2013 Books in Review

2013 Book Review

I used to review books separately and in detail. And I really loved looking back at what I read. So I want to keep writing about what I have read. But it would take me a long time to review everything I have read. So...I'm thinking a big list will have to do. And I am going to challenge myself for mini yet through reviews. Lets see how this goes.

1 = Stinky Stinky Rotten Tomatoes
10 = Darn Near Perfect

1. The Hiding Place -Non-Fiction. Score: 10 In my top three favorite books of all time. I find myself quoting her to my clients, kids and self almost daily. 
2. The Rules of Inheritance -Non-Fiction/ memoir. Score: 9 Beautiful and incredibly honest. I relate in so many ways. And at one point I found myself sobbing as I listened - it made its way in. 
3. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and How to Listen So Kids will Talk Non-Fiction/Self Help - Score: 9. One of my favorite parenting books. Love this and use the magic wand trick taught in this book almost daily. 
4. Beautiful Ruins - Fiction. Score: 4. There is a good love story in here. And some really captivating elements - but they were burried so far beneath a lot of filth I just couldn't get to them. 
5. The Gifts of Imperfection - Non-Fiction/Self Help - Score: 8
6. The Fault in Our Stars -Fiction. Score: 9. Loved this and had a few moments of the ugly cry.
7. A New Earth - Non-Fiction/Self Help. Score: ??  I listened to this and maybe its meant to be read because I found myself getting very lost. His voice was so monotonous and I almost dozed off. 
8. The Gift of Therapy - Non-Fiction. Score: 9
9. Me Before You - Fiction. Score: 9 - I wrote a review about this a few weeks ago. Loved it and totally recommend. 
10. Blackmoore - Fiction. Score: 9 -  Sweet love story. Very Austin-esque. 
11. Jane Eyre -Fiction. Score: 10 - In my top three favorite books. Love Love Love Jane!
12. The Silver Linings Playbook - Fiction - Score: 7.8 - I liked it. I laughed out loud. 
13. Orphan Train - Fiction.. Score: 8.5 -  Great story and one that I could relate to on many levels. 
14. Women, Food and God Non-Fiction/Self Help. Score: 9. 
15. Intuitive Eating Non-Fiction/Self Help. Score: 8. 
16. The God Who Weeps Non-Fiction -Score: 10. Incredible. Loved this book and i'm reading it through again. 
17. Spilled Milk Non-Fiction/Memoir Score: 7. Writing was immature and inexperienced. But the story held my interest. 
18. Proof Of Heaven Non-Fiction. Score: 8 Neurosurgeon tells of his near death experience.  Read the entire book on a plane ride and couldn't put it down. Definitely written by a analytical doctor. Don't expect flowery language and lots of mushy feelings stuff. 
19. The Rent Collector Fiction. Score: 9 Loved this book. A hearty dose of perspective and gratitude will follow reading this. 
20. Believing Christ  Non-Fiction/Religious Self Help. Score: 9
21. Divergent Fiction - This review will go for all three books. Score: 7.8 - I couldn't quite give it an 8. I really liked it. And I read all three books in record time. But it felt thin in parts and some of the themes and storylines a bit overused in YA fantasy. Okay, that made me sound like I'm trying to be some pretentious book critic. I just felt sometimes as if I was reading something I had already read before with different character names. Overall, it was great and I recommend it. Just not the best YA fantasy I've ever read. 
22. Insurgent (See Divergent)
23. Allegiant (See Divergent)
24. The Winter Sea - Fiction. Score: 9. Awesome historical fiction with a really good love story. 
25. Loving What Is Non-Fiction/Self Help. Score: 9.  Not everyone will get this book. But I loved it and I still ask myself almost a year after reading this "Is it True." which to me makes this one of my top books of the year. 
26. The Shadow of the Wind Fiction. Score: 8 Epic and suspenseful and feels a lot like Kate Morton's books or "Thirteenth Tale." Dark and twisted at times but one I couldn't put down. 
27. Wheat Belly Non-Fiction Score: 8 Has been life changing for me. 
28. Edenbrooke Fiction. Score: 9 If you love Pride and Prejudice then you will love this. Its a really sweet book. 

Once Upon a New Year

Dear Ethan and Tyler,
It's 2014!  Brand new years do something to me - days tick one after another and I know that the change from 2013 to 2014 is no different. However, there is something magical about new years. It feels to me as if I am getting a clean slate, the ability to change all the things I just couldn't manage the year before. And my heart always hopes that a year from now - when I have experienced all that 2014 has in store for me I will have learned and felt and experienced in a real way. I was picturing 2014 and thinking about my boys - you two -  turning 9 and 11 and I was struck with those numbers. Now I know that right now this will mean very little to you but one day when you have your son or daughter on your lap and watch them grow - you will know exactly what I am talking about. Because although you are almost 11 and 9 it really was just moments ago that you were just arriving to this world - to change it and me forever.
Tonight I sat with you two and dad listening to the music that makes us all so happy and seems to becoming such a big part of what makes us "us." And I looked over and realized that the four of us were taking up two cushions on the couch. There was one whole cushion untouched. We were so very close to one another. I didn't know families could be this way. I didn't know that happiness and peace like this could actually be real. Sometimes I hold my breath - waiting for all of it to go away. Waiting for that sinking that became such a regular part of my life - when the wind would be knocked from me, my heart would sink and I would scramble to grab whatever shred of happiness or peace I could find. Sometimes it was found sneaking into your rooms and listening to your even breathing as you slept. You breathing - in and out - was so steady. In and out - so unaware of the waves crashing down on us. In and out -so steadying and hopeful. Please let me protect them from this-in and out.  Please let them stay in this peace -in and out.
I could search all my life and I'm certain I will never be able to find words to write what you have meant to me - what you mean to me. I was unmoored. I was floating with no roots and the vastness of this life -with no family to hold me down- was for me dark and bleak. I was a boat lost in a unpredictable sea.
I am grateful that you two got to be my companions on the journey out of that storm. I am grateful that we weathered it together and incredibly grateful for the roots you gave me. I sunk my feet deep into the ground - knowing that now whether I knew how or not I had these little souls depending on me.
These past two weeks have been magical. Just being together - no work or school to pull at us. And I keep taking these little snapshots and trying to store them in my heart. I have done that for as long as I can remember. I remember doing it once when I was about your age Tyler.  And it must work because I can still remember it so clearly. I was sitting in a chair at the end of a long rectangular table. I had a plate with a hot roll and mashed potatoes on it. I looked around the table and saw my grandma Nori and my sister sitting there. We were very happy - I remember feeling so unusually happy and safe and I knew I wanted to remember this moment. I concentrated on the feelings that were filling my chest and my body. I focused on every smell and color and sound and then I pictured all of that data just floating into my body and being packaged up inside my heart. To this day - 22 years later - I can still pull all of that up and feel it.
And now, I use that to package the beauty. I know that some of this still comes from the fear of losing it. The measure to fill up my heart with the good when the bad will inevitably hit. But that is fading. I'm trusting more. Most of it comes from the desire to treasure and remember the magical moments that happen. Like four people choosing to squeeze onto two couch cushions. Or two little boys having sleepovers and chatting about how the world works.
In a few days we will go back to reality. And thats okay. But tonight I am thankful for another year on this Earth. Another year to learn and see what is in store for each of us. Another year to watch you two grow more into the little men you are becoming. And another year to squeeze onto two cushions.

Love you forever
Mom