books books books books :)

i like to read. inspired by one of my sister's recent posts i decided to do a little sharing about what has been on my nightstand (or my couch, my desk, my kitchen table, the floor, Carter's bedroom, and even, um, in the bathroom... you get the picture - we read anywhere we can) so far this year.

i finally read through The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (the top book on the stack - tiny and hard to see) which i have wanted to do for a long time. it was very encouraging and simple, more so than i expected.

The Stones is a novel on the life of David from the Bible. i love fiction based on biblical characters and stories. to be able to get a glimpse of what life was like in those times with a little more detail than you get from reading about in in the bible really stirs my imagination. this was a long read and it took a bit of getting into but i enjoyed it and now find that i remember the names, places, and events of David's lifetime much more than i ever did before.

Rain Song is another novel about a girl finding out about her past so she can move into her future. it was kind of average, i'd say. not too much to report :)

one of my favorite authors of all time is Madeleine L'Engle and i have slowly been collecting and rereading some of her books. Camilla was one of our (my sister's and my) favorites as teenagers. sometimes books you loved as a child or teenager are just not so good when you go back to them as an adult but this one was still great :) it's thoughtful, sometimes sad, full of first loves and growing pains.

the other L'Engle book i've read lately is Certain Women, which again reflects on the life of David from the Bible but from a modern perspective. the biblical David story is retold in parallel events in the life of a modern day family. i love this book and had read it before but it was worth rereading. there is kind of a theme developing, i know. i am really interested in the life of David these days.

When the Father Holds You Close is a devotional that i'd had for years and never read. i know lots of you probably have some of those... well, i finally read it and i actually read the whole thing! quite the accomplishment for me even though i do read a lot. i tend to want to jump around in devotional type books and rarely finish one all at once. but this time i stuck to it, and i found it to be very fitting to the stage of life i am in right now. it focused quite a bit on the psalms which is i think where my current interest in the life of David started. the verse i recall the most from my reading is "Satisfy us in the morning with your love..." which is in a psalm somewhere (90 maybe?) and is probably what i need to hear/say every day.

my sister and my mom have conspired to get me reading Maeve Binchy, and now that i have i can't stop. :) Tara Road is the second book i've read by her and i have to tell you that i am good for nothing else once i start one of her books. they are all so long, too, which is the other problem. this particular one took me about five days to read and i probably read every spare second i had. what fun :) i'm actually now just starting Scarlet Feather which isn't in my next picture because i just got it from the library. yay library :)

well, Carter and i do read together a lot and i haven't included any of the books that we read here (maybe another day). but i do love Winnie the Pooh and so i have been trying to pique Carter's interest by reading to him from The House at Pooh Corner. he will sit and listen to it if he can play with the bookmark ribbon but this eventually leads to attempts at grabbing the pages which would probably quickly lead to a fun ripping fest, so we don't always get too far. well, i'm enjoying the reading even if he's not quite there yet :)

and finally, my lifeline in times of tiredness, The Sleepeasy Solution. this was recommended to me by a friend and i have found most of their suggestions regarding sleep and babies to be right on. Carter usually sleeps really well but i think this is partly because we have followed their guidelines from the start.


and just a little look ahead :) i want to try doing some more indepth bible reading/study using Discover the Bible for Yourself. i'm also REALLY EXCITED to read the Legacies of the Ancient River trilogy by Angela Hunt (another one of my favorite writers) and i have been saving the first two until the third one comes out, which will be in April sometime. these books were out of print and now have been reprinted so i am very very happy because i had never read them before and now i get to! they loosely follow the biblical story of Joseph. then there is A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 which i have decided is going to be the next book in my life of David exploration. and lastly some Francine Rivers. i really enjoyed Lineage of Grace which tells the stories of five bible women, and so the parallel with bible men in Sons of Encouragement will hopefully be as good. i have to admit that i started reading the first one about Aaron a while ago and didn't really like it but i am going to give it another try - it's Francine Rivers, so i really can't go wrong. and of course these selections will be interrupted here and there by various library finds which will probably include more Maeve Binchy and maybe some Agatha Christie :)

aah :) a sigh of contentment. now it's your turn to tell me what wonderful things you've been reading! there's always room for one more book on the stack :)