Home Giveaways Fabulous Books to Read (Spring 2018 Edition) and $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

Fabulous Books to Read (Spring 2018 Edition) and $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

by Jamie

Hello, dear reader and fellow book lover. 🙂 I’m excited to share my latest edition of Fabulous Books To Read with you all today. I love compiling these posts and sharing book recommendations with you all. I equally love the input you all give in the comment section of these posts and have found many, many great books there. So, thank you for participating! You can see all past Book Recommendation posts by clicking HERE.

As part of today’s post I’ll be giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card. To enter the giveaway just leave me a comment telling me one or two of your favorite books. Winner will be announced Friday April 13th. Happy reading, all!

 


As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner
3.5 Stars

I’m a big fan of Susan Meissner and while this wasn’t my favorite of her books, I enjoyed it a lot. She produces such strong, optimistic, courageous characters. I love the wisdom she intertwines so beautifully in all of her the story lines. As Bright As Heaven is the story of a family who experiences the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. It’s about loss, endurance, and the love of family. A great read.


The Women in the Castle
4.5 Stars

This is a WWII novel about three German women whose husbands were part of the resistance that carried out an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler. The book focuses on how these women survive the war, deal with the role their husbands played, and learn to cope with the aftermath of the war. It is exceptionally written. The characters are all so interesting and I appreciated the authors efforts to portray so many dimensions of good and evil.

 


The Second Mrs. Hockaday: A Novel by [Rivers, Susan]
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
4 Stars

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. It’s told through a series of letters by several different characters, journal entries and court documents. This writing style lent such a unique perspective to the story line. Set during the Civil War, the main character is married at 17 years of age and expected to run a household and farm while her husband is away at war. I immediately fell in love with her strong will, courage and tenacity. A great, suspenseful read. Well written and very thought provoking.

Rainwater by [Brown, Sandra]
Rainwater by Sandra Brown
3.5 Stars

This was a quick and easy read I enjoyed quite a lot. It’s a hysterical fiction/romance novel taking place during the depression and in the dust bowl of Texas. It was interesting to read about government programs provided to cattle ranchers during this time. I loved the hard-working, charitable main character and found the ending to be both surprising and lovely.


The Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle
4
 Stars

I love all of Melanie Shankle’s books. This is her fourth and by far my favorite. All of her books are written memoir style and while her first three books each focus on a theme (motherhood, friendship and marriage) this book focuses on training ourselves to be happy with the small and simple things of life. She tells tons of stories from her life experience, and please believe me when I tell you she is absolutely hilarious. Her stories are so relate-able to me, maybe because we are both children of the 80’s and are now in the middle of raising teenagers. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed reading this book so much. I chuckled continually and laughed right out loud so many times. I actually read certain paragraphs to my husband that were too funny not to share. He loved them, too.

A fun, light-hearted read that takes you from laughter to powerful philosophies based on God’s love, all in the same few paragraphs. Loved it.


The Walk by Richard Paul Evans
3.5 Stars

A great, quick read about a man who loses everything and sets out on a journey to walk across the United States. It’s about love, loss, personal perspective, and so many other things. I loved all of the golden nuggets of wisdom. One of my favorites…

“The ability to appreciate beauty is of God. Especially in one another. Look for beauty in everyone you meet, and you’ll find it. Everyone carries divinity within them. And everyone we meet has something to impart.”


Miles to Go (The Walk #2)
3 Stars

I really loved the first book in this series, and while I enjoyed many parts of Miles to Go…it moved a little too slowly for me. However, there were some fantastic insights into life and the ups and downs that go with it. I loved all the short quotes that start each chapter and found myself writing many of them down. Here is my favorite…
“There are times when the great cosmic architect gives us brief glimpses of the blueprint so we can do our part.”


Frontier Grit by Marianne Monson
4 Stars

I loved this short book of 12 amazing stories. Each chapter is dedicated to a different woman, giving a synopsis of her life and the legacy she left behind. It was fascinating and after finishing each chapter I found myself “googling” that particular woman’s name so I could read more about her and her purpose filled life. It’s well written, with just the right measure of flowery prose (not too much, not too little). I was very inspired by these 12 women and the author herself. Monson leaves the following as the last paragraph of the book…

“Here is an invitation to consider what type of story you are writing-and what the next chapter will be. From their examples, gather courage to use your talents and voice to build upon their efforts. The last chapter in this book is the one that will be written when you close these pages, for the story still unfolding is, of course, your own.”

 

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112 comments

Jennifer April 11, 2018 - 9:58 pm

My all-time favorite is Pride & Prejudice.

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Menu Plan, April Week #3 April 13, 2018 - 12:30 am

[…] also have chosen a winner for the $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway I’ve hosted as part of the Fabulous Books To Read Post that went live last week. If you are looking for a great book to read, you can see that post by […]

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Barbara Daisher April 13, 2018 - 2:31 pm

I love your book recommendations and your recipes!!! Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance was outstanding. 🙂

Reply
Michelle April 16, 2018 - 5:46 pm

Thanks for your booklist, I watch for it every winter and summer. Some of my favorites:
The Waiting, Kathy Lagrow. Same kind of different as me. Gifted Hands by Ben Carson. 12 years a slave. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Heaven is here by Stephanie Nielsen. All of Rita Sepytys. They cage the animals at night. The color of rain, by Michael and Gina Spehn. The diary of mattie spenser, by Sandra Dallas. Night, by Elie Wiesel.

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Sharon McManus May 28, 2018 - 9:45 pm

I know you posted this quite a while ago and I saved it to use in our book club for next year. I used your last year’s and several of the books were big hits. Can’t wait to start reading these. They all sound interesting. Thanks for sharing.

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