book review

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Grit and Grace Review

Reading has been something that has been very difficult for me lately, however when this book review came to me, I knew I needed the challenge.

I received this devotional for my honest review.

Grit and Grace

This book is a 90-day devotional geared towards mothers. I knew I was going to like this devotional after the first page. One of the authors went into a story about being late to church and the frazzled feeling when you take your kids anywhere. She is my people.

There are a couple things to note from this book that I really like:

  • The two authors are at different stages of motherhood. One has young kids (like myself) and one has older children and is able to provide perspective from the other side of being in the weeds of toddlerhood.
  • With that being said, it does seem that this book is geared more towards mothers who are in the younger kid stages. I don’t mind it, and I think there is still much to glean from it. However, many of the stories are from this time.
  • The book is separated into daily devotionals, and let me tell you they are easily digestible. First they are fairly short, so each day could be read in 5 minutes. For someone who falls asleep within a matter of a few pages of any book,  this is a must. I also loved that they included the full text of the scripture in each chapter as well as a short prayer. This easy access is great for me to connect with God and have a little guidance that gets me started with the word and prayer. I am all about some given structure in my chaos of days.

All that is great, however, what I loved most about it was how relatable it was. It is so easy to feel like you are alone and feel like you aren’t doing things right. Just this morning I mumbled under my breath that I do not have the patience to be a mom as both kids were crying at me for reasons that are still unknown. The stories that were shared were experiences that I have had. They shared thoughts that have gone through my head. They spoke insecurities that are deep in my soul. They are me. It is devotionals like these who talk about the mess and the realities of the imperfection that help me to connection with God. In these stories we can embrace grace through the love that is given, and I so appreciated the words that were spoken through this book.

I do not think this will be a book that I just read once. It might be one of those that I read yearly just to remind myself how wonderfully and fearfully we were made for motherhood. God made all this possible, even if sometimes it is a little messy.

He also provided us with a little Grit and Grace.

You can find the book here.

 

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The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race $75 Amazon Giveaway with Mike Mizrahi

Take a ride through 1895 Chattanooga as it’s turned upside down when a young woman has the audacity to ride a bicycle-in bloomers-in Mike H. Mizrahi’s new book, The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race! Anna Gaines, 19, struggles to conquer her insecurities after a horrible fall years ago from her beloved horse, Longstreet. On a visit to Brooklyn, she’s drawn to the new pastime of bicycling. But back at home, cycling is a scandalous sport for a proper lady. Anna has her eye on Peter Sawyer, president of the Cycling Club. As community outrage grows, an unexpected turn of events pits Anna against Peter in a race between the sexes.

This book receives a 2/5 from me. I liked the idea of the book, especially now with all that is going on with women’s rights. I thought it would be interesting to read about a woman’s right to do something so trivial in today’s time like riding a bike.

I liked bits and pieces of the book. Honestly, it was a bit chaotic for me. There were a lot of side stories going on that made it seem very disjointed. While they may have added a little bit, in my opinion there was not a very good flow from one story to the next. At times it was hard to follow along with which story line was the focus at the time. Because there were so many story lines to keep up with, I don’t feel that there was very much depth to the characters even though I think that is what the author was going for.

What I did find interesting were Anna’s inner thoughts. She wrestled with the unwanted responsibilities that come with being a leader. There was one chapter where she talked about how she had become a role model to younger girls and how she was scared about the weight of that role. I think any leader has these moments where we have to think about how each thing we do has meaning to those around us. And that sometimes doing the right thing for the greater good will come with some harsh comments from naysayers. Change can be hard.

It was also interesting to think that there was a time that women had to fight to ride a bike or to wear pants in public. We have come a long way, but it also made me think, what is it of our time that our kids will look back and say how ridiculous it is that we had to fight for that equality. This book mentioned several times about equal pay and hiring standards, and it makes me sad that we are still fighting that fight today. I hope that things will be better for my daughter so she doesn’t have to endure things like this.

There is a giveaway to celebrate the release of Mike’s new book. You can enter to win this $75 Amazon gift card giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

  • A copy of The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race
  • A $75 Amazon gift card

Enter today by clicking the banner below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on June 14. The winner will be announced June 15 on Mike’s blog.

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Melissa Spoelstra’s ‘Total Family Makeover’ Family Fun Night Giveaway

Begin to build your family discipleship and become the key disciple-makers in your children’s lives with Melissa Spoelstra’s new book, Total Family Makeover.

George is two. In the short time we have been in year two, we have seen George explore his emotions and who he is as an individual. With that has come tantrums and unfortunately George being a bully. There have been days where I wonder if he will ever learn to listen.

This book could not have come at a better time to give me hope and encourage me as a mom of a spirited young man.

There were a couple statements that really resonated with me.

  • My son’s behavior is not a report card on me as a parent. She went more in depth about where this will lead you, and I sat in tears realizing this is what I had become. I was comparing myself to other mom’s because my kid was hitting. I was doubting how to control this little being, and I was extremely embarrassed.
  • Along with that, God is the perfect parent, and we disappoint him regularly. I do at least a couple times a day. So how can I expect myself to be perfect and raise a perfect child? That is just setting myself up for failure to have that expectation on myself.
  • It is a different mindset of shifting how our kids respond to things to how we are actually teaching them. In other words, I need to focus on my spiritual direction in order to be able to train George.

This book has a great format too. It makes it really easy to pick up and read for the practical ideas and not feel weighed down by text.

Spoelstra weaves in scripture with practical activities for you to explore for modeling and training. I really like this aspect because I can be really dense sometimes, and at the end of the day when I am reading before bed, sometimes I just need someone to tell me the bottom line.

With George’s increase in communication and sense of awareness, Tom and I have talked at great lengths at what we want to model and hopefully instill in George as a Christian family. We want him to learn about Jesus and have compassion for the world, and these are definitely things we can start now even though his sentences consist of two words or just “No” or “mine.”

While I believe this book was intended for moms, Tom and I are really using it to give us a better foundation as parents and set the tone as a team. It has opened our eyes to different things we should be considering and habits that we should be creating now. It also reaffirmed some of the things we were already doing. To be honest though, it is hard to think about being responsible for your own spiritual development as an adult, but then to tack on the daunting task of helping a child build their own concept of God, it can be a lot. This was great to see that our worries are common and reaffirmed that we are on the right track. At the end of each chapter there are discussion questions that we can talk about and that has been great for our marriage as well. While we have been together for 10 years, we learned a lot by going through this book together.

And the examples she gives where invaluable for me at least. I love to hear what other parents do so that was my favorite part of the book.

There is a lot of scripture throughout which I think would lead this book to be a great Sunday School class option or for any new parent class that a church may do. If anything it would be a great gift for a baby shower.

This book is great. I didn’t feel like I was getting lectured to; it was more like getting coffee with a mentor. It is filled with ideas and things that just make sense. It focuses on the basics of establishing values, and to me that is so much more important than how to teach my kid how to dress himself. (Although that is a basic that eventually I would like for him to fully master.)

Disciples are made, not born. Whether your children are babes in arms or teenagers getting ready to leave the nest, making disciples at home starts with you! Give your family a makeover with this practical approach to helping your children learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Plan an evening of fun, pizza, devotionals, and games with your family! Melissa is giving away a Family Fun Night Prize Pack.

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One grand prize winner will receive:

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Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on October 7. The winner will be announced October 10 on Melissa’s blog.

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‘Like a River from Its Course’ Book Review and Kindle Prize Pack

Travel back in time in Kelli Stuart’s new novel, Like a River From Its Course, as the city of Kiev is bombed in Hitler’s blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union. This sweeping historical saga takes the reader on a captivating journey into the little-known history of Ukraine’s tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives. Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River From Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.

I really could not say enough about this book. I loved it! It is a definitely 5/5 for me. This is by far the most compelling time period for me to study. I took a class specifically on the Holocaust, and it is always so humbling to learn more about the harrowing stories. What I liked about this book is that it is showing how non-Jews were also affected, and in a different setting than Germany. These were Ukrainians and one German who were greatly impacted by what was asked of them during this time. It showed how destructive Hitler’s mindset was and how far-reaching it was.

Stuart did not shy away from the vulgarity and realness of what these people saw. While they were all fictional, I definitely felt that she had done her research to honor the true stories. It was very respectful. The characters were all different ages; some from different families. I liked this twist of showing four completely different perspectives on the same war. You get to saw raw emotions, and she writes them so well it’s as thought you are watching it all unfold.

This is a story about love, hope, faith, and redemption. It discusses how people triumphed through the painful and atrocious ways they were treated. This book shows how even in that darkness there were still glimmers of love and friendship that carried them through. I really appreciated those light moments where you could see how the relationships were so impactful to make change.

I would highly highly recommend this. If I was teaching sociology or history still, I would seriously consider making this a suggested reading. It was so good. It definitely reads as fiction. But with the history aspects, I think it would definitely be good for a book report or spark in-class discussions.

Celebrate the release of Like a River from Its Course with Kelli by entering to win a Kindle Fire Prize Pack.

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One grand prize winner will receive:

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Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on July 18th. The winner will be announced July 19th on Kelli’s blog.

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Book Review-Anchor in the Storm (And Giveaway)

I did receive this book complimentary from Litfuse Publicity Group for my review. These thoughts are my own.

 In a time of sacrifice, what price can one put on true love? Pharmacist Lillian Avery and Ensign Archer Vandenberg are about to find out in Sarah Sundin’s new book, Anchor in the Storm. During the darkest days of the war, Arch’s destroyer hunts German U-boats in vain as the submarines sink dozens of merchant ships along the East Coast. Still shaken by battles at sea, Arch notices his men also struggle with their nerves—and with drowsiness. Could there be a link to the large prescriptions Lillian has been filling? As the danger rises on both land and sea, the two must work together to answer that question. But can Arch ever earn Lillian’s trust and affection?

That is a snippet from the blog tour. Sounds intriguing right?

I read the first in this series almost a year ago, and I was excited to see this book come up! Here is my review on Through Waters Deep.

Unlike the first book, Anchor in the Storm I was able to get right into. Since I already knew the characters and the setting of the book, I was ready. I really enjoy Sundin’s writing style of back and forth between the two main characters.

This book was also a little different because it broached the world of disabilities with Lillian and the effects and stigmas of PTSD with Arch. Since PTSD is something that hits close to home for us, I really enjoyed reading the perspective written here. Even though it was fictional, it made me really glad that there have been a lot of changes for our military members, but it also reminded me that we still have a long ways to go to serve this population well. Just because you have PTSD doesn’t mean you can’t be a fully function member of society. But I digress.

Anyway, back to the book. I rate this one a 4/5. I honestly liked this one better than the first. It is a fun read with intrigue and romance.

I love the style of the women being heroines and being independent. The story does tell a lot about the push back of women moving into more traditional men’s roles, and I love the strength portrayed by these female characters.

 This is a great read for a WWII fictional time piece. What I liked about this was it really hit on how the home-front was affected. I think a lot of times when we look at WWII pieces, it focuses on what was happening overseas, so this was a different spin on that time. I was not disappointed, and I was often thinking about the book when I wasn’t reading it.

Celebrate the release of Sarah’s Anchor in the Storm by entering to win her All Hands on Deck Prize Pack!

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One grand prize winner will receive:

  • A signed copy of Anchor in the Storm
  • Nautical tote bag lined with anchor fabric
  • Anchor necklace made from copper reclaimed from the USS Constitution in Boston during restoration
  • 365 Devotions for Hope by Karen Whiting
  • Shine: Nautical Inspirational Adult Coloring Book
  • “Hope Anchors the Soul” journal
  • Set of two nautical tea towels
LF AIS full group 2

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry! The giveaway ends on June 8th. The winner will be announced June 9th on Sarah’s blog.

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