Recent reads

The Boxcar Children #6: The Blue Bay Mystery… This was our latest read-aloud. I was really not in the mood to read another Boxcar Children book when they picked this one but I admit that I was pretty curious about what was going to happen and ended up really liking it.

The Dinosaur and the Griffin... This was a super short audiobook we listened to on a day of errands. My dino-obsessed six-year-old and I loved it!

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible… Those who have been following me since two blogs ago might remember my obsession with dinosaurs and the bible from, gosh, probably 2011? I was so intrigued by the topic but found very little about it as I searched. My son is kind of obsessed with dinosaurs right now and I want him to love the concept of researching and understanding things for himself so I was super excited to add this one into our usual mix of dino paraphernalia. We have read maaaaany books that talk about dinosaurs existing millions of years ago, long before any humans were around. We have watched many documentaries (some admittedly kind of insufferable) that say the same thing. This one breaks down the aspects of the Bible that tell us dinosaurs were actually included in the Garden of Eden, living right alongside Adam & Eve. The timing was actually really cool because he did a math lesson that talked about pictograms and one of the photos in the book was of a pictogram which showed a dragon-like creature… or in other words, a dinosaur-like creature. We talked a lot about the fact that dinosaur fossils hadn’t been discovered at that point as far as we know which makes all those fire-breathing-dragon tales seem less like lore and more like true stories handed down and warped… but then again, how do we really know with certainty no fossils had ever been found by then? I really, really love that he now has both perspectives and can make his own conclusions using the information he’s collected on his own and been given through books and movies.

The Number of Love… I’m having trouble reviewing this book! I liked this story about a codebreaker during the Great War and her eventual romantic entanglement... But it took me forever to read it and then I rushed through the ending so I guess it didn't really do it for me. I was interested in the plot but not so much the characters so maybe that's it? I don't think I'll read the sequel.

Platform… Between an amazing session with Dave Murrow at the Spokane Christian Writers Conference and quite a few different writing podcasts on writers and social media, I finally decided it was time to get serious about my social media game. I requested this book from the library and had to wait a few months for it to come in. I really liked the way it was all presented, but I agreed with another reviewer that it was a little repetitive at times and didn’t dive very deep into Instagram, which is not only the platform I am most comfortable with but also the platform I am most interested in focusing on based on my targeted demographics. I don’t think this was a bad book by any means, but it didn’t feel right for me. I’m focusing on young adult fiction writing these days so my most important social media site is Instagram, and I keep hearing things like “and supposedly Twitter but I just don’t believe it.” I felt like this book was much more geared towards businesses/entrepreneurs or nonfiction writers whose primary focus is Facebook.

Unashamed… I put this book on my list right after it was released. I asked my cousin if she was interested in reading through it with me and she said yes, but then neither of our libraries had it so we moved on. Then I saw it on sale at a Christian bookstore a few months ago, actually for $4(!!) so bought it. I again shared the same book and this time her library had it so we worked through it together. We’d read a chapter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then we’d spend that day and the next discussing what we’d read through loooooooong text messages. I said “Oh maaaaaan!” aloud after reading her texts like 50 times because the discussion this book brought on was such profound, powerful, awesome stuff. I feel like I know her 500 times better now, and hopefully she feels that she knows me better, too! This is the stuff life is all about for me. I would never get tired of these kind of conversations and I have them every single day if I can help it. Ryan and I send each other powerful Instagram posts or quotes almost every day, we often read a profound passage of a book to each other, and we’re always talking in this deep way. I also have two friends I text about this stuff with (and talk about it in person when I’m in their town and can see them!) and I loooooove to read books that open me up like this. I felt like it was really healing and transformational for both of us and I can’t recommend it enough!

*I received a free copy of The Number of Love from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.