Kathryn

If you had to choose between reading a book or watching a movie, which would you choose?

You probably won’t be shocked to learn I’d rather read the book. However, there are a few exceptions.

Here are my opinions on a handful of titles.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The book:

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The movie

The verdict:

Watch the movie, skip the book. The book is a cute little children’s story. The movie is funny and engaging for all ages. It’s one of our favorite family movies!

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Just Mercy

The book:

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The movie:

The Verdict:

The movie was excellent, but READ THE BOOK! It’s powerful.

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Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

The book:

The movie:

The verdict:

I absolutely LOVED this book. It’s RARE that I find a fiction book that I love so much that I not only recommend it to others, but also re-read it. This is one of the few. The MOVIE was nearly as good as the book. I recommend you read the book and watch the movie!

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Harriet Tubman

The book:

The movie:

The verdict:

Well, both were excellent, but I preferred the book. Harriet is a HERO! I recommend you watch the movie, then read the book.

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Little Women

The book:

The movie:

The verdict:

The book is a classic, so I have to give credit to the original novel that has been loved for generations and inspired so many spin-offs. But I watched the movie first and read the book second and enjoyed the movie more than the book.

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The Blind Side

The book:

The movie:

The verdict:

BOTH!!! The movie highlights Michael Ohr and has football as a backdrop. The book highlights football with Michael as the backdrop. Both are excellent and earn 10 out of 10 stars.

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So what’s your opinion? Have you read/watched the same story and have something to share? Leave a comment!

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Click here to check out another Book/Movie comparison post.

Here’s the link to the YouTube video I posted about these titles:

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Disclaimer: Affliate links included in this post.

Here are the books I read in October!

Rising Strong by Brene Brown

Rating: 8/10

Review: This was a good book, but I liked Daring Greatly and The Power of Vulnerability better. The Power of Vulnerability was one of the best books I read last year. Click here to read all my favorites of 2019.

Brene recommended the next book I listened to on my Hoopla App:

The Dance of Connection by Harriet Lerner

Rating: 9/10

Review: Brene Brown recommended this book and wow, it contains SO many Gold Nuggets for relational connection! There were many practical stories, tips, and steps. I listened to this on the free Hoopla App but now want the actual book so that I can re-read it and underline/highlight my favorite parts.

Here are a few points I appreciated:

• Honesty is great but spontaneous, uncensored expression of feelings and thoughts is not always a good thing. If it’s unbridled, it can damage motivation for future communication.

• Not everything has to be talked about and addressed. So be strategic, have self-restraint and have tact.

• We need to rehearse silence more than we need to practice speech. Being quiet and listening is harder than sharing our opinion.

• Wish to hear and understand more than you wish to be heard and understood.

• We need to muster a huge amount of maturity and discipline to say less when you feel compelled to say more. 

• If you want to be the sort of person who has connections, always leave open the possibility of connection even if the other person may take a long time to reconnect.

• People sometimes stonewall, respond with silence, or minimize the effects of their harmful actions not because they feel no remorse, but because they feel too much guilt or shame to face up to taking accountability. It’s protective self-deception.

• When someone critiques you, listen for the bits you can agree with and discuss them. Don’t focus on the bits you want to refute.

• Fights are healthy. But fight well, not reactively.

• We need to ask ourselves if we are more invested in our anger than we are in changing the relationship.

The author shares STORY after STORY of difficult relationships and how people successfully worked through conflict. Though there were a couple parts of the book that I didn’t completely align with, there was much more to the book that I thought was helpful! It’s a short book and I recommend it to anyone interested in strengthening your communication in marriage and/or with extended family members!!

Motherhood without all the Rules by Maggie Combs

Rating: 8/10

Review: First of all, I loved the title of this book. I’m not good at following lots of rules. Second, the cover is so pretty – I love the water color look of this book.

As far as the content IN the book – it was good, but I didn’t love it as much as her first book, Unsupermommy. I rated that as one my favorite books of 2018, click here to see all my favs that year.

This book did have gold nuggets! Here’s 5 things I pulled from the book:

1. The safety, health, and happiness of my children doesn’t depend solely on me … they have a Heavenly Father who loves them even more than me!
2. Our children thrive when they experience the love and care of God.
3. In our culture of “self-care” we need to make sure we are getting true “soul-care” by spending time with God. He’s the One who truly satisfies.
4. When we need a quick escape, turn to God’s word first. His word re-orients us to truth.
5. God didn’t make you a mom because He knew you’d be awesome at it, but to teach you your need for Him and grow you in your knowledge of Him.

Hudson Taylor by Janet Benge

Rating: 8/10

Review: Hudson Taylor was a missionary in China and this book gives an overview of his life. He had an interesting and impacting life, but I don’t think this book captured it well. This has been my least favorite of the Benge biographies.

Abraham Lincoln by Janet Benge

Rating: 10/10

Review: Excellent book for kids and adults alike! Our family loves biographies by Janet & Geoff Benge. They are well written, engaging, and informative. I loved this biography about our 16th president.

Click here to read the best books I read last year.

What are you reading right now? Leave a comment!

All books are affiliate links. That means if you click and decide to buy one, I’ll earn a small commission without any extra charge to you!

Here are the four books I finished in September!

The Happiness Hypothesis

Rating: 7/10

Review: I enjoyed the book, but thought it was a little too wordy. Ted recommended I read just the parts he highlighted. I couldn’t do that, but I did skim through some of the book.

The book uses ancient wisdom to discover the source of Happiness. I’m all about finding sources of happiness in 2020!!! Here are a couple points and quotes that I enjoyed most from the book:

• Activities connect us to others, objects often separate us. Work less, earn less, and “consume” more family time, vacation, and other enjoyable activities. 
• Children need plenty of failure to learn that success takes hard work and persistence. 
• Work more on your strengths than your weaknesses. 
• Something about the vastness and beauty of nature makes the self feel small and insignificant. Anything that shrinks the self, creates an opportunity for a spiritual experience. 
• Just like plants need water, sun and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger. 

Studies that have assigned people to perform a random act of kindness every week, or to count their blessings regularly for several weeks, find small but sustained increases in happiness.

Jonathan Haidt

I love the following insight from the book and plan to add it to my post on 17 reasons to serve:

Who Was Julia Child?

Rating: 8/10

Review:  I was picking up some “Who Was” books for my boys at the library and grabbed this one for me. It’s a super quick read and a good overview of Julia Child’s life.

Who Were the Wright Brothers?

Rating: 9/10

Review: I read this book with my son, Paul. We enjoyed the book and thought it was a good overview of the brothers who invented the airplane. It showed how hard work and perseverance can make a huge impact on the world. Now Paul wants his Poppy to take him flying.

God Smuggler

Rating: 10/10

Review: This book is so incredibly inspiring. I could read it over and over. The book shares stories of Andrew bringing Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. He’d find a church with a hundred people all sharing one Bible. I read this book in 2019 and loved it so much that I re-read it with Clark. He enjoyed it too!

What have you been reading? Leave me a comment!

Disclaimer: All the books are linked to Amazon, if you choose to purchase one, I will earn a small commission for the recommendation.