In 2022, I’m setting monthly reading goals. You can see the 9 books I picked to read in March here. Here are 5 books I finished recently…
Note: You can follow along with the books I finish this year and my star ratings over on GoodReads. Also, books are rated on a 1-5 star scale. I basically won’t finish a book if it’s one star (not worth my time!) and I’ll rarely give a book a 5-star rating unless it was just absolutely amazing or life-changing.
Win the Day: 7 Daily Habits to Help You Stress Less & Accomplish More
I have mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, I felt it was packed with a lot of practical ideas and actionable tips. On the other hand, I feel like books on productivity like this aren’t the best for someone with my personality to read because it makes you feel like you need to be pushing harder and doing more.
There are some people who need the extra motivation to get up and get things done, but I think it’s important we balance that desire to do with a healthy understanding that doing isn’t all that matters. Sometimes, sitting and being with someone or slowing down and doing less so that we can invest in people… these things can be what matters most.
So while I took some inspiration away from the book, I wish there had been more of a balance in it of prioritizing those things that will matter in Eternity and that rest is highly beneficial, too.
Verdict: 3 stars
The Woman They Could Not Silence
I am not 100% sure what I think of this book, either. I found parts of it maddening… like, I wanted to shake the woman and tell her to stand up and find a way to escape!! But then I also was reminded of how much our culture has changed and how blessed we are that women nowadays have a voice and a vote.
This book was written from one perspective only and I would have loved to have heard more from the other side (even if I very much disagreed with them!) Why did they do what they did? Why did her husband feel so adamantly that he was right? Was he a narcissistic? I had so many unanswered questions.
In addition, I felt like the book drug on in many parts and kind of had to be slogged through. I noticed there were a number of reviews online that felt like the writing of this book wasn’t as tight as The Radium Girls (I’ve not read that book yet; it’s on my stack!)
Have you read this book? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Verdict: 3 stars
Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better
This is my first 5-star read of 2022! I’m giving it that rating because I have not been able to stop recommending it, thinking about it, or talking about it. That is the mark of a 5-star read in my opinion.
In a society where it feels like we are wired to find offense everywhere we look, what would it be like to choose to not be offended? (We do have a choice, you know?)
Some of you may be thinking, “But how do I even do that? You don’t know what this person has done or said (or not done or not said).” I don’t, but I do know this: We get to choose how we respond. We can’t choose how other people treat us or respond to us or what they say to us or do to us, but we can choose our response.
This doesn’t mean that we let people walk all over us or that we don’t set boundaries, but it does mean that we can choose to either be a victim or a victor. We can choose to either be offended and hurt and upset, or we can acknowledge our feelings, grieve our loss, and choose to forgive.
I highly recommend that every Christian read this book! Jesse and I did an entire podcast episode centered on it because I found it so helpful!
Everyone is Beautiful
I almost didn’t finish this audiobook because it felt so fluffy. But I ended up sticking with it and there were a few thought-provoking parts (plus some laugh-out-loud funny parts!)
While there was a lot of fluff and this novel is by no means written from a Christian perspective, I did appreciate how it drove home the fact that you never know someone’s story or what they have walked through and also the importance of putting your marriage above your kids — even in really full seasons.
Verdict: 2 stars
Also I finished reading The Jesus Storybook Bible aloud to Kierstyn. This is our favorite Bible Story book and I highly recommend it!