All things bookish!
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What I Finished:
What I'm Reading/Listening:
Blurb:
Is your quest to love yourself more actually making you miserable?
We're told that the key to happiness is self-love. Instagram influencers, mommy bloggers, self-help gurus, and even Christian teachers promise that if we learn to love ourselves, we'll be successful, secure, and complete. But the promise doesn't deliver. Instead of feeling fulfilled, our pursuit of self-love traps us in an exhausting as we strive for self-acceptance, we become addicted to self-improvement.
The truth is we can't find satisfaction inside ourselves because we are the problem. We struggle with feelings of inadequacy because we are inadequate. Alone, we are not good enough, smart enough, or beautiful enough. We're not enough--period. And that's okay, because God is.
The answer to our insufficiency and insecurity isn't self-love, but God's love. In Jesus, we're offered a way out of our toxic culture of self-love and into a joyful life of relying on him for wisdom, satisfaction, and purpose. We don't have to wonder what it's all about anymore. This is it.
This book isn't about battling your not-enoughness; it's about embracing it. Allie Beth Stuckey, a Christian, conservative new mom, found herself at the dead end of self-love, and she wants to help you combat the false teachings and self-destructive mindsets that got her there. In this book, she uncovers the myths popularized by our culture of trendy narcissism, reveals where they manifest in politics and the church, and dismantles them with biblical truth and practical wisdom.
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I love Colleen Coble's in the past so I jumped on the chance to listen to "Alaska Twilight". I started listening to it yesterday (Tuesday) and am over halfway through already!
Blurb:
For some people, Alaska is a breathtaking wilderness adventure, full of light and beauty. For Haley, it is a dangerous world of dark dreams and tortured memories. On the surface, she's here to document wildlife activist Kipp Nowak's bear encounters. But her real reason is to unearth the truth about a past murder. The suspense mounts when another body turns up, and Haley beginst to wonder if the tragedies she experienced in the past are connected to the dangers and mysterious incidents of the present. From behind the viewfinder of her camera, Haley observes it all, including Tank Lassiter, the bear biologist who has been forced to lead Kipp and his team into the Alaskan backcountry. As she watches him with his work, she feels a growing attraction. It will take great courage and faith to confront the truth she once ran away from. Before it's over, Haley may be viewing herself from an entirely new angle.
Alaska Twilight is the story of a young woman's emergence from the shadows of past sorrow into the light of forgiveness and grace.
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What I'll (Probably) Read Next:
"Beyond Ivy Walls" by Rachel Fordham is the March selection for the Good for the Soul Women's Bookclub. I'm going to be listening to the audiobook while I market prep for a Spring Fling Vendor show that is taking place in early April. I'm really looking forward to this book!
Blurb:
Beauty and the Beast meets A Light Between Oceans in historic small-town America where a wealthy reclusive bachelor and an unlikely ally join forces to solve a family secret and inadvertently find belonging along the way.
Early 1900s. When an accident leaves Sadie West's family in dire financial need, she nervously leaves the land she loves to work in the Hoag duster factory. But sending all her money home means that she has nowhere to board, and she's forced to take up residence in an abandoned building--a choice that throws her in the path of the town's mysterious bachelor.
Recently returned from exile, and determined to keep his arrival a secret, Otis Taylor makes the impulsive decision to hire the woman he finds hiding on his family's property with the strict instructions she tell no one he has returned. The dark halls of his boyhood flood him with memories he's long tried to forget. The only bright light is the woman he has hired. Can the optimistic Sadie teach the wounded Otis to trust again? To love? Can the pair unravel the family secrets that have long cast a shadow over the mansion and those who reside within?
With the same heart as Rachel Fordham's fan-loved previous historical novels, Beyond Ivy Walls takes readers on an emotional journey full of character development, historical nuance, and a deeply satisfying happily ever after.
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Book Haul:
Narrated by Em Eldridge and Jason Keller
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Book Blogger Hop:
Q. Do you belong to a book club? If so, how many members do you have? How long has it been going on? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)
A. I do belong to a Book Club!
I've mentioned the Good for the Soul Women's Book Club above and on other posts as well. The Book Club is based on Facebook with Zoom meetings at the end of each month to discuss the book we voted on reading for that month. We focus on Christian fiction mostly but we are reading a non-fiction in February as shown above.
Prairie is our fearless leader, and does a wonderful job promoting the Book Club on Facebook as well as Instagram @goodforthesoulbookclub .
I believe the Book Club started last June and currently has 68 members. I didn't join in until September so I missed the first couple book selections.
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Bookishly Yours,
Linking up to:
The book by Stuckey sounds fantastic and like a good one for my book group to read. I lead a small group and at my church it can be a traditional Bible study, a book study, or a sermon series study (based on the previous week's sermon). I always choose a book study. Am getting this on the list for Autumn semester. thanks for the awesome review.
ReplyDeleteYES! i lead my own book group although in the past, I had 12 women, I now have 7. 3 went on to begin their own small groups! one dropped out of church (which made me sad but....). I also join in on the monthly book club at my town library although this past month I couldn't make it).