Category: books

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6 Memoirs to Check Out

I don’t read a lot of memoirs, so these go back quite a few years, but I highly recommend all of them.

House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister – I have greatly enjoyed her novels and equally loved this memoir of her time renovating a house and starting her writing career.  Both topics were equally fascinating.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb – I finished this in one day, it was so good!  She shares about her experiences with therapy, both as a therapist and as a client, and it was captivating.

I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag: A Memoir of a Life Through Events – the Ones You Plan and the Ones You Don’t by Jennifer Gilbert – While Jennifer’s story centers around a painful experience, her writing is filled with the determination and hopefulness that she has fought to recover in her life. In addition to her insights about her personal journey and close relationships, we also see how she brings the lessons she has learned to her professional life as an event planner.

Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber – A journey from agnosticism to Christianity. The story takes place over the course of a year and is set against the backdrop of time spent in graduate study at Oxford University in England, far from her home in Canada.  Highly recommend the book as well as the movie that followed.

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Riechl – So well written and such an intriguing account of how a food critic lives.  I loved hearing about the food she encountered but also the disguises she created in order to get regular treatment when she went out to eat for a review.

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of the Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure – I found this memoir to be extremely enjoyable and fascinating. I greatly appreciated the writing style as much as the content and laughed out loud at least a dozen times during the course of the book. I would definitely recommend this book to any and all Little House book fans.

Do you read memoirs? Are there any you recommend?

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The Little Italian Hotel

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick is a charming take on what to do when faced with sudden divorce.  When Ginny Splinter’s husband tells her he wants a divorce, she impulsively invites four of her radio show listeners to join her on a trip to Italy that was originally planned as a trip for her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.  Each of her fellow travelers is facing their own heartbreak, which we learn more about as the novel unfolds.

The group meets up in a quaint hotel called Splendido and gets to know the owner and his daughter while they enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  They take several day trips to scenic and historical spots around Italy as well as engage in various activities suggested by each of the members.  As they begin to share their stories with each other, they form friendships and offer each other support and understanding that helps them start to move forward through their grief.

I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of the Italian culture and countryside, and I appreciated how much Ginny grew in her understanding of her marriage and herself throughout the trip.  The ending was especially good, in my opinion, but I won’t say more than that because of spoilers!

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Amazon First Reads July – December

One of the perks of having Amazon Prime is getting a free book each month from a short list of editor’s picks.  Sometimes we get a bonus short story or even a second book for free.  It’s a great deal, and even better because I have Amazon Prime at a discounted price since my son is on Medicaid.

Here’s what I have added to my Kindle for free over the last six months:

July 2024 – We could choose two free books that month, although I ended up only picking one of them.  I chose The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman.  It is the second in a series of short stories called The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, so I also purchased the first story, The Bookstore Sisters, and pre-ordered the third one, The Bookstore Keepers.

August 2024 – We got one book free plus a short story.  I chose Fatal Intrusion by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado for the book.  The short story was Natural Selection by Erin Hilderbrand.  I have read the short story and it was good but I would have liked it to be longer.

September 2024 – We got one book free plus a short story.  I chose The Anti-Heroes by Jen Lancaster for the book.  The short story was When We Were Friends by Jane Green.

October 2024 – We were able to pick two books from the list that month.  I chose When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias and Grave Talk by Nick Spalding.

November 2024 – We were again able to pick two titles from the list.  I chose Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick and The Answer is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Bakman.

December 2024 – We were able to pick one free book from the list and, after that, we got to pick a free book out of another list.  I chose Happy After All by Maisey Yates and The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine.  The Amazon original short story collection Under the Mistletoe is also free this month for Amazon Prime members.  There are five stories, so I downloaded all of them.  From the descriptions, it sounds like they might be a little bit spicier.

All together, I got seven free books and nine free short stories. Not bad!

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Close Knit

I found Close Knit by Jenny Colgan to be quirky and enjoyable.  Gertie lives on a small island in the north of Scotland, where she spends most of her time working, knitting, and daydreaming.  When she develops a crush on the owner of the small local airline, she takes a job as an air stewardess despite never having been on a plane.

My favorite part of the book was the myriad of interesting characters.  I especially enjoyed the storyline about Struhan, a local elementary school teacher and musician who was Gertie’s high school crush.  Some of them, like Morag, appeared in an earlier book, The Summer Skies.  I prefer to read books in order, but this one does stand alone if you haven’t read it.

One thing I liked about Gertie is that, even though she lacks confidence in some areas, she is willing to step out and be herself.  For example, she knits using muted colors because that’s what she loves, even though the other women in the knitting circle keep pushing her to use bolder colors.  She also makes the decision to move out of her mother’s house and become a bit more independent.

By my count, this is the twenty-fourth book I have read by Colgan, so I am definitely a fan!  I highly recommend giving her a try.

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Library Haul

I have been reading ebooks almost exclusively for a few years now, but there are some books on my TBR that I haven’t been able to locate for free electronically.  So I have started going back to the library for physical books at times.

Here is my most recent haul from the library:

  • The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah
  • Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
  • Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
  • The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee

First up is Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors.  I am excited for this one because it is the first in a series that are based loosely on Jane Austen.

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The Cookbook Club

The Cookbook Club by Beth Harbison is a feel-good chick-lit novel based around food, perfect for a cozy afternoon of reading. I was immediately intrigued by a book club that is centered on cookbooks – the women in the club pick a different cookbook each month and make dishes from that cookbook to share with each other at their meeting.  That sounds like a lot of fun!

In the club, we have three women who are all at a crossroads in their lives.  Margo’s husband has just left her and asked for a divorce (and left her a run-down farmhouse to boot), Trista has been fired from her law firm and bought a bar/restaurant to run, and Aja is pregnant and in an unhealthy relationship.

The book follows each of the women as they get to know each other through sharing food together.  There are a lot of mouthwatering recipe descriptions, including a monthly wrap up of each cookbook club meeting. I do wish there was more description of the actual club meetings, however; I think that would have been a better way to carry the story.  Instead, we get a couple of meetings and then it focuses more on the individual women’s lives, although they do interact with each other outside of the meetings at times.

This book has a bit of everything in the way of chick-lit tropes – a failed marriage with a farmhouse to fix up with an old crush, a lost job fueling a new business opportunity, and a pregnancy forcing a young woman to evaluate her relationship with the father.  Because of everything going on, it does jump around a bit, but I still found it an enjoyable light read.

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Faith Unraveled

Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions

In this 2010 book by the late Rachel Held Evans, we are taken on a journey of faith.  Evans describes her upbringing in a conservative Christian environment and how she learned to defend the faith she had been taught.  I resonated with a lot of her experiences, including going to a conservative, evangelical church and then college.

Along the way, she began to question some of the things she had been taught and some of the things she read in the Bible.  Her questions were not well received by those around her, but she continued pursuing answers.  Eventually she determines that she does not need to leave her faith in God to find answers but just the limited beliefs about what it means to be a Christian and follow God that she had been taught.

This was such a good book. It really affirmed what I have been experiencing in my faith journey the last few years. Evans compares the process of questioning your beliefs to evolution, as the town she lived in was the location for the Snopes trial in the early 1900s, which was about teaching evolution in schools.  My favorite line in the book is, “Faith must adapt in order to survive.”

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What I’m Reading – December 2024

What I’m Reading Now

The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg – I am almost done with this book, and it is really good!

UnClobber by Colby Martin – This book addresses the “clobber passages” from the Bible that are often used to condemn homosexuality and also tells Martin’s own story of how his views on the subject changed and how it has affected his life. It is very easy to read and I am enjoying it.

What I Recently Finished

The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley by Mercedes Lackey – This is #16 in the Elemental Masters series and was very enjoyable, as all of them have been.

Holiday Hideaway by Mary Kay Andrews – This was a Christmas-themed short story and was a cute romance.

Gryphon in Light by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon – This is #1 in Kelvren’s Saga and who knows what book in the entire Valdemar series. It took me a little while to get into the story, but I ended up liking it by the end.

The Christmas Inn by Pamela M. Kelley – This is a heartwarming holiday romance. I couldn’t put it down – very sweet!

Nantucket Summer House by Pamela M. Kelley – This is #9 in the Nantucket Beach Plum Cove series. It wasn’t my favorite in the series but I did still enjoy it.

Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions by Rachel Held Evans – I loved this book. I will share a more detailed review in a few days.

The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship by Beth Harbison – This was a fun book about three women who start a book club based on cookbooks. It was charming and I really enjoyed it.

Close Knit by Jenny Colgan – I have read a lot of Colgan’s books and I still like them, although not as much as I used to like her older books.

What I Added to my TBR

  • Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick
  • The Answer is No by Fredrick Backman
  • Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith by April Ajoy
  • Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
  • Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison

TBR Stats

  • I currently have 111 books on my TBR
  • Of those, 17 are non-fiction and 94 are fiction
  • All but 1 of the books were added in 2024. I plan to read the last book added in 2023 this month

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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The Christmas Inn

If you are looking for a feel-good holiday story as Christmas gets closer, then The Christmas Inn by Pamela M. Kelley is the book for you.  I started reading Kelley’s books in 2021 with The Restaurant and have since read a number of her books. Most of her books are set in the Cape Cod area of the United States, which provides a charming setting no matter the time of year.

In The Christmas Inn, we meet Riley Sanders, who has just lost her job and comes home to the Cape to help her mother with her inn while she looks for another job.  During her stay, we meet several other characters, including a possible love interest, and also get to experience what it’s like to be on the Cape during the holidays.

I read this in one day so I would definitely say that it’s an easy read and also very inviting.

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My Deconstruction Journey Through Books

My Deconstruction Journey

I have come a long way in the last few years with regard to my faith and my understanding of God and the church. Many beliefs that I never felt comfortable with have been discarded, and other ideas that I had accepted as gospel have been dispelled as man-made and untrue. I have listened to a lot of podcasts and learned a lot from various forms of social media, but I have also read several books that have been very helpful. I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but I wanted to share the books I have learned from so far here.

An Early Foray into Deconstruction

The first book I can recall reading in the deconstruction area was in July 2020, and the book was Fierce, Free and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You by Jen Hatmaker.  At the time it made me nervous to even be reading the book because some of her views did not align with the doctrine I had been taught all my life growing up in a pentecostal church and then moving into a charismatic church later on.  I ended up skimming the book and not really looking for anything else like it.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Fast forward to November of 2023 and I had moved to an inclusive, justice-oriented church and was starting to embrace some new ideas and let go of some old ones.  I then read A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans, which was a very readable book detailing how she spent a year trying to live out characteristics and actions commonly thought to make a biblical woman.  She spent one month focusing on each of twelve different areas.  It was fascinating and I felt my spirit opening up to more possibilities of what it could mean to be a Christian.

Fierce, Free and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You

After that, in December 2023, I decided to reread Fierce, Free and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You by Jen Hatmaker.  I appreciated it a lot more the second time around.  It is a self-reflective book and very encouraging.

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again

In January 2024, I read another Rachel Held Evans book called Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again.  This book focused on exploring the Bible in a variety of ways using different types of literary expression.  Interestingly enough, one of my Bible professors in college talked a lot about the Bible as literature.  He was considered borderline heretical by some of the students, but he was still pretty conservative in what he shared with us compared to some of what I have read and heard over the last few years.

She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up

The next book I read in March 2024 was She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky.  This is a book aimed primarily at women who have daughters and want to give them better messages about their bodies and themselves than they would get from purity culture. I really enjoyed this book; even though I don’t have a daughter, it helped me with some of the internalized messages I still had from growing up in a conservative church environment.  This book is based on strong research the authors have conducted and contains a lot of charts and graphs highlighting various results they found.

Where We Meet: A Lenten Study of Systems, Stories, and Hope

During the Lent season of 2024, I attended a virtual Bible study hosted by my pastor, and we read and discussed the book Where We Meet: A Lenten Study of Systems, Stories, and Hope by Rachel Gilmore, Candace Lewis, et al.  The book contained daily reflections with a different topic for each week: Beginning the Journey, Diversity, Postcolonial, Equity, Contextual, and Innovation.  I was introduced to a lot of new concepts that I hope to spend more time studying at some point.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

In May 2024, I read Beth Allison Barr’s book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth.  In this book, Barr traces the history of the belief that God designed women to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers. This was a well-written, easy-to-follow account of the historical events that have shaped this teaching into what it is today in American conservative circles.  It really helped solidify my thoughts on this topic.

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez is another book tracing the history of the conservative American church.  I read this in August 2024 and found it thoroughly fascinating and readable.  Du Mez takes us through the last 75 years of white evangelicalism in America, showing us how rugged masculinity and Christian Nationalism have taken over and also how these developments have led to the championing of Donald Trump by the religious right.

The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church

In September 2024, I picked up a recently released book called The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon.  This was a very well-written book that is part memoir and part informational discourse on the issues that arise for people who don’t fit or who start to question the church.  I could relate to a lot of this book and found it very encouraging to the journey I have been on myself.

DNF (Did Not Finish)

I was recently reading Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem by Bradley Jersak.  This was my second time attempting this book.  The writing is more dry and complicated, and I just had too hard a time getting through it.  I have always had a lot of fear of hell (and the rapture!), and what I got from what I did read is that there is really no way to know definitively what is going to happen as the Bible can be used to support several different views of the afterlife.  A related book I also DNF’d was Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple by Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett.  That book was too esoteric for me.

Moving Forward

I have noticed that all but one of the books I have read have been written by women.  I think that is interesting.  I have listened to a number of male podcasters, so I’m not anti-men by any means, but it seems like I gravitate towards books that are written from a woman’s perspective.

I have a large list of books related to deconstruction on my TBR.  Here is what I have at this point:

  • Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions by Rachel Held Evans
  • Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans
  • A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today by Bonnie Kristian
  • The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow Prior
  • How God Sees Women: The End of Patriarchy by Terran Williams
  • Marriage in the Bible: What Do the Texts Say? By Jennifer Grace Bird
  • The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor by Kaitlyn Schiess
  • The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here by Kaitlyn Schiess
  • Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
  • The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
  • How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby
  • Beyond Fragility: A Skills-Based Guide to Effective Anti-Racist Allyship by Yara Mekawi, Natalie Watson-Singleton, and Danyelle Dawson (I think this is a secular book, but it seems to fit in this list.)
  • The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky
  • Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark: The Bible and Modern Science and the Trouble of Making It All Fit by Janet Kellogg Ray
  • God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines
  • UnClobber by Colby Martin
  • Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith by April Ajoy

I am open to suggestions of other books you have found helpful in deconstructing harmful doctrines that are taught in the American church and in finding your way to a more honest and loving faith.