#i'm going to befriend her by the end of the summer i'm manifesting

[johnslittlespoon]

i made a friend today :-)

[meganlovephotography]

What I'm Reading This Month... (Plus a few other recommendations)

Reading is my thing that I love with all my heart and neglect as a last priority in the checklist of things-to-do in life. (And poorly timed with the new season of The Black Mirror, I mean, hello!)

But I love it. 

I love books, I love audiobooks. I love e-books. #givemeallthebooks

And as much as I like books (love books) from my favorite authors, I'm always looking for new books and #NYTBestsellers sometimes does and sometimes doesn't fit the mold. I'm not a bandwagoner on all things. 

So, here's my take on everything I've read (and listened to) in the past 2 months and why I recommend or don't recommend them. Because hey, honesty. 

I'm also going to be starting a book club in February that will run every month for this year! It will start on February 1st and run for the month (at which point about a week previous to the end of the month I'll share what the book is so you can all run out and grab it or download it or reserve it or whatnot, and in our Facebook group we'll have a discussion when the month is up about the book). Just a little way to A) read more and B) talk more. :) I'm also always open to suggestions, so please share with me!

Books I read since October - January and LOVED. As in, you must take my advice and read them now. 

1.

 So, the first book I read of Jojo Moyes was Me Before You. Of course it was. But that book just really affected me. By now you've probably read the book or seen the movie so I don't need to recap for you that whole storyline, but it was so unique and different that even though I wrestled with the outcome, it was refreshingly honest and real. I was so impressed with her authorship that I had to start reading more of her books. I actually had One Plus One sitting in my iBooks library as a sample for like, two years maybe, and on my Audible download list for at least a year. Something about when I started it never hooked me and I don't know why, but I was at a point this fall where I had nothing to read and needed sometihng new and hey, there's a book sitting right there in front of me. SO glad I started it. 

In a nutshell, One Plus One is about a young single mom named Jess who barely scraped by and struggles to make ends' meet. She was (is?) married but her husband vanished one day in need of mental space. Two years later and she has no idea where he is, although she thinks he is living with his mother. Together they had one daughter, a math prodigy named Tanzie (Costanza) and her husband's son from a previous relationship that she adopted named Nicky. All the while struggling to provide for her family, she works part time as a cleaner for the super-rich Ed, who has made some poor choices when it comes to suspected insider trading. Ed is about to get in a lot of trouble, and at a moment when Jess and co are in need of a ride to Scotland for Tanzie's "Math Olympiad" challenge (something that could land her an opportunity to receive a superior education for virtually no cost), he picks them up and they caravan on a never-to-be-forgotten road trip up north. It has something for everyone: Heart, love, encouragement, humor... I just loved this book so much and I was so sad when it was over! DEFINITELY check it out. 

2. 

 So, this was the very first time ever that I have read this book. As a Christian and someone who went to private school, I feel like it should have been required reading and in my curriculum at some point so I'm surprised I never read it. But honestly, I am SO GLAD I never read it because there is no way that my small mind of youth could have comprehended the absolutely powerful message of grace and truth and forgiveness and redeeming love of God over our lives in all circumstances. There's just no way. I think I would have thought it was a nice story, but not until being an adult and really, truly getting it can I say that this is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. 

In short, Redeeming Love is based off of the story of Hosea and Gomer in the book of Hosea in the Bible. God tells Hosea that he is to marry Gomer, who would be the absolute very last person a righteous man like Hosea would expect for his own life. But he obeys God and marries her. He tries to show her love but she continues to run away from him in pursuit of what she thinks she wants. In the book, Michael Hosea (the main protagonist) continues to pursue his wife, Sarah (or Angel as she wants to be called) over and over and over again. I was in tears, like LITERALLY NEEDED TO PULL THE CAR OVER kind of tears at the end of the story and I am legit even tearing up right now with goosebumps. It's powerful stuff, and I will absolutely read it again. So yes. Get this book on Amazon right now or download it or check it out. Honestly friends, I know we all share so many different faiths and that is okay. Redeeming Love is this book that tells a story, a fictional story, about a broken girl, broken into pieces and at a place so far away from who she really is that she doesn't even know herself, and is pieced back together by this pursuant, endless love that takes years and years to manifest and make whole again. You've just got to read it. Trust me. 

What I read and didn't love

1. The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green

 I've been reading Jane Green for almost twenty years. The first book of hers I read was Jemima J and then I never stopped after that. I will probably always read every book she writes just because it's what I do, but I just feel like her books have really become rushed and not in the true"Jane" spirit of her earlier writing. The Sunshine Sisters was unique, but relatively predictable. It was about three sisters who was the daughters of the famous actress "Ronnie Sunshine" who has yet to be able to let go of her previous fame and notoriety even though she has long retired from acting. She and her daughters have a strained relationship (as do they with each other), but when she becomes ill her only wish is to have them reconciled. It chronicles each of their own paths and issues and struggles and then combines together in the end in something that is pretty unrealstic and sub-par. Maybe you think it's great or you loved the book. I just felt like, "Ho hum." Her books always come out in the summer so they are great beach and pool reads and there is definitely a niche and time and place for that. The book is okay and if you like Jane Green's stuff, you'll definitely want to at least give it a once-through but don't have any high hopes. 

2. The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

 I think Jane Green and Elin Hilderbrand are friends. These two stories about siblings with strained relationships were similar and after awhile it just got kind of old. If I had sibling issues the last thing I would want to do is read about it by the pool. It had the same type of predictability but yet you just keep reading because you hope it will be different. These two sisters live on opposite islands: Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. They had a falling out over a personal matter and they have never reconciled since. Their father recently passed away and their mother begged them to reunite, so for circumstances I honestly cannot remember right now off the top of my head, they agreed to change houses and islands even though they still despised one another. It was annoying to have them be so negative about their relationships with each other like up until the very final second of the book. Which of course is again predictable. Oh well. Some reads are for being light and superfluous and having not a lot of depth and that's how I felt this book was. 

Books I'm Reading Now

1. 

 My best friend and I were Christmas shopping together this past month and popped into the Amazon bookstore at the mall. She decided to buy her sisters books for Christmas and basically threw this book into my hands. That's my kind of recommendation. I'm only about halfway through, but this book is set in Seattle (which is fun) and is about a mom, a dad their daughter who is an only child and the way they live their lives which seems relatively normal to them but potentially highly dysfunctional to the world around them. The dad is a high up, super important and super brilliant exec at Microsoft, the mom is an architectural genius, their daughter is really smart and attends a local private school and they live in a falling-apart home that is a converted commercial building in Queen Anne because the mom just fell in love with it. It chronicles their misunderstandings and personal dealings as a family (currently their daughter just wants a trip to Antarctica for her 8th grade graduation and the parents have agreed). It's so funny, quirky, lovely, and I can't wait to finish it and see how it all wraps up. I'll post my review in full next month!

2.

 This book is set in France, in a small village outside of Paris. The protagonist is Sophie, who is an innkeeper and whose husband was taken away two years prior due to the Nazi occupation of Germany within France. German troops have commanded Sophie to board their soldiers at her inn, so she complies but ends up befriending the main general who shows her kindness in the midst of all that is occurring. She is conflicted, but because she has children (and runs the in with her sister and nieces and nephews), takes the kindness of the German so that her children can eat and balances all that is involved with boarding the soldiers delicately. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through but honestly, this book reminds me SO much of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah which is my most favorite book of all time (rivaled in a close second by Redeeming Love). I'm listening to this on Audible when I cook dinner or sometimes if I have time to myself in the car, and I am loving the storyline so far and can't wait to hear how the plot continues to develop. (For what it's worth, The Girl You Left Behind was published before The Nightingale.)

 So, I would love to know what you're reading and what you recommend I read next! Leave your reply in the comments or on social media and let me know why you recommend it! (You can also let me know what you don't recommend-- I appreciate that information, also.) ;)