THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
Congrats to Melisa and Rose from Ohio! Zip me your address, and I’ll get these books out to you!
Since the weather here in Indiana is getting chillier, I have been reading lots and lots. I thought I’d share a few thoughts on some books I have been reading. I am so excited to be able to give away two copies of Putting God Back in the Holidays to one of you fabulous people. Normally when I get a book to review, I just get one copy, but Moody publishers were very kind and generous and sent three copies-one to keep and two to give away! How fun is that?
If you’d like to get a copy, please leave me a comment and tell me your favorite family holiday tradition. It can be any holiday—not just Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I’ll pick a lucky winner next Monday morning-November 22.
Putting God Back In the Holidays is a book about doing just what it says. So often we fly through holidays without fully connecting to the idea of why the holiday is there in the first place. I love this book’s in-depth approach to each of the holidays we U.S. Americans celebrate. It is written by a husband-wife team Bill and Penny Thatcher. Bill is a professor at Moody Bible Institute. He tackles the theology behind each holiday and Peggy takes the second half of each chapter and shares the clever ideas she and her family have come up with to celebrate in creative and unique ways.
What I especially loved about this book was the perception that holidays are really “Holy” days that we set aside for a purpose. The authors point out that because of this, the enemy of our souls works extra hard at getting us to get worked-up, stressed-out, tired-out, and whittled down to nothing before the holiday actually happens. When we are this worn down, we really can’t celebrate with the joy and whole hearted-ness we are meant to.
I took a few steps back and really thought about this. It made me want to make my home a home of peace in the coming weeks as the holidays approach. I am grateful that I read this book.
The Kitchen House takes place in the late 1700′s in the south in the era of slavery. Kathleen Grissom paints vivid word pictures of what slavery was like through their eyes. Lavinia, a 5 year old Irish girl gets separated from her family on a ship and ends up living and growing up with slaves. They embraced her as family, and over the years, they truly were her family.
I love this story because it explores humanity’s capacity toward depravity, yet also our deep ability to love one another as family despite our differences.
This book was seriously amazing. I loved every page, every character, and every twist and turn of the story. It definitely rates in my top 5 books I have read all year.
The Hunger Games Trilogy
Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning?
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
My Thoughts:
Hunger Games- (Book 1) Fabulous, engaging– compelling and suspenseful book. Suzanne Collins creates a futuristic world that is believable and haunting. My two older girls, Rob, and I all whipped through this book, and loved every page.
Catching Fire (Book 2) was my favorite of the trilogy. It is a beautiful telling of a world gone wrong, and a few young brave individuals who grasp on to hope and to each other to make it through while determined to make a change.
Mocking Jay (Book 3) Was pretty dark with themes of death, depravity, and suicide running throughout. I was disturbed by some of the images, and I know my daughters would be too. I think I will wait awhile to let them read this last book. Mocking Jay really is a step further into the reality of war. It shows what depths of evil man can go to while trying to gain power. In my mind, it was just too real. I still give this book 4 stars because it is brilliant, but it doesn’t have the same imaginary feel as the other two.
