daily! I think the key takeaway for me was that how I spend my time is my choice. It's not, "I don't have time for that." But "I choose not to do that with my time."
The author has a couple of exercises at the beginning of the book that I did like keeping track of your own 168 hours to see where you are spending your time. The main thing is to figure out your core competencies (what you really want to do with your time), and then working to focus every bit of your time on these--even your free time.
I found this book really interesting and helpful. She may go a little overboard with examples of people, but it certainly gets the point across. :) And it's another free audio book on Hoopla! Yay for Hoopla!!!!
Happy reading! We'll see you next month for the February book recs.
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