It always brings me pleasure to look back on my reading and choose my favorite books. 2022 held so many good reads that I decided to separate the fiction from the nonfiction. In no particular order, here are my favorite nonfiction reads with their book blurbs and review links (if applicable).
The Scandal of Holiness by Jessica Hooten WilsonReading Great Literature as a Spiritual Discipline. How do we become better people? Initiatives such as New Year's resolutions, vision boards, thirty-day plans, and self-help books often fail to compel us to live differently. We settle for small goals--frugal spending, less yelling at the kids, more time at the gym--but we are called to something far greater. We are created to be holy.
Award-winning author Jessica Hooten Wilson explains that learning to hear the call of holiness requires cultivating a new imagination--one rooted in the act of reading. Learning to read with eyes attuned to the saints who populate great works of literature moves us toward holiness, where God opens up a way of living that extends far beyond what we can conjure for ourselves. Literature has the power to show us what a holy life looks like, and these depictions often scandalize even as they shape our imagination. As such, careful reading becomes a sort of countercultural spiritual discipline.
The book includes devotionals, prayers, wisdom from the saints, and more to help individuals and groups cultivate a saintly imagination.
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Read my review.
Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M. D.
The #1 New York Times bestselling account of a neurosurgeon's own near-death experience.
Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.
Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.
Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.
Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.
This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.
Prayer Without Pretending by Angela Ashwin
If you feel one way and pray another, maybe it's because you're afraid to let God know how you really feel. Angela Ashwin believes that honesty is the key ingredient in any healthy relationship.
But many of us feel uncomfortable being angry or depressed in front of God. Instead, we insist on being politely insincere whenever we pray, thus building a wall between ourselves and God that no amount of time or technique will overcome.
Frustration, guilt, distraction, grief, fear, and even pride can be the raw material for our prayers, if we will consent to being who we really are in the presence of God. Whether we have hurt someone or been hurt ourselves, we can bring our sins and our pain to God and let him decide how to handle them.
God is big enough to deal with our anger and loving enough to dispel our fears. Prayer without Pretending is a book to help you open up to the grace that comes from living in God's presence as you really are.
Mothering by the Book by Jennifer Pepito
Becoming a better, happier mom starts with the stories you tell your kids.
As a mom, you want to nurture a strong family, but fear steals your joy. Sometimes you wonder if you're failing your children or whether you're cut out for this.
Beloved writer and mom of seven Jennifer Pepito understands. She was intent on loving her children well, but fear and worry pushed her around. Ultimately, she found her joy in a most surprising place: the pages of classic literature she was reading aloud to her children every day. These stories helped her reclaim the wonder of childhood for herself and her children.
In Mothering by the Book, Jennifer takes you on a fascinating, whimsical journey that will bring freedom and fun to your parenting--one great book at a time.
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Read my review.
Suncoast Empire by Frank A. Cassell
Silver Medal Florida Book Awards Nonfiction. In the early 20th century, Bertha Palmer was one of the best-known and wealthiest women in America. She was an art collector, women's rights advocate, businesswoman, owner of Chicago's Palmer House Hotel, and had elegant homes in Chicago, Paris, and London.
In 1910 she traveled to the small and rough settlement called Sarasota on the west coast of Florida. For some reason, she decided to spend much of each year for the rest of her life on one of America's last frontiers, investing in cattle and farming, creating communities out of marshlands, pine forests, and tropical jungles. The society queen and social reform advocate excelled as a frontier entrepreneur, just as she had in every other endeavor in her life. She managed to make a good deal of money and to change Sarasota forever.
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Read my review.
