a few of my favorite books

Per numerous requests, I have decided to add a special page to my blog that lists my favorite books (plural....because who can just pick one favorite book!).  I've decided to separate them into categories and will continue to add to the list once I feel like a book makes the cut or think of ones I forgot.  Please feel free to comment and add your favorite(s)!  I am always, ALWAYS looking for new books to read. 

inspiring, nitty-gritty God stuff books

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by my man Donald Miller.  This book for me was life changing.  Donald Miller inspires us all to take advantage of this one life we are given and live our best story.  He analyzes the elements of story, both from great classics we love to people we gravitate towards, and applies that to faith and participating with God to live a great story.  It's challenging, inspiring, and real.  Seriously, buy this now and sit yourself down with a cup of coffee, you'll hardly come up for air. 

Sex God by Rob Bell.  I read this in college then gave it a re-read during my time with IJM.  Being constantly bombarded with graphic and pornographic sexual content at work, I thought this might be a nice read to keep my thoughts on sexuality pure and in-check.  God designed us to be sexual beings which means A LOT of different things, not just being sexually active.  It was a fascinating and inspiring read.  Some of the words just rose up from the pages and smacked me in the face. "You are worth dying for.  You don't need to give yourself away to someone who won't give himself to you.  You don't need to use your body to get what you need.  Sex isn't a search for something that's missing.  It's the expression of something that's been found.  It's designed to be the overflow, the culmination of something that a man and a woman have found in each other.  It's a celebration of this living, breathing thing that is happening between the two of them."  Good stuff right there.

escaping into a great story (some fiction)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Set in the deep South in the 1960s, this is an inspiring story of three very different women who come together and stand up against the suffocating lines that define their.  It's about strong & courageous & think-for-themselves women who refused to be defined by the cultural norms and instead do what is right.  It's a great reminder that, "You is kind; you is smart; you is important."  Amen.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  This book made me cry, like snotty-weepy cry.  It's a sad, heartbreaking story, but it's well worth the read.  It's both a story about a father and a son, but also about a friendship that transcends the ages and requires love & forgiveness & grace.  “I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."  Ahhh, good words. There are some violent images in it, but sometimes life is hard and I like that the book pushes up against that thin place.  Khaled Hosseini has some other great books, and I've basically liked everything he has written.  This one his first book, and in my humble opinion, the best one.  

 

cool people doing cool things

(non-fiction)

 

Little Princes by Conor Grennan.

 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed.