September Reads

 

GROWN-UP READS:

📖 Bible study: Slowly studying Ezekiel with my husband. What a wild journey! 

📖 Authentically, Izzy (Christian, fiction)... This was a cute You've Got Mail vibes rom-com written mostly as a modern-day epistolary novel (texts, emails, and messages on a dating website). I don't think I'll necessarily seek out the next two, since my library doesn't have them, but if I ever spot them in the wild I'll be happy. 

📖 Borders of the Heart (Christian, fiction)... I listened to this one because I saw it on a list of good Christian fiction for high school boys. It's about a man old enough to have been married and have a three-year-old child, and it contains a lot of violence performed by a cartel member, but I do think a young man would enjoy the action and rescue elements. Racism against undocumented Mexicans is depicted here which does include some racial slurs. 

📖 God So Close (Christian, nonfiction)... I enjoyed this book on the Holy Spirit and was inspired by it multiple times- just what you want out of a read like this! 

📖 The Lost Story of Via Belle (Christian, historical fiction, timeslip)... This was my church book club's pick for September and it got mixed reviews. Only four of us read this month's book. I loved it, as did another friend, but the other two were not fans. It took me a few chapters to get into our modern character's story but I was interested in the 1940s storyline right away. Definitely not squeaky clean and not one I'll be adding to my kids' high school shelves but I still enjoyed it. 

📖 A Rumored Fortune (Christian, historical fiction)... This was not my usual style but I did mostly enjoy it. I am interested in a few others by the author too so we shall see what I think of those! 

📖Start With the Heart (Christian, nonfiction, parenting)... I loved this author's book 8 Great Smarts for Homeschoolers and really love her heart for parenting. It came as no surprise at all to me that I loved this one too and can't recommend it enough, especially for someone who is having behavioral struggles with one of their children. My biggest takeaway was something I had already taken away from 8GS though, which is that it is just so important to love, support, and respect our children for exactly who God designed them to be (not who we parents maybe might think they ought to be, for example!) and that COMMUNICATION IS KING!!!

📖You're the One That I Want (Christian, fiction)... This was book six in the series and it felt so different from the others! To me, anyway. I really enjoyed it though and I'm looking forward to the final book, the Christmas book! I do plan to then read the other Deep Haven books but I don't expect them to contain much if any mentions of the Christiansen family. I guess we'll see! 

YA & MIDDLE GRADE READS 

📖 The Disappearing Seat (Christian, middle grade, fiction, book 2 in series)... Five stars, absolutely loving this series! I've got it in seventh grade and can't wait for one of my girls in particular to read this one. 

📖 Dragons of Starlight #1: Starlighter (Christian, YA, fantasy fiction)... More violence/gore than I want to see but overall fine. 

📖 The Elite Seat (Christian, middle grade, fiction, book 3 in series)... I really liked this third book, though admittedly slightly less than the first two. But I ADORED the first two so it's still high praise and I'm excited to try out the fourth! 

📖 Freedom Seekers #2 Race for Freedom (Christian, middle grade, historical fiction, TGTB book list)... I liked this one fine, will try book 3. 

📖 Hiding Edith (secular, fictionalized biography, TGTB book list)... I think this is my 5th Kathy Kacer book and I've really liked all of them. She's great at writing a powerful WWII story for kids that's still full of hope and not just darkness. 

📖 Lines of Courage (secular, middle grade, historical fiction)... I really enjoyed this WWI novel and can't wait to hear my 8th grader's thoughts! I think she's our favorite middle grade historical fiction author. 

📖 The Lost Puppy (secular, chapter book, fiction)... These books mostly feel the same but they've been a hit for us in the 2nd/3rd grade shelf. 

📖 Mark of the Thief (secular, historical fiction, fantasy)... There was more violence and injury description in this book than I like but my oldest is excited about it and I'm going to go ahead and let him try it. We can't get book two from our library so we'll see if he likes it enough to add it to our used book watch-for list or not. 

📖 The Messengers (Greystone Secrets #3) (secular, middle grade, fiction)... I thought this was a great end to a great series. 

📖Son of Charlemagne (secular, historical fiction, TGTB Book List)... This is not my personal preferred time period but I was pleasantly surprised anyway. I shouldn't have been, though. It's on basically every list of good homeschool reads. =]

📖 Spying on Spies (secular, middle grade, nonfiction, history)... This was a great nonfiction about a famous female code breaker of WWII which I happily added to our 8th grade book list. 

📖 Zoey and Sassafras #4 and #5: The Pod and the Bog (secular, chapter book, fiction, TGTB book list)... This is just a cute, playful series. Random science facts do show up. We did add these to our 3rd grade shelf. 

📚 PICTURE BOOKS WE LOVED: Amazing Grace // Holy Holy Holy // If You Give a Pig a Pancake // 

Favorite read this month: Probably the two Elita Brown books I read! I can't wait for book 4!