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  

Great Reads for Hispanic Heritage Month

American Girl: Josefina (secular middle grade)... these books are set in New Mexico in 1824. I like the sweet, age-appropriate dilemmas and the faith + family life in these books but the culture is so rich that it speaks for itself too. We see the culture come alive in food, clothing, speech, day to day tasks, professions, and even holidays. Very well done. I would say that these books are ideal for the 4th through 6th grade crowd. 

A Bear for Miguel (secular, leveled reader)... I really love the message in this one, set in El Salvador, and the great conversation it brought about. 

Chato's Kitchen (secular picture book)... chato the cat lives in a Los Angeles barrio. He invites his new neighbors (a family of mice) to dinner with secret plans of serving them as the main course. Things naturally go awry and this is just a generally fun story. We first encountered it through a Scholastic book DVD in which it is read by Cheech Marin. He has a very distinctive voice and it really brought the story to life. 

Danza (secular, picture book)... This is the biography of dancer Amalia Hernández. I have a lot of dance in my background and just loved this one! 

Echo (secular middle grade)... this is one of my very, very favorite books. This is a World War II story told in three parts. I guess technically four because of the intro and outro. Part one is set in Germany and part two is set in Pennsylvania. Part three is the part that allows this beautiful book a place on this list. Part 3 is set in California and is about a Mexican-American family who agrees to take over the farm of a Japanese-American family while they are in an internment camp. I believe this is the first time I had ever encountered Japanese internment camps in middle grade literature, although I'm sure it exists elsewhere. I love this author and feel like she did such a beautiful job showing this Mexican-American family battling racism in the school system while helping a Japanese-American family battling racism in the form of the World War II spy fear of japanese-americans. I feel like this description is frustrating me though because it breaks this amazing, powerful book down into such a small portion of it. Just read it! I have recommended it to so many people and everyone who has read it has said it was wonderful. I've also enjoyed the music-filled audio book version. 

A Girl Named Rosita... This is a great picture book biography of Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican star of Westside Story. 

Esperanza Rising (secular middle grade)... this depression-era book is by the same author as Echo and I loved it as a kid. Esperanza and her mother have to flee their home in the dark of the night and start life over in a lower station than they previously lived in. Esperanza learns so much in this book and so do we. This author is a master storyteller I cannot recommend enough.

I Love Saturdays y Domingos (secular picture book)... this is a really fun look at bicultural families. This picture book is about a little boy who loves to visit his white, English speaking grandparents on Saturdays and his Spanish speaking grandparents on Domingos (Sundays). This is a very well done story that shows the cultural differences and similarities all tied in a neat little bow about family love.

Juana and Lucas (secular chapter book)... I have only read the first two books of these series and I thought they were fun and cute. I believe there were one or two things I didn't adore but that overall these are clean, wholesome, and fun. These ones are set in Bogota, Colombia and are so filled with fun culture details. 

Mango, Abuela, and Me (secular picture book)... when abuela comes to live with the family, everything changes! Abuela only speaks Spanish so Bridges must be gapped and this story just shows such a beautiful example of love knowing no limits.

Marisol MacDonald Doesn't Match (secular picture book)... Marisol MacDonald is Scottish and Peruvian. This one is another fun look at bicultural families as we see marisol's mixing of her two cultures in such a fun way. This is also a really great look at the fact that each one of us is a unique individual and that being true to who we are is beautiful.

Sisters in Time: Rosa Takes a Chance (Christian middle grade)... this Christian historical fiction series is full of standalone books about different girls set in different time. I have not read all of them and have not approved of every one of them but I did read and love this one. Rosa takes a chance felt a lot like a mixture of Esperanza Rising and Echo from above as it sort of deals with both themes. This one is set during the Dust Bowl and is about a family trying to figure out how to handle that situation as well as an issue of segregation in schools.

Standing Together (Christian nonfiction)... this Christian nonfiction is a memoir about faith and how faith got this couple through the very trying time of Carlos losing his limbs after stepping on an IED and of Rosemarie's determination to be the wife he needed to get through that trying time. The couple is from Puerto Rico and we see bits and pieces of that shine through throughout this memoir. This is not specifically a culture-focused memoir but because their cultural heritage is so strong I felt like it still deserved a spot on this list. 

Sylvia & Aki (secular, middle grade)... This one, much like part of Echo, talks about a Mexican-American family working a Japanese family's farm during their time in a Japanese Internment Camp. This is a true story but it reads like a fiction novel. I really enjoyed this one.  

Tacos for Two (contemporary Christian romance)... this contemporary Christian romance tale is one I really enjoyed because of its fun You've Got Mail vibes. Our main heroine is biracial and is I believe half or one quarter Mexican. She owns a Tex-Mex food truck in Texas and we see a lot of Mexican food culture here. Plus, it's just a really fun read! 

The Three Little Tamales (secular picture book)... this fun picture book is essentially The Three Little Pigs but instead of pigs we are dealing with tamales. This one is set in Texas so we are looking at Tex Mex foodie culture and it's just a generally fun read since we love factured fairy tales. And tamales 😉

Waiting for the Biblioburro (secular picture book)... I really love books about mobile libraries in their various forms and adored this book set in Columbia. This is a fictionalized account of Luis Soriano and his biblio burro, a donkey he used to transport a small mobile library to rural areas. We read this book multiple times when we borrowed it from the library.

Christian fiction featuring 20-something main characters

Black... This sci-fi read is a great recommendation for men but female fans of sci-fi or dystopian fiction will enjoy it too. 

The Edge of Belonging... Homelessness, adoption, and family secrets! This one has a sweet, gentle feel to it. 

In Search of a Prince... A 25-year-old New Yorker learns that not only is she actually the princess of an African island, she's also required to find a husband, stat! 

Love and a Little White Lie... This is the story of a young woman who starts working at her aunt's church and falls for a worship leader... But there's one little problem: he doesn't know that she's an atheist. 

Moonlight School... This atmospheric historical fiction takes us to Appalachia where a program has just started for illiterate adults interested in learning to read & write.  

A Promise Engraved*... This Alamo timeslip has a great family history storyline centering around a mysterious ring. Fans of historical fiction and family ties will enjoy this gem by Liz Tolsma. 

Redemption... The first book in Karen Kingsbury's Baxter Family series is focused on an affair so took me a while to actually read. It's definitely not my favorite in the series but it was still engaging and worth it to get to the rest of them! 

Sunrise... An Alaskan pilot, the girl he left behind, and some pretty decent family drama + suspense! This was a fun one! 

Until Leaves Fall in Paris... This WWII fiction is about a ballerina running a bookstore in Paris, a collaborator automaker, and the lines between them. 

When Twilight Breaks... Another WWII novel (I love them!), an American journalist, a professor, and things heating up in Nazi Germany. 

* I received a free copy of A Promise Engaged in exchange for an honest review. 

Adult Christian Fiction with Teenage Main Characters

I have been a bookworm my whole life but I have not always read Christian books. I didn't really enjoy YA (young adult) novels as a teen so I read maybe ten of them during my teenage years, otherwise adult books.

I wish I hadn't read most of what I read back then but alas, I did. If I could go back, if love to recommend these adult novels to my teenage self! These are all clean Christian fiction novels featuring teenage main characters. 

The Alliance... I've talked about this Amish apocalyptic story, set immediately after an EMP, a few times. This one is edgier than most Christian fiction as there is violence (people in the outside world want to take out the Amish community or their resources) and non-graphic talk about a person who used to use and sell drugs. There's also non-graphic about people fearing someone may have been sexually assaulted. I found this story (and it's sequel, The Divide) quite compelling. This one is told from the perspective of a 19-year-old young woman in the Amish community (with lots of emphasis on her 15-year-old brother she's a guardian for) and the Englisher (non-Amish) young man who happens upon her community at the start of the EMP so it will be of interest to teen boys and girls alike. 

Dear Mr Knightley... My bet is that our main protagonist, Samantha, is about 19 years old, maybe 20. She's given a scholarship to a prestigious journalism program but the caveat is she must write progress letters to her anonymous benefactor, whom she calls Mr Knightley. She tells him everything and things get a little crazy! This is an epistolary novel, told all in letters, and it's a retelling of classic novel Daddy Long Legs. 

Even Now... This Karen Kingsbury novel is the exact kind of dramatic teen pregnancy cautionary tale I loved in middle school. In this one our heroine, who is around 17 or 18, has been raised by her grandparents. She discovers her mother's old journals, from she was a pregnant teen in the 80s, and uses the clues found there to search for her estranged parents. The sequel, Ever After, is about the daughter's relationship with her new boyfriend and something that will be a spoiler to the first one. I liked both.  

The Key to Everything... This one will also work well for teen boys. Set in the 1940s, out 15-year-old male protagonist sets off on a bike ride down the coast of Florida, both in remembrance of his recently deceased father who once took the same bike ride and in search of the girl he's fallen for. All the main characters in this one are very sweet and almost flawless. I like the sweet mother-son relationship. 

The Moonlight School... This one is set in 1911 Appalachia. Our primary protagonist is 20ish-year-old Lucy, sent to stay with her aunt Cora and help bring literacy to the hills of Appalachia. I also enjoyed the perspective of teenage Angie, who is sweet on a boy who's sweet on this young new teacher. Atmospheric and fun. 

The Nature of Small Birds... This book was really interesting, at least from a writer's perspective, because it's essentially a story about Mindy that's told in alternating timelines and from her family's perspectives... But we never actually hear from Mindy herself! The 1988 storyline is from Mindy's sister during their teenage years. Mindy was adopted from Saigon, Vietnam in the 1975 Babylift. As an adult she's going back to meet her birth mother and it brings lots of things to the surface.  

No Ocean Too Wide... This is a story about the McAllister children who are separated when their mother takes ill. This based-on-true-events book is set in the early 1900s and is about the children's attempt to reunite the family despite seemingly impossible circumstances. 

The Shunning... Katie is kind of a rebel Amish girl, always stretching a toe over the line and wishing for things she knows aren't suited for Amish women. She crosses the line and is subject to a shunning, but also unearths a family secret and goes to great lengths to track it down. I don't normally love Amish fiction or Beverly Lewis' writing style but I still liked this enough to finish the series! 

Whose Waves These Are... This timeslip, set in sleepy Maine, is one of my favorites. There's a contemporary anthropologist heroine unraveling the story of an old man's young adult past, which we get to see from his own perspective just after WWII. This is a novel about grief, unconventional families, forgiveness, courage... Love it so much! 

Also on my radar: Children of the Stars // The Choice // A Long Time Comin' // Set the Stars Alight // Stars of Alabama // Under the Magnolias // Under the Tulip Tree // When Stars Rain Down