This year I’ve decided to be more intentional with tracking my reading … which means I’ve started logging everything on Goodreads. I read seven books in February. Here’s the list in order of when I finished them and my quick thoughts on each one:
Anxious for Nothing (Young Readers Edition): Living Above Anxiety and Loneliness by Max Lucado. We did a series on anxiety with our middle school students this winter and they really resonated with it. I read this book based on a recommendation from Melissa as a resource for families with middle school age kids and younger. It’s definitely a great book for families to go through with their kids and very relevant for today’s mental health challenges common to young people.
A Princess of Landover (Magic Kingdom of Landover #6) by Terry Brooks. The final book in the Landover series … hopefully more will be coming. I really enjoyed this one, although I was surprised to see the focus of the story shifted from the King of Landover to his daughter; Ben Holiday was hardly in this book, but I liked seeing the world and cast of characters expand!
Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation by Christian Smith. I really appreciated the insights in this one. You can read my full review of it here.
Red Rising (Rid Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown. I read this one because my oldest son, Micah, wanted to be able to talk about it with me. It’s essentially Hunger Games in space, although he assures me that future volumes take the story in more unique directions. I enjoyed it, I’ll read the next one. Mostly I like having something to share with Micah.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. This one is highly reviewed and I was curious to see what I might learn about increasing my focus and work effectiveness. It definitely has some great pointers and I really like his insights on both how to be deeply focused and the limits to that focus. It’s worth checking out.
Disciplemaking with Girls by Katie Edwards. This book is so good! I loved all of Katie’s insights, her tips and advice. A lot of it is transferrable to boys as well. Definitely a must read for youth workers.
Animal Farm by George Orwell. Apparently I’m the only one that wasn’t assigned this one in high school. It’s jarring to see how much this classic, written to criticize Communist Russia, echoes what we see in American politics today. Whether you’ve read or not in the past, it’s definitely worth revisiting today.
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