The Shack by Wm. Paul Young // This is a book that I finished in the month of November, over a period of two days. This was one of those books that I couldn't stop thinking about and what it meant when I was done with it. Although this book is focused on an experience of God, I think it would be a great read for any reader. Mack is on a camping trip with his three children when his daughter is abducted, with evidence later on that she was brutally murdered in a shack in the woods. He receives a letter years later supposedly from God inviting him back to the shack. He goes, and his experience there changes him forever. There is just something so interesting about the points that are brought up in the book, so interesting that they will really stick with you after you've finished the book.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey // I finished this book over the summer, it was a quick read, a few days tops. At first, my thought was that the plot of the book was quite silly, but there is something Eowyn does that makes this book something unique and incredible. Set in 1920, Jack and Mabel, a married couple, are sad and falling apart from a miscarriage years before. They moved to a homestead in Alaska to create a change in their life, but they are struggling for their survival and their marriage. One night, they make a snowman that looks like a child. The next day, they find that the snow child has disappeared, but they see a small girl darting through the woods. Somehow, she survives on her own in the Alaskan wilderness with a red fox by her side.
Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession by Elizabeth Benedict // I haven't read this book before, Ingrid Nilsen (one of my favorite youtube gals) recommended it in her November favorites video. She explains that while hair may seem extremely trivial, it tells a story for a lot of women. In this book, women from different backgrounds and cultures tell their story.
I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai // This is my current book. I've never read a biography (not by choice anyway!), so I'm trying to get through this one. The style is so different from my normal genre, but I am trying to do a chapter at a time to get through it. The book is interesting, but not something I can sit and read through hours and hours a night like my fiction books. In 2012, Malala was shot by the Taliban on a bus home from school, when she was 15. She wasn't expected to survive, but has made a huge difference in many lives, and continues to use her experience to strengthen herself. She tells her story, and the story of her town, and her amazing parents who have found love for their daughter in a place where this love is rare.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd // This is another book I read over the summer, that I couldn't put down. I handed it off to my mom and she loved it too. It is a super quick read, and the movie adaptation is actually very well done. Lily's mother died when she was young, and she lives thinking of this memory every day. She lives with a father who she feels no love from, and a maid, Rosaleen, who she loves like her own family. One day, Rosaleen insults dangerous racists in their town, and Lily decides they should escape to stay safe. They head to Tiburon, South Carolina, in hopes of finding more about Lily's mother. They end up in the house of three sisters who are beekeepers, and there they find love, answers, and an amazing world of bees.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng // I haven't read this one, but I saw it at Amazon Books a few weeks ago, and it caught my eye. It is about a Chinese American family living in the 1970's. The daughter of the family dies, and things turn to chaos. Amazon says, "a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another".
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson // Another one on my to-read list. Allan lives in a nursing home, thinking his life will end there. One day, he turns 100 years old still in good health. There is a party in store, but he decides to escape out the window in his slippers instead. "It would be the adventure of a lifetime for almost anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them". This book is supposed to be a real hoot, and I've never read a funny book before, so I can't wait to start turning the pages of this one.
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin // Another to-read. Amanda "springs an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West, and the dramatic consequences of his actions".
Lila by Marilynne Robinson // I've been admiring this one at the bookstore for a very long time, but I refuse to let myself buy any more books until I've finished what's waiting for me on my bookshelf. A story of girlhood, Lila has been homeless and wandering the countryside alone. One day, she wanders into a small-town Iowa church and her life changes. She ends up the wife of a minister, and tries to untangle her previous life.
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson // This is one of the books waiting for me on my bookshelf. Erik combines the truth of the World's Fair with his storytelling to create what supposedly contains "all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of best fiction".
*All quotes are from Amazon.com*
Books to read on my bookshelf:
The Orchardist
Devil in the White City
Where'd You Go Bernadette
The Invention of Wings
Books I've read and loved:
Time Traveler's Wife
Love and Other Natural Disasters
Wild
Summer of the Bear
The Hobbit
What books do you have on your "to-read" list? Do you have any amazing book recommendations?
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