20 Books in 2014

I kind of fizzled out at the end of December.  We became busier than expected and it was hard to find time to get out the laptop.  We had a great Christmas with lots of family time and good food.  It warmed my heart to see the boys start to understand the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  They woke up singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and asked more questions about the nativity and how it fit into Christmas.  All in all a great end to 2014!

One of the main goals I had for 2014 was to read more.

I don't have many hobbies.  I'm not a musician or an athlete.  It takes a lot to motivate me to work out.  I'm the world's worst cutter so things like scrap booking and sewing are mostly a no-go.  I enjoy cooking but in this season any excess dishes overwhelm me.   The one thing I do love is reading.  However, over the last five years my reading has been sparse.  The things I did read were mostly for work or rereading old favorites like Harry Potter. Between kids that don't sleep and putting the majority of my non-parenting time into campus ministry,  I didn't have a lot left over.

 I wanted 2014 to be different so I downloaded the Goodreads app on my phone and set a goal of 20 books.   I decided no rereads, not because I don't love to reread all my favorites, but I wanted to challenge myself to find some new material.  I also decided to limit the number of fiction books, they couldn't comprise more than half.  I love fiction but I knew it would be good to read in some other categories.

And....I did it!  I finished book 20 last night around 9:30pm, whew!

It was a lot of fun to read again.  I enjoyed almost every book I chose and it stretched me to make time for something for myself.  Instead of turning into a zombie on the couch every night I would pick up a book for 20 minutes.  Instead of scrolling facebook every time Cora needed to eat I would try and balance a book on the boppy too.

Here is a picture of most of my books, a few were borrowed our purchased on my kindle app.
My List:
Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker
Prodigal God by Tim Keller
Love Does by Bob Goff
All is Grace by Brennan Manning
Beyond Ordinary by Justin Davis
Bittersweet and Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist
Say Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine
The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson
The Next Story by Tim Challies
Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor
Jesus Prom by Jon Weece
Whispers of Hope and Say Goodbye to Insecurity by Beth Moore

Not Pictured:
Mr Penumbra's 24- Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Emotionally, Healthy, Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

If I did a review in this post of every book no one would read this.  I would love to give reviews to anyone interested.

My Top 5 (I'm not sure if I could put this in a ranking order):
1. Andrew Peterson - The Warden and The Wolf King.  I love everything written or recorded by Andrew Peterson.
2. Tim Keller - Prodigal God.  So, so good.  Keller looks at all the characters in the parable of the Prodigal Son for Luke 15.
3. Betty Smith - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  Great period piece and lots of character development.
4. Jen Hatmaker - Interrupted  and Jon Weece - Jesus Prom.  These tie for best book that helped me be a better campus minister.  Both inspired me to look seriously at my discipleship of others and my personal walk with Jesus.
5. Shauna Niequist - Bread and Wine.  I loved her views on doing life with others.  I want that more and more in my life.   I pray my next house has a dining room.

Right behind these would be Jon Green's, A Fault in Our Stars.  A good but hard book.  Cancer books are hard reads for our family.    O,  and Beth Moore's, Say Goodbye to Insecurity.  That book is still seriously kicking my butt and I just finished it last week so I am still in processing mode.

There it is.  I can't wait to start on my list for 2015, goal is 22 books.  Let me know what is on your list!