Love Comes Softly And More...

Source:  Goodreads

As I told you in my last post, I've decided to make 2013 a year of Christian reading.  That means I'll be reading my Bible, Christian non-fiction, and Christian fiction.

I started out with the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke.  My husband got me the series for Christmas, and I couldn't wait to get started on January 1st.  I had been planning to read this one for a long time having watched the first two movies a while ago.  I knew I'd enjoy it because I love the pioneer/prairie era and it's Christian themes were exactly the type of reading I'd been looking forward to in 2013.

Janette Oke
Source:  Goodreads

There are eight books in this series:

• Love Comes Softly
• Love's Enduring Promise
• Love's Long Journey
• Love's Abiding Joy
• Love's Unending Legacy
• Love's Unfolding Dream
• Love Takes Wing
• Love Finds a Home

This series is about the Davis family, firstly Marty and Clark whose love story I fell in love with myself.  The untimely death of Marty's first husband and the death of Clark's wife a few months earlier force the two to make an unthinkable decision...they will marry--become a partnership--in order to survive.  Marty needed a roof over her head and food to eat while Clark needed a mother for his small daughter Missie.  They never knew when they started their journey that theirs would turn into the love of a life time.  The rest of the books in the series follow this family and it's generations over the decades.  I fell in love with this family, their love for God, and their love for each other.  What an inspiring read!

I am so happy to have finally read these books!  They were everything I hoped they'd be.  I especially loved the first four in the series, the first and the third being my favorites of the entire series.

Source:  Goodreads

A Year of Christian Reading

I'm still here!

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, and it's time to change that.  I thought I'd start out 2013 by letting you know about my reading plans for this year.  I've decided that in 2013 I will read only Christian Fiction/Nonfiction.  It is a genre that I'm ashamed to say I've read very little of, and I feel the need to fix that this year.

So to kick off my year of Christian reading, I decided to start with the Love Comes Softly Series by Janette Oke.  I'm on book number seven, Love Takes Wing.  My husband got me the series for Christmas and I have to say I have loved each book.  I plan to do a post about the entire series when I finish the last one.

I know the movies are very popular as well.  I've seen the first two and enjoyed them, so I plan to watch the rest when I can manage it.

I've set myself a reading goal of 50 books this year.  I usually set a goal of 100, but I never reach it.  This year I decided to set a goal that's attainable, and I'm off to a good start with 10 books so far for January.

I'm really looking forward to a year of reading, blogging, and following all the great blogs that I love!  Thanks to all of you who read mine!

My Thoughts On Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Source:  Goodreads

I'm happy to report (my daughter's even happier) that I have finally finished my first Harry Potter! I really enjoyed this book, and I absolutely love love the characters.  I can't wait to read the next one which my daughter has been kind enough to let me borrow!

My Thoughts On "Crossed" By Ally Condie

Source:  Goodreads

Crossed is the second book in the Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie.  It is the story of Cassia who has found a way to leave the controlling "Society" and all of it's rules and regulations behind in search of Ky; the boy she wasn't supposed to fall in love with but did anyway.  We follow Cassia as she leaves her family and her best friend and true Society Match, Xander behind and finds a way into the Outer Provinces where she believes Ky to be, and then as she runs to the Carving, a grouping of canyons that just might lead to Ky and the rebellion called The Rising that she is so eager to join.  Along the way she is forced to do things she never thought she could and make decisions she never thought she would.

I liked this one, but I have to admit that I didn't like it as much as Matched.  Matched was a real page turner for me.  I couldn't put it down.  With this one, I enjoyed it while I was reading but I would go a day and not ever pick it up.  It seemed to me there was a lot of the same thing happening over and over again throughout most of the book.  It did pick up toward the end though, and over all I really enjoyed it.  I love the characters in this book, so I will absolutely read the final book in the trilogy, Reached.  I think I've figured out what's going to happen!  It's due out in November, so I guess we'll see (:

I'd also like to say after much begging by my 9 year old daughter...I'm finally reading Harry Potter. I think I may be the only one left on the planet that hasn't!

"Like Water for Chocolate"...The Book And The Movie

A while ago I read Like Water for Chocolate.  I really liked it, but it's one of the strangest books I've ever read.  Last night I had the opportunity to watch a movie version of the book.  I liked it as well, but I found it just as strange as the book.

Source:  Goodreads

I found the movie version on Netflix.  It's in Spanish but subtitled.  If you've never read the book or watched the movie and are looking for something different, give both a try.

My Thoughts On "Keeper of the Doves"

Source:  Goodreads

The last time I was at the library with my daughter we were browsing through the books when I came across Keeper of the Doves.  I fell in love with the cover immediately, so I checked it out.  It's a sweet little story about a young girl named Amen, living in the late 1800's, trying to find her place in a family of five girls, and the secrets families sometimes keep.

This little book is just 128 pages, so it was a fast easy read.  I enjoyed the story and would definitely recommend it to elementary aged girls.

My Thoughts On Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Source:  Goodreads

Everyone calls Cecilia Rose Honeycutt, CeeCee.  She is a sad little girl living in Ohio with her mentally unstable mother and a father who would rather be anywhere but home with his family.  She is left alone to deal with her mom's illness.  As her mother loses grip on reality, CeeCee struggles to stay sane as her mom wanders the streets in prom dresses, red high heels, and tiaras.  CeeCee's only comfort lies in the books she reads and her elderly neighbor Mrs. Odell.  When a horrible tragedy strikes, CeeCee is forced to move to Savannah, Georgia to live with an aunt she never even knew existed.  There she meets a group of women that will change her life.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is full of southern hospitality.  From the big houses to the magnolia trees, you can almost see Savannah as you read this book.  The setting and the mood are done so well, and it's full of lovable characters.  CeeCee is such a broken little girl, but at her core she's sweet and wants to be loved so badly.

  

Like birds coming to roost in a favorite tree, we filed down the hallway and into the kitchen, settling comfortably in our places.  It was a moment so perfect I wished I could stop time.  I thought about how we all had Life Books--Mrs. Odell, Aunt Tootie, Oletta and me--and how someone, somewhere, had seen fit to write our names on one another's pages.

                                                                         --CeeCee from Saving CeeCee Honeycutt



I really enjoyed this book!  It's hard to believe that this is Kentucky author, Beth Hoffman's first novel.  She did an awesome job.  The way each character speaks, the things they eat, the clothes they wear, even the weather--it all just seems authentic.  I would definitely recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy southern fiction.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is the last book I read for Southern Fiction in September as part of The Cupcakes Wars Reading Challenge hosted by Brenda at Curling Up With A Good Book.