Our Favorite Books of 2024
We share our very favorite books in our annual Christmas letter each year. But sometimes it’s hard to limit ourselves to just a few titles. So here are our top picks for the year…
Books
Quality Children’s Book Recommendations You Can Rely On
We sat around the table the other day swapping book titles with cousins we hadn’t seen in years. Our children share a love of many of the same series and authors, but my oldest still filled both sides of a sheet of paper with hastily scribbled titles for them to check out. That conversation got…
Our Favorite Books of 2023
An annual Christmas letter and family photo has been a tradition in my family since I was born, but really it goes back even further than that: my parents started the tradition in 1982 as their version of the annual Christmas card photo that my paternal grandparents began in 1957, the year their first child…
The Restorationists: Art & Creativity in Christian YA
Step into a world filled with art…and danger! Lovers of Vincent van Gogh, Lillias Trotter (a little-known artist of the Victorian era), and Georgia O’Keefe, be prepared to meet characters with the same names and the same love of art in Carolyn Leiloglou’s new book Beneath the Swirling Sky. When Vincent’s parents drop him and…
Positively, Penelope: a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious romance!
Once upon a time, there were three cousins. Their names were Izzy, Penelope, and Luke. Each one had different interests and different opinions on almost everything, but each one also awaited a happy ending to their not-so-happy romantic lives. Izzy found her bookishly-ever-after in Authentically, Izzy and now it’s her cousin Penelope’s turn to shine…
Our Favorite Books of 2022
With a more specific book rating system in place last year, it wasn’t hard to skim my highest rated books and find my top ten from 2022. My children decided to join in the fun (one couldn’t keep it to ten favorites, while others were more selective).
So here we present the favorite books read and listened to in our house in 2022…
A Positively Delightful Epistolary Foreign Island Romance from Pepper Basham
Authentically, Izzy is absolutely, positively, unequivocally delightful. Another five-star read from Pepper Basham that’s going straight to my top ten list for the year. A partially epistolary tale, featuring both a library and a bookshop. What could be more perfect?!
Why would you want to read a book about a dying woman?
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip is a book about dying that inspires you to live.
This debut novel from Sara Brunsvold, published by Revell, won’t leave you the same after you’ve read it. A unique split-time approach, with the modern timeline covering the space of just a few weeks, the reader walks through intense emotions with Kansas City Star cub reporter Aidyn Kelley.
A Delightful Debut Novel: The Star That Always Stays
“Mom, I want to pre-order this so I have my own copy!” It’s the highest praise that my daughter can give a book. That and reading it over and over again. Ruth Anne has been raving about The Star That Always Stays since the first time she read it. So I decided to find out…
An Enthralling Smoky Mountains Split-Time Romance: When Stone Wings Fly
When Stone Wings Fly by Karen Barnett is an enthralling Smoky Mountains split-time that will tug at your heartstrings! “Her mama’s mountain rose in the distance, the forest clinging to its crumbling slopes in much the same way Rosie held fast to this house–with deep roots.” (When Stone Wings Fly) It’s 1931 and Rosie McCauley…
Animal Friends Leap to Greet You in These Picture Books About the Library
Have you ever heard the story of Dewey, the kitten who was dropped in the book return slot at a library in Iowa on a cold winter night? If not, you need to read Dewey the Cat.
Did you know that the majestic marble lions outside a New York Public Library building have names? World-renowned Patience and Fortitude appear in lovely picture books and even a wordless book.
Our Top Books of 2021
I read 101 books in 2021. I wasn’t sure how I could choose a “top ten” list out of all those titles. But as I began looking at my “year in books” on Goodreads, I realized it was relatively easy to choose a list of the top ten titles I read in 2021: they were…
The End.
The End.