5 Fascinating New Releases for February

I was given five new releases from David C Cook this month and I'm pretty excited about them! If you check these out I'd love to know what you think! 

📖 Even If (Christian, nonfiction, memoir)... I enjoyed I Can Only Imagine but I liked Even If even more, probably because of the family element. As a wife, I also really appreciated Shannon's perspective. I will definitely watch the upcoming movie! 

📖  Every Neighbor: Greeting Everyone With God's Love (Christian, picture book, nonfiction)... This picture book is a fun look at God's children all over the globe (learning to say hello in various languages was of course fun) that combines world culture with a gentle reminder of the call to love our neighbor. We'll re-read this one often, I'm sure! 

📖 Fake ID (Christian, nonfiction)... I've been thinking A LOT over the past few months about technology, especially AI, both as a parent and as a person, and specifically as a Christian. I still have a lot of questions and unknowns but this book came to me at just the right time and has me thinking so much. You should know that gender dysphoria is discussed in the beginning so be aware of that if you'replanningto hand it to your teens. 

📖  The Heart Who Wanted to Lasso Thoughts (Christian, picture book, fiction)... This was a cute picture book to illustrate the concept of monitoring our thought life. It's not my favorite style but it's a good message we'll probably revisit often over the years. 

📖 A Journey With Jesus (Christian, nonfiction)... Okay if you've ever wondered about those tours of Biblical places but also had no desire to travel overseas, this one is for you. Bob Goff created a really cool, immersion experience with this one as it also includes videos. I did enjoy quickly working through it on my own for this review but I'm so excited to do this one with my husband and really discuss and dissect it all together! 

* I received a free copy of each of these books in exchange for my honest opinion. 

5-Star Reads of 2016

I'm seeing so much 2016 nostalgia online and I thought I'd share my book-specific version.  

At the start of 2016 I was pregnant with my third baby, then parenting 3 under 4. I was writing at naptime every day and still blogging for income. I was incredibly busy but still had time to read and write a fair amount, I think because I still used a flip phone! These were my 5-star reads that year.

- Desperate by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson
- One Born Every Minute by Maria Dore
- Miracles From Heaven by Christy Beam
- Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson
- The Midwife's Here by Linda Farley
- Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis
- Braving It All by James Campbell
- Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist
- The Mother Letters by Amber C Haines
- Writing Motherhood by Lisa Garrigues
- Love Unending by Becky Thompson
- Operation Christmas Child by Franklin Graham 

Winter activities we love

I'm starting to hear rumblings from family and friends who are growing weary of winter weather. Winter is my personal favorite so I thought I'd share things we love about it in hopes of helping! (I have to do the same thing for myself in the summer)

- Reading, of course. Bonus points if this includes a favorite blanket and a mug of tea or cocoa
- Bundling up for chilly walks (snow crunching under my boots is one of my favorite sensory experiences) or snowplay
- Soup for every lunch + quite a lot of dinners
- Wearing the coziest hoodies, flannels, sweatshirts, sweaters, and socks! 
- Cozy hobbies (puzzles, sewing, knitting, drawing, painting, etc) with music or an audio book in the background
- Board game / movie nights with the people we love
- Baking
- Writing
- Learning about a subject that fascinates us 
- Warm baths

December Reading

This was a great reading month for me, I guess because we were on a school break the whole time.

GROWN-UP READS:

📖 Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale (Christian, historical fiction, 🎄)... I love Amanda Dykes' lovely writing style! This one was very short but it was a good one.
📖 The Christmas Book Flood (Christian, historical fiction, 🎄)... This sweet, bookish Christmas novela was set in WWII Iceland. I enjoyed it- it felt so incredibly cozy!
📖 Evergreen (Christian, fiction, 🎄)... This was book 3.5 in the Christiansen Family series and it was focused on parents John and Ingrid in their first Christmas as empty nesters. It was of course a little sad in some ways but I loved it!
📖 Marley Madison short mysteries 1-3 (Christian,  fiction, mystery)... This is Christina Suzann Nelson's new mystery series. The deaths were a bit much but they were not shown on-page. I am more sensitive to suspense these days and probably won't read the next set (but ill still read her main body of work.
📖 Mr. Nicholas (Christian, fiction, 🎄)... This was sweet, about a man kind of getting to know his son with Down Syndrome for the first time- of course duringthe Christmas season. This had some depth and richness to it I really loved. I can see why it was a Christy Award winner!
📖 Tidings of Comfort and Joy (Christian, fiction, 🎄, historical fiction)... I liked this grandmother-grandmother Christmas novela. This was my second Davis Bunn Christmas story and I'll absolutely try more in the future!
📖 Unwrapping the Names of Jesus (Christian, nonfiction, 🎄)... I read this one with my church book club. It wasn't quite what I was expecting but it was still a good read.

* My mom and I abandoned our buddy read, The Gift of Christmas Present, this year, because of a rape storyline we weren't expecting in a Christmas novela.

📚 Plus applicable sections of The Wonder Weeks

YA & MIDDLE GRADE READS

📖 Arcade and the Triple T Token (Christian, middle grade, fiction)... I didn't expect this book to have so many lovely messages and moments! I enjoyed it and know some of my kids will really enjoy it, too. I'll definitely try book two.
📖 The Case for Heaven (Christian, middle grade, nonfiction)... This was such a great book! I really love books about Heaven and this one was quite moving. 
📖 I Saw Three Ships (secular,  middle grade, fiction, 🎄)... I've been curious about this one for years because Sarah Clarkson recommends the author for fans of Anne of Green Gables. I did enjoy this very short Christmas read and added it to my kids' shelves.
📖 The Trees Kneel at Christmas (Christian, chapter book)... This was a short, sweet Christmas story by the author of the Betsy Tacy stories.
📖 A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone,  the World's First National Park (secular, middle grade, nonfiction, history)... This was a great nonfiction, full of details + color photos, and now I hope we can take our kidsto Yellowstone one day soon!
📖 Who Were the Beatles? (Secular, middle grade, nonfiction, history)... One of my kids is taking a music appreciation course and is really into music history in general right now. The history of rock n roll gets talked about in this one and we had some great conversation about the various changes in music over the years.

*I also read part of Stella by Starlight as a buddy read with one of my kids and The Angel Tree & Adoration at the Manger as read-alouds all together.

PICTURE BOOKS WE LOVED: God's Animals, my baby's current favorite// The Golden Hour // The Wonderful Book // all of these Christmas picture books

Favorite reads this month: Evergreen and The Case for Heaven 

Christian fiction that takes place primarily in the workplace

I really enjoy exploring settings through fiction. I like traveling through books, I like time traveling through books, and I like exploring different jobs through books. Here are a few books that focus fairly heavily on the protagonists workplace as a setting.

Bookshop by the Sea... This is the first of many very obvious bookshop stories because, well, it's a favorite setting of mine.

Catching Christmas... Our hero is a cab driver so our workplace setting here is a taxi cab.

The Lost Manuscript... Our protagonist here is teaching in a college while searching for a lost historical manuscript and I think about this book all the time!

Love and a Little White Lie... The workplace in this story is a church... but the employee is secretly a non-believer! This one was fun.

Meet Me in the Margins... So much of this fun book took place in a publishing house with a little taking place at a convention. This one was also really fun. 

The Printed Letter Bookshop... This is, of course, another bookshop story!

The Ringmaster's Wife... This traveling circus time slip takes the workplace all over the map and all through time!

The Second Story Bookshop... The title of course makes it obvious that this one is set in a bookshop.

A Skeleton in God's Closet... an archeological dig is a pretty cool book setting,  if you ask me. This one had me hooked through the very end.

Tacos for Two... I really enjoyed this romcom, set primarily in a taco truck!

These Tangled Threads... I hesitated to put this one in this list. A good portion of this book is spent on the move, attempting to locate one of the weavers needed to complete a project.

Things I Never Told You... A big part of Peyton's story takes place in her party planning office or the high school where she coaches volleyball.

To Love a Beast... This Beauty and the Beast Retelling is set in the beast's large estate, mostly in the home library our book binder Belle is working in.

Until Leaves Fall in Paris... Another bookshop, this one in Paris!

The Wedding Dress Christmas... This story will mean more to you if you read The Wedding Dress (which I loved!) first. This one takes place primarily in a wedding Dress shop in Tennessee. 

The Words Between Us... This is another bookstore setting. This one was a bit edgier than most Christian fiction but I did enjoy it.