Do you remember as a kid how days of summer stretched out endlessly with the illusion they would never end? There was no pressure, no hurry and no reason to go to bed early if you were in the middle of a good book. 

Is there any way to recapture that care free feeling of being swept away by a great story during the lazy days of summer? 

Yes! I believe it. 

But maybe it won’t be as effortless now as it was then. 

The way to make your summer reading better as an adult is to know yourself, name what matters, find your book people, build your book stack, organize your reading list and apply the Venn Diagram principle to reading with others.

Know yourself

Chase the fun

You know yourself better than anyone. What motivates you? What is relaxing and rejuvenating for you? Crossing off books on a list might give you a great sense of accomplishment.  Or, having a list might feel restrictive. Only you know.

You know if you need no structure and no pressure. Do what’s fun.

Follow the curiosity

Follow the curiosity means avoiding the shoulds.

Pick up the books that look intriguing. Go down rabbit holes. Get those dopamine hits from learning new things. If escape reading is what you need most, find the authors, genres, series that draw you in. 

Release the guilt that says your reading life has to look like someone else’s. 

Name what matters

I’m indebted to Kendra Adachi for the Lazy Genius principle of Name What Matters. Taking some time to think through what is most important to you this summer will pay off. What could matter? What does matter? And what matters most? 

Why do you want your summer reading to be better? Because this season has less pressure and fewer activities so offers the best chance to read for fun? Because you miss the time you used to spend swept away by a compelling story? Because you can’t figure out how to make it work in your life right now? What matters? 

Decide why you’re reading

Do you want to learn from the experts? Is that why you’re picking up a book? Or do you need to step into another world temporarily and leave the one you have behind for a while. Or a combination of both? Knowing what you want to gain helps you create your best reading life. 

Manage your time better

Clear boundaries between work and rest are not easy to draw. Use the clock or a timer to determine when work is done and fun begins.

Replace binge watching or mindless scrolling with purposeful reading

Do what you want to do most and eliminate what you want to do least. Determine your priorities and then schedule your priorities. 

Create a book nook

Having an environment that supports your goals is important for success. A comfortable, well-lighted place to read is important. So is the noise level. So is the accessibility factor. If aesthetics matters to you make it beautiful. 

Live in the season

Break down your summer into sections. Identify goals or strategies for each section of the summer. 

This is good advice from Kendra Adachi on how to have a successful summer.

A key concept here is not to think about the summer as a whole, but to divide it into sections. Natural breaks would be vacation, special events planned or visitors coming.

Each one to five week stretch might look different depending on what’s happening. Determine what the priorities are for each section. Name what matters. Your reading life will look different in each section. Match expectations to the reality of that season. 

Find your people

Find some book whisperers

Find bloggers who do book reviews. If the books they review line up with some of your favorites, stick around. If not, move on. 

Check out the comments sections of book bloggers to connect with bookish kindred spirits online.

Do some internet searches of books like ______ (your favorite book).

Start a group on Goodreads

Read my post on how to find your favorite book genre. Go through the steps to identify your favorite subgenre of books. Then start a Goodreads group with that subgenre as the name of the group. You will attract other readers to your group who have similar tastes in books. 

Join a book club

This could be an in real life club or an online book club. Either way, it will give you a chance to interact with bookish kindred spirits. 

Sign up for a summer reading program 

This could be at your local library or online. Joining a summer reading program will give you some accountability and some structure and goals for your summer reading. You’ll have to take it a step further if you’re looking for connection. Strike up a conversation with a librarian. Look around for people you know who have also signed up. Or bring along a friend to sign up with you. 

Build your book stack

The meme that says “Buying craft supplies is a different hobby than crafting” makes me laugh. But I think finding your next great read can be as much fun as reading. Have fun building your book stack.  

Find your favorite book genre

I wrote a whole post on how to find or create your favorite book genre. If you go through the steps and identify what your favorite genre is then you know which books you’re looking for and where to look. Building your book stack will be easier if you know which section of the bookstore and which corner of the internet to head for. 

Create a TBR list that works for you

Critical to having a great reading summer is having a great To Be Read list. If you have a long list of books that you’re dying to read, your reading life will be better. If you are surrounded by 3 or 4 options on hand that you’re excited about, finding the time will become a non-issue. Follow Tea and Ink’s tip for discovering trigger warnings in books. 

Eliminating books that will cause a bad reading experience is important, too. Stop reading books you don’t love. Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Anne Bogel says, “Life’s too short for bad books”. Abandoning books that aren’t right for you or you’re not ready for will leave more time for the right books. 

Build your vacation book stack

As a subset of your TBR list, your vacation book stack meets the need for one small sliver of your life. With a little bit of effort (and some practice) you can load up your Ereader, your phone or your suitcase with a vacation book stack that is full of winners. Read more tips about building your vacation book stack here.

Follow your favorite living authors on social media 

Following your favorite authors on social media has multiple advantages. First, you get up to date news about new releases and any sales related to their books. You also get behind the scenes scoops and often a peek into their personal life as well. Finally, if you’re lucky, they will share with you what they’re reading. Good chance what they love you will love. 

Reread childhood favorites

If you’re having trouble connecting with new books that you love as adult, consider going back to books you loved growing up. Often you’ll come to appreciate them at a different level, seeing them from the perspective of age, wisdom and experience. 

Read Middle Grade and Young Adult books

Don’t limit your search to adult books only. Many middle grade and YA books are brilliantly written. I find them the perfect option during stressful seasons of life when I’m not able to concentrate on complex books. 

Organize your reading list

If you want to know the many analog and digital options for organizing your reading list read this post.

Are you keeping a list about books that you heard about and want to read? Or books you’ve read and loved?

Either way, a book journal might be just the ticket. Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs Darcy has a great one. Or maybe an app on your phone or a spread sheet on the computer would work better for you.

Consider expanding your methods for reading

If ebooks or audiobooks aren’t not a part of your life now, dip your toes in the pool and see if you like them. Explore new options. Maybe audiobooks are a good fit for engrossing fiction during your commute, but non-fiction needs to be hard copy so you can tab and highlight your favorite quotes. Maybe ebooks are better for trips when you’re flying but print books are preferred for road trips. Try something new. You might love it. 

Living with your people

Communicate to the people in your life when interruptions are okay and when they’re not so welcome. 

This is a difficult concept to communicate. When you’re relaxing on the couch with a book, people think that you aren’t doing anything important and it’s not a problem to interrupt you.  So many reader memes have to do with this frustration of being interrupted when reading. It’s a real problem. 

You can address it head on or you can work to create an environment where you’ll be least likely to be interrupted. 

One option is to make a date at the coffee shop for you and your book.

Another idea is to get up early or stay up late so you can read while everyone is asleep.

Apply the Venn Diagram principle to reading with others

Summer is a great time to read aloud to the kids in your life, your spouse or anyone take on vacation. Road trips are perfect for reading aloud or listening to audio books together. 

The critical factor for successful read alouds (or audio books) is to religiously apply the principle of the Venn diagram to choosing books. That means everyone needs to be happy with the selection. Even if there’s only a small sliver of overlap where everyone’s happy, you focus on that sliver. Put a little (or a lot) of work into finding the books that everyone likes. 

To increase your chances, start with good book lists. I’ve created one for reading aloud with kids. Read Aloud Revival also has great lists with a lot of crowd pleasers. 

As Sarah Mackenzie from Read Aloud Revival says, the goal here is to “create lasting and meaningful connections with your kids through books”.

Vacation reading can be the best reading of the year. There’s unique opportunities and challenges. There’s pockets of time to read waiting in an airport or on the road. At your destination there’s beach sitting, hammock swinging, couch lounging, staying up late and sleeping in. Great ways to indulge your hobby. 

But if your goal is to build stack of winners to take on vacation, how do you do that? 

Just like shopping for craft supplies is a different hobby than crafting, so building that book stack is a different hobby than reading. But, it can be just as satisfying. If you enjoy browsing, finding out what’s out there, take up the mantle of a treasure hunter and enjoy the journey as much as the prize. 

There are a few key steps to take in order to build that stack of winners. 

Assess Your Present Condition

How are your stress levels and emotional state?

The amount of stress in my life determines how complex or heavy a book I can read. The more stressed I am, the more I need a straight forward story without a lot of confusing characters or complicated plot twists or time and setting shifts. When my stress is lower, I can take on those longer, more complex or heavier stories. 

Emotional state is important, too. Are you grieving? Healing from physical, mental or emotional trauma? Overwhelmed? Dealing with hard decisions, relationships or situations? Do you need some vicarious emotional release? Entering into someone else’s story–fictional or true–can help you express emotions that are under the surface.  

Name What Matters

I’m a big fan of Kendra Adachi’s Lazy Genius principles. Name What Matters is foundational.

According to Kendra, first you list what could matter, then what does matter and finally what matters most. When you have clarity on what matters most, you can release your expectations for what matters least. You can laser in on the top priorities. Your odds of succeeding go way up if you’re trying to do less. When you define the target you know whether or not you’re hitting it. 

What matters to you as you build your vacation book stack?

Choose Escape, Entertainment or Education

When you know your stress level and emotional state and you’ve identified what matters, you can choose broad categories of books that will meet you where you are. 

So if emotionally you need a literary escape you’ll be looking for an engaging novel. 

If you enjoy the dopamine hits of learning new things, you’ll be tracking down some non-fiction.  

My educational reading is usually driven by specific problems that I’m facing. But, sometimes it’s just curiosity. I read Columbine curious to know what precipitated that tragedy. What was the story behind the young men and their families? 

I read Into Thin Air fueled by curiosity about a true adventure, but ended up learning a lot about leadership and teamwork. 

Decide if You Need Some Bibliotherapy 

Do you need a vicarious emotional release? Do you need to borrow some courage from fictional or actual heroes? A well-written memoir or biography can be inspiring. Try Educated or Hillbilly Elegy. Sometimes you just need to join Bilbo or Frodo on a quest, face those dragons, defeat the armies and throw the ring in the fire. You can return to your life with borrowed courage. The hobbits won’t mind sharing theirs with you.

Assess Time and Possibilities for Reading

Are you traveling alone? Who are you vacationing with? How much time traveling, how much time resting, lying on the beach, partying with others? Will you spend any time reading with others? Audiobooks in the car? Bedtime stories?

The critical element when reading with others is to remember the Venn diagram and concentrate on the sweet spot where the circles overlap and everyone’s happy with the choices.  Choose the books that please everyone in the car. Of course, everyone could have their own ear buds and their own choices of entertainment, but with some extra effort, you could build some connection and good memories if everyone in the vehicle is enjoying the same audiobook together.

Another critical point is to have several options and quit anything that isn’t working for everyone. Pull out another option.  

Choose Your Genres

Once you’ve determined what you need from your reading on this vacation, pick your genres. Deep dive non-fiction into an area of interest? Breezy beach read? Twisty Sci Fi? Cozy Mystery? Fantasy? Even better is a good mix of all your favorites. It could be that at the beginning of vacation all you can handle are compelling escape novels, but by the end, you’re ready to learn something that will be helpful for your life. 

Tap your Best Book Whisperers

It’s worth it to cultivate some well-read influencers who will point you in the right direction to your own best reads. How do you build your normal book stack? Pay attention to endorsements and reviews. Best seller lists are usually not the way to go. Just because a lot of people bought a book doesn’t mean it will suit your taste.  Don’t leave your reading life in the hands of algorithms. The people manipulating the algorithms do not have your best interests at heart. 

Answer the Print, Ebook or Audiobook Question

Will you have internet on the trip and at your destination? Electricity? Does the weight of your luggage matter? Or is space in your suitcase at a premium? Of course, weigh in your preferences to digital, audio or paper, but vacation is a good time to stretch your normal choices. Load up your E reader with library or purchased books to lighten your physical load. Car trips are ideal for audiobooks.

Decide How Many Books You Should Take on Vacation

Lit Hub has published an interesting book to day ratio ranging from 12 books for 5 days to 2 books for 5 days, depending on what kind of vacation you’re taking. 

What you want to avoid is running out of books or carrying too much weight. If you read mostly ebooks, that eliminates some of the problem. If you’ve loaded up an Ereader with books, be prepared for the possibility of the battery going dead, other malfunction or loss of the EReader. 

Have some print books as a back up. Slim paperbacks are a good choice if you’re flying with weight restrictions. Sometimes heavy, thoughtful reading is a good choice here rather than breezy reads that you can fly through at 100 pages an hour. 

Consider Some Curated Lists

If you’re short on time a curated list might work.

I’ve compiled book lists on my site. They provide a good jumping off place if this isn’t a good time for research. 

Clean Beach Reads: Classics, Literary Fiction and Breezy Reads might be just the ticket. 

Books Like Atomic Habits is part of my read alike series. Check this out if you love to learn about better life management from thought leaders. 

Or Can’t Miss Books for Busy Christian Women. This list has lots of non-fiction over a variety of genres as well as a little bit of fiction. 

If you’re on a road trip as a family with kids, look at Best Family Read Alouds and Where to Start

Find a Vehicle for Capturing Your List

I wrote a post about how to organize your reading list with all the options from simple to complex and analog to digital. 

Read that post here. 

In a nutshell, notebooks, planners and bullet journals are popular options if you prefer pen and paper. 

Digital solutions include your phone, library holds list, computer spreadsheets, Pinterest, Notion, Trello, GoodReads, LibraryThing and StoryGraph. 

Some solutions are going to work better if you want to have a To Be Read list going all the time. 

Other options might be considered if you only occasionally build a book stack, like going on vacation. 

The bottom line is the better you know yourself, the better your book stack will be. Take into account good experiences and bad from other vacations and pivot in the direction of the winners. 

Happy Reading!

There are good reasons to not support Amazon. If you’re ready to make the switch, what are the best options for ordering books online? 

My top picks are Bookshop and Christian Book for new books, Libro fm for audiobooks and Paperbackswap or Better World Books for used books. 

Alternatives to Amazon: New Books

Bookshop

If you’ve already decided you don’t want your dollars to go to Amazon, Bookshop is a good option. 

Instead of supporting the book behemoth, your money goes to support local independent bookstores or influencers that you follow. 

Bookshop is a good option if you’re planning ahead and have time, if you’re gifting books or if you’re pre-ordering a book before it’s released. 

The shipping takes longer and the prices are slightly higher on normally priced books.

There’s millions of books and they distribute through Ingram. But, you have to know what you’re looking for. 

If you’re used to Amazon, you’ll find that Bookshop is not as easy to navigate. It’s harder to just browse. It’s better if you already know what you’re looking for. It’s easy to underestimate Amazon’s search features and the plethora of categories just in books alone. 

Looking for specific booklists can help here, such as the lists for Read Aloud Revival or Redeemed Reader. The way to find them is to search in shops rather than books.

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble is the big box bookstore that survived after Borders went out of business. They developed their own E-reader, the Nook, and embraced digital when the book industry was shifting. Their online presence is now well-established. 

Christian Book

I’ve been happy with the customer service from Christian book. The delivery times are not bad if items are in stock. I’ve received boxes at my home just a few days after I’ve ordered. 

Powell’s

A local bookstore that has expanded to an online presence, Powell’s can ship your book order directly to you. 

Books a Million

Another option to consider for buying new books. In addition to books, Books a Million has audiobooks, ebooks as well as table games. 

Alternatives to Amazon: Used Books

Paperbackswap

If you’re in the market for used books Paperbackswap is worth checking out. 

This works best if you have books that you are weeding out of your own collection. You list the books that you are ready to let go of and the site will match you up with people looking for those titles. 

Then you request the books that you’re looking for and you will be contacted if someone has those books. 

You earn credits for the books that you ship to someone else. Since you are only paying for shipping and a small service fee, your overall cost will be less than other used book options.  

This service works best for your own collection, not for books you’re planning to gift or something you need by a specific date. You have to be patient as the timing of when books on your wish list become available is a complete unknown. 

If you need specific used books and don’t have time to play a waiting game, try Better World Books or Half Price Books. 

Better World Books

Advertises free shipping. Shipping times can be 5 to 9 business days. 

Half Price Books

Standard shipping and handling fee for one book is $3.99.

Alternatives to Amazon: Audiobooks

Audio books have rocketed in popularity. They are an especially good option for people with a long daily commute, while exercising, doing errands or chores or passing time on road trips.

Libro fm

libro.fm has the similar advantage as Bookshop of supporting local bookstores. They sell audiobooks and their service is similar to Amazon’s audible. 

You can buy audio books individually or get a monthly subscription for $15 a month. 

The website is also harder to navigate than Amazon, so once again, it helps if you know what you’re looking for. 

audiobooks.com

Also has a subscription option, also has a large selection

christianaudio.com 

An enticing feature of Christian Audio is their free monthly download available if you sign up for their mailing list, no paid subscription required. 

I’m a sucker for self-help books. 

In my decade as a bookseller and a half century as an avid reader, I’ve learned there are some that help and scads that don’t.

Happiness books form a big slice of the self-help pie. I didn’t make a list of books to read that will make you happy. I wrote about building a reading life that generates a happier you. 

So how can you read your way to a happier life?

The critical element is to choose books that will grow your gratitude, renew your mind, serve as bibliotherapy, collect dopamine hits, solve your problems, make relational connections, help you regain perspective and learn from thought leaders. 

What you read impacts your thoughts and mindset. 

Grow Your Gratitude

Nothing impacts happiness like becoming more grateful. 

Develop an attitude of gratitude by reading about spiritual or patriotic heroes. 

Reading about the lives of true heroes can boost your gratitude quotient. You become grateful for your own life and grateful for the ones who sacrificed for your benefit. 

As an added bonus, you can borrow courage from their stories and insight on how to live yours better.

Memoirs and biographies can inspire us.

We are infused with courage by reading their stories. I remember when I was in difficult situations thinking that if Corrie Ten Boom could survive the concentration camp, I could survive, too. My situation was not nearly as bad as hers.

Even fiction can inspire. When we relate to a character, hero or person, we can vicariously feel their emotions and celebrate their victories with them. That gives us hope to face our foes, to climb our mountains and win our battles.

It’s possible to live without a lot of things, but hope is essential. Getting the inside story about people winning helps us believe we can win, too and the future will be better than the present.

Renew Your Mind

Create your own upward spiral by focusing on hope and inspiration. 

The Bible encourages us to renew our minds. How do you do that, exactly? Meditation on inspirational passages, sure. Filling our minds with music that uplifts. 

But, another, critical strategy is to direct your thoughts by choosing reading materials that uplift. 

Direct your thoughts by carefully choosing your reading material. 

News cycles prey on fear. 

Social media preys on envy. 

Our lives are dominated by sound bites and memes. 

But, the hard work of challenging values, attitudes and beliefs takes more than 90 second quips. 

When you choose to read uplifting books you choose to think uplifting thoughts.

A more directive way your reading can improve your mental health is to read self-help books related to whatever issue you wrestle with currently.

The great news is, it’s easier than ever to build your book stack with uplifting, inspiring books. Fill your night stand and end tables with those stacks, discipline your self to limit media junk food and consume the thoughts that will renew your mind. 

Regain Perspective

So much of happiness has to do with perspective. Daily frustrations and daily challenges grind away at peace and joy. Conflicts, tensions, stress, hurry, stagnation and boredom can all eat away at our happiness stash. 

Stepping back to see the big picture is often the dose of reality that we need. 

Meditating on timeless principles helps us gain perspective. 

So does learning about real people who overcame real obstacles. 

Memoir can do it. So can non-fiction books about faith and spirituality. 

Even a well-told fictional story can help us realign our lives around the foundational beliefs that drive us. 

People winning battles in a different era helps us see our place in the timeline of history. 

When you’ve lost perspective, the right book can help you get it back. 

William Nicholson said, “We read to know we’re not alone.” There’s something encouraging about knowing that others have survived what you’re going through. They know how you feel. They found hope and persevered.

One way to combat depression is to regain perspective. A great way to step back and get a panoramic view is to crawl into someone else’s skin. See life through their eyes. Realize how much you have to be thankful for and the real size of your problems. See where you fit in to the timeline of world history. Our lives are just a blink. The things we worry and stress about often are not worth the mental energy we spend on them.

Reading about someone else’s reality puts our problems into perspective. Seeing them overcome problems gives us hope.

David McCullough said, “You read nonfiction to learn the truth about history. You read literature to learn the truth about human nature.”

Solve Your Problems

Attack your problems by tapping into the experts who have answers to what you’re facing.

What’s keeping you from being happier? The problems in your life.

It could be health, money, relationships, advancing your career, looking for purpose or developing your beliefs. 

Anything can benefit by seeking out experts for insight into your struggles. 

You might be starting with symptoms. Not a problem. A good diagnosis is the first step and it might not be an easy one. There might be some hit and miss, some seek and find involved. That’s okay. 

Maybe you’re even starting with a vague uneasiness or an impression that something is wrong. That’s not a bad place to start, either. Sometimes diving into research will help you unearth and even give a name to what you’re dealing with. 

I always find a sense of relief when I discover something that has a name. That means that I’m not the only one and that there’s hope for recourse, just because it has a name. 

It’s happened to me with “phone phobia” and “the frozen grief of ambiguous loss”.  Both a giant exhale just finding it had a name. 

So, start where you are and dig around. 

There will be conflicting theories and opinions. Different approaches and different voices with advice. Check them out. Evaluate them against your current knowledge and beliefs. Try them on. Try them out. Embrace the ones that align and ditch the ones that don’t. 

Now you have a game plan, a map or, at least a starting block. 

All these benefits by researching and reading up on your problem. 

Make  Relational Connections

Read to children to strengthen bonds, create memories and develop their intelligence.

I admit, one of the greatest joys of my life is reading to children. 

I loved reading to my kids and now I love reading to my grandkids. 

There’s few things more satisfying than clean, damp munchkins in footie pajamas snuggled in with a fuzzy blanket to hear a story. 

That alone increases my happiness quotient. 

Better than that, it increases theirs as well. 

There’s a similar dynamic when you join a book club, whether it’s in person or virtual. 

Read aloud or listen to audio books on road trips to make the miles go faster.

Yes, you have to some research to find books that everyone in the car will enjoy. It might take a few false starts. But, stick with it till you hit the jackpot. 

Sarah Mackenzie of The Read Aloud Revival nails it when she says that reading aloud makes lasting and meaningful connections with your kids through books. 

In the same way that watching movies together builds common memories and inside jokes, listening to stories aloud together creates those same bonds. 

Apply Bibliotherapy

Let me be clear. I’m referring bibliotherapy in it’s most general term. While doing research for this post, I found articles on professional bibliotherapy as a treatment for anxiety, depression and other afflictions. It’s fascinating how trained therapists are using directed reading to improve people’s mental health.

What I’m talking about here is self-directed bibiotherapy, that is to say choosing your own books and reading to make life better.

There are many well-known benefits of reading. Reading lowers stress by reducing your heart rate and releasing muscle tension starting in as little as six minutes.

It’s well-known that reading expands your vocabulary, increases your knowledge and can help you have more empathy for others.

Toss in the advantages of taking a mini-vacation. Reading has a lot going for it.

But, there’s some benefits that might not be so obvious. Maybe even surprising.

Nine Surprising Benefits of Bibliotherapy

Become your own bibliotherapist and build your book stack to impact your emotional health. 

Collect Dopamine Hits

Dopamine is a feel good chemical that occurs naturally in the body, but there are ways to stimulate the production of dopamine.

Learning new things is one way.

A study from UC Berkley showed that your brain receives dopamine hits when you learn new information. If you read to learn, your body will reward you chemically.

Learning new things can literally make you feel better. Who hasn’t had a eureka moment that got them excited? Why not put yourself in a position to learn on a regular basis?

Read to learn. It’s good for your happiness.

Learn From Thought Leaders

Thought leaders write books.

So do the experts in your field. 

To understand current trends, read what they are writing. Find the strengths and the fallacies.

Don’t trust hearsay. Get it straight from the horse’s mouth to make an accurate evaluation. 

Then join the conversation. 

It happens to me all the time. A window of time opens up in my schedule long enough for me to run to the library. And then I draw a blank about all the books that showed up on my radar that I want to check out. I throw together a list and dash off, only to remember about something I wanted to read after I get back home. 

There is a better way. 

The options for organizing your reading list range from simple to amazingly complex. If you want analog solutions, use a notebook, a planner or a bullet journal. If you want digital solutions use your phone, a computer spreadsheet, Pinterest, Notion or Trello. If you’re looking for a system with more features, especially the ability to share, network and capture book reviews, consider GoodReads, Storygraph or LibraryThing.  

Knowing the features and drawbacks of the different approaches will help you decide which is right for you.

Knowing how you are naturally wired will also help. 

Are you drawn to pen and paper over keyboards? Do you prefer pretty over practical? Is your reading life the chance to escape to your solitary island or do you thrive on discussions about big ideas? Answering these questions offers clues to which option is best for you. 

How to Organize Your Reading: Low Tech Solutions

Use a notebook

This is a quick, easy and low cost solution. A simple running list can keep track of the books you want to read. As you finish them, you can add dates completed and stars if you want.

Use a planner

One step up from a notebook is using a planner. You have the added advantage of knowing when you’ve read your books, or when you added them to the list. 

Use a bullet journal

They are trendy and popular. A simple page with a running To Be Read list and a second one with favorite books finished could do the trick. Or you could use a simple star system and a date added to your TBR list, if you wanted to keep all the information in one place. 

How to Organize Your Reading List: Digital Solutions

Use your library holds list

Your To Be Read list could be what you have requested from the library. When you come across a book you want to read, simply add it to the list. The big drawback here is that it only includes the books available at one library. 

Use your phone

This could be the best place to capture all your ideas. You could take a pictures with your phone of books you come across in a bookstore. You could keep a running list of books that show up on your radar that you don’t want to forget about. 

Use a computer spreadsheet

A spreadsheet can hold lots of information in a small place.

You can add cells to capture additional information about each book, such as date finished, star ratings and even brief opinions about the book.  

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets and Google Sheets offer more options, such as inviting friends to view your spreadsheets. 

Use Pinterest

Pinterest boards are a good place to capture your reading lists if you love a visual collection of the book covers of the books on your lists. Different boards can capture different collections. These can be viewed by others or kept private, depending on how you set up your boards. 

Use Notion

Kailey at Luminous Libro is one of my favorite book tubers. She has a you tube video about using Notion to organize her reading list. Pros here are Notion is a also good place to organize your to do list, and lists are expandable and able to incorporate a lot of moving parts. 

A downside to Notion is there is no print feature in the app, you first have to save as a pdf and then print.

How to Organize Your Reading List: Trello

There’s one digital solution that stands alone: Trello. 

Kendra Adachi, author of The Lazy Genius Way, explains how she uses Trello to organize her reading list.

The Trello system can incorporate TBR list and already finished lists and is able to move seamlessly between them.

There’s is a small learning curve to get an account set up and start using cards. After that, it’s pretty straightforward.

How to Organize Your Reading List: Goodreads

GoodReads is especially good for interacting with others.

First you create your own bookshelves where you can make lists of books you want to read or have already read. Then you can give them a star rating and post reviews about the books.

You can easily move books from a TBR list to finished, favorites or abandoned. 

Then you can friend others who are on GoodReads, see their bookshelves, what they’re reading and what they think about those books. It’s like a book club without a schedule and no pressure to interact.

You can start a list on GoodReads and contribute to others’ lists. 

You can join the conversation about books in an informal way. 

How to Organize Your Reading List: GoodReads Alternatives

LibraryThing And Storygraph are considered alternatives to GoodReads. They have different features, advantages and drawbacks. A more complete list of GoodReads alternatives can be found here. 

LibraryThing has some of the same advantages as GoodReads. It is also a platform where you can build a collection for your personal library or for a small organization such as a church. You can scan the bar codes of books to add to the collection and organize them digitally.

LibraryThing also allows you to apply to be an early reviewer for new releases.

StoryGraph has a good browse feature. It also seems to be a good place to launch a reading challenge. It might be a good place to build community.

For more tips for your reading life, see How to Read Books for Fun as a Busy Adult.

If you make a decision to start watercolor painting or photography or gardening as a hobby, there’s lots of classes to take and internet resources galore. 

But, what if decide you want to start reading as a hobby? Where do you go? 

Consider this your Reading 101. 

Reading is a great hobby. One of the best, one of my favorites, for sure. After a half century of passionate reading, I’ve learned some things that serve me well. 

To start a reading hobby, you need to decide what matters, find your favorite book genre, build your book stack, add reading to your daily and weekly rhythms, track your reading and share as much as you want.

Will this be a Solitary or Group Hobby? 

If you need more social interaction around your hobbies, consider a book club. 

If you’re more introverted, consider jumping into the #bookstagram community, sharing your favorite reads on instagram and building your stack via other’s recommendations. 

You know yourself better than anyone else. You know what will work best for you. Or, you will know after you try something that doesn’t work. 

Name What Matters

I’ve embraced Kendra Adachi’s philosophy of life management wholeheartedly, and I believe this is a critical step. 

What matters to you? 

Connecting with the children in your life through story? 

Strengthening your faith by increased understanding? 

Releasing the burden of a current difficult reality? 

Regaining perspective? 

What do you hope to gain? 

Most hobbies offer the chance to unwind, reduce stress, unplug from work or learn something new. 

When you name what matters, you’re light years ahead in creating a hobby that will serve you well. 

Decide if you’re reading for information or entertainment.

For many people who read as a hobby, what matters is a chance to temporarily immerse yourself in another world and momentarily forget the reality you live in. 

For others, it’s the quest of new information that sets off the endorphins in the pleasure of discovery. 

Sometimes, reading ushers in a better understanding of the world and our place in it. 

What could matter? 

Uninterrupted time with no demands or expectations. 

A guide for our thoughts, to keep them from sinking into anxiety or depression. 

The beauty of inspiration and truth. 

Solitude to think the deeper thoughts of life. 

The chance to connect with minds separated by geography or decades. 

Lots of great reasons to start a reading hobby. 

After you name what matters, you can build your hobby to reflect those values. 

If solitude and uninterrupted time is part of the equation, you might to have to work hard to get away or turn off notifications. 

If you’re looking for the beauty of inspiration and truth or a guide for your thoughts, then building your book stack becomes the most important objective. What you choose to read will make all the difference. Choose with care. 

Find Your Favorite Book Genre 

A good short cut for finding your favorite books is to find your favorite book genre.  Once you’ve nailed that down, it’s easier to find books you love.

In the process, you might stumble across a favorite genre that surprises you. 

Try Whichbook.net if mood and emotion is important to you.

Build Your Book Stack

Find a book whisperer. 

If you’re having trouble finding books you love, look for a book whisperer whose tastes are similar to yours. Someone trustworthy. 

You Tube is a good place to look. There are a lot of book tubers there. 

Instagram is another good place. Check out the #bookstagram hashtag. Or find authors or book bloggers you like and follow them there. 

So when you find someone, hold on with both hands. 

And don’t be too disappointed with the ones who let you down. It’s an ongoing process, finding a voice to trust. 

Capture book recommendations on your phone when a book hits your radar via a friend or media blurb.

Add Reading to Your Daily and Weekly Rhythms

Multi-tasking might be a requirement for survival. 

One of the best ways for busy moms to multi-task is reading books to their kids that they enjoy as well. This kills a lot of birds with one stone. Teaching empathy and other character traits to your kids, for instance. Bonding and building shared memories. A chance to sit down and stop hounding the kids to do chores or stay out of trouble. 

Of course, when you’re building your book stack, some books will interest only you. 

That’s when the rhythms of your day and week come into play, when you find the pockets of peace and quiet to pursue your reading hobby. 

Some seasons of life will naturally be more conducive than others.  

Are your week days packed and your weekends more flexible?

Or do you run non-stop on weekends and have a chance to breathe during the week?

Do you have a regular day off every week? 

Work is endless. 

Sometimes we need to schedule the rest, and stick to the rest schedule. 

How do you normally organize your time? Do you plan down to 15 minute segments or go with the flow. However you manage the hours of your life, recognize that making time for hobbies will enrich the rest of your life. 

You aren’t ignoring your responsibilities, you’re investing in yourself. 

When time gets squeezed how for your hobbies, you have less to give to your life’s work. Steven Covey calls this sharpening the saw in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Along with exercise and reflection, they help you keep your life on track. 

Pair with a Favorite Beverage

Nothing says “time off” like sitting down with your favorite drink, hot or cold.

Refreshing the mind, body and spirit at the same time just makes sense. 

Organize or Track Your Reading

What if you’re not a naturally organized person and the idea of organizing your hobby makes you break out in hives? Understood. You can certainly approach it in a more informal, relaxed way. 

I tried Trello as a way to organize my books, and I like it. 

It’s a good set up to capture To Be Read lists as well as Already Read and Favorites lists. 

Goodreads can also work well as a tracking and organizing tool.

Share as Much as You Want

You can share what you’re reading with the world on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Goodreads. 

You can share with a book club, or you can start a reading club like Kendra Adachi suggests. 

You can write book reviews on a blog or on Amazon or Goodreads. 

Sharing doesn’t even have to be part of the equation. Finish one book and pick up another. Go back to what matters to you. If retreating from the world is what you’re after, sharing might not even be part of the mix.

This is your hobby, you can shape it to be however you want it to be. 

Once you’ve named what matters, it’s easier to know when you’re hitting the target. 

Reading is one of the greatest hobbies out there. However, it’s easy to get stuck and never realize the full potential of this great hobby. 

Don’t give up if you get stuck. There’s a way out! Perservere. It’s worth it. 

Your reading life can be as individual as your fingerprint. 

Hobbies help us unwind so that we can work better. Tweaking our hobbies to work for us is in everyone’s best interest. 

Which Books Should You Pick First?

There’s some wisdom in the advice of starting with shorter books when you’re just starting out.

But, even more important is starting with awesome books to get you off to a good start. 

Here’s a few of my top picks. 

If learning about life management is fun for you, try Atomic Habits by James Clear or The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi. 

If you enjoy morally commendable, well-written novels, try Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, Peace Like a River by Lief Enger or The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. 

If you’re looking for something to read together with the young people in your life, check out Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery or The Boys in the Boat, youth edition by Daniel James Brown. 

If riveting memoir is your thing, I recommend Educated by Tara Westover and Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi. 

Incredible true stories? Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand or Endurance by Alfred Lansing.

This is Jane.

Jane is overwhelmed by the daily tornados in her life.

But she can’t quit her job and she can’t sell the kids. Not that she wanted to, of course. The thought never crossed her mind. Ever. 

Finish No Time to Read? See Jane Read

Need more book recommendations? Explore more book lists on the Smart Mamas Read blog. 

Happy reading!

During my decade as a bookseller, I helped scores of customers searching for books. It was easy to help people who knew exactly what they wanted, but the real trick was helping the customer with a fuzzy notion about what they needed. 

If you have trouble finding the best books for you, nailing down your favorite book genre will help you find the books you love faster. 

Take it step by step. First, acknowledge the overwhelm, then try books from a wide spectrum of genres, rate your favorites, identify the qualities you love, pinpoint the genres with those qualities or create your own like I did. 

If that sound like too much research and too much analyzing, consider the sunk cost of hundreds of hours reading the wrong books. Where would you rather spend your time? 

Acknowledge the Overwhelm

There’s A LOT of book genres. That’s great, because it means there’s one or two or ten that you’ll love. 

The problem is that there’s TOO MANY. 

 How many and what are they?  Amazon has a broad category list. 

• romance
• fantasy
• science-fiction
• non-fiction
• history
• mystery
• horror
• historical fiction
• love
• historical romance
• biography
• thriller
• contemporary
• graphic novels
• classics
• memoir
• suspense
• young adult
• children
• women
• middle grade

How about subgenres? How many are there and what are they?

Certainly the number and names of all the subgenres can be debated. 

Amazon lists more than 16,000.

Tonya Thompson identified 144 subgenres of fiction in her blog post for writers of fiction.

For example, she lists 22 different subgenres in the Mystery genre. She outlines the characteristics for each one and examples of titles in the subgenre.

• Amateur Sleuth
• Bumbling Detective
• Caper
• Child in Peril
• Children’s Story
• Cozy
• Culinary
• Disabled
• Doctor Detective
• Furry Sleuth
• Hardboiled
• Historical
• Howdunit
• Legal
• Locked Room
• Multicultural and Diverse
• Paranormal
• Police Procedural
• Private Detective
• Whodunit
• Woman in Peril
• Young Adult

Decide Why You Read 

This will help you narrow down the options. 

Are you looking for information or entertainment?

As a general rule, reading for information means sticking with non-fiction genres. Reading for entertainment usually means fiction. 

Anne Bogel’s podcast, What should I read next? is popular because she’s nailed the reader’s dilemma— finding the next great read.

Try Books from a Wide Spectrum of Genres

Once you’ve pinpointed your motivation to read build your book stack of selections from a generous variety of genres and subgenres. 

Pick a Western and a Mystery and a Sci-Fi and a Romance. Pick a business book and a self-help and something political or spiritual. 

Try to get at least 10 books in your book stack. 

You could use Tonya Thompson’s list of sample books in each subgenre as a jumping off point. 

Capture all the interesting books that come across your radar and add them to your list—freinds’ recommendations, books that catch your eye while browsing, titles that keep popping up in your social media feed. 

Rate your Favorites

List your favorite books. 

Factor in your all time favorite books.

Which other books have you read lately that you loved? 

Which books did you love growing up?

What do they have in common? 

Which genre are they in? 

Which of your favorite books seem to be outside any genre? 

Which books have you been disappointed in or hated? 

Eliminating what you don’t like is an important part of the process. 

So is embracing the fact that the genre you’re looking for might not exist with that name. You might have to create your own. 

Maybe your perfect book genre is a combination of several, a cross section.

Identify the Qualities that You Love

For example, are plot twists one of your favorite things when reading and cliche plots an anathema to you? 

Is it important that your heroes are flawed and relatable?

Are you fascinated by the customs of historical time periods or far flung cultures?  

Which mood do you like your books to create? 

Does it matter how morality is presented in the books you read? 

These are discussions about books that readers want to have, but classifications that are resisted by the literary world.

If readers want them I think that’s an important enough reason to bring them up.

The bottom line is that books don’t have content ratings, so you don’t know what you’re getting when you pick up a book. There’s not enough time to read halfway through books that aren’t for us. We need content ratings and subgenres that will alert us to the fact that we have stumbled across our tribe and we can stop looking. We can camp out right there and be happy for the rest of our lives, or at least, a decade. 

This is why I’m writing a how to guide. 

Because it’s hard and there’s no manual. 

Find the Genre with those Qualities or Create Your Own

Once you’ve identified which qualities are most important to you, you can name your favorite genres and subgenres. 

Definitely within a genre, you’re going to find your favorite authors that stand out from the rest. 

My Journey to the Perfect Book Genre

Reading has been my lifelong survival strategy, and up until 12 years ago, my access to books had been limited to relatively small collections. 

Providentially, those collections were well-curated and well-stocked in the type of books that fascinated me. 

But then the day arrived when I had access to tens of thousands of titles, including digital and I had more trouble than ever finding the books I loved. In fact, I started to doubt if they were even out there. 

Slowly, I began to enjoy the search for great books almost as much as the pleasure of reading them. It’s been a journey, one that continues and one with as many twists as an unpredictable novel. 

When I go to the library and look up my favorite novels— Peace Like a River, Hannah Coulter, This Tender Land, Jewel and Gilead, they are listed under fiction. That doesn’t help me at all. I certainly am not going to like every other novel shelved under fiction. 

When I looked at my favorite books, I tried to identify the qualities I was looking for. 

Goodreads has some groups called clean and wholesome fiction. 

That came close to what I was looking for, but missed it by a whisker. 

I actually went to word hippo, one of my favorite places to search when I can’t find the precise word to express my sentiment, and after several searches and some head scratching, landed on my best attempt to articulate my perfect genre. 

My favorite books are morally commendable, well-crafted literary novels. 

That’s a mouthful. 

It probably doesn’t even fit into Amazon’s 16,000. 

But, that’s what I’m looking for. Those are my highest rated qualities, my sweet spot. 

Now I have at least a vocabulary to bring to the table, even if it doesn’t exist as a recognized subgenre. 

The finish line here is to have a bucket to put your favorite books in, a way to identify them so that you know when you’ve found one and you know where to find more. 

Once you’ve found or created your perfect genre, you could make a Goodreads group with that name. When you’re the creator of the group, you get to make your own rules. Voilà! A new subgenre is born.

Happy hunting!

In a half century as a voracious reader, I’ve had my share of bad reading experiences. There’s nothing like being halfway through a compelling book and uncovering a plot theme that makes you want to throw the book at the wall. I took a look at those experiences to identify the common pitfalls in order to help me (and you) side step them.

The number one hack is to put effort into building your stack. If you’ve done enough research on your picks, you won’t be surprised by upsetting content. If you’re bored or disillusioned with a book you can move on quickly to the next one. Make sure you’re matching your picks to your current situation. Arrange your daily and weekly rhythms for maximum reading success. Keep up with your favorite authors on social media so you’ll know about new releases and sales. 

How to Avoid a Plot Twist with Upsetting Content

Do the research on your picks

You need to dig into reviews enough to know if there will be plot themes or triggers that will ruin it for you. The trick here is to avoid spoilers but still get a heads up about content that will result in a bad experience.

It’s tempting to skip doing research if you’re ready to dive in and start reading. The truth is, finding great books can be it’s own hobby. In the same way buying craft supplies is different than crafting, finding great books can be just as fun. 

Read book blogs, listen to book podcasts and follow bookstagrammers on instagram. It can be as entertaining as reading. 

Find book whisperers that you trust

Avoid book whisperers that recommend books that aren’t right for you. 

Keep looking till you find some that align with your tastes.

How to Avoid a Mismatch of Book Picks to your Situation

What books do you need for this season? 

Sometimes you strike out with a book because too heavy, too complicated or too upsetting for your season. It’s true that on vacation, you can read a more complex plot with a plethora of characters. And when you’re stressed you’re more likely to need something light and fluffy, an easy, breezy read. 

Decide whether you want to learn something and be challenged intellectually or if you’re escaping reality by stepping into a story that offers an alternate reality. 

Re read a favorite

Or find a series or author you like and read all the books

Read outside of your age category

Young adult and middle grade novels can be interesting and well-written. Don’t let an age label stop you from diving into some great literature. These categories might take some more research, but don’t write off whole sections of the library without giving them a chance. 

How to Avoid Getting Bored with a Book and Quitting

First of all, give yourself permission to quit books you aren’t enjoying. 

This is is oft repeated advice from book gurus, but so true. 

Go back to the number one hack: put some effort into building your stack. 

Have that stack ready so you can move on quickly.

Evaluate your risk factor 

Determine your risk aversion. How bad would it hurt right now to have a bad reading experience? If you want a safe bet, go for a re read of an old favorite. If you have a stack to check out, you can take the chance that one or two or three isn’t going to be a good fit for you. 

How to Avoid Being too Busy to Read

Structure your life to fit reading in

If you’re trying to avoid a bad reading experience, plan your reading to your environment. Waiting in a pick up line might be a better match for quick essays. A day off might be the perfect time for a literary novel when you need a long stretch to move quickly through a slow moving book. 

Pick the right medium for you

It’s so great to have so many choices of how to consume books: print books, audio books and ebooks. 

Figure out what works best. 

Some people don’t want non-fiction audio books because they want to underline and highlight, but a great fiction read aloud can make or break a road trip. 

How to Avoid Constant Interruptions while Reading

Make arrangements to minimize disruptions

There are some scenarios that are more conducive to peace and quiet while reading than others. Some things are in your scope of influence and some are not. 

For example, you could choose to put your phone in airplane mode. 

You could physically make yourself unavailable, sequestered in a hard to reach place with a do not disturb sign displayed prominently. 

The more stressed you are and the more that you need an escape from the pressures of life then the more the interruptions are going to irritate. Be aware. 

If there’s anything you can do to reduce the stress in life in general, the less critical it will be to have uninterrupted time and the more tolerance you will have for interruptions. 

Structure your life to reduce the possibility of interruptions

Wait till the kids are asleep or turn on a movie for them. 

Schedule a coffee date with yourself and a book. 

Take advantage of the natural rhythms of life when your space is quiet. If you’re reading to learn, early morning before anyone else is up might be right. If you’re reading to relax and escape, after everyone is in bed for the night might be best. 

How to Get your Hands on Hard to Find Books

I certainly feel your pain here. Voracious readers often don’t have the budget to keep up with their reading appetite. Libraries don’t stock all the books you want to read, all the ones you’ve heard about that sound intriguing that you’d like to read. 

This bad reading experience is a non-reading experience. 

Fill the library suggestion box with titles that you’d like to see them stock. 

Watch and wait for sales. If the author is living, find out where they’re active on social media and stalk them. They’ll be sure to let you know when their books go on sale. 

Build that Stack!

Check out the book lists at Smart Mamas Read.

Looking for Books Like Atomic Habits?

Can’t Miss Books for Busy Christian Women?

Leaving for vacation and want to build your stack to be ready? Smart Mamas Read 2021 Summer Reading List

If you’ve said to yourself, “I’d like to read more, but I don’t know where to start” I hear you.

Do you prefer literary novels that concentrate on character development but don’t trample on traditional values? Start with Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

Are you looking for a fictional approach to Christian themes? Try Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

How about a fictionalized account of a real people who lived and breathed? Read Becoming Mrs. Lewis. 

What makes a Christian Novel? Certainly it’s subjective, and possibly the authors themselves would disagree that their novel is Christian. 

In order to make this list, first of all, I have to like it. 

Secondly, the novel has to deal with Christian themes or wrestle with the reality of faith in God.

Thirdly, it’s important to me that the story not trample on traditional values or glorify immorality. If we are honest, the world is full of evil and sin exists, even in the hearts of the redeemed. I love novels that can reflect this reality while still acknowledging a loving, personal God who will ultimately make all things right. 

Finally, it’s important that a novel is well-written.  For me, that means characters that grow and change and plots that are not cliche or predictable. Beautiful language is a plus.

The first place to start, if you’ve never read them, is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Sally Clarkson places them on her list of favorites as an adult, not on her list of favorites growing up. Certainly, they can be read to and loved by children, but the adult will have a greater appreciation of the Christian themes and symbolism. 

I recommend starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and consider The Magician’s Nephew to be a prequel, best read later. 

After The Chronicles of Narnia? If you like fantasy, consider J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Also, Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga, another series written for children, but enjoyed by all ages. 

Lisa Jo Baker and Christie Purifoy have a podcast episode called Narnia for Grown-Ups, that dives into the merit’s of C.S. Lewis’s Space Triology, a fantasy series with Christian themes. 

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Ground Breaking Christian Novels

The books in this section of the list are not the best Christian novels of all time, but they did chart a new path at the time they were published. They introduced a new genre or broke the mold of what Christian books looked like at the time. 

Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke started the avalanche of Inspirational Fiction. 

The Shunning by Beverly Lewis is often recognized as the first in the subgenre of Amish fiction, which continues to be popular today, almost 25 years later. 

The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins broke sales records and hit best seller lists as people inhaled a fictionalized version of biblical prophecies of the end times. 

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis imagined what a senior devil would say to a junior devil in attempts to tempt Christians to sin. 

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn imagines a story of persecuted Christians in China based on the realities that believers face

In This Present Darkness, Frank Peretti pulls back the curtain separating us from the unseen realm to imagine conversations and actions occuring among angels and demons in the spiritual realm. 

(Note: If you click on the pictures of the book covers, it will take you to an affiliate link. If you purchase through that link, a percentage will support this site.)

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Redeeming Love pops up on many best of lists. 

Few people are brave enough to craft a retelling of the biblical book of Hosea.  Fracine Rivers wades in where others fear to tread. 

This is the story of Angel, the prostitute, and her righteous husband who loves her consistently through her ebbs and flows. 

One criticism that Christian fiction gets is that it’s formulaic. This is not. Somehow, Francine is able to confront the depth of evil and sin, while keeping the graphic parts off camera. Exposing the darkness emphasizes the light. A remarkable feat. 

Literary Novels With a Christian World View

Two things about the books in this section. First of all, they are not published by Christian publishers and might not even be classified by their authors as Christian books.

Secondly, the tag “literary novel” can be subjective, but it’s often novels that are more character than plot driven, often more reflective or given to descriptive passages. Fast paced action is not the draw here. 

Peace Like a River by Lief Enger

Told through the eyes of an eleven year old boy, the novel is not about a span of time, it mostly just covers one year.

Rueben is the eleven year old, Swede, his younger sister, and Davy their older brother. They live with their father out west, growing up in a modest life. 

Circumstances dictate a quest to the west, search for answers to a reality that doesn’t add up. 

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

“The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.”—from Amazon

The story is told through Odie O’Banion’s adolescent eyes. 

It’s his quest for home, family and the meaning of life. Along for the ride are his brother Albert and his friends Mose and Emmy. 

The human experience is more complicated than most novelists are able to express. There’s the complexity of human nature and relationships, the complexity of our belief system and how our experience influences our beliefs. I feel like This Tender Land wrestled with that complexity and won. 

It doesn’t downplay the true depravity of man. It has lots of plot twists.

It reminded me of Peace Like a River. I’ll want to read it again and again. 

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

Hannah Coulter takes the panoramic view of a person’s life, the progression of a lifetime. 

Sometimes when we sit down to a novel, we are looking for perspective, to find meaning for the daily grind. We need to see that what we do day after day matters. Hannah Coulter gives us a clue. For many women, all those meals cooked, all the time serving and caring others adds up to a lifetime of meaning. 

Then there’s the small town, rural community. I think our deep longing for community resonates with what happens in small, rural towns where people know each other and care for each other, where lives intertwine in romance, conflict, partnership, friendship and commerce. And no man lives as an island, no matter how solitary they choose to live their lives.

Finally, there’s the strong female protagonist in Hannah Coulter. You might not realize she’s strong. Not at first. She’s the type of woman that is the glue of a community. Keeping her family together. Working the long hours to grow, process and prepare the food that keeps the whole engine running. She tends to the sick, stands by her man and brings up her children. She’s the backbone, the unsung hero. Being unassuming makes it hard to recognize her as strong.

Check out more books like Hannah Coulter.

Gilead by Marilyn Robinson

Gilead is the story of a pastor who married late in life and has a seven year old that he won’t see grow up. The novel is a series of letters to his son. 

He tells of his life, his friends and neighbors, meeting and marrying his mother. 

The action is slow moving, and, yet, it’s not necessarily character driven, either. Just a reflective account of life and faith in small town Iowa.

Jewel by Bret Lott

Jewel is one of my favorite novels of all time. Based on the story of the author’s grandmother, it’s one of the best literary depictions I’ve found of a mother’s fierce love for her child in the midst of prejudice and ignorance. 

“It is 1943 in the backwoods of Mississippi. In the land of honeysuckle and wild grapevine, Jewel Hilburn and her husband Leston – whose love for his wife is the surest comfort she’s ever known – are truly blessed. They have five fine children who embrace the world as though it were a sumptuous table set for a feast; and when Brenda Kay is born, Jewel gives thanks for yet another healthy baby, last-born and most welcome.”

“Bret Lott has created one of the finest and most indomitable heroines of contemporary American fiction.”–Goodreads

I think it resonates with every mother who has struggled to help a child navigate a lonely and little understood journey. Mothers make sacrifices for their kids as a rite of passage. 

Bret Lott describes this journey and it’s ripple effects so beautifully for me it was soul-touching. 

Beautifully crafted. A pleasure to read.

Contemporary Novels with a Christian World View

Every title in this section has been published in the last decade. Some were published with Christian publishers and some were not.

Many authors publishing today are willing to interact with fans. Positive book reviews, word of mouth recommendations and book purchases are the best way to encourage living authors.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

C.S. Lewis has always been one of my favorite authors and The Chronicles of Narniathe pinnacle in children’s literature, in my opinion. Even though I knew the basic facts of the love story between Lewis and Joy Davidman, Becoming Mrs.  Lewis fleshed out the story in a probable narrative of their relationship.

I came to see her as an unsung hero in Lewis’ life.

There’s nothing like an inside peek at the life of one of the world’s greatest writers.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

The narrative moves back and forth between present day South Carolina and the 30’s and 40’s Tennessee.

The setting is an orphan asylum where children are cared for until families are found for them. Unfortunately, the people in charge are not as altruistic as they appear.

Inspired by true facts, this book tackles difficult themes with a surprising amount of optimism and hope. Trigger warnings.

The Tehran Initiative by Joel Rosenberg 

I had never read a Rosenberg book before and this one surprised me by drawing me in. 

I don’t read very many people who know that much about what’s going on in the Middle East. I found it fascinating. I felt like he did a good job of keeping the plot unpredictable. 

I liked the characters, too and found myself rooting for them. And, always, the critical element of every page turner, what’s going to happen next? 

It’s the first in a three book series. 

Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay

Five stars for Dear Mr. Knightly!  I struggle to find wholesome, well-written fiction.  This one’s a winner.  I’m a huge fan of Webster’s Daddy Long Legs, and this modern re-telling knocked it out of the park. I like it better than the original.  The Austen references were fun, but the story itself was poignant.

Even though it’s technically Inspirational fiction, the Christian message was subtle, not overwhelming.  Kudos to Reay for a wholesome, engaging work. 

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

Reese first meets little Annie Stephens at her lemonade stand. It doesn’t take long to see that she’s fighting serious health issues while fiercely holding to a dream of a long and healthy life. She’s lost her parents and lives with her aunt. 

Reese is hiding from his past life in the medical profession. 

The plot could be considered predictable, but the journey to get there is so enjoyable. Charles Martin has the magic touch to draw you in and practically force you to fall in love with his characters. 

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

The Last Year of the War traces an unlikely friendship between a German teenage girl and a Japanese teenage girl who become friends in an internment camp in Texas during World War II. 

Certainly the themes of racial prejudice are explored, but, even more, friendship, family expectations and traditions. Maybe an even deeper underlying theme is coming of age when the forces of your life throw you into situations beyond your control. 

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The Christy Awards were created to acknowledge excellence in Christian fiction. If you’re looking for more recently published works, check out the Christy Award Winners.