As the summer comes to a close I was thinking about the books I have read over the past couple months. I tend to read alot more during the summer. The weather is nicer so you're outdoors more and, as a self proclaimed TV junkie, my shows are all on hiatus for the summer so I have some extra time on my hands. I started the summer with "Eat Pray Love", after spending my honeymoon in Italy I wanted to read about the authors journey there as well. It sounds like she enjoyed the eating as much as I did!
I'm becoming a fan of Jodi Picoult who wrote "My Sisters' Keeper". I didn't read that book but saw the movie. I did read her book "19 Minutes" which had me on the edge of my seat, and I'm reading "Keeping Faith" right now. I just finished "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". It was sitting on my shelf for years and I finally got to it and what a story it was!
I love reading biographies and my favorite book of the summer was "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman. She is the wife of Steven Curtis Chapman and the book was the journey through her life and so honest which I loved. Steven Curtis Chapman "is" Christian music and we have a perception of his life and his family life and this book shows us that like everyone else they are just a real family.
She talks about getting married young, having kids, the struggles of having a husband who is on the road most of the time, her wresting match with God, depression and the horrible loss of their daughter a couple years ago. She was a "control freak" and definately had plan for her life, liked everything organized and then her life turned out the opposite. I can definately relate to that one. I like to control everything in my life and God always has a different plan for us and some handle it better than others. Steven and Mary Beth have become advocates for adoption and it was amazing to hear about that part of their life and how they resisted the idea of adoption in the beginning and ended up adopting 3 girls from China. There is one incredible story of Mary Beth and Jan Moore (Geoff Moore's wife) going to China to pick up their girls before the province was shut down from the SARS virus. Their adoptions had gone through but they had about a month before it was time to go pick up the girls. They heard the province was shutting down and it would be a few months before they could get in. They set out on a mission to get their girls and literally threw clothes in a suitcase headed for China and hoped for the best. It was so incredible I had to read that chapter out loud to my husband.
I really enjoyed how she incorporated Steven's song lyrics into the book - almost every chapter starts with one of his songs and you get to read about that part of the journey in their lives and where that song came from. The last 1/4 of the book is about the loss of their daughter Maria
It's very relatable for anyone and I just loved reading it and seeing the other side of their story. I highly recommend it and it's in stores in Canada next week. http://marybethchapman.com/
If you have any book recommendations let me know so I can start my reading list for the fall!
No comments:
Post a Comment