Designs of My Life

February/March Books

So I know I said that every month I was going to post a list of the books I had read that month. (For those of you who don’t know, my goal for 2010 is to read 25 new books.) And I missed February. And I’m sorry. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t reading. Actually, the reason I didn’t post is because I only finished one book in the month of February…but at the end of the month, I was almost finished with 3 books that I was reading simultaneously. So from now on, I’m going to post my books on a somewhat-monthly basis, depending on if I’m in the middle of a bunch of stuff or not. So here goes.

Bible readings: Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1,2&3 John, Jude, Revelation, Matthew (twice)

Biblical subjects:

• Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts (3rd edition). Very cool reference tool. I’m not gonna put a full review on here, because I’ve already posted one elsewhere on the blog.
• From Vultures to Hummingbirds. By Mary Alice Wilhelm. I didn’t actually read this entire book during this time period. We were studying it in our ladies’ class at church. It was a pretty good book. It covered 6 attitude to eliminate (anger, hatred, jealousy, selfishness, hypocrisy, and worry) and 7 attitudes to cultivate (compassion, forgiveness, the servant spirit, contentment, gratitude, the submissive spirit, and love). It sparked a lot of good discussion. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about what some of the examples she gave. She would use a Bible character as an example of the attitude we were talking about, but she made a lot of inferences that weren’t necessarily in the text, and I was of the opinion that she was kinda stretching on some of them.
• 66 Love Letters. By Dr. Larry Crabb. Great book. It gave me a whole new perspective on holiness, although I didn’t agree with everything he said. Again, there is a more in depth review of that one elsewhere on the blog.

Fiction:

• The Associate. By John Grisham. He is one of my favorite authors. This book was good, although definitely not one of my favorites. It was like he was preparing you the whole time for the main plot to unfold, and then everything resolved and kinda ended before anything actually happened. So it was kinda weird.
• 19 Minutes. By Jodi Picoult. LOVED this book. It tells the story of a school shooting from several different perspectives: the shooter, the detective, the lawyers, the judge, the shooter’s mom, the childhood friend…very interesting. And it will definitely make you think. When you hear about a school shooting, you assume the kid came from a completely messed up background, when sometimes, the parents were trying hard and thought they were doing a decent job. 
• Twilight. By Stephanie Meyer. This one is a re-read. Expect 3 more re-reads coming soon. =) I read them all last year, and decided to go through them again. Yes, it is slowing me down towards reaching my ‘new book’ goal, but I don’t care. =)

Self-improvement books:

• Bringing Out the Best in People. I don’t remember the author of this one, but there is a full review somewhere else on the blog. Amazing book. Everyone should read it. Several times.

I think that’s it. That brings my total of new books up to 9 for 2010. =)