summer bookshelf.

 

Happy end-of May! Can you believe we nearly made it to summer?

This week our family will be busy finishing up school, celebrating Gabe’s 7th birthday, and starting to pack for our Florida beach trip.

I love summer.

I’m ready to just be mom again for awhile, instead of mom-and-school-teacher. I’m ready for after-breakfast walks in the neighborhood before the heat spikes to 99 degrees, homemade popsicles, and cheese toast topped with red pepper flakes and a slice of tomato straight from the garden.

If you’re like me, you’re compiling your summer reading list, so I hope this post helps. I’m way overdue for a booklist, so this is a long one! As always, please leave your own ideas in the comments.

Also, Judah has requested to write a bookshelf post of his own recommendations, so be on the lookout!

 

As Bright As Heaven, Susan Meissner

My mom introduced me to this author. I enjoyed her historical novel, Secrets of A Charmed Life, but As Bright As Heaven is even better. It’s one I’ll definitely want to reread.

 

 

The Austen Escape, Katherine Reay

Katherine Reay’s latest novel is sweet, predictable, entertaining, and wholly unrealistic. Sometimes we need books like this. I enjoyed it so much. I reread her novels when I’m looking for light and comforting.

 

 

Rethinking School, Susan Wise Bauer

Susan Wise Bauer is the author who inspired me to dive in and give homeschooling a try. Her latest book asks hard questions of our education system, and gives both school and homeschooling parents a vision of how to think outside the box and work hard to give their kids a well-rounded education.

 

 

Far From the Tree, Robin Benway

This Young Adult novel is about three biological siblings who meet for the first time as teenagers. The two girls are growing up in different adoptive families, and their brother is in the foster care system. The siblings each wrestle with identity and loss and relationships in ways that feel real and profound.

 

 

Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan

I read this memoir for my book club, and it illustrates why I love being in a book club: I would never have picked up something like this otherwise! I worried that this account of the author’s unique and terrifying disease would feel sensationalized, like Girl, Interrupted, but it didn’t at all. I appreciated the factual, journalistic-style. During our book club discussion, I enjoyed learning how each of us processed the story. I, for one, had nightmares while I read it. But this book is well worth reading and very hopeful. Thanks to Lauren for urging us to try something different!

 

 

Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter, and Me, Lorilee Craker

This memoir is written by an adopted woman who in turn adopts a baby girl from Korea. Using the story of Anne of Green Gables, Lorilee Craker shares openly about her adoption journey in such a meaningful way. I laughed and cried and felt very moved by this hidden gem of a book. I walked away with a deeper compassion for adoptees and an understanding about their search for identity and belonging, and I’ll want to read it again when my boys get older.

 

 

The Read-Aloud Family, Sarah Mackenzie

Hooray, Sarah Mackenzie, for giving us this fabulous book! It’s my new favorite to put in the hands of first-time moms (or older moms), because I believe it gives us such an inspiring vision for a life of quality family time, without laying on the guilt trip. My sister-in-law texted this week and said, “Help! I need a reading curriculum for my son this summer.” So I told her to buy The Read-Aloud Family. The last third of the book is full of booklists for kids of all ages. I’m using them as a guide for our own library trips this summer.

 

 

The Things of Earth, Joe Rigney

David put this book in my hands a couple months ago and told me, “You’ll love it.” He was right. If you’re just planning to read one book on Christian living this year, my vote is for The Things of Earth. Joe Rigney exposes our unbiblical guilt over enjoying material things and points us to the generous, creative God who made all good gifts and teaches us how to treasure Him by accepting them. I walked away with a bigger, more beautiful vision of God, and a desire to worship Him through live a life of wonder and thanksgiving.

 

 

The Emily series, L.M. Montgomery

Last year I reread the Anne series, and this year wanted to read Emily. It’s been a decade at least since I read this trilogy, and as an adult I noticed how much darker it is. I read that of all L.M Montgomery’s characters, she considered Emily the most autobiographical.  The Emily books don’t hold quite the same joyful, light-hearted tone as Anne, and the characters are more difficult for me to become attached to, but I still love her as a complex character, and identify with her sensitive, brooding spirit, and bouts of depression. I aspire to be like Anne, but am much more like Emily.

 

 

Missional Motherhood, Gloria Furman

Wow. This book blew me away. I know some readers were disappointed with the fact that it isn’t more practical, but I felt that Gloria Furman did a good job of clarifying her purpose in the introduction. You will not find ideas for the “best ways to discipline your children” or “how to have a quiet time as a busy mom,” but I’m okay with that. There are plenty of wise, practical guides to Christian parenting.

Instead, Gloria Furman stretches our vision of biblical womanhood so wide that we may just not be the same after. We are not the center of our story. Mothers aren’t the center of society. The Risen Christ is the center, and the more we know and exalt Him, the freer we’ll be. Her theses is that all women are made to mother others, in that we are all called to follow Christ’s example of “nurturing life in the face of death.”

Her book is a bold, Gospel-saturated clarion call to live lives of purpose, service, worship, and joy, and in this way you’ll connect with it whether you have biological or adopted children or not. Missional Motherhood changed the way I view my current season of life, my upcoming summer, and my future. I’m so, so grateful to have read it.

 

 

The Gospel Comes with a House Key, Rosaria Butterfield

If Missional Motherhood gives us a grand, Christ-exalting vision for biblical womanhood, then Rosaria Butterfield’s latest book is an account of one woman’s attempt to live that calling out (and it’s no accident that her favorite book on parenting is Missional Motherhood). She just so happens to be a wife and a mother. I have the utmost respect for her honesty and straightforwardness in telling about her family’s call to a life of radical hospitality. And it is radical.

Please don’t read this book and compare yourself to the Butterfields and feel despair. We are all called to live missionally in unique ways. Rosaria and her family have chosen a very specific life, and she’s dogmatic about things I don’t feel dogmatic about and that’s okay. Read this book and give thanks to God for the Butterfields, and ask Him to stretch your definition of missional living and hospitality. That’s what David and I are doing. We love this book!

 

 

The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan

Here’s a lovely novel for your summer vacation. I mean, how pretty is that cover? The story is charming and the characters quirky and endearing.

 

 

The Story of Arthur Truluv, Elizabeth Berg

Oh my. Arthur, I can’t help loving you. I adored this book. It caught my heart and made me cry. Another great one to take on vacation (heads up: some language).

 

 

When the Moon Has No More Silver, Connie Lapallo

In my last bookshelf post, I mentioned the first book in this series, Dark Enough to See the Stars in the Jamestown Sky. I appreciate Connie Lapallo’s research and faithfulness to history in telling the story of Jamestown Colony, and I couldn’t put her sequel down. I’ve added the books to my personal collection slowly, since the library doesn’t carry them, and I’m excited to buy the third this summer.

 

 

The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

This is a sweet story that felt a bit preachy at times. But it has one of my favorite descriptions of the standard of respect for marriage, as village sage Lulu Thiberville instructs Miss Prim on finding a husband:

The basis of a good marriage, a reasonably happy marriage–don’t delude yourself, there’s no such thing as an entirely happy marriage–is, precisely, inequality. It’s essential if two people are to feel mutual admiration. Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you. You must not aspire to find a husband who’s your equal, but one who’s absolutely and completely better than you…

If two people admire each other, they’re not equals. If they were, they wouldn’t admire each other. They’re different, as each admires in the other what they don’t find in themselves. It’s difference, not similarity, that fosters admiration between two people.

 

 

Persuasion, Jane Austen

I reread Persuasion this spring for book club. Next to Pride and Prejudice, it’s my favorite Jane Austen novel, and I love the BBC movie adaption. We learned from our book club discussion that people seem to either love Jane Austen, or be bored by her. I think she’s fabulous in small doses (I couldn’t read all her novels back-to-back). Anne Elliot is just perfection.

 

 

Alright friends, I’m moving on to a category of books called Middle Grade fiction, but I hesitate to label it because I don’t want you to tune me out.

Please give this wonderful genre a try. Lately I’ve worked my way through classic Newberry award winners, and there are so many gems here for kids and adults alike.

If you have children around this age and are trying to gauge their maturity level, the best thing to do is pre-read. I will tell you unequivocally that all of these books are good-quality literature and redemptive stories. But some of the issues are best navigated when you can discuss alongside your student. It takes prayerful wisdom to decide when to introduce certain issues, and each child’s emotional maturity level is different.

Since I have an almost-11 and almost-9-year-old, I’ve stretched them a bit this year in reading stories with hard themes (like slavery and Native American history). It’s been good, but I try not to push them too far, especially Amie, who’s very sensitive like I was as a child.

 

Middle grade fiction (ages 8-12)

 

Piecing Me Together, Renee Watson (older middle-grade)

This story is beautiful and heart-breaking and challenging. I adored Jade and respected her and mostly just felt thankful to walk around in her shoes and see life from her perspective. I think it’s a very important book to gain understanding of the black perspective in America. I’ll probably wait until my kids are closer to 12 to read it with them.

 

 

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

I read this novel at the recommendation of Sarah Mackenzie of Read-Aloud Revival, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s a perfect magical, wistful summer read.

 

 

The False Prince (Ascendance Trilogy), Jennifer Nielson

I just finished this trilogy, and Judah is right behind me. It was recommended for fans of Harry Potter, and I couldn’t put it down. The last novel, The Shadow Throne, was my favorite and tied the plot together so well that I can’t wait to start the series all over again. I loved, loved the character growth and development, and the friendships depicted. A great series to discuss with boys.

 

 

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse (older middle-grade)

Another Newberry winner, this book is written in free verse. I had no knowledge of the Dust Bowl era of history, which happened during the Great Depression. The story is achingly sad, but lovely and hopeful. Because of the heavy subject matter, I’ll wait a couple of years to introduce this one to my kids.

 

 

The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson (older middle-grade)

Oh my goodness. Have you guys read this book? I devoured it in one sitting last night and am still reeling. It’s the story of a young girl in foster care, and that’s all I’ll say.

This is hands-down my favorite novel of this year so far. I’m going to read it again tonight.

 

 

Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (older middle-grade)

I actually read Bridge to Terabithia before The Great Gilly Hopkins. I instantly loved it, so much that Judah gave me a copy for Mother’s Day. I’m now a big Katherine Paterson fan, Jacob Have I Loved is on my bookshelf to read next. I was forewarned that all of her books are sad, but worth it. It’s the characters I just cannot get enough of.

 

 

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, Karina Yan Glaser

Judah, Amie, and I are wrapping up the Penderwicks series, a journey which has taken us the entire school year (and it deserves it’s own separate blog post). While we were waiting for book 5 to be released, we read this delightful novel, which is very similar in style: about a big, loud, quirky family who adore animals. I think it’s fun that it’s set in Harlem. We enjoyed this book so much and laughed out loud at the scrapes the Vanderbeeker kids found themselves in. Also, we all three commented that the middle Vanderbeeker, Oliver, is the character most like Judah of any of the books we’ve read thus far. Which is just fun!

 

 

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Jean Lee Latham

This is a wonderfully inspiring novel we read for U.S. History this year, based on 18th century navigator, Nathaniel Bowditch.

 

The Cabin Faced West, Jean Fritz

Here’s a perfect story for your Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. Amie just finished These Happy Golden Years on audiobook, which means she’s listened to the entire Little House series this year (by the way, 8 was the perfect age for her to truly enjoy them).