Lisa notes

“Each book is a mind alive, a life revealed, a world awaiting exploration.”
– Dean Koontz

Below are books I recommend from what I finished reading in November.

Underneath the recommendations by me is a list of recommendations for me that I gathered from participating in Nonfiction November this month. It’s a wonderful way each year to discover the best nonfiction books to read. The linkup to see more “New to My TBR” is with Jaymi at The OC Book Girl for Week 5 of #NonficNov.

[See previously recommended books here]

Nonfiction

1. Good to Grow
Embrace an Abundant Life in Your Good Body
by Amanda Reynolds

This is an encouraging invitation to view our bodies in a more holy way, regardless of what our bodies look like or how much we like or dislike them already. Amanda shares lessons from personal experience and from scripture about how to grow our body image out of the weeds and into fruitfulness.

2. Factfulness
Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
by Hans Rosling

Most of us are wrong about global trends on world population, people in poverty, women and schooling, etc. This book is a fascinating approach to setting us straight and finding hope for our world.

3. Grateful
The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks
by Diana Butler Bass

Being grateful doesn’t always come naturally to us. This is a great jump-start to improving your gratitude attitude.

4. Embracing Uncertainty
by Susan Jeffers

An oldie but a goodie. The only thing we know for certain is that things will change. This book helps us make peace with that. It’s a perfect fit for my One Word 2021 UNCERTAINTY.

5. When Everything’s on Fire
Faith Forged from the Ashes
by Brian Zahnd

Instead of walking away from faith altogether when it becomes too inconsistent to believe any longer, Zahnd offers a solution of renovating our faith instead. And encourages us to hang on to Jesus no matter what.

6. God Can’t
How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils
by Thomas Jay Oord

While I like to think about things God CAN do, it’s also comforting to know there are things God CAN’T do (for example, God cannot lie; God cannot do evil; God cannot be unloving; etc.). I like to be challenged in my thoughts of God, and this book does that as Oord addresses the problem of suffering. Just as with all books, you can take or leave the authors’ thoughts as you read them.

7. Benefit of the Doubt
Breaking the Idol of Certainty
by Gregory A. Boyd

I found great encouragement in this book to not measure our faith by our certainty of it. The blurb on the back of the book says it best: “Embrace a faith that doesn’t strive for certainty but rather for commitment to Christ in the midst of uncertainty.”

8. Everything Happens for a Reason
And Other Lies I’ve Loved
by Kate Bowler

Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at just 35 years old. She walks us through her next steps, rooting out helpful and nonhelpful advice along the way.

9. Reasons to Stay Alive
by Matt Haig

I’m working through all of Matt Haig’s insightful books. This one tells us how he found reasons to continue living while he dealt with depression and anxiety.

Fiction

I did squeeze in one novel during this Nonfiction November month. And it is quite the page turner.

10. Before I Go to Sleep
by S.J. Watson

This is a great story about Christine’s journey with memory issues. Every day she wakes up to a new world, even though it’s exactly the one she left the night before. What role does her husband Ben play and how can she discover the real truth?

Reading Now

• The Story of You
  An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self
  by Ian Morgan Cron
• The Divine Dance
  The Trinity and Your Transformation
  by Richard Rohr
• The Wisdom of Your Body
  Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living
  by Hillary L. McBride
• Anatomy of a Miracle
  by Jonathan Miles

Adding to My TBR from #NonficNov Readers

• Planet of the Blind
  (recommended by Lory)
• Know My Name
  (recommended by Sam B’s Bookstagram)
• The Girl with Seven Names
  (recommended by Reading Ladies Book Club)

What good book are YOU reading this month? Please share in the comments.

MORE READING

• What Will You Read Next? How Do You Decide?
• Is This Really Nonfiction? 3 Books Almost Too Weird to Be True
• 3 Best Books on Writing I’ve Read This Year

My books on Goodreads
More books I recommend

sharing at these linkups

The theme for week 4 of Nonfiction November is “Stranger than Fiction.” Link up with Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks.

Here are 3 nonfiction books I’ve read this year that almost don’t seem real.

1. Leaving the Witness
Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life
by Amber Scorah

Amber Scorah was living her life as a faithful 3rd generation Jehovah’s Witness. But little by little, she began to see cracks in her religion. And she wanted out, even though she was now an undercover preacher in China. This is her story.

“Was I a good person? The righteous war of black versus white, right over wrong, good against bad, had given meaning to my life. It was comfortable to know that everyone was wrong and you were right.

“I had known who I was by which side I was on. But there are not only two sides, there are thousands of dimensions to things.

“Living in uncertainty is humbling and terrifying. Uncertainty is pain.”

2. The Biggest Bluff
How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
by Maria Konnikova

Is it possible for a journalist to to learn how to play poker and become a professional tournament winner in a year? This book is about far more than just the game of poker though. Konnikova also learned lessons about how chance works in life.

“Here was the cruel truth: we humans too often think ourselves in firm control when we are really playing by the rules of chance.”

“More often than that, it’s not the best hand that wins. It’s the best player.”

“Thus my first real poker lesson isn’t about winning. It’s about losing.”

3. How God Works
The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion
by David DeSteno

This isn’t actually about how God works per se, but about how religion works. DeSteno shares fascinating research about religious rituals among many belief systems from around the world.

“Uncertainty in the realms of morality and fate—the realms that religions dominate for many people—is taxing not only because it requires the brain to simulate so many options, but also because of the emotional consequences involved. And it’s here that belief comes into play.

“With belief—that God will intervene, that a ritual will heal, that a choice never to lie or cheat ensures the best outcomes—comes certainty.

“And with certainty comes a kind of inner peace.”

[more thoughts here on How God Works]

Have you read a nonfiction book that seemed almost too strange to be true? Share in the comments.

READ MORE:

• Three of the Best Books on Writing I’ve Read This Year (Week 3)
• Why Fiction and Nonfiction Books Are More Alike Than You Think (Week 2)
• 7 New Books to Make You a Better Person (Week 1)