My Recent Readings | Thoughts and Recommendations

Sally Clarkson, Sarah Clarkson

Parenting & Family – Christian

How to make home your family’s favorite place to be . . . all year long.
Does your home sometimes feel like just a place to eat, sleep, and change clothes on the way to the next activity? Do you long for “home” to mean more than a place where you stash your stuff? Wouldn’t you love it to become a haven of warmth, rest, and joy . . . the one place where you and your family can’t wait to be?

There is good news waiting for you in the pages of The Lifegiving Home. Every day of your family’s life can be as special and important to you as it already is to God. In this unique book designed to help your family enjoy and celebrate every month of the year together, you’ll discover the secrets of a life-giving home from a mother who created one and her daughter who was raised in it: popular authors Sally and Sarah Clarkson. Together they offer a rich treasure of wise advice, spiritual principles, and practical suggestions. You’ll embark on a new path to creating special memories for your children; establishing home-building and God-centered traditions; and cultivating an environment in which your family will flourish. (Don’t miss the companion piece, The Lifegiving Home Experience.)

MY REVIEW:

I can not recommend this book enough! While full of deep truths and challenges, this is still an easy enough read for busy mommas to find time for. I left this book feeling a renewed energy towards creating a home that breathes life into my young family. The tasks of a momma, wife, and homemaker are often mundane, so falling into a trap of feeling unimportant is easy to do.

Sally and Sarah Clarkson do an excellent job of reminding the reader why the home is so very important in the eyes of eternity, presenting personal examples from their own experiences, and continually pointing back to Jesus.

Jane Langton

Kids Fiction

If there’s one thing Georgie Hall has always been, it’s determined.

So when her stepcousins Eleanor and Eddy tell her that she can’t fly, Georgie doesn’t get discouraged — she just tries harder She feels a peculiar lightness when she leaps from the top of the staircase, and is even more certain of her seemingly impossible ability when she jumps from the porch and soars to the rooftop before landing safely on the ground. And now that a mysterious Canada goose is visiting Georgie’s window on a nightly basis, the Hall family begins to wonder just what Georgie is capable of….

MY REVIEW:

I was a bit disappointed in this one, ya’ll. While the friendship between the goose and Georgie is sweet, the rest of this book was a bit of a let down for me.

Most of the characters remained very flat throughout the whole story. The events progressed slowly and I continued to wait for something significant to happen, but it took quite awhile. The entire story felt like a basic retelling of similar events happening over and over again.

Another issue I had with this story is the complete lack of seriousness involved with particular events. For example, at one point Georgie is hurt by a gunshot wound in the arm. While she does receive medical care, there is no mention as to her parents investigating who shot at her or why they would do such a thing. Another creature is shot and killed right by their front porch in the middle of the night…again, no indication of concern is given about the safety of the family as a whole or its individual members.

All in all, this book gave me an odd feeling the entire time of reading it and its conclusion only solidified that odd sense.

Abbie Halberstadt

Motherhood & Parenting – Christian

Mama of ten Abbie Halberstadt helps women humbly and gracefully rise to the high calling of motherhood without settling for mediocrity or losing their minds in the process. 

Motherhood is a challenge. Unfortunately, our worldly culture offers moms little in the way of real help. Mamas only connect to celebrate surviving another day and to share in their misery rather than rejoice in what God has done and to build each other up in hard times. There has a be a better way, a biblical way, for mamas to grow and thrive.                   

As a daughter of Christ, you have been called to be more than an average mama. Attaining excellence doesn’t have to be unsettling but it will take committed focus and a desire to parent well according to God’s grace and for His glory. 

M is for Mama offers advice, encouragement, and scripturally sound strategies seasoned with a little bit of humor to help you embrace the challenge of biblical motherhood and raise your children with love and wisdom.  

Mama, you are worthy of the awesome responsibility God has given you. Now it’s time to start believing you can live up to it.   

MY REVIEW:

I highly recommend this book to all mommas! Personally, I’ve grown tired of taking advice from many of the moms on social media. The ones who glorify the challenges of motherhood and almost wear them as a badge of honor. It’s not helpful, as a momma of two tiny boys, to be told that I can and should waller in my mess. This book does the exact opposite.

Rather than promoting the “hot mess mom mantra”, Abbie pushes her readers towards a higher standard based in Jesus and Scripture. I’d gladly read this one again and would even like to give it as a gift to my fellow mom friends!

Jason G. Duesing

Toddler & Kids – Christian

Children love playing in the dirt, studying the flowers, and marveling at the clouds. The Moon Speaks, a poetic board book for children, ages 0-4, shows that behind the creation kids love so much stands the God who loves them even more! God speaks to us through the mountains, revealing His strength. He speaks to us through the sun, telling of His glory. In fact, everywhere we look in creation, God speaks! 
 
A perfect bedtime book, the steady, soothing sounds of the text and gentle, realistic artwork provide a calming, worshipful experience for children right before they fall asleep. But The Moon Speaks is also a book for anytime, helping young readers understand that all of creation is telling us something: God is there, He made the world around us, and He wants us to know Him!

MY REVIEW:

I purchased this board book for Elliot’s second birthday and I cannot recommend it enough! I have. a few stipulations when it comes to the books I fill my kids shelves with: meaningful content and beautiful illustrations. This book contains both!

Based on Scripture, this read is a wonderful way to bring God’s truths to the forefront of little minds and hearts. I am so glad to find a calming, beautiful, Gospel-centered book for the betterment of my boys!

E.B. White

Kids Fiction

The delightful classic by E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, about overcoming obstacles and the joy of music. 

Like the rest of his family, Louis is a trumpeter swan. But unlike his four brothers and sisters, Louis can’t trumpet joyfully. In fact, he can’t even make a sound. And since he can’t trumpet his love, the beautiful swan Serena pays absolutely no attention to him.

Louis tries everything he can think of to win Serena’s affection—he even goes to school to learn to read and write. But nothing seems to work. Then his father steals him a real brass trumpet. Is a musical instrument the key to winning Louis his love?

MY REVIEW:

I have one word for this children’s classic: sweet. The illustrations, story, characters, underlining lessons…it’s all so very sweet.

I read a chapter at a time aloud to my two year old as he played at various times during the day. The chapters are short enough to only require 10 or 15 minutes of reading aloud, so this is usually within the short attention span of a toddler!

The story is simple but still entertaining. The characters are memorable and amusing. The lessons found within would make for great discussion for older kids!

I’ll definitely keep this one around for when my boys are old enough to read it on their own.