Friday, January 7, 2022

Porch #30 * Bookish Edition

Welcome back to Porch
your go-to weekend companion. 
Discover a fresh perspective. 
Energize your mind. 
Receive spiritual sustenance. 
Get unstuck. 
 Share your story.


Good weekend to you!  I'll take a wild guess and say that you've got at least one book going right now, what with winter weather and self-quarantining and the holidays all done for.

2021's final read was The Wish, a gentle story of first love, heartbreaking diagnosis, and a priceless gift.  Beautifully penned fiction, no one writes a love story like Nicholas Sparks.  I burned the midnight oil on this one.  You won't be able to put this bestseller down.  Promise.

And here's the three titles I found most thought-provoking in '21.


As a trauma therapist and trauma survivor, Aundi's approach is calming and tender as she encourages us to listen to our bodies instead of fighting them.  Visit her website and if she resonates for you, do sign up for her newsletter and grab these two resources.  Superb companions for your own personal healing journey.  Or for group work.

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A thank you note arrived for you, dear readers, from my friend, Heather.   A year ago you showered her with lovingkindness, empathy, prayer ... and an outpouring of inspirational titles to accompany her on her cancer journey. 

She writes -
As I read again this post and all the comments, I am beyond grateful for you and for all the prayers and care and suggestions given by the many friends I haven’t met yet!  A year ago I didn’t expect to be here on New Year’s Day 2022, but thanks to God’s gracious hand, I am!  As I begin a new type of cancer treatment this month, I will reach out for some of the titles everyone suggested that I didn’t get to last year.  May God bless us and give each of us the wisdom and strength we need in the new year.  “He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”(Ephesians 3:20)!!


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Kindle Deals
- Emily Freeman
$1.19
{our April 2019 Book Club selection!}

-Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC
$3.19
{as mentioned up top}

Is your reading life on fire?  Need a break?  Or a change?
Let's talk ~
Linda



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happily reconnecting with 
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42 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info on the Nicholas Sparks book - will add that to my list. Wonderful to hear from Heather - will be praying as she begins a new treatment for the cancer.

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    1. Thanks for kicking off our conversation, Mah. Speaking of cancer, that is the 'heartbreaking diagnosis' in The Wish. A gentle heads up on a difficult subject for many to read about.
      xo

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  2. I am going to read more restfully this year. Rereading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and planning a Eugene Peterson immersion soon. Found The Remains of the Day at Goodwill yesterday…

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    1. I love the way you put it, 'read restfully,' Michele. Sure sounds like a lovely invitation rather than 'how many books can I read in 12 months.'

      Thanks for the nudge to re-calibrate.

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  3. Oh my! So many books, so little time!

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  4. I enjoy a few reading challenges, but I leave plenty of wiggle room to veer off if something new comes up that I want to read. I'm not trying to read more books each year, but I have many I want to read. Looking through some of the articles you shared, sometimes I think we make even our pleasant hobbies into a strain sometimes. Read or don't, read deep or read light, read much or read little---whatever fits the bill at the time---and don't worry about it would be my advice. :-)

    I found the post about old journals interesting, as well as one she linked to about burning 90 journals. I haven't kept pour-my-heart out journals since my mid-teens, and I threw those all away. Sometimes I wish I hadn't--I'd love to know what and how I thought then. But mostly I am glad I did. I do love reading journals, though I wonder if those who wrote them would be horrified that someone published them for all the world to see.

    I have wrestled with whether to keep old Bible study notes or devotional notes. I don't really pour my heart out there, either---I just jot a few notes mainly to help me pay attention and recall what I read that day. I'm leaning toward deciding that they accomplished their purpose and tossing them.

    All of that said . . . if my mom or grandmother had an old journal, I would count it a keepsake. My blog is sort-of a journal for me now.

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    1. I hear what you're saying about journals, Barbara. I have a dozen or more stashed away in a drawer. For what? I seldom refer back to them and when I do, there's not much there that I'm interested in pursuing again.

      I'm 100% on your last line. I feel like doing life with a safe online community has been more satisfying than pouring my heart out on lined pages. I'm grateful for the blogging community ... and that includes you, my friend.

      Thank you for your thoughtful response.

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  5. Thanks for posting the note, Linda! I appreciate it!

    Also a hearty AMEN to your post about living with Omicron! Well said. ❤️

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    1. Thanks for your encouraging words about the Omicron post. I kind of went out on a limb because I've purposely avoided controversial subjects around here. But I felt compelled deep in my spirit that what I wrote needed to be said.

      I hope every thought was received in the way it was intended. That doesn't always happen!

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  6. Happy New Year Linda !!! I just happen to have THE WISH sitting on my coffee table right now........... will get to it after I finish the book I am into currently............ I agree he is a super author.

    * subscriber email

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    1. That makes me smile ... I can just picture you curled up in a comfy chair, book in hand. Thanks so much for dropping a line! Bless you!

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  7. I love reading challenges. It helps me to spend less time on social media and I exp!ore books I have been wanting to read and reread some of my favorites!📕📖📚

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    1. Anything that encourages us to spend less time wandering around social media gets a big round of applause!

      You go girl!

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  8. Thanks for the great reviews. I received the new Francine Rivers book for Christmas but I haven't started reading it yet because I started a winter project that's taking all my time.

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    1. And thanks for sharing the beautiful Bible journaling with us, Amy. I'm a big fan of your labor of love ...

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    2. I didn't notice the first time I visited that you featured my Bible Journaling post. Thanks so much for doing that! I so appreciate it!

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  9. Cancer didn't break my heart,
    oh, no, friend, au contraire!
    It was just the oddball start
    to a trip that led me where
    the scary stuff and wild things are,
    and blessings to the max,
    that showed to me the Magi's star,
    and baby, them's the facts.
    The tumours in the mirror now
    scarcely raise a shrug,
    and some folks still wonder how
    I live without no drugs,
    but God is here, He's on the scene,
    and His true love trumps morphine.

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    1. You and my mom would get along great, Andrew. She has lived in constant pain for decades now and she'd most certainly agree with your final lines.

      You are not alone, friend.

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  10. I've started and stopped The Next Right Thing a few times! I will finish it this year! I'm working through Sweet Like Jasmine by Bonnie Gray, and taking it slow, enjoying how it is helping me pause and reflect, as well as learning about Chinese American culture.

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    1. Lynn, I like those kind of reads where you can simply sit with a chapter and feel full and satisfied. Bonnie's book looks interesting, too ...

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  11. Thanks for the link and wow The Next Right Thing was one of my favorites too. I am using her journal of that title this year too.

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    1. I got the journal last year, but it just didn't work for me. It was a big disappointment that we didn't click because I'm a huge Emily fan.

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  12. Thank you, Linda. I love sitting on your porch. :) My heart does resonate with Aundi and her approach and I get her newsletter. I have her book and was reading it and taking notes slowly last year until life got overwhelming. I was about halfway through it and have been thinking of starting it again. I'm not too good at self-compassion and I've been debating on whether the workbook would help. Does it go deeper? Love, hugs, and blessings to you!

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    1. Yeah, it's hard to do the inner work when life is chaotic! I hear you! I've found workbooks to be a great healing tool. There's nothing like seeing observations and questions in black and white to help us understand what's out of sorts inside.

      Maybe the secret is to go slow but steady, not push yourself, but to move forward with compassion for those broken places, those wounds that need a healing touch from the Lord. Just like you do for others who are bearing burdens.

      He loves you so.

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    2. Please let me know how it goes, ok? I'll be praying as you continue forward toward the healing God has for you. Be gentle and kind to yourself, dear Trudy ...

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  13. I'm always clicking here and there when I land on these posts, Linda. Thanks for curating the good stuff for us all in one place!

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    1. Oh I'm glad you're finding something useful here, friend.

      I hope you are faring well ...

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  14. I am a little late getting to your porch. I haven’t read a Nicholas Sparks books in a long time. I am stuck in historical fiction and can’t get away. I always enjoy my time on your porch, my friend!

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    1. Yep, I hear you, Pam! Historical fiction is still my favorite book to curl up with. I'd love to know what you've been reading!

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    2. That's my favorite genre too, though right now I'm reading an old P. G. Wodehouse novel--very tongue-in-cheek! Also just finished the classic, Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips. Also finished recently The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers. Enjoyed the way she revealed the main characters' back stories a bit at a time; also watching the two main characters change and grow. With other readers I regret there aren't more hours in the day for its delights!

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    3. Yep, I'm enjoying my 2nd historical fiction read of '22 ... you know you've got a good author when you feel like you're actually there with her people, not simply observing from a oomfy armchair a century later!

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  15. I’m glad your porch stays for perpetual latecomers like me, Linda. :-) Thanks for sharing my post about how to give a friend a book. The link about how long to keep spiritual journals has me thinking … I literally have decades’ worth of Word documents that make up my monthly prayer journals on my computer. I rarely look back at them, but every once in a while I’ll search to see when something happened or what exactly I prayed in a certain circumstance. I wouldn’t want anyone else to read them, but I can’t fathom deleting them all. Not yet anyway. As for reading more than one book at a time, I currently am in the middle of five. Not sure what that says about me, but there you have it. :-)

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    1. In the middle of 5?!

      How do you do that?!

      Would love to hear ...

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  16. So many books to read and so little time. I have now taken to watching films like Doctor Zhivago or Les Miserables with captions on so I can say I've read the books.

    God bless.

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  17. I’m currently reading ‘The Body Keeps the Score’—it’s a fascinating look at how trauma affects us in ways we never could have imagined.

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    1. Yes, I started that book last year but it wasn't renewable because the wait list was so long and it had to go back. Thanks for reminding me to put that back on my to-read list once again, Anita.

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  18. Great post Linda. I enjoy sitting on your porch 😉 I have so many to be read books, I'm overwhelmed where to start. I need to quit getting more books until I read the ones I have. Blessings.
    Visiting today from Imparting Grace #4&5

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    1. I can't focus on any more than one book at a time these days. If the books are from the library, I try to read the one due first ... unless another one looks too fabulous to wait for!

      ;-}

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