Reading Rainbow...

Anyone remember that show? I hear the tune playing in my head right now - it's all I can do to keep myself from singing it out "reading rainbowwwwwww!." On an actual note that relates to posting...

I love to read. If you come to my house you will find books on every handy surface - coffee table, toilet tank, bedside table, kitchen counter, odd little shelf by my front door. You get the picture. Even right now - there is literally a book on each of those surfaces.

Some are partially read and just sitting there waiting for me to return to them. (If a book doesn't grab me early on, I will often move on to another and come back to the original book in a week or two. The Type A in me won't allow me to leave a book unfinished (or a movie, for that matter) no matter how boring. So here's the rainbow of reading materials you would find scattered about my house this morning - if you were to stop over unannounced for a coffee. Which you should totally do, by the way!

Coffee table:

"No Other Gods: Confronting Our Modern-Day Idols" (The Living Room Series) by Kelly Minter. We've got a small group of us working through this together over the summer, on Wednesday nights. This is a LifeWay book, so my assumption from the beginning is that it wouldn't be a 'fluffy' study. The homework in week one left me disappointed, but let me tell you about week two - man, oh, man was it tough stuff! There were just four of us last night (three lucky girls were on holidays) and did we ever d.i.g. The book is designed for small-group in-home studies, offering recipes for dinner and dessert for each week. I baked last week. I'll say it again so you can grasp the importance of such a statement... I BAKED!

"The Busy Mom's Devotional: 10 Minutes a Week to a Life of Devotion" by Lisa T. Bergren. This book is one of the first things I've won - ever! I am so thankful to Cindy for sending it to me, because it is good! I often find myself disappointed in devotional books. There are so many that you can just breeze through and never find the gems. But this book (and it really is only 10 minutes, once a week - no dates, it's divided by handy-dandy seasons) reaches in and touches my woman's heart. Lisa shares stories from her life and relates them to scripture, and she gets her readers into the Word, placing it in their hearts. My only complaint - I wish there were more, because I could do it every day!

"Believing God: Experiencing a Fresh Explosion of Faith" study guide by Beth Moore. I cannot say enough about this study. Because of this study (we did the DVD series with the study guide) my walk with God has been forever changed. I was challenged and stretched, pushed and pulled, and God's Word is more deeply embedded in my spirit. I wrote a post about it here, and eventually there will be more... I'm done working through it, but I'm keeping it handy because there is stuff in there that applies to every experience - it has become my second reference-guide.

Kitchen Counter:

"One Tuesday Morning" (book 1 of 2 in the September 11 series) by Karen Kingsbury. She is by far my favourite Christian fiction author! Every single book she's written has brought me tears and joy. Her stories are so true to life, real people with their real pain and heartache, a real God who brings reconciliation. I've always got to have one fiction book on the go (to take my mind off all the deep thought), and about 80% of the time it is by Kingsbury. I think I may have read just about everything she's ever written by now, though, so if you have another author to recommend I'd sure appreciate your suggestions!

Toilet Tank:

"The Explosive Child" (revised and updated) by Ross W.Greene, Ph.D. The caption of the book says "a new approach for understanding and parenting easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children." I haven't gotten far, but I'm certain I'll finish this one in the next week or so, because I NEED SOME SUGGESTIONS! If it's good, and I try some of the ideas, I'll post about it. If you want me to. Well, it's my blog, I'll post about it whether you want me to or not, lol. *I just looked at the location of this book and it's title - too funny! No pun intended.

Bedside Table:

"The Prince" by Francine Rivers (book 3 of the Sons of Encouragement series). She's also my favourite author. Hey - I can have 2 faves if I want to! Rivers has a few novels that are totally fiction and will leave you sobbing (in particular "The Atonement Child" and "And The Shofar Blew"), but this series is special. Rivers does fiction based on scripture. This book is about Jonathan. I just finished the ones about Aaron and Caleb. Rivers has a gift for taking characters and scenes from scripture and elaborating on them (adding private thoughts, emotions, etc.) to make them come alive. This particular series tells the stories of "5 men who quietly changed eternity." She's also told the stories of some remarkable women of the Bible in "Lineage of Grace" and of Hadassah and her family in the Mark of the Lion series. Try reading one - the moment you put it down you will be rushing to your Bible to read the scriptural account!

Front Door Shelf:

"The Organic God" by Margaret Feinberg. This book was a gift from my Pastor. It is refreshing and insightful (and funny), but something hasn't grabbed at me quite enough to hold my interest. I have it dog-eared on page 140, chapter 8 - "Unbelievably Stubborn" (yes, I dog-ear my pages all the time, forgive me, or not, whatever). I think when I do return to this book I will start over - I can see that I've made oodles of notes in the margins of the first 7 chapters, so it's obviously got some good stuff in there. I've got a serious case of book ADD.

I'll be honest with you here. There are more books in the piles in these locations. But I'm worried that you're getting bored with my sadly written book reviews (totally not my strong point). And really, it looks bad enough that I've got 7 books on the go (and of course my Bible - which is also on the coffee table - best book EVER written) and 5 children who are obviously being neglected and not properly fed while I pour through my many books. How terrible would it sound if I confessed that (including my Bible) there are actually 12 books that I am reading?!

How many books do you have on the go?