This reading log contains the books I finished reading in May. I’ve now finished reading all my library books but still have a number of my own books that I need to read or finish reading. Our local libraries are now open. However, you can only return books in the after-hours bins or place books on hold to pick up. So, you can’t actually browse the library, just pick books up. I have placed a few books on hold but still have plenty to read here, at home.
Here’s what I read in May:
Loving My Actual Neighbour: 7 Practices to Treasure the People Right in Front of You by Alexandra Kuykendall
I’ve known about this book for a while. However, it wasn’t until I saw that it was going to be an online book club book in a Facebook Group that I purchased it. The book club started soon after we were all in lock down, so it was an interesting book to read when we were supposed to be staying at home. The book is Biblically based and is about loving others as we are called to do. “I can love free of an agenda to win anyone to my side. My job is to love God and love others.”, this quote from p34 sums up what the book is about. It has principles and practical ideas for caring for or getting to know your neighbour more. Whether that be your physical neighbour, someone you work with or come into contact with in some way in your community.
Finding Faith: Inspiring Conversion Stories from around the World by Naomi Reed
This book as the title suggests has stories from different people all over the world, from different backgrounds who’ve come to experience a relationship with God. Naomi Reed says that she thought she might find some patterns or “general ways that God tends to work” but instead she found that “He pursues each of us passionately. He wants us to know him, and he reveals himself to us in different ways, in different timeframes, whether we’re looking for him, or not, …”, p179. Many of the stories were very moving and touching. I found I needed to reflect on each person’s story before moving to the next one.
Faith by Lesley Pearse
In this novel, Laura Brannigan is in jail for murder but she insists that she didn’t kill her best friend Jackie. Through a series of letters and going between the past and the present we learn about Laura. We find out if she’s innocent or not and whether or not she’ll be freed from prison. As you’re introduced to more and more characters and learn more of Laura’s story you get a sense of what might have happened but aren’t 100% sure until near the end of the book. This was a well written book and I wanted to keep reading to find out what had happened.
Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines by Jonathan Mooney
Jonathan Mooney was a neurodiverse kid who was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. Trying to fit inside the box of normalcy cost him a lot and nearly cost him his life. In this book he shares his story and also the history of normal. He shows how normal was constructed around the ideal human which didn’t actually exist. One of the chapters is titled “Normal People are People You Don’t Know Very Well” which I think explains it well. This book is about embracing and celebrating difference. Everyone has strengths and something to offer. I’d recommend it for teachers, parents and anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t fit the norm, in whatever way.
Talk of the Town by Rachael Johns
Lawson a widowed dairy farmer, raising a young son meets Rose, who’s just moved into the old general store of a nearby abandoned town. Why is she living alone, in such an isolated place? They come to know each other but neither is totally honest with the other. When Lawson learns the truth about Rose will that be the end of any relationship that was forming?
Just One Wish by Rachael Johns
Alice has been a scientist, activist and single mother and as she turns eighty is wondering if she’s always made the right choices? Her daughter, Sappho railed against her unconventional upbringing, married young and chose to be a homemaker. She’s now finding fame as a domestic goddess on social media but is all as it seems? Ged, who’s been the peacemaker between her mother and grandmother is dealing with her own life and love issues. Then she learns of a fifty-year-old secret which may blow the whole family apart. Another page turner, with a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.
I chose both of the Rachael Johns books as I had read another of her novels in January. When I was borrowing books just before the libraries shut, I was focusing on authors I’d read before and had enjoyed.
Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy
This book is a collection of short stories from Maeve Binchy. All of the characters in the different stories live on, have lived on or have a connection to Chestnut Street. The stories are set in different decades but all are set in some way on Chestnut Street. Some of the characters from one story are mentioned in the other stories. I don’t normally read short stories and once I realised this was a collection of short stories, I stopped reading it for a while. When I picked up the book again, I quite enjoyed it. Maeve Binchy portrays a lot about life and the choices people make, in this collection of stories.
A Girl’s Guide to the Outback by Jessica Kate
This is another book that I bought at the Omega Writer’s Fair. Samuel Payton is an Australian Youth Pastor working on a Youth Project in Virginia. He returns to the Australian Dairy Farm he grew up on to help his sister. Kimberley, a business expert & his co-worker from the youth project is tasked with getting him to return to the project. Kimberley agrees to work on the dairy farm and use her business knowledge to help save the farm, if Samuel then returns to America to at least help find and hand over to a knew Youth Pastor. As they get to know each other more, they wonder if they might be able to be more than friends & co-workers but then disaster looms.
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