The Rest of My 2010 Reading List and the Start of 2011's

My mom and dad keep journals of all the books they read and what they thought about each. It's a great way to actually remember books. This year, I'm going to try to blog about the books I read as I finish them just as my own way of journaling. The fun thing about doing it on a blog is that others are always welcome to comment and share their thoughts!

For the time being, I'm going to try to remember the rest of the books I read last year.  I will probably forget a few!

Adopted for Life by Russell Moore

Zane and I both read this book towards the end of the summer.  It's a fabulous book on adoption! Moore's argument is that adoption should be a priority for Christians and for the Church because we know what it's like to be adopted and have the perfect example of an adoptive family as the sons and daughters of God. He starts the book with the theological argument and then gets into the more practical issues. I highly recommend this book for everyone. If nothing else, it will help you contemplate your own amazing adoption!

Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian

This is another book that both Zane and I read. To be honest, Zane picked it out first and I stole it from him and finished it while he was at work! Again, we loved this book and were very challenged by it. For awhile, we had both been getting frustrated with what we saw as Christians living just like non-Christians. I don't mean in regards to drinking or sex or anything like that, but in how our lives are oriented. So many of us are living for the "American Dream" just like everyone else, choosing jobs for money, making life decisions based on our own comfort and wants first and so on. We attend church and are in small groups and read our Bibles and pray and all, but still are somehow just living and thinking like people who don't know God or claim to follow Him. And we usually don't even realize it. Tchividjian speaks directly to that and paints a picture of what life should look like instead. Zane and I now have a lifetime ahead of us to try to change the way we live, to orient ourselves around Jesus and his priorities. I'm sure we'll miss it many times and get side-tracked but hopefully we will continue to strive for this goal. And we will definitely be re-reading this book along the way.

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

I actually just heard someone on the radio talking about this book and am excited that more people may hear about it. Again, it's a life-changing book. My mother-in-law recommended it to me and I started reading it when I was at her place in October. It's the true story of a homeless man and a wealthy art dealer and his wife and how God brought their lives together and changed them both forever. It's a living example of how God wants us to live and love others, especially the marginalized. I truly can't recommend it enough. And once again, it raises a high bar for things I need to change and apply to my life!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron

On a lighter note, another book that I read last year was Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It's a great resource for when your baby is ready to start solid foods. There's a ton of nutritional information and recipes in the book plus a great go-to chart for what different foods your baby can eat at each age. My one word of caution is if you read this, don't freak out that you are doing everything wrong and something is wrong with you if you can't feed your child all organic food or if he/she hates "super porridge."

What to Expect the First Year

This has been a great reference book over the past year. I've kept it by the bed and flipped through it over time. I'm not sure if I'll but the next one in the series - do any of you recommend it?





2011 Books

I'm hoping to read a book a month or so this year and have a pretty good list started. I feel like I really need to take my reading of parenting books into high gear, especially discipline related books and books on handling the toddler years. I also want to keep up reading Christian books because life is more that just babies! Maybe I'll have time for some fiction too - if you have any recommendations, that part of my reading list is definitely lacking!

So far, I'm off to a pretty good start and have finished two books this month:

Generous Justice by Timothy Keller

On the way to church this morning, I actually mentioned to Zane that we need to stop reading such life-changing books. Tim Keller's new book, that Zane read back in Nov/Dec and I just finished, is yet another challenging but good read.

On Becoming Baby Wise: Book II by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam

I bought this book a while ago and just this past week actually read through all of it. I'm kind of wishing I had read it sooner. It builds off of book one which I wrote about here. It deals with two issues we've been dealing with lately with Grace: playing by herself and table manners. It probably would have been easier to have been more intentional with some of those lessons earlier on but it's still not too late. Hopefully, over the next few months, Grace will develop better mealtime manners and learn to play by herself at set times.

That's all for now...but I will just say that I am in the midst of a INCREDIBLE book on prayer and look forward to telling you all about it soon!