Top 5 Books of 2020

Happy New Year! I don’t think the world has ever been happier to see a change in the number on the calendar. Unfortunately, things are pretty much the same around here. Hopefully you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year celebration and are ready to take on 2021 whatever it may bring us.

What I Read in 2019

If you’ve been around for a while, you know that I love to read. I’m in a book club, I subscribe to the Buzzfeed Books Newsletter, and I follow several Bookstagramers. I usually average a book a month, but this year I managed to work in twenty two books! Yes, several were audio books, but I consider that “reading” as well. If reading is your thing, scroll on through to see if you’ve read the books on my list or if there are a few titles you need to add to your TBR (to be read) list.

What I Actually Read This Summer

Back in early June I put together a list of books I had on my TBR (to be read) list for the summer. It was lofty for me, but I knew I wanted to get in as many books as I could before school started back. Well, sadly summer is coming to a close, and I wanted to see how my actual book reading held up to my TBR list.

What I’m Watching and Reading this Summer

Summer is here! That means I tend to slow down, watch some Netflix and read a few books. I compiled a few lists of things to watch and read for this post. But I want your input. Look through the lists and tell me if it’s worth my time. Let me know if you’ve seen some of these shows or read some of these books.

What I Read in 2018

One of my goals for 2019 was less Netflix and more reading. That was all great until I watched the Golden Globes last Sunday and added four television shows and four movies to my TBW (to be watched) list. Then I had dinner with my parents and my aunt, and I added yet another series to watch plus a Youtube channel to follow.

Bookshelf Changeup

BOOKSHELF CHANGEUP

We recently had some pretty fantastic snow days here in Alabama, and I actually was able to do some productive things while we were out of school. It doesn’t matter that the productivity didn’t actually happen until Saturday when the snow was mostly melted. Hey, I thoroughly enjoyed my SNOW days by staying warm under the covers rewatching Big Little Lies. They’re winning all these awards, and I felt like an eight episode show wasn’t too much to binge in a few days.

But Saturday came and I was feeling the creative bug, so I took my gallery wall apart. And then promptly put it right back together because I don’t have anything else I’d like to put in its place. I have a lot of things in my cart at Minted but I don’t have a lot of money in my bank account to pay for all those pretty prints. Story of my life.

So then I walked to my bedroom, looked around and realized the drapes in my cart at Ballard don’t really go along with my bank account either. Sooooo…I decided to rearrange the books on the bookshelf. I knew I wanted a more streamlined look somehow. I didn’t want the messy look of all the randomly placed books. I’ve been craving simplicity in my decor, and the mismatched spines on the bookshelf didn’t fit that for me.

Here’s what it looked like before. This was about a year ago in March. At the top are all of my cookbooks and a few children’s storybooks I’ve collected. You can see there’s no real rhyme or reason to the way I shelved the books. It’s not necessary for there to be a rhyme or reason to shelving books, but like I said, the creative bug had bitten me, so I went for it.

Here’s what it looks like now.

I decided to shelve the books by the color of their spines. In keeping with the need for simplicity I started with white and black and just kept going. I know I didn’t follow Roy G. Biv, but it works for me.

The cookbooks on top got switched to stacks instead of the unlevel, upright position they were in. There’s a lot more yellow in those cookbooks than I would like, but since I don’t have Erica Berry’s kitchen from Something’s Gotta Give (that post here) and nowhere to put my cookbooks in my kitchen, this will do. I like it much better already.

I also decided to hang a picture over the bookshelf. Paul went to school with a guy that works at one of Arnold Palmer’s golf courses, Bay Hill. For a wedding gift, he got Mr. Palmer to sign a photo for us. But it wasn’t just a photo, it was a large print that he personalized for us. It was so special to Paul, and we had it framed so that we can enjoy it always. (Thanks, Josh!) I think it looks lovely hanging above the bookshelf, and I don’t know why it took me so long to decide it belonged there.

I know this wasn’t a drastic change, but I love when something small makes a big impact. I hope that you’ve gotten some ideas on how to update your bookshelves or inspired you to hang a fun photo. Do you arrange your books in any certain way? Do you hoard books like I do? Do you have any special photos, posters, and/or works of art? Let me know in the comments.

Thursday Thoughts and a Book Review- Behind Closed Doors

BOOK REVIEW- BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

I love to read. One of my favorite things to do is get lost in a book. I have been in a real reading slump recently. I didn’t read much more than blog posts and a few magazines since summer. I was going to read The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, but it’s about 150,000,000 pages. That was a tad intimidating to me with a new job that has proven to be time consuming and leaving me no time to read for pleasure. Boyne’s book will be on my summer reading list for sure.

So when my Aunt Sharon told me she was bringing a book for me to read, I was excited but not very hopeful I’d get around to it anytime soon. I read a chapter or two during Thanksgiving break and put it aside during the next few weeks of school until Christmas break. Well, Christmas break was all I needed. Two late nights and I was finished. It was a hook, line, and sinker plot making me not want to put it down. The plot thickened so heartily that I couldn’t have stopped reading had I wanted to.

The book is called Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris. It is a psychological thriller and one of the best ones I’ve ever read. And believe it or not, it’s her debut novel.

I knew fairly early on that something was off with Grace and Jack, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Once the first layer was revealed (pretty early in the story), I was able to understand a bit more what was happening, but I was honestly guessing the rest all the way to the end. Paris writes with just enough mystery to keep you guessing to the very last page.

Behind Closed Doors is a story about a marriage of a seemingly perfect couple, madly in love, newlyweds, successful, living in a dream home, taking extravagant vacations. Jack and Grace truly seem perfect. When things start to take a turn, we learn how Grace can never meet her friends for coffee, even when she doesn’t have a job. Or why she never carries anything in her purse, not even a pen.

After I read this book I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was so mad at the characters for a while. I couldn’t understand why they would do the things they were doing. How could someone do that? Could this really be how some people live?

Then I started thinking about what it’s like behind our own closed doors. Sometimes we put on a front around others. We do this because we’re insecure, we’re ashamed, we’re scared, we’re too worried what other people will think of us. Sure, there are things that should be kept private, but are we really acting like completely different people in public than we are in the comfort of our own homes?

I think this bothered me so much because I’m totally guilty. We all are to a degree. Maybe we had a crappy day at work, but we have to serve in the nursery at church on Wednesday nights. We put on our big girl pants and walk into that nursery and love on those babies anyway. We show up at those birthday parties with our kiddos when we’ve got 1,000 things to do and our husband ticked us off right before we walked out the door. We go to work even though we’ve got a sick parent who needs round-the-clock care, but in order to afford that care, we have to go to work. We go to baby shower after baby shower with a precious gift even though we’re having trouble getting pregnant ourselves. We RSVP yes (minus a plus one) to yet another wedding because we’re still single. And we do it all with a smile and happy disposition because we don’t want people to see our flaws, our hurts, our disappointments, our shortcomings.

And yes, most of this stuff always stays behind closed doors. Stays in our homes, in the closet, so even if people come over they can’t see it there either. Just like Grace and Jack having dinner parties. There were lots of things going one with them, but when people came over (their friends), no one was the wiser. We do the same thing. Hopefully none of us are experiencing Jack’s and Grace’s troubles (you’ll have to read the book to find out what’s actually going on), but we hide our “crazy” and welcome in our friends to our lovely, seemingly normal homes for a fabulous dinner that nearly drove us mad to cook, in a clean house that just actually got cleaned for the first time in a month because dang it, it’s hard to keep a clean house sometimes. And everything always goes well and our friends leave thinking, how do they do it? How is their life so put together and so perfect? How did she pull off that meal with three kids and 4 dogs and a husband who travels for work? And how did she make it look so dang effortless?

I guess the point is that we all have our secrets behind closed doors. We all have things we’re ashamed to show people in our homes. (I ain’t letting you in my guest room if you come over unexpectedly. I’m going to close the door and you’ll not get permission to enter under any circumstances. Because 9 times out of 10, it’s in total disarray and I’d be mortified if you saw it.) But I’ll put a smile on my face, light my favorite candle, and invite you in like that room was spick and span and perfectly decorated even though I’m not going to open that door for you to go into that room. I’ll hide my secret.

I don’t know if it’s the hope of a new year and the fun of making resolutions, but in an effort to be more authentic, maybe we don’t have to hide our crazy. Maybe some of these flaws or shortcomings can be shared with others. Maybe we have a friend we can trust to actually open up to about the real stuff in our lives. Invite your friend over for coffee or wine and DON’T SHUT THE DOOR! (I’m speaking to myself.) Maybe we tell our friend that comes over that we almost ordered Pizza Hut because the salmon we cooked nearly sent us over the edge.

Things aren’t always what they seem, y’all. And that’s OKAY! We aren’t perfect. No one is. And that’s kind of the best thing about this whole rabbit hole my brain has gone down. When I see a “perfect couple”, eat a “perfect meal” prepared by my friend, or attend a “perfect party”, I know that it’s not actually perfect. It’s actually peppered with imperfections because that’s real life.

So here’s to being perfectly imperfect in 2018. Happily embracing those imperfections and forgiving ourselves and others for not being those perfect people. Because it ain’t ever gonna happen. Real talk, y’all.

Also, here’s to reading more books in 2018. 🙂 Especially those that make us think and reflect on our lives to help make us better people. Don’t forget to pick up Behind Closed Doors. You’ll enjoy the thrilling ride it’ll send you on.

XO,

Elizabeth

Book Review- The Shack

BOOK REVIEW- THE SHACK

I have a long list of to-be-read books that I keep filed away in my brain. A very long list. I have been looking for one in particular that’s been on my list a while: The Shack. I looked at thrift stores and Goodwill stores for a very long time, but I never was able to find it. (I think I know why I wasn’t able to find it; it’s a hard one to let go of.) So when I first moved back to Alabama and visited the Goodwill and actually found it, I was very excited. But true to form, I was already in the middle of another book, so I decided to put The Shack on my shelf until I could get around to it.

Then Came the Movie

I knew I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie and had big plans to quickly read it once summer started so I could head to the theater. That didn’t happen. I started the book, was pretty captivated by the story, and had every intention to finish it quickly. But when a book is deep or super thought-provoking, sometimes I get intimidated, so I set it aside for a few weeks. When I picked it back up, I finished it in two days.

Here Comes the Religion

Okay, not really religion. 🙂 But I do want to tell you why this book made such an impact on me.

The main character, Mack, is dealing with The Great Sadness that has descended on him after the disappearance of his child. He receives a letter from “Papa” (God) in his mailbox asking him to meet him at the shack, which is the scene of the crime. He ultimately decides to go to the shack and there he does indeed meet Papa. But he doesn’t just meet Papa; he meets the entire trinity in the form of actual people. Jesus is there and so is the Holy Spirit. The way Paul Young writes them is what really peaked my interest. Papa is a black woman, Jesus is a middle-eastern looking man, and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) is an Asian woman.

Here’s why this is so interesting to me: God was exactly what, who, and how Mack needed to see and get to know Him. It was eluded to in the book that sometimes “religion” is sort of formal, and that God really just loves His children and wants them to love Him too.

Now, I also want to say with a very loud voice- THIS IS NOT THE BE ALL/END ALL BOOK ABOUT GOD!!!! Please go to your Bible for the most true version of God and for the most inspiring stories about God and all of His wonders and promises and goodness. I’ve never gleaned more truth, inspiration, and information about God as I have from the Bible.

With that said, The Shack is an outside of the religion-box way to look at a relationship with God. And that right there, relationship, was the biggest thing I took away from this book. I like this quote by Jesus from the book:

“Because we want you to join us in the circle of relationship. I don’t want slaves to my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me.”

I just loved that. And it is reinforced throughout the story. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, they want to be a part of our lives. They want us to include them in everything we do. Because whether we remember it or not, they’re always there. Why not have a relationship with the one who created you, the one who died for you, and the one who guides you on your path of life?

I think that’s what I walked away with-a bit of a challenge- to not forget to keep the lines of communication open at all times with God. Remember that old hymn that goes, “and He walks with me, and He talks with me”? He’s always there, why not talk to Him? As a result, in your personal daily walk with God, you find yourself thinking about Him more. Your thoughts become His thoughts. You start to want to do things that would be pleasing to God.

The other thing that really stood out to me about the story was that everyone’s relationship with God is unique. We are all in different stages of life, have different spiritual maturity levels, have different backgrounds and life circumstances. This is what makes our relationship with God so unique. My story will not be like yours, but I promise that my God is also your God. We may talk to Him differently; we may go to different churches; we may read different adaptations of the Bible. But God is God, and He loves you, and He loves me, and He just wants you to love Him too. Your life will be so much better if you do.

So, if you’re interested, I encourage you to read the book. It is such a beautiful story of one man’s journey through a very great sadness and the relationship he develops with God as this terrible situation is redeemed. And if you’re not a reader (shame on you), 🙂 then you need to watch the movie! It was expertly cast and follows the main theme of the book perfectly. It was very well done. It’s available at the public library here in Greenville for free with your library card!

If you’re interested in more information about the movie or book, please visit the website. It is a great resource to find out more about this story.

If you’ve read this book and would like to discuss it with me in the comments, please do. I loved it so much! It definitely went on the list of my favorite books. If you’ve not read it, I really encourage you to. You won’t be disappointed.

Thursday Thoughts- What I’ve Read Lately

Welcome back to Thursday Thoughts! I decided to not post on Sunday since it was Easter. It’s a pretty important day, and I just didn’t feel right about “promoting myself” on such a sacred day. I hope that y’all were able to spend some time with family and with Jesus.

**Note** I started this post with the intention of telling you about several of the books I’ve read lately. This book was first on my list, and I couldn’t stop writing about it. It meant a lot to me and for whatever reason, the words just poured out. Perhaps someone out there needs to know that this book exists. I don’t know. All I do know is that I felt compelled to only share about this particular book. I hope that your week has been better than mine. (Perhaps that’s why I was only able to get words out about this book.) It’s been a tough week for some reason. Anywho, I hope you enjoy today’s post and hope that your Friday is delightful!

Lately I’ve been reading a lot. I have been reading every morning during my quiet time/devotion, and I’ve been listening to audio books like they are about to disappear off of the planet. Since I’ve been reading so much, I thought I’d share in case any of you are looking for something new.

Discerning the Voice of God– Priscilla Shirer

I borrowed this book from my dear friend, Christy. She snapped a picture of a page from the book and sent it to me one day. I told her I hadn’t read that book before, but I do love me some Priscilla (Fevernt and War Room, anybody? That movie was amazing!), so she was kind enough to lend it to me.

Honestly, I didn’t think I needed this book. I felt like I had been hearing from God just fine without a book to tell me how to do it. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I opened the book, all sorts of “bad” was after me. I kid you not! I read this book during my morning devotion time, which is in the very early, dark hours of the morning. It’s just me and Jesus, and I prefer it that way. But reading this book was an invitation for the devil to make me so stinking tired the moment I cracked open my Bible. There were mornings that I would start reading my Bible and accompanying devotion, and I would nod off to sleep, like instantly! There were days I didn’t even get to Discerning the Voice of God.

But those mornings that I did….y’all… God is so good. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed from moving back to Alabama, it is that my relationship with God has changed. And not necessarily for the good. I left a great church that I really, really liked. I was starting to get involved and had my routine of how my weeks would play out with church now involved in my schedule. So moving here threw everything out of whack. My quiet times weren’t spent in the prayer closet I had made for myself because now I don’t have a closet I can walk into. I don’t even have a spare corner in this apartment. Needless to say, this book couldn’t have come at a better time. God knew I needed it because I couldn’t hear from him like I used to. Because I was falling asleep while he was trying to talk to me! 🙂

I am so thankful for people like Priscilla Shirer (and countless others) who have shared so much in book form about their relationship with God and how to follow him. There’s no better tool than the Bible to help you on that journey, but I know that the Bible seems old fashioned and confusing to some people, so it helps to have a “guide”.

I guess my point in writing this post is to share that God is great. He meets you right where you are and right when you need Him most. We knew moving back to Alabama was for a reason. And unfortunately it’s been a reason that hasn’t necessarily been pleasant. We’ve lost four family members in the short time that we’ve been here. But God knew that our families needed us. God knew that we wouldn’t have been able to attend all of the funerals and family gatherings if we were still in Louisiana. So, maybe not all of the time we’ve been back has been good, but it’s been because of God. I knew He was speaking to us when people told us about possible job openings here in Alabama. I knew that it was God speaking when we were told we could move into this apartment. And I knew it was God speaking when Christy sent me that picture of this book. He spoke to her too to offer it to me, and she listened. I’m so glad she did!

If you need to hear from God, please get this book. It won’t be the answer to your problems, but it will teach you ways to have your ear inclined to Him. To listen with the ears of your heart and not just the ears on your head. It’s chock full of scripture and powerful stories, personal and biblical, that are explained to even the most elementary of Bible students. A warning, though: be prepared to have all kinds of things get in your way. It’ll probably seem like every time you sit down to read a chapter that something will happen to get you to not read. Deal with the situation and go right back to reading. God doesn’t put stuff like this in people’s lives unless they are intended for a good purpose. And the devil don’t like that! But push through and do it anyway; you will be blessed.