Hello! Can you believe we’ve already hit the first Thursday of a new month? This one snuck up on me! Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday. As I do every first Thursday, I’m sharing a look at what I read last month. Here we go ~
That's Just Not True by Erica Ligenza Gwynn
I have been a fan of Erica for years now and follow her on Instagram and blog Coming Up Roses. When I heard she had written a book, it immediately went on my to-be-read list! While I believe younger women would get more out of this book than I did, I still enjoyed it very much.
Are you feeling burned out by hustle culture? Weighed down by expectations? Stuck in indecision? Overwhelmed by, well, practically everything? It's not just you. A generation of Christian women are caught between being told they can and should "have it all" and an inner terror that, with one wrong move, it will all come crumbling down. Erica Ligenza Gwynn has lived in the constant tension of being told she is too much yet never enough. After too many uncomfortable years, she finally discovered the key to living free: recognizing and rejecting worldly lies and replacing them with God's truth.
In That's Just Not True, she shows you a better path forward through the noise. This book is an anthem for true freedom, helping you spot lies you didn't even know you believed or that the world sells as "empowering" even though they leave you feeling empty. Lies like
· If I'm not hustling, I'm lazy
· It's happening for everyone but me
· I am enough
· I will never be given anything I can't handle
· My feelings are my truth
· I'm in control and can "manifest" my dream life
· I'm too messy/broken/damaged to be loved
· and more
Begin replacing those lies with God's truth today and find wild freedom in living out your God-given callings with authenticity, purpose, and joy.
Twice by Mitch Albom
This was such a sweet and charming story! I don’t typically gravitate toward anything with a supernatural twist, but this one completely won me over. The plot unfolded in ways I wasn’t expecting, and some of the turns it took were genuinely heartwarming. It’s one of those stories that stays with you long after you finish it.
What if you got to do everything in your life—twice? The heart of Mitch Albom’s newest novel—charmingly narrated by Mitch himself—is a stunning love story that dares to explore how our unchecked desires might mean losing what we’ve had all along.
When he is eight years old, Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try—for better or worse.
He grows up correcting his mistakes and saving himself from adolescent embarrassments. He even takes foolishly dangerous risks, just to see what it’s like to come close to death, before tapping back to safety.
Eventually, Alfie turns his gift to his love life, studying his crushes and going back to make himself more appealing. In time, he falls deeply in love with Gianna, the woman he believes is the one. He seems to find contentment.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
This was our book club pick for the month. I had just finished another Fredrik Backman novel recently, and I’m not sure I was quite ready to dive into another one so soon—he really knows how to pack in the words! That said, the story itself was engaging and held my interest.
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
This was a solid read and definitely kept my interest throughout. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it one of my favorites, but it certainly wasn’t a bad book by any means. It fell somewhere in the middle for me—enjoyable enough to keep turning the pages, just not one that will stick with me for long.
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.
But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.
Now it's your turn. What are you thinking out loud about today? Link up and share!
No comments:
Post a Comment