Browsing Tag

2022

0 In 2022/ Book Review

Four Books I finished in February

The Self-Driven Child

Rating: 10/10

Review:  This book is extremely informative. The authors address many things parents want advice on, including:

  • technology use,
  • anxiety,
  • learning disabilities,
  • standardized tests,
  • college decisions, and more.

I took lots of notes, but here are 4 points from the book I loved:

  1. Make enjoying your kids a top parenting priority. Your kid needs to feel the joy of seeing your face light up when you see them because you are genuinely happy to spend time with them. This has a powerful effect on his/her self-esteem. It helps your children become JOY-producing people. If you don’t enjoy your children, reflect on why. Are you angry? Under pressure from work? In a difficult marriage? Reflect and do you best to work on the barriers that are keeping you from enjoying them.        
  2. Look for opportunities during the day to let your mind wander. This could mean just sitting quietly for a few minutes looking out the window or at the clouds. It could mean engaging in activities you do mindlessly. 
  3. Talk as a family about the importance of going off-line and giving yourself truly free time. Tell your kids that it’s only when they aren’t focused on anything in particular that they can really think about others and themselves.
  4. Always know your kids passwords to their device(s). If you are paying for the phone, make it contingent on them being respectful online and putting it away at night. 

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When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I couldn’t stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

Mark Twain.

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Bear Town by Fredrik Backman

Rating: 7/10

Review: A novel about hockey. The setting is a hockey town; the characters live and breathe hockey. I recommend this book to those of you who…(shocker) love hockey.

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The Wise Woman Knows by the Help Club for Moms

Rating: 10/10

Review: A wonderful devotional written by moms, for moms.

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The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Rating: 10/10

Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s the biography of Corrie Ten Boom. Her family helped countless Jews during WW2 and ended up in a concentration camp. It’s a beautiful story of survival, forgiveness, and redemption.

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What have you been reading this month? Leave me a comment!

March 1, 2022 By
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0 In Book Review/ Product Recommendations

Amazing Book Reviews and Recommendations from January 2021

I was introduced to 3 fantastic authors this month, and I’m so grateful to have read their work. I’m looking forward to reading more books by those authors.

The first book I read this month was written by a fantastic author, who is also a friend. Power of a Place was a great book to start the new year.

Power of Place by Daniel Grothe

Rating: 10/10

Review: This author is someone I admire and respect. He went to school with Ted, and I worked with him in Colorado. He’s a great teacher and a fantastic writer. I loved his first book, Chasing Wisdom, and his second book is just as good. The Power of Place is about the value of putting down roots and investing in the place you call ‘home.’

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Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

Rating: 10/10

Review: This book was so engaging, I did not want it to end. It shares the beautiful relationship that develops between CS Lewis and Ms. Davidson. They were pen pals, and later met and became great friends, and eventually married. I already loved CS Lewis, but this story makes me love him even more. This author did a fabulous job of re-creating their love story. I highly recommend the audiobook because the narration brings the story to life. It’s free on the Hoopla app.

Here are two quotes from the book that I loved:

God does not love us because we are lovable but because He is Love.

CS Lewis

Sometimes we want to stay and goof off in a mud pit when God has an entire seashore for us to play in.

CS Lewis 

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Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

Rating: 10/10

Review: This was a wonderful book that I read with my 12-year-old son Clark. It’s the story of a young boy coming to live with his aunt in Minnesota to escape his war-torn country of Sudan. The author writes brilliantly and expresses such beautiful and deep emotion in very few words. This book can be read in a day but will stay with you for much longer. I felt the wonder, optimism, fear, sadness and hope through the eyes of the main character (Kek). This book gave me a glimpse into what it might be like to be a refugee. I HIGHLY recommend this book! Great for parents to read with kids ages 8 and up.

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Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Rating: 10/10

Review: I read this book with my 14 year-old son and we both enjoyed it. It’s a novel about a boy who went to work with his dad on September 11, 2001. The book does an excellent job recreating the environment from that day. You feel like you are in the Twin Towers that morning trying to escape. This book allowed George and I have to have some great conversations about what happened on September 11.

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Thanks for reading! Please share which of these books you’d like to read or a great book you’ve read recently.

Click here to read my top ten favorite books of 2021.

February 4, 2022 By
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