Favorite Reads of 2018

 

If I am going to have any regrets for 2018, it’s that I didn’t make more time for good books.  Oh, I enjoyed my share, but I’m hungry to add more reading to my resolution list.  So, as a new year starts to whisper at me full of expectation for more reading time, I’m reflecting back at my favorite books of the past year.  I hope you’ll share yours with me too, ’cause I’m working up a highly ambitious and unrealistic “to read” list.

The summaries all come from Amazon, where I’m grateful to be an affiliate.  If you decide to click over, it will help fund my habit.  Happy reading!

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The Ministry of Ordinary Places by Shannan Martin

Summary: “For Christ-followers living in an increasingly complicated world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to live a life of intention and meaning. Where do we even begin?  Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: uncover the hidden corners of our cities and neighborhoods and invest deeply in the lives of people around us.”

My Thoughts: Shannan Martin is among my most favorite authors.  When she writes, I read.  This book is like taking a breath in a time when I seem to want to help everyone, but end up helping no one.  She teaches us to love those around us, not because people are projects, but because we all better when we widen our circle.

I highlighted this book from start to finish.  Not just because I got to serve on the launch team (yay!), but because it’s truly important at such a time as this. I’m better for having read it.  Read this, and then read her first book, Falling Free.  Go ahead and buy both.  You’ll want to.

 

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan

Summary: “… she’s back with a deeply personal, unfailingly honest, and often hilarious examination of the essential phrases that turn the wheel of life.  With the streetwise, ever-relatable voice that defines Corrigan’s work, Tell Me More is a moving and meaningful take on the power of the right words at the right moment to change everything.”

My Thoughts: I LOVED this book.  I giggled and got misty-eyed within almost every chapter.  This is a reflective, laugh out loud book written in an easy, style that feels like you are sitting on the couch with a dear friend as she catches you up on her life and all that it has taught her.

If I ever get to write a book, please let it be like this one.

 

 

 

Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate

Summary: “Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.”

My Thoughts: I couldn’t set this one down because I was compelled to help this family survive just through sheer desire as someone reading their story.  It’s a poignant tale of sibling love through indescribable hardship.

 

 

 

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

Summary: “Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. A hopeful and inspiring read.”

 

My Thoughts: I just love historical fiction and I love a good story.  This book was both of those things.  I’ll read a novel any day that is both gripping and courageous.

 

 

 

 

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton

Summary: “…an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.”

 

My Thoughts: This book changed my perspective.  I grew up thinking that there were good guys and there were bad guys.  That it wasn’t OK to judge your neighbors, but it was OK to judge a convicted criminal.  And death row inmates?  Just bad guys. Guilty as charged.

This book turns all that around in my thinking and had me joining them in wanting to bang some bars.  I am so glad that I read this book.  It widened my understanding and my heart.  Everyone has a story, and it’s worth hearing the story, before playing judge and jury.  This is an important read.

 

America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray

Summary: “…a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph–a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

My Thoughts:  I suggested this book to everyone around me.   Martha’s perspective as such an important daughter in our nation’s history was truly compelling to this history buff.  I learned a great deal and simply got lost in the story of the Jefferson family.  Having just been to Monticello, added to my intrigue.

 

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Summary: “A tesseract is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.”

My Thoughts: I found myself reading this classic because I’m trying to read young adult novels that I missed out on, and I love to read books before seeing movie versions.  The film adaptation of this book was hopeful and inspiring for young girls, but mostly I thought it fell flat in capturing all that is A Wrinkle in Time.  I’m so so glad I read this and didn’t miss the gift.

 

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

Summary: What does it mean to lose your roots―within your culture, within your family―and what happens when you find them?

My Thoughts: This was a hard, hard read for me as an adoptive mom.  I wanted to pitch it in the fireplace and find some laughs.  I would rather not have gone inside the heartache, longing and questioning in the mind of this  Korean adoptee.  But I’m so glad I did.  Whether it was pleasant or not, it was an important read.  It impacted my interactions with our kids immediately.  Read at your own risk, adoptive friends,

 

 

 

 

Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover

Summary: “Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.”

My Thoughts: This book drew me in immediately, due to pure shock that a person could endure such an isolated, challenging upbringing and then go on to write an eloquent memoir.  Three cheers for the power of the human spirit and the freedom that comes from reading and learning.

 

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Summary: “In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.”

My Thoughts:  I was not surprised to be riveted by yet another Kristin Hannah book, as she’s a master storyteller.  Although this wasn’t my favorite of her books, I could not stop reading.

My two favorites of hers, Winter Garden  and The Nightengale, are among my favorite books.

 

Go and Tell No One: Remember and Rest in the Secret and the Sacred by Kristin Hill  **A Bible Study

Summary: “If we look closely in the gospels, we find that in several life-changing encounters, Jesus often instructs people with those very words: “go and tell no one.” Even though there is a longing deep within us to be known, understood, validated, recognized, and affirmed, there is a call from Jesus that is deeper still that answers those longings in the Secret, and the Sacred, with Him. Throughout the gospels, Jesus models for us a life that seeks the Father, in Secret. In both everyday encounters, as well as miraculous, life-changing moments, we see Jesus drawing people into the Secret with Him, often with encouragement to treasure those moments by keeping them Sacred.”

My Thoughts:  Five stars and two thumbs up.  I’ve done lots of Bible studies, but this one was something new, and one of my all time favorites.  You could do it on your own, or with a group.  There are no videos to lean on, but the learning is deep and wide.  I’m guessing that I’ll find myself doing this one again somewhere down the line.

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So there you have it.  My favorites of 2018.  I hope to find myself under a reading lamp much more in 2019.  I know for sure that my nightstand will continue to contain a hopeful stack of reads.

What about you?  Any novels that kept you up all night?  Do tell.