Terribly Interesting

Trolls and Truth: 14 Realities about Today's Church That We Don't Want to See by Jimmy Dorrell My rating: 5 of 5 stars I am a big fan of Jimmy’s work with the homeless. I’ve watched as he has grown Mission Waco into a big life-giving organization. I drive to his church once a quarter to serve tacos to the homeless. My hope is to catch a little of his humility and the way he gives dignity to the homeless, mentally ill, and special needs individual. His book is more of the same. It’s full of simple stories that call out wealthy churches and complacent Christians to stand up for the least of these. It’s full of stories of people who began changing from being loved and accepted. Knowing these stories changes you. The common thought is that these people just need to get a job. Some of them do. Many more are unemployable. Mental illness and illness of other kinds has left them without an ability to work. This is where Jimmy will tell you to love everyone and do your best ...

One of my favorite stories I have ever read was by Corrie ten Boom. Most of you know the author of The Hiding Place. This story is in a lesser known work entitled In My Father's House. In it, Corrie tells her readers what shaped her into the woman that was able to faithfully serve those around her in the concentration camp. She tells of starting a large girls' club in her town and many other volunteer roles she undertook. She talks about the kind and purposeful way Papa ten Boom taught her to live. The thing that stuck out to me and has become a perpetual prayer of my life is her service in a hospital that specialized in special needs and mental health. She gives this place credit for teaching her how to be ready to love and share the gospel with anyone. She learned how the communicate the gospel and every story of Jesus in the most simple way so that anyone could understand while serving these people and she saw miracles. Later when she was in the concentration camp, she wa...

Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace by Christie Purifoy My rating: 3 of 5 stars There is an idea that when we create a place for people, in our lives, communities, or at our table, we give them space to heal and become. I thought this book was about that. This book is 18 pages of spiritual applications and 200 pages about trees. If you love reading about random facts about where people lived and the trees that were near them, this is for you. I was hoping to see more about people than trees and I was disappointed.  View all my reviews View this post on Instagram I picked up this book because I am a huge proponent of giving place to people. The idea is that when we give a place at our table, in our community, and in our lives, we give people a space to heal and become. I thought this book would be about that. Well. It was a book mostly about trees and the trees and countertops in th...

Thrive in Retirement: Simple Secrets for Being Happy for the Rest of Your Life by Eric Thurman My rating: 5 of 5 stars Eric has done a great job putting together a holistic book on retirement. He challenges us from every possible angle. Most books about planning for retirement seem to only speak on money. This one goes far beyond that. Seeing my parents decline emotionally, relationally, and mentally has been hard for me to see. There are many things outlined here that would have helped the age better if they had followed them. Eric sets you up to know what is coming at you when you retire and be able to prepare for it. He delves into everything that creates a rich life and gives practical steps to achieve that end. I am 41 years old and I gleaned many good things from this book. I realized that I can implement many of these things now and coast on in to thriving in retirement.  View all my reviews

Misfit Table: Let Your Hunger Lead You to Where You Belong by Tiffini Kilgore My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have been following Tiffany on Instagram for years. I have been getting sneak peaks at her stories through her feed. I could tell that she has had a horrible battle with emotional abuse and disease. I have also been struck over and over by the power of the words she shared. This book was more of the same. It is a steady walk through abiding with God in the midst of pain. Her humility and vulnerability are freeing beyond what I can express. Her story is freedom. She gives voice to the inner voices we all fight and then she blows them up with God’s word. She is a warrior. We can follow her from trauma to joy in the pages of this book. It is never easy to loose the bonds of pain, but it is worth the bloody fight.  View all my reviews View this post on Instagram I just finished reading the House of Belonging f...

The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have spent quite a bit of time in Huntsville, TX, home of executions in Texas. They moved the executions outside the city, but there is a heaviness that hangs in the air on execution day to me. Other people don’t seem to notice. I am not making a political stance. The whole situation is desperately sad. The types of turns your life must take to end up on death row are unimaginable to me. I am grieved for those left in the wake of it on every side. When I saw this book at the DCA airport, I stared at it for a moment. It’s a novel about a woman who fought for the last suppers of death row inmates. The book is full of plot twists and thoughtful looks into the lives of the inmates and families surrounding them. The story is set in the 1950’s and shows the dark side of racism and the clan. There is some alluded to sex and murder, but it isn’t overly descriptive. It tells a story I feel could be real. It not only sh...

Girls' Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World by Sally Clarkson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book made me happy to read. It encouraged me to start a girls’ club of my own with my three girls. The chapters are written in story form to share about the original girls’ club and how they carried the club into their grownup lives. Their girls’ clubs have included women all over the world as God has moved them. I started focusing more on what I can do to instill this sense of sisterhood in my own girls. I have begun taking them each on dates and coordinating a girls’ club of my own. It’s a great encouragement. View all my reviews View this post on Instagram I recently read a book by Sally Clarkson and her daughters called Girls’ Club. They share about the weekly club they had and how it transformed their relationships. I’m trying to do this with my girls. I have also been on an individual date with...