Books
Posted by lara Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:00:00 GMT
I've been doing a lot of reading lately, so I wanted to share some thoughts on what I've read:
First off, I have to thank Dad E for supplying me with great reading material - 3 of the books below came from him...
Time of Storm - by Marianne Fischer
I learned about Marianne Fisher because she is my friend Laura's grandmother. She has an awesome story to tell of how she survived being a Jewish Christian in Hungary during the Holocaust. She has a wonderful way of telling her stories, and of sharing how the Lord protected her over and over again. Highly recommended, and a very easy read. Thanks, Laura, for inviting me to meet your grandma and to learn the story of your family!
A Man Called Blessed - by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright
I found this to be a fun story with some interesting comments about faith and different people's reactions to God. It makes me want to find more of their books to read, although I haven't actually done that yet. The reading list is too long at this point. :-)
On Every Side - by Karen Kingsbury
Somewhat predictable, yet enjoyable. I'm not against predictability, just so long as the path to get there is intriguing or makes you feel for the characters. And I really liked the characters in this book and enjoyed watching the ways that their paths crossed and the way that they interacted.
Failing Forward - by John Maxwell
As most self-help, attitude changing books, this is too much to digest in one reading. But I have found that my attitude about making mistakes has been somewhat adjusted. I find myself saying "failure is just what I need to go through in order to succeed" and "if I haven't failed, then I haven't challenged myself enough". So little by little, it's helping to get rid of the perfectionist in me.
Your Money or Your Life - by Joe Rodriguez and Vicki Robin
I like goals. And I am always looking to find better ways to be a good money manager and to work with Marshall as a team. I don't know that I will ever get through their entire financial program, but after reading this book I have kept better track of our spending. As time progresses, I would like to really work on making sure that our spending matches up with our goals. The idea is to help us to spend our money only on things that are truly fulfilling and that are helping us to get closer to financial independence (i.e. not having to work a traditional 9-5 job if we so choose). It's meant to help reduce spending on things that don't matter and help us to save for things that do.
The Testament - by John Grisham
This is a Lara story if there ever was one. It's entertaining. The characters are interesting. The story is engaging. Much of it has to do with a missionary in a South American jungle. Good stuff. Thanks to Marshall for suggesting it to me.
Portrait In Sepia / Retrato en sepia - by Isabel Allende
After all of this reading in English, I felt it was time to practice my Spanish again. And I was intrigued by this book because it is a sequel of sorts to Daughter of Fortune, which I had already read. It didn't let me down. It was just about at my level of Spanish... challenging enough to learn new things but not so much so that I couldn't understand what was happening. My experience so far with Isabel Allende (which is only these 2 books) is that her stories are entertaining. I tend to have at least a few parts where I am wondering if I should really be reading this but am not quite offended enough to put it down. Hers are some of the first books that were originally written in Spanish that I have had success with.
The Alchemist / El alquimista - by Paulo Coelho
This is also the second book I've read by Paulo Coelho (en español, por supuesto). And while I haven't been quite sure in either book of what exactly he's trying to say, he intrigues me.
