Misadventures in the new car

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned on a recent Friday’s Fave Five that we got a new car at the end of the year. We were going to need to replace our van some time in the near future, and my husband went down to the dealership we were considering to see if they had any end-of-the-year sales that would make it worthwhile to go ahead and get a car. They did, and the salesman was eager enough to sell that my husband got pretty much everything he wanted. Plus, since we didn’t absolutely have to get a car right now, when the negotiations weren’t going the way my husband wanted, he could honestly and without remorse and coercion walk away. That, we discovered, was a good position to negotiate from. I’m glad he likes doing that kind of thing. I hate it – I want to know the sale price and any discounts available and be done with it. But because he likes that kind of interaction, we’ve gotten some great deals along the way.

I don’t remember how old our old van is – maybe 18 or so years? Old enough that it has a cassette tape player, and when it came out, keyless entry was the newest, coolest feature. The new one, of course, has all kinds of bells and whistles I need to get used to. Jim took me out to the car after he brought it home and showed where various things were. He set up what was needed for my phone to connect via bluetooth and play through the speakers (Yay!!) and showed me how to activate that and various other things.

I had driven the car briefly when he brought it home for a test drive, but I wanted my first solo voyage to be a very small and short excursion while I got used to it. I had to go to the post office yesterday, which provided a perfect opportunity.

The car starts with a push button, but requires that you have a “key” that connects wirelessly so that not just anyone can come start and drive your car. So I got in, got set, pushed the button — and everything came on except the engine. The windshield wipers were going full blast because it had been raining the last time we were out. I knew where the controls for it were, so I was turning everything on them that I could, but nothing was happening. I finally realized I had been fiddling with the controls for the back windshield wipers. But I couldn’t see what to do to turn off the front wipers. I accidentally moved the lever, and saw out of the corner of my eye something on the screen behind the steering wheel that said “Off, Int, Lo, Hi.” The setting moved when I moved the lever, so, voila, that’s how to turn the windshield wipers off. That sure seemed more complicated than it needed to be.

But I still had the problem of how to turn on the engine. I pushed the button again — nothing. I called my husband, but my call just went to voicemail. I got the manual out of the glove compartment, and you’d think “How to start your car” would be on the first page. But, no, I had to go searching for it and found it about halfway in. Turns out I have to have my foot on the brake pedal and then push the button, even though the car is in “park.” Success!

The car has a nifty back-up setting where it shows you what’s behind you and has little red and yellow lines to show you which way you need to go to back up. I had been looking forward to that feature, but I found it disorienting – when I turned the way I thought it was indicating, I went the opposite way. So I had to just ignore it and back out the old way, looking over my shoulder.

This car has many more warning beeps than I am used to – one for when you veer out of your line, proximity sensors on all sides so you know when you get to close to something, etc.

The actual driving was fine – except I kept stopping too suddenly. Have to get used to the feel of the new brakes.

I kept thinking this all probably looked like a scene in a sitcom. 🙂

I was glad my first excursion was a short one, because I was pretty rattled when I got home. 🙂

Earlier, when we were in the car together and my husband was driving, I got out the manual to flip through it, and was overwhelmed with too much information. What I probably need to do is just go sit with it in the garage and go through the manual page by page.

My kids love the learning curve with new technology. Me — not so much. I’m sure I’ll love everything once I get more familiar with it. But I hope my next drive goes more smoothy than the first.

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Book Review: A Patchwork Christmas Collection

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Barbara Harper

When I saw A Patchwork Christmas Collection by Judith Miller, Nancy Moser, and Stephanie Grace Whitson mentioned at Monica‘s, I thought I might like it as a Christmas read, partly because I had read and enjoyed the first two authors before.

The book is made up up three different stories:

“Seams Like Love” by Judith Miller.Karla Stuke lives in the Amana colonies in Iowa with her family in the 1890s. She was engaged, but her fiance jilted her for another. Feeling she can never trust her heart to any man again, she puts all thoughts of love and marriage away and helps her family provide communal meals in the hotel. Then suddenly her old childhood friend, Frank, returns. He has trained as a pharmacist’s apprentice and been assigned to her village. He hopes to renew their friendship, but finds her distant. When he learns that she is no longer engaged, he wonders if he can ever convince her that all men are not as faithless as the one who hurt her.

I had never heard of the Amana colonies before and found a bit of their history here. The Inspirationists began in Germany, migrated to New York, and eventually established a communal colony of six villages in Iowa. From what this page says of their beliefs, they sound somewhat similar to Quakers, and the returning pharmacist in the book mentioned he was often mistaken for Amish. The “brethren,” or leaders, directed much, choosing who was going to live where and what their vocation or contribution to the community should be.I thought in the book they seemed awfully blunt with each other: I am not sure if that was characteristic of them or the author’s interpretation.

But I enjoyed the story, earning about this group, Karla and Frank’s journey, and especially Karla’s needing to overcome a perception of herself unwittingly planted by her sister years before.

“A Patchwork Love” by Stephanie Grace Whitson. In Nebraska in 1875, Jane McClure finds herself in dire straits when she is not only widowed, but near penniless due to her late husband’s bad investments. A man she met once in another town, Mr. Huggins, has tentatively offered to pursue the possibility of marriage, not as a love match, but to help each other. He provides for Jane and her daughter to come by train to spend Christmas with him to get to know one another better. But on the way the train is stopped by a severe snowstorm and drifts. A man and his mother living nearby come to the train to offer food to the workers and shelter for Jane and her daughter until the train gets moving again. Jane’s daughter has become very sick, so everyone focuses at first on tending to her. But in the process Jane notices that the man, Peter Gruber, whose soul is as wounded as his damaged face, also has a tender heart and ways. As circumstances keep coming up to prevent them from leaving, Jane worries that her one opportunity to save her family with Mr. Huggins is slipping away. But will she recognize the opportunity right before her?

“The Bridal Quilt” by Nancy Moser. New York society couple Ada Wallace and Samuel Alcott are on the verge on engagement: in fact, everyone expects that to happen at Christmas. But one evening when Samuel goes “slumming” in a poor side of town with friends at their insistence, he rescues a young girl from being beaten in the street. When he takes her back to the foundling home where she stays, he is struck with the need of the children, and his life and outlook are forever changed. He tries to reconcile what he feels he is called to do with his life with Ada, and they don’t seem to fit together, bringing him to the point of a major decision that will affect them all.

I enjoyed all the stories, but especially the last one. Each occurs during the Christmas season and involves a quilt and a “second chance at love.” Each chapter ends with discussion questions, a crochet or quilting project, and a recipe.

I had wanted to finish it before the end of the year, but, life being what it is, that did not happen. But I didn’t mind extending the season a bit with this nice, cozy Christmas read.

Genre: Christmas inspirational fiction
Objectionable elements: None.
My rating: 9 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

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Reading Plans for 2017

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Barbara Harper

We no sooner post our favorite books or reading challenge wrap-ups from last year, and it is time to plan new ones for the new year. Such is the life of a book lover. 🙂

I like reading challenges for spurring me on to read things I might not or to be a little more intentional in my reading, but I’ve found I have to have some breathing space in my reading plans to pick up something else along the way if I feel so led. Too many reading plans or challenges leave me feeling constricted and constrained. The two that seemed to work best for me last year were the Back to the Classics Challenge and the Mount TBR (To Be Read) Challenge. Sometimes there are one or two more small ones through the year, but these are the major ones for me.

First, though, I’ll be hosting the Laura Ingalls Wilder reading challenge in February. I’m especially looking forward to it this year since this Feb. 7 is her 150th birthday. Hope you can join in!

On to the other challenges.

Every January Carrie hosts an L. M. Montgomery Reading Challenge. This year I’ll be reading Story Girl. which I haven’t encountered before but have heard good things about. You can find more information here.

Karen at Books and Chocolate hosts the Back to the Classics Challenge, in which she comes up with different categories for us to choose from, and we earn prize entries for completing six, nine, or twelve categories. This will be my fourth year participating in this challenge, and I really enjoy it. I’ve mentioned before that somehow I was not exposed to many classics growing up, and I’ve been trying to rectify that as an adult. It’s nice, after reading one, to think, “So that’s what that one was all about.”

As it stand now, my choices for this year are:

1. A 19th Century Classic. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

2. A 20th Century Classic. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

3. A classic by a woman author. Middlemarch by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written or published in a language other than your native language. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

5. A classic published before 1800. Either Don Quixote (1600s) or The Confessions of St. Augustine (400s).

6. A romance classic. Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Read

7. A Gothic or horror classic. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

8. A classic with a number in the title. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

9. A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

10. A classic set in a place you’d like to visit. No Name by Wilkie Collins. I don’t have a burning desire to visit any place, but if I did, it would probably be England or Ireland. I do have a desire to read more of Collins.

11. An award-winning classic.Possibly either The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Newberry Medal, 1962) or A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Pulitzer, 1945)

12. A Russian Classic.Either Resurrection or The Death of Ivan Ilych, both by Tolstoy

The purpose of the Mount TBR Challenge is to have us read as many books as we already owned before 2017. There are various levels to strive for, in 12 book increments. Last year, my first to participate, I only committed myself to the first level of 12 (Pike’s Peak) and got to the third (36 books, or Mt. Vancouver) without much trouble. But I think I am just going to commit to the second level (24 books, Mount Blanc) just to be safe and may add more later. Bev posts a monthly place for reviews and optional checkpoints once a quarter. More information, rules, and a sign-up page are here.

I’m not going to post a list of planned books this year like I did last year, preferring to just tally as I go. But I’ll show you my TBR stack, compiled of Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, and Mother’s Day gifts from the last year (and before!). In addition to these, I have a handful in my Audible library (mostly classics bought on sale in anticipation of the above challenge) and who knows how many in my Kindle app.

Some of you who have been reading here a while have seen some of these before – which underscores just how much I need to work on them! 🙂

Are you participating in these or any other reading challenges?

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

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Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge 2017

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Barbara Harper

I hope you’ll forgive multiple posts in a day. The first two were reading challenge wrap-ups, required for the challenge but probably not of interest generally to anyone else, especially since I’ve already posted books read in 2016 and my favorites thereof. 🙂 And I did want to get information posted about the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge for this year.

The month of February contains the dates of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birth and death, so it seems a fitting month to focus on her life and writings, especially this year, which marks her 150th birthday. This is our sixth year to host this challenge, and I have enjoyed it each time. Many of us grew up reading the Little House books. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when there wasn’t interest in the Little House series since it first came out. They are enjoyable as children’s books, but they are enjoyable for adults as well. It’s fascinating to explore real pioneer roots and heartening to read of the family relationships and values.

On Feb. 1 I’ll have a sign-up post where you can let us know if you’ll be participating and what you’d like to read. That way we can peek in on each other through the month and see how it’s going (that’s half the fun of a reading challenge). You can read anything by or about Laura. You can read alone or with your children or a friend. You can read just one book or several throughout the month — whatever works with your schedule. If you’d like to prepare some food or crafts or activities somehow relating to Laura or her books, that would be really neat too. Annette at the Little House Companion blog has some neat ideas for Laura-related activities. You do not have to have a blog to participate: if you don’t, you can just share with us in the comments on the sign-up post Feb. 1 that you’ll be participating.

On Feb 28 I’ll have a wrap-up post so you can link back to any posts you’ve written for the challenge or to a wrap-up post.

Need some ideas beyond the Little House books themselves? Annette, as I mentioned, has shared several books for children here. I compiled a list of Books Related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and some others are listed in the comments. Laura fan extraordinaire and historian Melanie Stringer has a treasure trove of information at Meet Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I don’t know how many more years I will continue to host this challenge -probably just one or two – so I encourage you to join in before it’s all over. Have fun gathering your materials and planning what to read and do, and I’ll see you at the sign-up post on Feb. 1!

I am having trouble making a code that you can use to put the button on your site, but in the meantime, you can right click on the button below, click on “Save as”, then save it to your computer to use in your post. I’d appreciate your linking back to this post if you participate in the challenge. Thanks!

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Mount TBR Reading Challenge Wrap-up

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Barbara Harper

The Mount TBR Reading Challenge had the goal to read books that we already had on hand prior to 2016. For this challenge I completed (the first 12 are from my original list; the rest I added throughout the year in more or less the order I finished them.):

True Woman 201: Interior Design by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (Finished 4/16/16)
The Renewing of the Mind Project by Barb Raveling (2015) (Finished 5/23/16)
Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet by Douglas Wilson (2001) (Finished 5/1/16)
Ten Fingers For God: The Life and Work of Dr. Paul Brand by Dorothy Clarke Wilson (Finished 8/26/16)
What Are You Afraid Of? Facing Down Your Fears With Faith by David Jeremiah (Finished 2/22/16)
Home to Chicory Lane by Deborah Raney (Finished 9/18/16)
The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay (Finished 2/2/16)
Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits by Mary Jane Hathaway (2014) (Finished 5/24/16)
Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser (Finished 1/16/16)
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill (Finished 7/11/16)
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (Finished 2/22/16)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (Finished 3/8/16)
Big Love: The Practice of Loving Beyond Your Limits by Kara Tippetts (Finished 2/14/16)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Finished 1/13/16)
SEAL of God by Chad Williams and David Thomas (Finished 1/24/16)
Not In the Heart by Chris Fabry (Finished 3/26/16)
A Slender Thread by Tracie Peterson (Finished 4/6/16)
The Reunion by Dan Walsh (Finished 4/10/16)
What Follows After by Dan Walsh (Finished 4/23/16)
The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life’s Hard by Kara Tippetts (Finished 4/30/16)
One Perfect Spring by Irene Hannon (Finished 5/11/16)
Don’t Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees: The Adventures of an American Surgeon in Nepal by Thomas Hale (Finished 6/13/16)
Chateau of Secrets by Melanie Dobson (Finished 6/18/16)
Eight Twenty Eight: When Love Didn’t Give Up by Ian and Larissa Murphy (Finished 6/28/16)
Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary DeMuth (Finished 7/12/16)
The Methusaleh Project by Rick Barry (Finished 7/16/16)
C. S. Lewis’ Letters to Children, edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead (Finished 7/23/16)
I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model by Kylie Bisutti (Finished 9/6/16)
Be Faithful (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon): It’s Always Too Soon to Quit! by Warren Wiersbe
Be Mature (James): Growing Up in Christ by Warren Wiersbe
Be Hopeful (1 Peter): How to Make the Best Times Out of Your Worst Times by Warren Wiersbe
Be Real (I John): Turning From Hypocrisy to Truth by Warren Wiersbe, not reviewed. (Not sure of the finish date for the above four – sometime in August or September)
Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson (Finished 10/1/16)
Knowable Word: Helping Ordinary People Learn to Study the Bible by Peter Krol
Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World by Carolyn McCulley (Finished 11/20/16)
The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson (Finished 11/15/16)
The Messenger by Siri Mitchell (Finished 12/7/16)
The Christmas Violin by Buffy Andrews (Finished 12/13/16)

The different levels of the challenge are represented by different mountains. I had originally planned to read at least 12 for “Pike’s Peak.” I’m happy I got to the third level, Mt. Vancouver!

Bev also added a fun activity linking the books from our list with familiar proverbs. Mine are:

A stitch in time…with A Slender Thread.
Don’t count your chickens…and Don’t Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees.
All good things must come…Home to Chicory Lane.
When in Rome…[see] Our Mutual Friend
A picture is worth…Eight Twenty Eight.
When the going gets tough, the tough get…The Hardest Peace.
Two wrongs don’t make…One Perfect Spring.
The pen is mightier than…The Messenger.
The squeaky wheel gets…What Follows After.
Hope for the best, but prepare for…Thin Places.
All that glitters is not…Beyond Stateliest Marble.
Birds of a feather…[attend] The Reunion.

I enjoyed getting to so many of my books on hand (or in my Kindle app) yet allowing for some new reads along the way, too.

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge Wrap-up

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Barbara Harper

I participated this Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge for the first time. The basic idea is just to read Christmas-related books between Nov. 21 – Jan. 6, and Michelle listed the following levels:

Main levels:

—Candy Cane: read 1 book
—Mistletoe: read 2-4 books
—Christmas Tree: read 5 or 6 books (this is the fanatic level…LOL!)

Additional levels:
—Fa La La La Films: watch a bunch or a few Christmas movies…it’s up to you!
—Visions of Sugar Plums: read books with your children this season and share what you read

*the additional levels are optional, you still must complete one of the main reading levels above

I read (each title links to my review of it):

The Christmas Stories of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott
The Christmas Violin by Buffy Andrews
Finding Father Christmas/Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn
From Heaven: A 28-Day Advent Devotional by A. W. Tozer
A Sandy’s Seashell Shop Christmas by Lisa Wingate
A Patchwork Christmas Collection by Judith Miller, Nancy Moser, and Stephanie Grace Whitson
The Women of Christmas: Experience the Season Afresh with Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna by Liz Curtis Higgs

Oddly, we didn’t see any Christmas movies this year, but we did watch a few specials: Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The America’s Got Talent Christmas Spectacular. My children aren’t at read-to age (I know, technically you can read to them no matter how old they are), but my son did read a Christmas Nativity story book on Christmas morning for my grandson and all the rest of us.

I think I am a little overdosed on Christmas reading now, ha! But it was fun!

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Barbara Harper

crown-the-year-new-year-550x320

Help us, O Lord! behold we enter
Upon another year today;
In Thee our hopes and thoughts now centre,
Renew our courage for the way;
New life, new strength, new happiness,
We ask of Thee; oh, hear, and bless!

— Johann Rist

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Favorite Posts of 2016

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Another end-of-year activity I like to do is look back through old blog posts. Not so much the “just chatting,” book reviews, memes, laudable linkage, or even the Friday Fave Fives posts (though the FFF posts are by their very nature favorites!) But the ones where I wrestled through an issue or shared something God was teaching me.

January:

4 Reasons to Face the New Year Without Fear.

I’m an Older Woman…So Now What?

February:

Our Church Ladies Booklet.

March:

To the Shy.

April:

The Value of Housework.

May:

Fleeting Pleasures, Eternal Joys.

My Father, My King.

Uncontrolled Reactions.

Christians With Political Differences.

June:

Receiving Criticism.

Summer.

Bible Verses For Caregivers.

July:

Nursing Wounds.

But That’s Not My Spiritual Gift!

August:

Bookcases (Nothing profound here – I just enjoyed sharing them. 🙂 )

Communicating With God as a Person.

September:

Across the Will of Nature.

Going to a Church With Problems.

Those Perfect Friends.

Principles For Interpreting the Bible.

October:

Thankful For God’s Protection.

The Introvert in Assisted Living.

A God We Don’t Understand.

November:

Ornaments For Timothy. Again, not a deep one, but a pleasant memory.

Thoughts on the Election.

“Edgy” Christian Fiction.

December:

When God Wants Me To Do Something I Don’t Want To Do.

Interestingly (at least to me), according to my WordPress stats, the top ten posts they say got the most views do not contain any posts from this year. At first that makes me wonder if my day-to-day readership has dropped off. 🙂 But I think it means that some of these show up in search engines, so are viewed a lot that way. Those top ten are:

I don’t know a way to look at the stats for just this year’s posts, but it looks like the one with the most views is I’m an Older Woman…So Now What?

I don’t know if this is of any interest to anyone but myself, but I like to reminiscence on the year plus see what other readers found most helpful.

I’ve enjoyed this blogging year and am looking forward to the next. Thanks so much to YOU for reading and commenting! It’s a major encouragement, and I have been so blessed by the blogging friendships we’ve made along the way.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Barbara Harper

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the last FFF of 2016! This year has seemed to pick up speed as it moved along. Here are some fave parts of the last week:

1. Christmas, of course. We had all the immediate family here, thoughtful gifts, wonderful food, and a good time together. Timothy is at a fun age for it.

2. A sticker machine. My son had gotten it for me to use in making cards, but I hadn’t used it yet because whenever I had made a card I was in a rush and didn’t feel I had the time to figure out how it worked. But I got it out for the family Christmas cards I was making, and it took no time at all to learn. It was a big help and greatly reduced the smearing that can happen with glue sticks. I’ll have to compare prices for the cartridges – I am sure glue sticks are probably cheaper. But I am excited to have this option at least for some things. He uses it in his journal to occasionally post a photo or something.

3. Vacation days. My husband is off this week and my oldest son is here. We’ve been mostly hanging out at home since the other boys are working and I’m still not back to pre-injury mobility with my broken toe. But, after getting a few things done earlier in the week, it’s been nice to just hang out together.

4. Control + z. If you hit the control button and the z button simultaneously on your computer, it undoes whatever you just did. That has saved me work and frustration many times. This week, when I was making up the list of books read this year, something I accidentally hit undid the links in a whole section. When I pressed Control and z, they were all restored except the one line I was working on. Whew!

5. A new car! (I hear that in my head as a game show announcer would say it). We’ve been considering one as we were going to have to replace our van before long, but it wasn’t urgent yet. But my husband decided to look and see if there were any good end-of-the-year deals. It turns out that the need not being urgent and being able to walk away is actually a good negotiating place. 🙂 There were various discounts and features to work through, but he eventually got it for pretty close to what he wanted to pay. I’m excited – this one has features my old one did not, so it will be a bit of a learning curve, but a fun one.

Happy end of 2016, and I hope you have a happy and safe New Year’s Eve and Day and 2017!

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16 Favorite Books Read in 2016

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Barbara Harper

I don’t normally like to publish two posts in a day, but did so today since they overlap. One of my favorite end-of-the-year activities is compiling a list of books read through the year and then choosing my favorites. I usually aim for 10, or perhaps 10 fiction and 10 non-fiction, but I don’t stick hard and fast to a number. This year 16 stood out to me, 6 non-fiction and 10 fiction. They weren’t all published in 2016 – in fact, I don’t think any of them were. I spent a great deal of the year reading classics and books already in my possession, so I didn’t spend as much time as I would like with new ones. I don’t agree with everything in each one, but something compelling about the book propelled it to a favorite.

Without further ado, here are my favorite books I read this year:

Non-fiction:

Pioneer Girl

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill. This is Laura’s memoir, written before the Little House books and from which they were developed. Ms. Hill has done a masterful job of annotating it with just about any aspect any Laura fan wold have a question about.

malala

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. In 2012, 15 year old Malala Yousafzai was shot for having spoken up for girls’ education in Pakistan. This book tells the story of that event and Malala’s life before and after. I enjoyed reading about the culture and her family, and even though we would differ in religion and politics, I have great respect for Malala and her father in particular.

still-here

I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care by John Zeisel. Though I would differ with Zeisel religiously, what I appreciated most about this book its gracious and thoughtful approach regarding dealing with those with dementia.

knowable-word

Knowable Word: Helping Ordinary People Learn to Study the Bible by Peter Krol. A very helpful and relatively short and simple approach to getting more from your Bible study.

radical-womanhood

Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World by Carolyn McCulley. An eye-opening history of feminism from one who was fully immersed in it and later became a Christian whose views on Christian femininity changed.

What Are You Afraid Of

What Are You Afraid Of: Facing Down Your Fears With Faith by David Jeremiah discusses the universality of fear, different kinds of fear, Biblical examples of people dealing with fear, Biblical principals for dealing with fear. An excellent resource.

Fiction:

Willows

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It’s hard to fathom that I had never before read this warm, lovely account of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad. I admit Toad is my least favorite, but I grew to like him (and even smile over some of his antics) as well.

remains-of-the-day

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I had this listed as a classic at first – it reads much like one. A butler recounts his days of service under one man during the WWII era and his adjustments in a new one, revealing his thoughts about life and service. He reminds me a lot of Carson in Downton Abbey except he’s less brusque but more buttoned-up. The author is a master of nuance and “showing, not telling.”

Tranquil

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell, a novelization of her grandparents’ lives as missionaries in China during the early 20th century. Loved much about this: the characters, the relationships, the way it was told.

Chateau

Chateau of Secrets by Melanie Dobson. A young American woman travels to her French grandmother’s family chateau in France and discovers her grandmother’s history of helping the French Resistance while German soldiers commandeered her house.

long-way-gone

Long Way Gone by Charles Martin, a modern-day prodigal son story set in Nashville. Martin is a master at pulling on heartstrings.

Not-in-the-Heart

Not In the Heart by Chris Fabry. A reporter down on his luck and estranged from his family is asked to write an inmate’s story. The inmate wants to donate his heart to the reporter’s desperately ill son after his execution so some good can come out of his life. But the more research the reporter does, the more convinced he is that the inmate in innocent. Loved this, both the story, the writing, and the “outside looking in” view of Christianity.

The Reunion

The Reunion by Dan Walsh. A maintenance man at a trailer park does his work with excellence and takes a special interest in helping people when he can. No one knows of his heroic deeds in Viet Nam until some of his former fellow soldiers come looking for him. Probably my favorite Walsh book. I love the thought that even the most overlooked people have a story.

Searching for Eternity

Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser. A 14 year old boy is uprooted from his home in France in the 1960s to live with his mother’s family in Atlanta. He has been told his father has left them, but he thinks his father is a spy and may be in danger. Adjusting to school leads to encounters with bullies and an unusual friend. This covers so much and was so good.

secrets

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner. Two sisters are sent away from London to live with a foster mother in the country for their safety during WWII. The oldest, a teenager right on the verge of getting her dream job and thinking she can take care of herself, runs away to go back to London, and ends up having to take her sister as well. The London blitz begins the very day they arrive, and they are separated.

Tuck

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. A girl comes across a family who never ages. Though that sounds ideal, the various family members have discovered it’s not so much. This was quite thought-provoking, but it’s a favorite mainly due to Babbitt’s writing.

So there you have it. 🙂 What were your favorite books read this year?

(Sherry at Semicolon, who hosts the weekly Saturday Review of Books link-up, is allowing us to link up book lists this week: books read, favorite books, books we plan to read next year, etc.)

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