I’m excited about upcoming books for 2016! Here are the 2016 Reading Challenges I’ve joined.
My favorite 10 books from 2015 are here.
And from December’s reading, here are the books I recommend for What’s on Your Nightstand.
BOOKS I RECOMMEND
1. Rising Strong
The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
by Brené Brown
My review of Rising Strong
We all fail. That matters, but what matters more is what we do next. Wonderful insights here from Brené Brown about rising again and stepping into new stories. I love how Brené thinks and how she uses research to back it up.
“Courage is contagious. . . . Rising strong is a spiritual practice.”
2. Every Little Thing
Making a Difference Right Where You Are
by Deidra Riggs
Author and blogger Deidra Riggs reminds us that we each make a difference. She shares from personal experiences that when God calls, answering is the best option.
“God loves you, exactly the way you are, period. You have a right to be here. You were created on purpose. Regardless of what anyone else may have to say about it, you being here is a good thing. A very good thing.”
3. Wonder
by R. J. Palacio
This may be *just* a novel, but it’s an important story about accepting differences and about fighting bullying. Ten-year-old August—a child with severe facial abnormalities—begins attending public school for the first time and narrates his story, along with the stories of those closest to him and how they are each affected.
“I wish every day could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we got to see what we looked like under the masks.”
4. A Geography of Time
The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently
by Robert V. Levine
How we perceive time is a mainly silent undercurrent that strongly affects many aspects of our personal lives and our culture. Levine shares his research of studies in various countries about how time is viewed. It’s more complex the deeper you look.
“Still today, the idea of living by the clock remains absolutely foreign to much of the world. One of the most significant differences in the pace of life is whether people use the hour on the clock to schedule the beginning and ending of activities, or whether the activities are allowed to transpire according to their own spontaneous schedule.”
5. How We Got to Now
Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
by Steven Johnson
A fascinating look at the historical significance of innovations in six areas (clean, time, glass, light, cold, and sound). I haven’t seen it, but there’s also a corresponding PBS documentary.
“If you worked for an hour at the average wage of 1800, you could buy yourself ten minutes of artificial light. With kerosene in 1880, the same hour of work would give you three hours of reading at night. Today, you can buy three hundred days of artificial light with an hour of wages.”
6. When to Rob a Bank
…And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Because I love the Freakonomics podcast, naturally I have loved the Freakonomics books. This one is a series of posts from their economics blog at Freakonomics.
7. Women, Food and God
An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
by Geneen Roth
I didn’t get everything Roth said because my problems with food aren’t always what she was talking about. But I get the gist. Don’t use food for rewards or escapes. Enjoy it but don’t depend on it.
“There are many ways to deprive yourself: You can deprive yourself of cookies or you can deprive yourself of feeling well after you eat them.”
8. Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I didn’t always like the plotline of this novel, but I liked being in the head of the author/character as she wrote about being a non-American black in America (she’s from Nigeria). In the book the main character is also a blog writer, so you get to hear the story from different angles.
“’Thank you.’ Ifemelu wanted, suddenly and desperately, to be from the country of people who gave and not those who received, to be one of those who had and could therefore bask in the grace of having given, to be among those who could afford copious pity and empathy.”
9. Messenger (The Giver, #3)
by Lois Lowry
I loved novel #1, The Giver. So-so on novel # 2, Gathering Blue. And now returning to total enjoyment again with this 3rd book in The Giver quartet. This story ties the first two books together a little. And now I’m waiting for # 4, Son, to become available at my library so I can finish the series.
10. Awe
Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do
by Paul David Tripp
The concept is true: Our lives are more satisfying when we live in awe of who God is and what he is doing. When we lose that awe, our lives suffer too. Although the book is good, it was too long (to me), repeating the same message over and over, just using different words.
Currently reading:
- Better Than Before (by Gretchen Rubin)
- 10-Minute Digital Declutter (by S. J. Scott)
- Dirty Faith (by David Z. Nowell)
- The Power of a Whisper (by Bill Hybels)
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What are you reading this month? Please share here.
Related:
My books on Goodreads
Previous reading lists
