Recommended Reading

I woke up one day and realized I wasn't reading anymore.  Not that I wasn't thinking about reading.  Not that there weren't books on my nightstand but somehow in the business of life I had stopped reading.  Then I realized when I would think about sitting down to read I would feel guilty.  I had so many other things to do I didn't think I could be so lazy as to sit down and read a book.  How indulgent.

But the further I get from the last book I completed the more I am realizing that reading isn't a leisure activity at all, it is a necessity to my life.  It is where I get information, learn new things, visit places I may never otherwise visit and escape for a moment from the world I live in.  And when I return I am a new and often better person.

So I have decided I am going to give myself permission to just sit and read a few times a week.  And I am quite excited about it.

I usually just wait until I come across any random book that strikes me but I was thinking maybe this year I would create a reading list for myself.  So far my list is pretty short and sad. 

I want to finish the book "Paul" by Chuck Swindoll which I started last summer.

  I am re-reading "Body by God" to inspire me to get my body ready for summer.



  I read the first book in a series about an Amish girl written by that Christian author that writes a lot about Amish. Beverly somebody?  You know the one.



Here it is, I found it.  Beverly Lewis.  I read "Preacher's Daughter" and now apparently need "The Englisher".

That is it.  Short and Sad.  So now I am looking for suggestions from all my favorite people. 

My sister recently was raving about "Crazy Love" and "Radical" which I might look into.  I think she left "Crazy Love" for me when she was visiting but my mom confiscated it for her own reading.  I will need to get it back. 

Since my theme of the year is "Maintain" some books on contentment, simplicity, frugality, joy would all be good.  And I am praying with women's ministry so anything good about prayer.  And I always love books on homemaking.  I really like non-fiction mostly because I can put it down to make dinner plus I can often apply it to my life. 

On the fiction front I did just finish the Mitford series and loved it.  I like fiction but nothing too deep.  Something like the "Cat Who..." series.  I like series.  I like to re-visit my friends over and over again.  I like to read about people who are smarter than me, better read than me and work harder than me.  I do not like novels about world war II Nazi camps or anything traumatic where reading it is going to enrich my life through more realistic understanding of the events.  I don't want to experience how traumatizing a concentration camp was through a book, I have a good enough imagination on my own.  I read "shopaholic" this summer and could barely get through it.  I am not fascinated by self indulgent people who supposedly have a good heart but bury it so deeply in self centered justification you really can't see it at all.  How did that book get sequels or a movie?  Torture.

I am also currently without a devotional book so any suggestions on that front would be great too. 

And, finally, I prefer to get books from the library so older books are better but that is not a hard and fast requirement for recommending a book.

So What is everyone reading these days?