What I read in February

I tried to be really intentional about my first month of postpartum healing this time around and I feel like I did a good job! I napped or rested in bed reading during a lot of baby's naps plus I employed the same trick with this baby that I used to use during nighttime (early morning) feedings- read on the Kindle so I don't engage/stimulate baby during sleep hours yet don't fall asleep! But I didn't do much audio book listening since I wasn't doing the workouts, driving, or chores that normally make sense as audio book time.

First, grown-up reads...

📖 Bible study: Proverbs! Still focused on a very slow bible study- quality, not quantity.

📖 All That Really Matters (Christian, fiction)... I am really fascinated by the overall idea of influencers (it's such a strange byproduct of an internet-heavy world, isn't it?) and really enjoyed this novel about a popular makeup influencer and her time mentoring young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. I'm not at all interested in book 2 but I am really loving Nicole Deese lately so I'll be reading it anyway!

📖 Bitter and Sweet (Christian, fiction)... Yet another book exploring family dynamics and character development. I am forever drawn to deep, rich stories like these. This one is set in South Carolina and focuses on a toxic adult sister relationship + some ties to their great grandmother's past.

📖 Boost Your Breast Milk (secular, nonfiction. Parenting? Health?)... Good, short and to the point, helpful!

📖 The Brain's Way of Healing (secular, nonfiction, health)... I didn't read the whole super long book, just parts that matched up with a loved one's condition. So fascinating!

📖 Formula of Deception (Christian, fiction, suspense)... I was really into this Alaska suspense book but there was a point right near the end that kinda pulled me out of the story. I will try more Carrie Stuart Parks in the future.

📖 Habits of the Household (Christian, nonfiction)... I adored this book! But I do think you won't get much out of it if you aren't actively parenting young children.

📖 Meet Me in the Margins (Christian [but not really], fiction)... I read this because Janssen said it was a good clean read for teens + I'm a sucker for a good book about books/writing. I am not a sucker for romance but they're growing on me IF they're done right. I loved this one! 

📖 A Time to Stand (Christian, fiction)... I was so curious to see how this one would go- a black lawyer who feels called to defend the white police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager. I have liked the other Robert Whitlow books I've read and I liked this one, too. 

📖 Plus the designated chapters of my ongoing baby reads this year, What to Expect: The First Year // The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding // The Wonder Weeks 

And for my kids' shelves...

📖 All of Creation (Christian, upper middle grade, nonfiction)... I've always thought it so strange that an environmental sustainability focus is so often seen as almost anti-Christian. The environment was hand-created by God, we live here, it's the thief who came to destroy, and besides, God is pretty clear in Genesis that we're supposed to take care of our world. This book did a good job of laying out practical things we can do to protect specific plants/creatures/habitats in a very Biblical, faith-focused way. #Christianhippie 🤷🏼

📖 The Blind Girl's Song (Christian, middle grade, fictionalized biography)... This was a well-done, engaging biography about the author of many famous hymns. I enjoyed this one and think a lot of music-minded kids will enjoy it, too. 

📖 Can You Survive: an Alien Invasion (secular, middle grade, fiction, choose-your-own-adventure)... Something that interested my son... Fluff of course, overall fine. Like most of these kinds of books, some adventure paths were better than others.

📖 DNA by Alvin and Virginia Silverstein (secular, middle grade, nonfiction)... Short and informative with fun tidbits thrown in.

📖 Flight of the Eagles (Christian, middle grade, fantasy)... I was curious to see if this 90s story would be too old and outdated for my oldest but it wasn't! He definitely plans to continue the series.

📖 Heroes: Incredible True Stories of Courageous Animals (secular, nonfiction)... These are all stories about animals helping during wars. Some stories end sadly but it's a good read for kids who can handle that.

📖 Kate and the Spies (Christian, middle grade, historical fiction)... This Revolutionary war novel is the third Sisters in Time book I've read and it's going to be a definite hit with one of my kids.

📖 Lena in the Spotlight series- Hello Stars // Daydreams and Movie Screens // Shining Night (Christian, middle grade, fiction)... I liked this Faithgirlz series about a young lady becoming a movie star overnight. Lots of good faith content in these.

📖 The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson (Christian, middle grade, historical fiction)... Really liked this one and know my kids will love it so already planning to use it as our next read-aloud! 

📖 The Mythmakers (secular, YA, nonfiction, graphic novel)... This is a great look at the lives + relationship of JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis which I'll definitely hand to my kids as high schoolers. I also loved this author's Bonhoeffer graphic novel in a similar style.

📖 Nicholas Quick and the Man from the Chaos Dimension (secular, middle grade, fiction, fantasy)... Fantasy is never my favorite but this one was fun and then was a hit with my oldest.

📖 Who Were the Navajo Code Talkers? (Secular, middle grade, nonfiction, history)... I don't love every book in this series but I did really enjoy this one!

📖 Winning the War in Your Mind for Teens (Christian, YA, nonfiction)... Wow, what a powerful read period but especially for supporting teens through those hard angsty times. 

Picture books we enjoyed this month: The Book Bus // Buzzing With Questions // Captain Cat // I Will Rejoice // I've Loved You Since Forever // The King Without a Shadow // Pa, Me, and the Sidewalk Pantry // The Prince and the Porker // Race to Kindness // Take Heart My Child // What's Inside a Flower // The Wonderful Things You Will Be // You Are My Happy  

Book-filled vacation

We just got back from a little mini vacation in Lubbock, Texas, and it was so filled with books! 

First, the amazing stack of books we got for $1 each at Mardel, a Christian bookstore. 

This morning we stopped by a Sugar Browns coffee shop and I did morning time at the table while I waited for them to make my husband's coffee + my chai! (I haven't had a chai in 2-3 years and gosh, I had forgotten how delicious they are!) 

(Current morning reads: the book of Luke, Nothing to Prove, Theodore Roosevelt)

4 books I finished on this trip: 

The Dragon and the Stone by Kathryn Butler* (middle grade, Christian)... This fantasy delight is going to be so fun for my kids! It wasn't super deeply spiritual in this first installment but it certainly could be and I'm just happy for the clean read anyway! This is a fast-paced, well-written, engaging adventure that I happily added to our sixth grade shelf. 

Elysium Tide by James R Hannibal* (suspense, Christian)... I'll be honest- the surgery in the first chapter had me feeling quite squeamish. There's some medical description + insensitive talking in the book that was almost too much for me and it took me a couple chapters to get used to the Hawaiian speaking style but this is a riveting suspense fans of detective novels will enjoy. 

Lewis and Clark by George Sullivan (chapter book, secular)... I liked this offering from the Good and the Beautiful Book List, now on our 4th grade shelf. 

Science Book of Volcanoes by Patricia Lauber (chapter book, secular)... This is a simple nonfiction and I liked it just fine. I put it in our 4th grade shelf just because of some difficult names but it's probably about a 3rd-4th grade reading level otherwise. 

* I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Christian fiction filled with cute children

I love children and I love seeing them make an appearance in the books I read. Sometimes their appearances help me see the world through their eyes and show my own children compassion for their child-sized struggles while other times they just delight me. If you like to see children in your fiction too, here's a list of kid-filled Christian fiction picks I've read. 

At Home in Mitford... Father Tim spends a lot of time fostering a boy in this book. I didn't really love this story the way so many others do but I did think this relationship was cute. 

Beneath the Seams... Our main protagonist here has a mommy-and-me fashion line so we see a lot of sweet moments between her and her daughter. We've got travel, fashion, ethics, and a life-changing new understanding of a pretty underrated issue. Love this one! 

The Haunting of Bonaventure Circus... This one is for my suspense fans. This gothic timeslip shows us the 1920s circus life of Pippa and the modern-day single mom attempting to balance motherhood with a job renovating the old circus depot... And a whole lot of mystery and intrigue in between. 

Karen Kingsbury's Baxter Family series... I love this series! I've linked book 1, which I don't think talks as much about the children, but we soon see a whole lot of the kids in the Baxter Family. My current favorite series. 

Life After... A young girl's mother was killed in a train bombing and now she is teaming up with the only survivor for a big project. The PTSD in this one felt very accurate. 

Over the Edge... Our heroine has been infected with Lyme disease as payback to her husband since he doesn't believe in its ability to cause chronic illness. He doesn't believe her, either and she's trying to balance motherhood with this mystery even while her body is betraying her. So good! 

Remember Me... I was so excited to learn about the Spanish civil war but my goodness! War atrocities, sexual child abuse, and suicide are all depicted in this novel. I felt no hope walking away from it! Still, the siblings' strong relationship was a beautiful thing to see. 

Rock Harbor series... This series is about a search-and-rescue worker and her dog but a child is also very heavily featured throughout each book. I think this is the first adult series I truly enjoyed and saw all the way through. 

Stories That Bind Us... This 1960s story is about a newly widowed 40-year-old and the relationship she begins to strike up with the young nephew she never even knew existed. This one is very sweet. 

Until Leaves Fall in Paris*... This WWII story has so many things I love in a book! We have a ballerina, a bookstore, secret resistance missions, and a big meaty moment of intensity! Plus the cutest little girl, Josie, who is a creative little storyteller herself. This was a good one! 

*I received a free copy of Until Leaves Fall in Paris from Netgalley. Opinions are my own. 

Christian Fiction for Animal Lovers

🐎 Along a Storied Trail*... Tansy Calhoun is a Kentucky packhorse librarian serving 1930s Appalachia. If the horse and librarian angles aren't enough to pique your interests then perhaps the love triangle element will! I haven't read a lot of booms set in Appalachia OR the great depression but still the setting feels quite believable in my humble opinion. 

🐘 The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus*... This suspenseful timeslip isn't as animal-heavy as some others on this list but there were still plenty of circus animal mentions! (And you all know how much I love circus animals!)

🐎 The Heart's Charge*... This book is technically second in a series but I don't think you miss anything by starting with book 2. "The Hanger's Horsemen" are unexpectedly tangled up with a baby, a former flame, and a case involving missing children. Also, this one's set in Texas! This is one for those of you who love a good mixture of romance and intrigue. 

🐎 The Moonlight School*... I just loved this one! Very loosely based on a true story, this is a tale about "moonlight schools" set up to teach literacy in Appalachia. There are a couple of very interesting sub plots and I was guessing I'd like this book but surprised myself by giving it a five-star review. Lucy rides her horse Jenny out into the holler to read and transcribe letters and I was romanticizing horseback riding the whole time! 

🐕‍ Rock Harbor series by Colleen Coble... This suspense series' heroine is a search and rescue ___ along with her German shepherd. Suspense isn't my main genre these days but it was for a while and I loved this series! 

🐎 Second Chances for Trampled Hearts... Y'all know romance is not my preferred genre but Shoshanna Gabriel is such a kind soul, I had to read one of her books! This is the first in a series set in fictional Bear Creek, Idaho. Our heroine is restoring an old restaurant and is thrown into country life in the process. Our male protagonist is a horse guy and you'll see plenty of horse action through him! 

🐕 That Dog Won't Hunt by Brandilyn Collins... This southern contemporary novel, about a family meeting the youngest son's fiance for the first time, heavily features a very expressive Yorkie named Lady Penelope. I really liked it, but trigger warning- this book does contain memories of an abusive childhood. 

*I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

7 Creepy Christian Fiction Reads

Some of you might recall that this summer I got excited about a new podcast called The Christian Bookworm. I even recorded the first few episodes but eventually realized it just wasn't what I wanted to focus on.

Maybe someday a podcast could be in my future... But right now it just isn't. I love to write and I love to be a wife and mother. There's not much time for anything else and I am okay with that.

However, I still love all those Christian books and I still want to share them. I have decided to start posting the podcast book lists as blog posts here instead. I know quite a few of my readers are big fans of Christian fiction so hopefully you will enjoy these.

This first list should probably have come out on September 30th but alas, here it is now, just in time for a week of spooky Halloween reading. Seven creepy Christian fiction novels that are sure to get your adrenaline going. 

Abomination by Colleen Coble... This one was originally a stand-alone novel but it's now the fourth book in the Rock Harbor series. I really like this series but this book just about did me in. I don't do creepy very well these days! We've got a serial killer, a survivor with amnesia, and a search-and-rescue heroine caught in the middle.

(This book has also been published under the title Haven of Swans)

The Delusion by Laura Gallier... This is probably the most haunting book on the list. I think about it all the time! Our protagonist's school is in the middle of a suicide epidemic and he's given a unique chance to see spiritual warfare attacks no one else can see... 

House by Frank Peretti... This one carries the horror of a Steven King novel and left me with nightmares. A group of people- some strangers, some not- find themselves stranded and seeking shelter in a house more sinister and evil than they could possibly have imagined.

Light from Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker... This one has a bit of magical realism feel to it and had me so curious as to which way it was going to go. The family patriarch is in the hospital after a tragic... Accident? Murder attempt? Suicide attempt? Our main character processes his grief along with childhood wounds and a chilling piece of his past that still haunts him.

Mind Games by Nancy Mehl... This one's for those of you who like a good detective story. Kaely Quinn is a criminal profiler for the FBI, specializing in serial killers since her father turned out to be a serial killer. Now the clock is ticking as Kaely works to stop a new killer who has several victims chosen before his grand finale- Kaely herself.

Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins... This is by far the least horrific on this list but it still gave me the creeps! Janessa's husband is a renowned Lyme disease researcher, practically famous for his insistence that chronic Lyme doesn't exist. To make him truly see how serious Lyme can be, someone has infected Janessa with Lyme and several co-infections. Her health and marriage are spinning out of control as she fights to prove her story and get the treatment she needs... And prevent the madman from infecting her daughter next!

The String by Caleb Breakey... I still can't get over how creepy this one was! "The Conductor" is a sick and twisted man, using a group of people to do heinous, torturous, even murderous acts as if it were nothing more than a game. This one had me freaked out for weeks!