*that* mom's bookshelf: March Edition

I'm well on my way to my goal of reading 12 books this year! Here's my recap of the first four.

I'm a Jennifer Weiner junkie, and I finally got around to reading her latest. Then Came You is a neat story with lots of twists and turns which is typical of Weiner's storylines. I really like the way she starts with a number of women's different stories and you watch as they begin to interact and finally entwine. I miss the humor of some of Weiner's earlier books, but this book still kept me engaged. I thought the subjects of egg donors, surrogacy, and motherhood were interesting, but I was left unsatisfied with the book's conclusion as it all felt a little too cliche with a neat little wrap up. If I wasn't such a fan of Jennifer Weiner, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with this book, but as it was, I enjoyed the read and it was my first fiction read in months.

I borrowed this book from a friend. It was a quick and easy read while traveling to and from the Tinker Bell half marathon in California. I liked how each chapter was a different woman's story. Each story was a little different from world class athletes to those overcoming extreme obstacles. I enjoyed learning some more history of women's running, and I was left feeling inspired by each story. I loved hearing how each woman came to find running and how it helped her through the challenges her life brought her - whether running or non-running related.

Here's a confession. I never made it fully through this book. I renewed it from the library twice and simply could not bring myself to keep turning the pages. It outlines how to treat depression with yoga and the research that supports such an approach. It provides simple breathing exercises and simple pose sequences but the overwhelming message is to find a good instructor to walk you through making yoga an integral part of your treatment plan. The research was interesting, but when it got into the exercises and sequences, I would rather spend my time going to yoga class than trying to follow it from a book. There are certain poses particularly good for depression or anxiety and the book does highlight those, but I had also found that information previously.

A friend recommended this book to me as she was enjoying it in her church study group. She recommended it so highly that when I said I'd check if the library had it and go from there, she hand delivered (okay we were getting together anyway) my very own copy. As I think I've mentioned before, I shy away from some of the mainstream Christian literature as it often doesn't align well with my liberal Lutheran theology, but I also love some of Max Lucado's children books so I figured I'd give it a try. I really enjoyed the book. The entire book walks through the life of David. It was an engaging read. It starts off by pointing out that when we (or David or anyone) focus on God, our proverbial giants fall just like David was able to defeat Goliath. However, when we focus on our giants, we fall. As someone who finds herself fighting some big Giants some days, I found this both inspiring but also overwhelming. Sometimes I am just too tired to fight these giants and fail to keep my eyes on God, and I appreciated the section about the Brook Besor where half of David's army refused to go on and fight, but instead stopped to rest. I loved the statement, It's okay to rest. Jesus fights when you cannot. Overall, the book was a message of hope. We all have Giants to fight but we do not need to fight them on our own. We can collapse, fail, struggle, and wander, but God is always there for us, welcoming with open arms.