kayla aimee: only slightly neurotic

52 Reads : The Help & What Happened To Goodbye

The Help - I had no interest in reading this book but so many people recommended it to me that I caved to peer pressure. I don't normally recommend that. It almost never ends well, like that time in junior high I...wait, I don't think my parents know about that ;) Let's just focus on the book review: The Help is now on my list of must-read books to recommend to others. I found it incredibly engaging. There was just enough hunor in it to balance out the seriousness of the subject matter. There was also some humor, but it's hunor that I'm really fond of. Also, I'm trying to be more diligent about my use of spell check, y'all.

I keep seeing commercials for the movie (that I totally want to see now, who wants to have a girls night movie date?) and the movie looks like it's a comedy. Except...I would never classify this book as a comedy. I hope it's not one of those books-turned-movies that totally strays from the story a la My Sister's Keeper. I'm still not over that ending. Who's with me on that?

Books like this are the reason I set this goal for myself this year, because I don't want the busyness of life to numb my love of reading. And this one reminds me why I'm glad the library is just around the corner from our house. That's right. I rock a library card. Holla!

What Happened To Goodbye - You'll find this one shelved in the young adult section, a good and easy beach read. I'd highly recommend it to the tween or teen in your life. It's a great true-to-life coming of age story that doesn't involve sparkly vampires or werewolves, which is a nice change of pace in that genre.

I reviewed this one for BlogHer's book club so you can read my full review (and join us!) here

*Funny: BlogHer sets our book review titles for us and sometimes their choices for my reviews make me laugh. Like this one.

*disclosure: this post contains my Amazon affiliate link, which means if you buy these books using it I will make a few cents to put in my piggy bank for another book ♥ ♥ ♥

52 Reads : Searching For God Knows What

Searching For God Knows What - so technically I read this book back in 2005 but I was moving a bookshelf to the basement and pulled this one off to read again last week. So I'm putting it on the list because the other book I read was for BlogHer and my review isn't live yet.

This is hands down the best book I've ever read. It's the book that completely shifted my perspective from my youth upbringing in a strict southern baptist church. Donald Miller is an excellent storyteller and his breakdown of the mystery of God and life and love is beautifully simplistic. It answered questions and redefined the parameters of my faith. It shifted my heart from a rigid hold on doctrine to a relational worldview and that, I think, gave me the freedom to love. This is one of my favorite quotes from the book.

…life is complex, and the idea that you can break it down or fix it in a few steps is rather silly. The truth is, there are a million steps, and we don’t even know what the steps are, and what’s worse, at any given moment we may not be willing or even able to take them; and still worse they are different for you and me and they are always changing.

Some would say formulas are how we interact with God, that going through motions and jumping through hoops are how a person acts out his spirituality. This method of interaction, however, seems odd to me, because if I want to hang out with my friend Tuck, I don’t stomp my foot three times, turn around, and say his name over and over like a mantra, lighting candles and getting myself into a certain mood. I just call him.

Recommend me some books to add to my list! I'm in the mood for some serious chick lit so I can lay on the front porch with Scarlette and pretend we're at the beach.

*disclosure: this post contains my Amazon affiliate link, which means if you buy this book using it I will make a few cents to buy myself a breakfast burrito. 

52 Reads | Week One

My goal was to read ONE book each week. But for the past ten days my cable, internet and phone have been on the fritz. Which means I've had lots of time to read when I'd normally be doing really important things, like surfing Pinterest or streaming the Casey Anthony trial or googling "whatever happened to that girl in The Secret World Of Alex Mack?*" I make a difference in the world. Anyhow, that is the story of why there are three books this week. I'm also an overacheiver.

So here are my reviews for this week's reads.

The Swan House - This was a free e-book for the Kindle. I thought it was Amish fiction but turns out, it was about the civil rights movement. I do not believe I read that description accurately. I love historical fiction and since this was based in Atlanta there were a lot of landmarks and local history that were familiar to me, which made the book more enjoyable. I liked the story, the slight bit of mystery and felt really invested in the characters. It's Christian novel and so it's a bit heavy on the church talk, which was actually done well except that the author is a bit too verbose each time they come to that subject. Did I just call another writer verbose? Yes, yes I did. Pot, meet kettle.

A Journey To The Well - Another free kindle e-book. I loved this book. I also love free things. I am a big fan of Liz Curtis Higgs, who did not write this book. But she writes books where she takes biblical stories and writes a fictional account of what the whole story may have been based on the culture at the time. That is what this book is like and I thought it was great. The ending was a bit rushed but for a freebie, this was a good read with a nice glass of wine. Is that awkward for me to say when the topic is the woman at the well?

A Jane Austen Experience - I reviewed this book for the BlogHer book club so you can read my review of it here. If you are a Jane Austen fan, you'll probably enjoy this as much as I did which was surprising because I expected to dislike it. I love the BlogHer book club because the authors pop in and discuss the books with us, which makes me feel as though my review totally matters.

 

*She totally is on Hawaii 5-0, apparently.Thank you IMDB.com

** The first two e-books listed are currently free on Amazon as of this posting, but their list of free e-books changes frequently so don't hate me if they aren't free anymore.