Happy Anniversary, my very favorite!
Being your girl makes the hard times feel easier.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Friday, May 2, 2025
My 10 Favorite Books From the Last 10 Years
As I thought about the books from the past decade of my reading life that rocketed onto my personal list of All-Time Favorites, it actually wasn't too hard to come up with the ten best.
These are not ten brand new books. But they are books that I read for the very first time over these past ten years. Some of them are books I had never heard of, some I'd been meaning to get to for ages, some are books that I knew would be good for me to read but didn't realize how much would move me or completely delight me. Without further ado: My 10 Favorite Books From the Last 10 Years (in the order I originally read them, not ranked in any way).
These are not ten brand new books. But they are books that I read for the very first time over these past ten years. Some of them are books I had never heard of, some I'd been meaning to get to for ages, some are books that I knew would be good for me to read but didn't realize how much would move me or completely delight me. Without further ado: My 10 Favorite Books From the Last 10 Years (in the order I originally read them, not ranked in any way).
First Published: July 1960
My First Time Reading: January 2016
This Southern classic by Harper Lee is often assigned reading in school, but I missed out on it during my growing up years. Wise Atticus Finch and his two children Scout and Jem, their cook Calpurnia and mysterious neighbor Boo Radley: these characters immediately embedded themselves in the hearts of readers the world over, leading to a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award winning film (which I still have not seen). It's about time I picked To Kill A Mockingbird up again and give it another read.
First Published: November 1971
My First Time Reading: August 2017
I grew up knowing the story of Corrie ten Boom's family and their work to hide Jews from the Nazis during World War II, but I didn't get around to reading her book for myself until 2017. It is now the first book I recommend to anyone regardless of age, gender, personal reading preferences, or any other factor. Everyone should read this book.
First Published: July 2008
My First Time Reading: August 2018
I stumbled across this title by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows browsing one of my favorite secondhand bookshops and ended up reading it right away thanks to the encouragement of a fellow reader I had befriended over the internet. What a serendipitous jumble of events. This epistolary novel set right after the German occupation of the Channel Island of Guernsey during WWII is an ode to book lovers. Instant favorite.
First Published: 1975
My First Time Reading: March 2020
I'm not sure if I even knew Disney's 2002 film was adapted from Natalie Babbitt's thoroughly charming children's novel when I watched it in high school, but upon discovering it was and then coming across a copy in a secondhand shop, it ended up being one of the first books I read after COVID-19 caused a global shutdown. I remember feeling so regretful about missing out on this book for so much of my life. And I blame Disney for part of that because the movie is entirely forgettable and certainly didn't inspire me to seek out the brilliant source material.
First Published: 2005-2018
My First Time Reading: June 2021
Technically, this first book by Jeanne Birdsall is meant to represent the five book series in its entirety so I guess this list is actually my favorite fourteen books from the last ten years. Semantics. I immediately fell for the Penderwick sisters, their lovable dog Hound, and the lonely boy Jeffrey whom they befriend. This series is a delight from beginning to end.
First Published: August 1911
My First Time Reading: September 2021
I read Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic when COVID-19 finally caught me in 2021. The story of neglected little Mary Lennox and her awakening to childhood and joy and friendship and nature utterly captivated me. This book is just lovely.
First Published: June 1936
My First Time Reading: October/November 2021
Gone With the Wind is one of the books on this list that I had been meaning to get around to reading for ages but was daunted by the sheer size of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece. I needn't have worried. I was swept up in the saga of Tara and its young mistress Scarlett O'Hara as she faced the onset of the Civil War, then had to pick up the pieces in the aftermath during the Reconstruction. An epic, for sure.
First Published: November 1984
My First Time Reading: May 2023
I grew up in ignorance of the existence of Olive Ann Burns' Southern historical novel, but it didn't take me long to realize it would be a treasured favorite. Will Tweedy's coming of age in 1906 small town Georgia stole my heart and took me straight back to my own teenage years, sprawled across my grandmother's bed listening to my own family history.
First Published: 1957
My First Time Reading: Summer 2024
Not only is Dandelion Wine now one of my All-Time Favorite books, but Ray Bradbury is quickly becoming one of my All-Time Favorite authors. This interconnected collection of short stories centered around the Spaulding boys is a pure hit of nostalgia, summertime distilled into a novel. Dandelion Wine should be savored slowly and stretched to its absolute limits.
First Published: 1972
My First Time Reading: November 2024
Are you kidding me? Barbara Robinson and her awful Herdman kids teaching their small town the true meaning of Christmas when they hijack the annual pageant is an absolute gem. I will be reading this every Christmas for the rest of my life.
My All-Time Favorite books can be characterized like this: they make me laugh and cry, I'm sad when I get to the end and want to start over again immediately, and they are the books I reach for when everything else in life is too hard to face. Discovering the charms of these books over the past ten years has been a boon to my soul, and I look forward to what the next ten years of reading will unearth for me.
What are some of your All-Time Favorite books? Have you discovered any new ones in the past ten years?
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
2025 Book List
Does she have a book list this year? Is she doing this blog thing anymore? Was it just some kind of a ten-year project and now it's over?
All valid questions and to answer them: yes, I have a 2025 book list; yes, still hanging in with the blog; and don't worry, I'm planning to keep this thing going for the foreseeable future.
Last month—yes, the month I didn't post a single thing around here—this blog turned 10. It seems hard to believe I've been sharing bookish thoughts with the internet at large for ten whole years now, but it's actually true. It has morphed over the years and there are some months I go radio silent, but I've pretty much stuck to my stated goal "to be intentional about what I read and to share about my literary adventures." And overall, it's pretty fun so I'm going to keep doing it. Thank you for coming along for any part of it.
After taking stock at the end of last year and beginning of this year, I've admitted to myself that I get the most out of my reading life when I make myself a smaller book list at the beginning of the year (about 20 books or less) and complete the entire list while adding in comfortable re-reads, buddy reads with friends, or something that just catches my attention at the right time. The first year I made myself a book list—and subsequently started this blog for personal accountability—was 2015 and that was kind of a figuring things out year. From 2016-2018 I stuck to the smaller list that I could actually finish format and loved it. From 2019-2024, I experimented with internet challenges, TBR Jars, longer lists, and letting my whims guide me, and while all of that was fun and I read some really great books, I ended each year feeling less satisfied with my reading life than I was in the 2016-18 era. So we're going back to what works best for me and this year, I made a starting list of 20 books.
Morning & Evening : Charles Spurgeon
Desiring God : John Piper
Living Life Backward : David Gibson
The Poetry of Robert Frost Complete & Unabridged
Franklin Pierce : Michael F. Holt
President James Buchanan : Philip Shriver Klein
The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson
Seabiscuit : Laura Hillenbrand
Two Gentlemen of Verona : William Shakespeare
Coriolanus : William Shakespeare
David Copperfield : Charles Dickens
A Separate Peace : John Knowles
Hannah Coulter : Wendell Berry
A Gentleman in Moscow : Amor Towles
Before We Were Yours : Lisa Wingate
The Age of Innocence : Edith Wharton
Brideshead Revisited : Evelyn Waugh
A Farewell to Arms : Ernest Hemingway
Animal Farm : George Orwell
Frankenstein : Mary Shelley
This year's list is made up of books I plan to read with my sister-in-law (hey, Caroline!), a couple that my husband picked out for me (Desiring God; Living Life Backward), some that will have feature film adaptations I want to see coming out this year (Animal Farm; Frankenstein), and, of course, my signature Shakespeare plays and presidential biographies. I've already finished reading two books from the list (and two that are not on this list), and if you glance over to that "Currently Reading" widget to the right, it's true that I'm actively reading nine books right now. Which maybe accounts for my blog silence. But it's all fun and I'm looking forward to the books I'll read in 2025.
As for this blog, can I ask you a question or three? What do you like? What do you not like? Is there anything you'd like to see around here? I can't promise that anything will change, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. I truly do appreciate all of you who take the time to read my silly ramblings and cheer me on in my reading ventures.
What have you been reading lately?
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Let's Bust a Recap : 2024
Happy 2025! How are we all doing? If you're wondering how things are going over here, let me just tell you that 2024 ended up being the first year in ten(!) years of blogging that I did not get my year-end recap up on December 31st. Cody and I said goodbye to the old year and crawled into 2025 heavily medicated, watching movies, drinking a lot of throat coat tea, and cursing the flu for taking us down.
I've finally rejoined the land of the living though and I'm ready to take a final look back over last year's reading so I can file it away and get cracking on my 2025 reading goals.
2024 was....an interesting reading year for me. It felt a little all over the place. I didn't make much of a list for myself and decided to let a TBR Jar guide my reading life. The TBR Jar didn't work out too well for me in 2019, and it wasn't exactly a success last year either. My secret goal for 2024 was to read twelve titles drawn out of the Jar. Easy, right?
I read a total of 56 books last year.
Six of them were from the TBR Jar. (I'm over halfway through my seventh one and really thought I could finish it by the end of the year, but the flu had other ideas.)
So I only accomplished half of what my secret goal was. Feel free to insert all the laughing/crying emojis right about here. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. On top of that, I didn't complete a single presidential biography in 2024. *shrugs* It is what it is. In spending a little time these past few days looking back at ten years worth of book lists and reading accomplishments, I think I've nailed down what works best for me and some things that just aren't my jam which I'll share more about when I post my 2025 Book List *hopefully* sometime next week.
In the meantime, we've got the 56 books I did read in 2024 to get through so enjoy my quick takes on what I read last year.
January
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (re-read) : completed 1/2
You can never go wrong starting your year off with a little Jane Austen.
The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson (read aloud) : completed 1/3
This was carried over from 2023, but we finished it up quickly. Cody and I loved this series.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett : completed 1/18
Loved this book until I hated it. And then I really hated it.
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl (read aloud) : completed 1/29
Not my favorite Dahl books in 2024.
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (TBR jar) : completed 1/29
Started the year strong with my monthly title out of the TBR Jar going quickly for me.
February
The Secret History by Donna Tartt : completed 2/24
Ugh. Another carryover from 2023 and my least favorite book of 2024. I immediately stuck it in a Little Free Library after finally finishing it. You'll notice it's the only book I managed to finish in February so I quickly got knocked off my goal of reading a book from the TBR Jar every month. Ha!
March
Riding Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan (read aloud) : completed 3/3
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare : completed 3/9
The Secret History also managed to knock me off my annual tradition of a Shakespearean comedy in February. The Merchant of Venice ended up being a fun one though.
Bucket List Family Travel by Jessica Gee : completed 3/12
Wasn't planning to read this coffee table book, but enjoyed every word along with all the gorgeous photos.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (TBR jar) : completed 3/23
The second book to come out of the TBR Jar was one I probably wouldn't have gotten to for a long time otherwise (which was the point of the jar in the first place) and it made me want to read more books by Christy Lefteri.
Unveiled by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 3/27
I've been wanting to revisit these little novellas for quite some time now, and Teresa's study was the perfect excuse to finally pick them back up.
Unashamed by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 3/31
April
Unshaken by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 4/12
Only You, Sierra by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 4/14
After reading through the Christy Miller books in 2023, I decided to keep going this year with her Sierra Jensen series.
Unspoken by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 4/20
While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away by Mary Nash (re-read; read aloud) : completed 4/23
Super fun revisiting this as an adult by reading it aloud with my nieces and nephews.
In Your Dreams by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 4/24
You'll notice I did not get to any TBR Jar books this month.
May
Esio Trot by Roald Dahl (read aloud) : completed 5/5
Don't You Wish by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 5/6
I'm not usually one to review Bible studies on this blog, but then again, I'm also not usually one to complete a study without missing some of the homework here and there. I did T's study cover to cover and was highly encouraged by it.
Christ From Beginning to End by Trent Hunter & Stephen Wellum (read aloud) : completed 5/8
Excellent.
Lie Until It's True by Jessie Weaver : completed 5/14
Another unputdownable YA murder mystery from Jessie. I keep haunting her socials to see if a new book has been announced.
Close Your Eyes by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 5/17
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (TBR jar) : completed 5/26
Maybe I was going for an every-other-month rhythm with the TBR Jar?
June
The Hunting of the Last Dragon by Sherryl Jordan : completed 6/3
The book that was not meant for six year old ears. Oops.
Unafraid by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 6/9
The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk by Donald J. Sobol (read aloud) : completed 6/13
Sisterchicks in Gondolas by Robin Jones Gunn (TBR jar) : completed 6/13
Delighted to see RJG pop out of the jar. And hey! that's two months in a row!
Without a Doubt by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 6/30
July
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 7/11
I had an absolute blast reading the Ramona series aloud with my niece and nephews this year. They loved Ramona as much as I do.
Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 7/16
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (read aloud) : completed 7/23
Update: Cody and I finally started watching the miniseries last night!
Closer Than a Sister by Christina Fox : completed 7/30
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy : completed 7/31
Fun reading this with my mom and sister and then all watching the fantastic film adaption together.
August
Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 8/17
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (TBR jar) : completed 8/28
Favorite book of the year.
September
A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi (TBR jar) : completed 9/3
Recap still to come, but this was another one I wouldn't have chosen for myself and I'm glad the jar chose it for me.
Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare : completed 9/7
Was a week behind with my tragedy too, but enjoyed Timon despite the lackluster ending.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd : completed 9/14
Another first-rate book-to-movie reading/watching experience with my mom.
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance : completed 9/26
Boooooo.
With This Ring by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 9/27
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (read aloud) : completed 9/28
Thank you to Hurricane Helene for being the catalyst for some spooky read-alouds with Cody.
Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 9/29
We also crushed a lot of Ramona during our week without power after Helene.
October
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 10/4
Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 10/6
Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin : completed 10/11
Recap coming soon.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson (partial read aloud) : completed 10/13
My other Helene-induced spooky read with Cody.
Tea with Elephants by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 10/19
Tea with Elephants?! Despite sounding tailor-made for me, this one was a little bit of a letdown. Recap coming.
November
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (re-read; partial read aloud) : completed 11/12
The best book (series) of all time, and I will stand by that till my dying day. I've lost count of how many times I've read through the Anne books.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson : completed 11/16
Catch me reading this every Christmas for the rest of my life.
a book by S. Osborne : completed 11/17
I will post a recap soon, and when I do: don't miss it.
The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan (library book) : completed 11/22
Definitely enjoyed.
Grimoire Girl by Hilarie Burton Morgan (library book) : completed 11/26
Could have skipped.
December
Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz (library book) : completed 12/3
Best of the three. Fascinating.
Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary (read aloud) : completed 12/25
We finished up the entire Ramona series, and you better believe we'll be back at it with more Beverly Cleary in 2025.
The Dawn of Redeeming Grace by Sinclair B. Ferguson : completed 12/26
I'll be recapping this, but closing the year with this Advent devotional was exactly what I needed.
***
As you may have noticed, I made a herculean effort to catch the blog up at the end of the year, but there are several recaps "coming soon" because between a hurricane, the holidays, an out-of-state wedding in between Christmas and the new year, and a nasty flu bug: there's only so much a girl can do. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I hope the end of your 2024 and the beginning of your 2025 were a lot more joyful and healthy than mine turned out to be. Tune back in next week for my 2025 Book List and until then....
....keep reading the best books first.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Let's Bust a Recap : OTH memoirs
I feel like I have a lot of groundwork to lay before I can just start talking about these books so let's get into it.
First of all, I admitted to you on this very blog back in 2017 that I had been sucked into One Tree Hill Land. But to give you even more context: the first friend I made at the tiny little Christian college I went to back in 2006 was a One Tree Hill superfan. Like, literally plastered our suite with posters from the show. So when I finally decided to watch an episode—ten years later—it was all due to her influence. Since watching through all nine seasons back in 2017, I have definitely watched the first few seasons again at various times, always falling off the rewatch before making it to their post-high school lives. I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I appreciate the absolute hit of nostalgia I get just from the music on that show. I feel that giving you my history with One Tree Hill is a bit misleading given that none of these memoirs are technically *about* One Tree Hill, but they're all by girls who were stars of the show and it is because they were stars of the show that I have any awareness of their existence and, by extension, the existence of their memoirs. When Bethany Joy Lenz announced her memoir and started doing all the press for it about her time in a real cult, I immediately added it to my personal TBR and when it finally came out in October, I went to the library and got both of Hilarie Burton's memoirs along with it and read them all back-to-back-to-back.
So now that you know more than you ever wanted to about how these books came on my radar, let's go through them one-by-one.
The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan was the first of these memoirs to be published back in May of 2020. During my ill-fated year on the instagram, she was promoting this book hardcore, and consequently, I added it to my amazon wishlist where it has hung out ever since. Now that I am a proud, card-carrying library patron and have figured out the novel concept that I don't actually have to buy every single book I want to read, I took myself down to my local library and checked out both of Burton's books when I went to pick up Lenz's brand-new release. Hilarie describes The Rural Diaries as a love letter to a town, a farm, and a man, and that's really what it is. In it, she tells her story of leaving Hollywood to establish a life in the Hudson Valley on a working farm with her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan and their son Gus. Hilarie has a real talent for making the people and things in her life that are important to her, feel important and cherished, and that's a real gift. I found myself wanting to visit her candy shop in Rhinebeck and even feeling a little envious of the community she seemingly has built there. I really like how she incorporated pages throughout this memoir with little gardening tips, recipes, and the like, and this is a book I might actually pick up again in future to refer back to some of those things.
Her second book, Grimoire Girl, was published last year in October of 2023. This one was less of a memoir (in my opinion), and more a collection of essays that heavily emphasize the how-to of living a fulfilling life and being able to leave a meaningful legacy. Burton likes to call herself a witch and she really leans into that in this second book. In Grimoire Girl, Burton writes about topics ranging from the harmless—like the art of letter-writing and keeping a scrapbook—to the more pernicious—like astrology and pagan worship. This book is half benign, half the worst universalist trash I've ever read. If Burton takes an interest or sees beauty in something, she incorporates it into her life in a haphazard and even offensive way, combining Christian and pagan practices willy-nilly with no thought to how these things literally condemn each other. Pretty wild. I would never pick this book up again, and I cannot recommend it.
Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz (who played my favorite character on One Tree Hill) just came out in October, and as the subtitle makes clear, it's all about her life on a cult TV show while also in an actual cult. Kudos to the marketing genius who came up with that. Lenz was part of a high-control group for ten years, and her stated goal in publishing Dinner for Vampires is to show how it doesn't take a stupid or particularly gullible person to fall prey to a situation like this. It was utterly fascinating to read about her experience and the downward spiral she found herself in. I wasn't expecting Dinner for Vampires to be a beautiful portrait of Lenz's journey to cling to her faith and come out the other side of her nightmarish experience with her trust in God still in tact, but that's exactly what it was. It was hard to read at times but ultimately quite moving for me as a person of faith myself.
A post like this, covering three highly personal memoirs, just scratches the surface of so many potential topics to discuss. Obviously the intersection of faith and celebrity culture; cults in general; the amount of made-for-TV Christmas movies I have watched starring Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz since finishing their memoirs (five, as of today); the potential Burton/Lenz feud that has the internet buzzing (is it real or is this some kind of trumped up marketing tactic to boost book sales?); how social media and being able to have pseudo-personal access to celebrities' lives affects the culture and the release of memoirs like this—I could go on and on. And my brother will attest to the fact that we have spent hours on the phone dissecting crap like that. But those are blog posts for another day...or possibly another blog altogether because I generally stick to the books I'm reading around here. But if you want to get into it, I'm so here for those conversations.
To wrap things up, I might recommend The Rural Diaries and Dinner for Vampires with a strong content warning for bad language. Do not come crying to me if you pick either of these up on my recommendation and realize you are in for a lot of F-words. Like I alluded to at the beginning of this post, celebrity memoir seems like kindof a niche genre and I would think you'd need to be really interested in the subject matter to pick one up.
How about you? Do you like celebrity memoirs? Or have you ever read one based solely on the fact that the celebrity in question was part of a project you liked?
Friday, December 13, 2024
Let's Bust a Recap : The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has been on my radar for years. I missed out on it as a kid, and I've had my eye out for it for quite some time. But when the trailer for a feature film adaptation dropped earlier this year, I went ahead and ordered myself a copy from AbeBooks. I read it the day before my husband took me to see the movie in our cute, one-screen, downtown theater.
And I loved it.
And I went back and watched the movie a second time with my mom, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever—book and movie—will, without a doubt, become a part of all my future Christmas traditions.
This beloved children's novel was written by Barbara Robinson and published in 1972. It features the six awful Herdman siblings who, after showing up to Sunday school for the free snacks, decide to star in the annual Christmas pageant by volunteering for the six main roles: Mary, Joseph, the angel, and the three wise men. None of the other kids dare stand up to them, and the whole hilarious tale is narrated in the first person by Beth Bradley whose mom is directing the pageant for the first time after Mrs. Armstrong—the usual director—falls and breaks her leg. As word spreads that the Herdmans have hijacked the pageant, the whole town expects disaster, but, in a beautiful twist, the Herdmans end up teaching the town the true meaning of Christmas.
I know I already said I loved it, but you guys: I. Loved. It. This little novel delighted me from beginning to end, and weighing in at a slim 80 pages—including full page illustrations—you can easily read it in one sitting. I genuinely laughed out loud the whole way through until getting to the pageant itself at which point tears were streaming down my face. What an absolute treasure of a book.
And the movie! So much care was taken with this 2024 adaptation. The majority of the screenplay was lifted straight from the book. In my year of reading/watching book-to-movie adaptations: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was another smashing success. I think the book comes off a little funnier and the movie a bit more sentimental but both are absolutely wonderful, and, as I said above, I'll be reading and watching in all my Christmases to come. What a joy! I cannot possibly recommend this little gem enthusiastically enough. Get your hands on a copy and read it immediately.
Do you have any books or movies you like to watch every year at Christmastime? What are your favorite Christmas traditions?
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Let's Bust a Recap : Closer Than a Sister
Well, this post is being brought to you today by sheer willpower and self-discipline. I just have not been in the blogging mood lately what with a hurricane landing a tree on my house, wrangling workers into putting our new roof on, having our nieces here for a few weeks, some back and forth with them to and from Alabama, and now the holidays are upon us. Oh my! All I really want to do is sit by my cozy Christmas tree with a hot cup of tea and watch Christmas movies 24/7.
But that's just not the way real life works and actually, using all the determination I have to write this blog post is fitting because today's subject was a book I read for a women's book club that my church hosted this summer. Your girl is a hardcore introvert so it took a lot of personal resolve to make myself go to the Tuesday night meetings. I muscled through and, if memory serves, I only missed three out of the eight meetings so I'll call that a win. I recruited my BFF Christina to read this one too and she totally cheered me on from Florida as I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to attend the book club up here in North Carolina—usually spending time on the phone with me as I drove to the church and even reading a chapter aloud to me one week when I got behind but still made myself go to the meeting. Because that's what a sister will do.
Closer Than a Sister by Christina Fox was published in 2017. It is an exploration of Biblical friendship and an exhortation to cultivate and care for those relationships. The book is structured in three parts: A Community of Faith, Living with Sisters in Community, and Challenges in Sisterhood. Part I lays out the foundation for the book, explaining from a Biblical viewpoint how we were created for community and how it is Christ that unites us and actually deepens our relationships into more than friendship. This felt very much like a review for me, but I liked Fox's personal—though still intelligent—style of writing. Part II is the practical side of living in community and it makes up the largest chunk of the book. Fox covers topics on helping each other; mourning, rejoicing, and growing together; exhorting one another; and learning from one another. I found this section of the book to be the most helpful and the most challenging. Part III dives into the difficulties and obstacles one encounters when trying to cultivate and foster community. As someone who is still navigating an out-of-state move after living in the same town my whole life, this section was the most encouraging for me. My closest friends no longer live close enough to come over on a whim, kick their shoes off, hug my neck, and settle on my couch for a chat or help me with a project or run errands with me just because. It's been a tough transition and we're over three and a half years into it. I honestly don't know what kind of a state I'd be in if my mom and sister-in-law didn't live right up the street. I probably would have already convinced Cody to take me back to Florida.
All that to say, I think this book is a great resource, particularly if you are having to cultivate a new community from scratch. I may end up reading it again next year. I am truly thankful for the built-in community that fellow believers experience together. It is such a gift. But all relationships take work and intentionality, and reading Closer Than a Sister was a deeply needed reminder for this girl who has been doing life with the same friends she's had since she was seven years old. That closeness just takes time, there's no two ways about it.
Have you built a solid community to do life with? And if you did that as an adult, please share all your advice with me!
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