This was a good year of reading for me. I was able to read several books each month, though I didn't keep a monthly account every month.
Below is my list of favorite books from this past year. I did not listen to any fabulous books for the first time. (I did listen to Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. Again. I can't get enough of them!)
Non-fiction
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, by Slavomir Rawicz
Choosing Gratitude, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
The Girl's Still Got It: Take a Walk with Ruth and the God Who Rocked Her World, by Liz Curtis Higgs
The Beautiful Wife, by Sandy Ralya
Lit: A Christian's Guide to Reading Books, by Tony Reinke
Of the non-fiction books, The Long Walk is the only one that was not a Christian-based book. These were all great books and I highly recommend them.
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Honorable Mention goes to Beyond Opinion which was full of wise words but could have taken me all year to read.
Fiction
I'll Watch the Moon,* by Ann Tatlock
Band of Sisters, by Cathy Gohlke
The Story of Beautiful Girl, by Rachel Simon (linked to Amazon...no related review, but here is a good one from a friend.)
Wildflowers of Terezin,* by Robert Elmer
A Stray Drop of Blood, by Roseanna White
Children's Book
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, by Trenton Lee Stuart
* Shows the books I read on my Kindle Fire. They were actually both freebies, which I appreciate, and both were the first books I read by those authors.
What books can you recommend me? I lean toward historical fiction. It does not need to be squeaky clean, but I do prefer mostly clean in regards to language and sexuality. (Unbroken is on my list for next year!)
UPDATE: Check out my favorite books of 2013, too!
I'm sharing this book list at Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books.
~ Annette {This Simple Mom}
I have seen that Choosing Gratitude mentioned on lots of blogs. I think I'll take a look for it this year at the bookstore. Thanks for sharing your favorites with us. I always love to read about what others loved and add to my own list.
ReplyDeleteUnbroken, for sure, is a must-read! But you knew that already, right? ;-). I think you'd probably also like City of Tranquil Light, one of my favorites of all time (!!)--http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2012/05/09/city-of-tranquil-light-by-bo-caldwell/
ReplyDeleteI really need to read the Nicholas Benedict book, but I always get hung up on series fiction and fail to read past the first one. Do you think it's necessary to read all the others first since this is a prequel?
Unbroken does have a bit of bad language and a crude remark or two as it is dealing with largely non-Christian servicemen in dire situations. It's one of the very, very few books where I'd say the story superseded those objectionable elements.
ReplyDeleteI have Tatlock's book on my Kindle app. I have read it before, but it has been a long time ago and I don't remember much about it.
Wildflowers of Terezin made my top ten, too.
Have you ever read any of Sarah Sundin's books? They are all set in WWII, very clean, very realistic, very good.
Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters and North and South are very good, too.
Thanks for the recommendations... I will be checking some of these out.
ReplyDeleteI recommend...
Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer was great, I read it this year; Christian non-fiction.
Have you heard of G.A. Henty. He writes great historical fiction... my favorite would definitely be A Knight of the White Cross and since they were written in the late 1800's there is NO bad language and the heroes of the books are all very moral people, men that you wouldn't mind having your children emulate... they are all British history based and so have some to a lot of war stuff in them... but not gross and gory like contemporary books would be. Some of his books I like more than others but I have not read one that I hated yet. Most of them you can get for FREE for Kindle at Amazon.
That is all I can think of to recommend right now... Have a blessed New Year of reading.
You should join Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com
You can set a goal for the years reading and very easily track the books you read. I love it. It is so easy to use and you can even write a review on the book you read and post it to you blog very easily. It also links to Facebook if you want so you can let your Facebook friends see what you are reading. If you join make sure you send me a friend request... http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7403953-debbie-phillips
Oh, I'm glad you are reading Unbroken this next year. I loved reading through your list and seeing which books ranked as favorites this past year. I'm re-reading Lit at the moment. I don't know that I necessarily need to be, but I am anyway. It's still a favorite though!
ReplyDeleteRe: Debbie's comment above -- I've heard a lot of great things about G.A. Henty but I've not read any of his books. Kinda looking forward to trying them out sometime!