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You will see as you scroll down that I don't lean into many "beach reads." The majority of my attention is made up of books that focus on how to respond to life challenges from a Christian perspective. I hope these reports will be of help to those who are intrigued by the titles.
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Recently we were in another city where my husband needed to occupy himself while I met with some people. He found lunch at Chik-fil-a and then poked around Barnes and Noble.
Finding this book written by "The Fonz" of the 1970s-era "Happy Days" sit com, he made the purchase, read it, and now today I have completed reading it, too.
Who didn't like Arthur Fonzarelli, also known as "The Fonz" on Happy Days? He enjoyed that fame for 6 seasons and now, these decades later, he is still known that way.
Which was a problem -- he was type cast. Nobody could envision him in other dramatic parts for the years that followed. That fact, coupled with a less-than-the-best childhood home life and his dyslexia, resulted in a lot of insecurity much of his life.
The book talks about his insecurities as he waits for the phone to ring from his agents, hoping for acting parts that will fulfill him. Finally, in his 70s, a good part comes along and he even wins an Emmy for it.
As a man born into a Jewish home to parents who cleverly and successfully escaped Germany in a most dangerous time, his story is interesting. One can't help but feel affection for him as he speaks his heart with all honesty.
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Not a very long book with 196 pages, Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church Falls, has written to Christ-followers who are feeling disheartened with the increasing evil in today's world. He takes the reader through the New Testament book of Ephesians to remind us of the benefits we have as Christians and then to instruct how we are to face the problems confronting us. A couple of the chapter titles really describe the book well:
How to Dress for Spiritual Success
Order in the House
Preparing for War
One of his statements that grabbed and held my attention was this one in the chapter titled, "Soaring with Eagles When You're Surrounded by Turkeys" (not meaning any disrespect here; we all have at one time or another had to struggle with difficult people):
"God's will is to make us like Christ,
and that sometimes includes hard things."
This was a good book that both encouraged and instructed me with truth I need to mature in both life and faith.
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This book is the true story of Gary Beikirch, a Green Beret Medic and Medal of Honor Recipient from the Vietnam War. During that same time, my Gary was serving in the Air Force military police in both Japan and Thailand.
I was in junior high and high school while these men's lives were in daily danger. For the most part I was oblivious to what was happening on the other side of the world. Teen magazines, orthodontia, acne, teasing my hair, and discovering boys made up much of my world.
The book validated much of what my husband had already heard, seen, or experienced; while my reading of its pages humbled me greatly. Even as an adult in my seventies, I matured with the reading of every chapter.
After he got back to the States, this man struggled greatly with PTSD, lived alone in a cave while a student in a Bible college, and then entered Christian ministry with his wife.
I read this book more quickly than usual for me because it was so engrossing and I was eager to see how it would end.
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Biographies tend to hold my interest longer than fiction, so that's the aisle I choose when visiting our public library. Some years ago we took a tour through the George W. Bush Presidential Library, which faces the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The library and museum were fascinating, so when I recently saw this book on the library shelf, I decided its pages could fill in more details about this past president and his family.
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Sometimes the events of life set us back so far that we struggle to remember who we are, where we are, and what we are supposed to be doing. Feelings go berserk and we feel at a complete loss what to do about it.
I was browsing in Barnes and Noble when this book caught my eye. I thumbed through it and put it down. But after having moved away from it, I went back, read the Table of Contents again, and decided this might be something I needed to study.
Quoting the back cover, "When our circumstances unravel, how do we hold onto truth, to hope, to who we're meant to be?"
Hardships, as I have learned in recent years, can knock a person off balance, throwing us into odd directions away from what had only a short time before seemed so firm and secure.
Storms threatened our sense of peace. This author "gives language to the voices that dwell in the deepest chambers of our wounded souls." This book helped to steady my sense of who I am as a Christian, shed insights into what has happened to me, and articulated a more peaceful acceptance of who I am in the aftermath of some troubling circumstances and relationships.
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This book, from my husband's library shelves, is not a typical read for me. However, the time came when I wanted a better understanding of what goes on in war. Many veterans don't want to talk specifically about the grizzly aspects of their past, and understandably so.
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She is a lovely woman in a demanding line of work who holds to her Christian values very well. I was interested to see what she had to say.
Among my many scribbled margin notes is this on page 69: "Ruth (like Abraham) became a powerful symbol of the riches that await those who choose to step out in faith and who leave behind the comfortable in favor of the strange and spiritually challenging."
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This is one of two books authored by Shannon Bream that my husband gifted to me for my birthday in 2023. In its pages the reader sees examples of the positive and negative aspects of love stories in not only romances but also friendships and families.
It's good to see real life illustrated in scripture, where dysfunction is often encountered but God speaks to us through those relationships.
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This is second of two books authored by Shannon Bream that my husband gifted to me for my birthday in 2023. Per my habit, I underline and make margin notes in nearly every book that belongs to me. On page 18 there is this point that mentors me when relationships get rocky: "...rest secure in the knowledge that God has the situation firmly in His hands."
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One of my closest book "friends" is this dog-eared copy of Roget's Thesaurus. In my efforts to be a more interesting writer, this book has helped me countless times to choose verbiage that is perhaps more accurate and certainly more entertaining than what I come up with purely on my own.
This version, purchased in about 1985, has surely been updated many many times since then, but any good bookstore carries them.
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I picked up this book by Chip and Joanna Gaines at the lending library here in our retirement community. I like to read biographies so maybe I can learn from the successes and mistakes of others. It's a quick read with input from both Chip and Joanna, along with some family photographs. They are more daring (risk-takers) than me, but the reading was enjoyable.
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After my first husband's passing, I came across this book at Barnes and Noble. I knew immediately that I should read it, but I didn't want to. I made the purchase but then was a little slow in getting to the reading of it. It helped me and I'm glad for the wisdom (and courage) it gave to me.
"Courage is not the absence of fear;
it is moving forward in the presence of fear.
Courageous people do
what they believe in their hearts they should do,
no matter how they feel or
what kinds of doubts and
fearful thoughts fill their minds."
~ Joyce Meyer
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After completing this book, I have continued to refer to its helpful pages to reaffirm the most significant points. Over the course of twelve chapters, this book has validated things I already knew but more than that, it threw light on some scripture I have, until now, been applying incorrectly.
Per my usual habit, helpful sentences and phrases have been hi-lited and underlined. Scribbled notes have been added to the margins sometimes with stars and arrows and other indications to draw the eye quickly to messages most applicable to me.
The most help this book has done for me is to make alterations to some beliefs that have held me captive in a harsh mindset with no hope of relief. My misunderstandings have been addressed -- and what a relief to realize I'm not the only one who has suffered similar opinions.
Put another way, in this life not all problems, circumstances, and arguments get solved. As Jesus Christ said, "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33) This book gave examples of godly people in both the Old and New Testaments who could not reach a place of agreement and how they dealt with it.
Another Christian author has taught that we cannot always get resolution, but we may be able to get reconciliation. Even with that said, sometimes we have to just accept there will be no resolution and then determine what we need to do to cope with peace and civility.
The book is about boundaries. I'll let its pages explain what that is about. But one thing I realized is that while I must have boundaries for my own sanity and self-preservation, I must also respect the boundaries others have set up, even if I disagree.
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I was entranced with this book on the life of Corrie ten Boom. The movie of her story came out in the mid 1970's but I only recently read the book. It was hard to put down and full of lessons on good character in the worst of times. I sum it up this way:
ALL OF MY PROBLEMS ARE QUITE SMALL
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Our world is unsettled, angry, dangerous. We see behavior illustrating that on the news all the time as well as up close. This past week I completed a self-guided study of this book:
Written on a very practical level, the chapters were titled:
How to Be Wise in Relationships
Who's Pushing Your Buttons?
How to Resolve Conflict
Breaking Free From Abuse
Escaping the People-Pleaser Trap
Keeping the Crazy-Makers From Making You Crazy
Students should study this stuff in school and adults should review it occasionally. I gained a much better understanding of what is going on. My biggest take-aways can be summed up like this:
1) Hurt people hurt people.
2) Our behavior is the result from hurt we've experienced.
3) Hurt people need massive doses of kindness.
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This book is special to me because the author is one of my neighbors! Mary Ellen writes a column in a monthly local magazine and now has her first novel in print.
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My copy of this very old book, which belonged to my father, was in its 65th printing, so this is a classic. All of my life I admired how my father could handle himself well with people, both one-on-one and as a public speaker. Some of Daddy's instruction formed me into who I am today, and some of it did not. Now in my latter years, I see how I could have served myself better with putting more of his counsel into practice.
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| Susan Branch cookbooks link This is the first of many that I have |
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I enjoy self-help books although I am careful to avoid anything that smacks of new-age or contrary to biblical teachings. When life gets kinda crazy, sometimes I need to be reminded of basic actions (even common sense) I can take to unwind.
This book has practical suggestions the reader can implement as circumstances require.
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Discerning the Voice of God, How to Recognize When God is Speaking is both informative and very practical. A quote that really struck a chord with me was this: "God's goal in your life is to move you from a mental knowledge of Him to an experiential one." Serious things lead me to wonder just what it is He wants me to know about Himself.
