Welcome to my weekly book update post where I share what books I read this past week + my honest thoughts and star ratings of them.
A Word on My Star Ratings
The star ratings I give the books I read are based on a 5-star rating system. I rarely will ever give a book a 1-star rating (maybe never?), because my philosophy is that if a book is only worthy of one star, I’m more than likely going to quit reading it. 🙂 In the same vein, you’ll also notice that I’ll rarely give a 5-star rating as I reserve those for only my very, very favorite books.
Want to see all of the books I’ve read so far this year? Check out my Good Reads page.
The last three weeks, I finished two books and here are my reviews…
This book, by Chrystal Evans Hurst, is written to encourage teen girls to live with more intention and purpose. As the Amazon description says, it’s “a book that empowers young women to appreciate their divinely-created uniqueness instead of comparing themselves to others.”
The chapters are short and easily digestible and the book is packed with lots of stories and practical ways to walk out the lessons it contains. I especially loved how the author was so honest in sharing her mistakes and short-comings.
As someone who has teen daughters and who helps lead a small group of high school girls in our youth group, I thought it was a worthwhile read. Not all of it was relatable currently (it delved into certain things that my girls haven’t dealt with or struggled with yet), but I picked up some words of wisdom as a mom and youth group leader, plus inspiration in my personal life.
Verdict: 3 stars
I’ve never listened to Mike Rowe’s podcast by this same name, but I really enjoyed this book. It shares little known stories of well known people… but he doesn’t tell you who the individual is until the very end of the story.
In addition, he shares a more personal reflection at the end of each story. These were often my favorite as he’s had such a fascinating life and journey.
Mike Rowe is a fantastic storyteller and I get so personally inspired as a writer just by paying attention to how he weaves words and stories together in a masterful way. I especially loved that this audiobook was narrated by him. I loved some of the sections so much that I had to have Jesse listen to them!
Note: If you’re familiar with Mike Rowe’s show, Dirty Jobs, you’ll know that he tends to be a little crude at times and there was definitely some innuendo in the book. So if that type of thing bothers you, this book is definitely one you’ll want to pass. I’m giving it a high star rating based upon the vibrant storytelling in this book.
Verdict: 4 stars
Book I Didn’t Finish: Where the Crawdads Sing — I’ve seen this book mentioned so many places and it has often been recommended. I made it halfway through the audiobook and just couldn’t keep listening. While I found the story engaging and it was so good to remember that you never know where people have come from and what it’s like to walk in their shoes, I just felt uncomfortable that it was starting to give too many details about intimate scenes.
I thought it would be fun to start sharing some of the picture books we’re reading to the babies. Goodnight Moon was one of Silas’ favorite books when he was little and he was so excited to get to introduce it to them babies.
They love this book already and we’ve read it over and over again. I think this is a perfect book to introduce to little babies because the pictures are so engaging (plus it has some black and white pages), the story is short, and it’s fun and rhyming.
What are your favorite picture books to read to little ones?
What have you read recently? I’d love to hear! Tell us in the comments!
