"Nearing Home--Life, Faith, and Finishing Well" by Billy Graham

Nearing Home--Life, Faith and Finishing Well by Billy Graham is practical as well as inspirational.  This is a non-fiction book about aging that is inspirational and made me feel a bit better about approaching retirement age.  It is encouraging and uplifting.  It's a quick read that I finished in just one day.  One of my favorite quotes from this book is "About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age."  I recommend this one!
(Karen's review, 5 stars) 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

"God Never Blinks--50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours" by Regina Brett

God Never Blinks—50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours by Regina Brett is a collection of Regina’s thoughts she wrote in her newspaper columns that were quite popular with readers. It has very short chapters so it is a quick little read but full of great advice from someone who felt neglected growing up, held various jobs, and is a Cancer survivor. It is an inspirational read I enjoyed. I liked that all 50 lessons are listed right in front in the Table of Contents.
(Karen's review, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

"Building Your Mate's Self-Esteem" by Dennis & Barbara Rainey

Building Your Mate’s Self Esteem by Dennis and Barbara Rainey is for both husbands and wives and provides some practical suggestions based on scripture for building self-esteem in your mate with familiar quotes tossed in. At the end of each chapter is a suggested thought provoking activity to do that helps you put into practice the principles given in the chapter.

There is a lot more “meat” in this book than I thought there would be and several things really stood out to me such as (1) accepting our mates unconditionally as God’s gift to us; (2) be generous with heartfelt praise; (3) encourage mate to develop close friendship with same gender and find another couple you and your spouse can become friends with; (4) seek to do specific things that please your mate; (5) encourage mate’s positive talk about himself and encourage him to avoid even thinking negative thoughts.

This book served as a good reminder to me on how to be good wife. It’s easy to let day-to-day responsibilities take over in a marriage to the extent romance and fun is neglected. Married couples should still act as though they are competing for their mate or familiarity can lead to boredom that can cause a marriage to fall apart should one of the couple choose to search elsewhere for something better. I recommend this book to any couple!
(Karen's review, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Couples Who Pray—The Most Intimate Act Between A Man And Woman" by Squire Rushnell and Louise Duart

Couples Who Pray--The Most Intimate Act Between A Man And Woman by Squire Rushnell and Louise Duart presents the challenge for couples to spend 5 minutes every day praying together for 40 days and gives benefits of doing so supported by research and inspiring testimonies of 24 couples, including celebrities.  The hope is that after the 40 days, it will become a habit you will want to continue. 

The website for the 40-day prayer challenge is:  www.coupleswhopray.com  In addition to praying together, other factors are mentioned as well based on Biblical principles that should be part of any marriage.  My favorite quotes were these: “Our purpose in our marriage is to serve each other and love each other as much as we can.”—Louise Duart  and “Not long ago we drove by a little church with a great saying posted out front:  Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage!  God.”

Couples Who Pray has inspired me to try again to pray together with my husband every day.  We have done this on and off, but maybe with the support of the website challenge, we can stick to it.    I liked the L-A-U-G-H-S acronym for 6 steps to a successful relationship in the last chapter:  Laughter, Appreciation, Understand, God, Honor, Support.  For me, this book dragged a bit when it hit on the existence of God and the reliability of scripture because I am already familiar with that; however,  the stories of the celebrities are quite interesting.  I encourage any couple to read this and give the 40-day challenge of praying together for just 5 minutes each day a try! 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Are You Ready To Be Your Own Boss? by Carol Denbow

Are You Ready To Be Your Own Boss by Carol Denbow is a great little handbook for anyone considering starting up a business and being self-employed.  It gives warnings about things people should be aware of before taking the plunge, making it very clear that it takes long hours and lots of work to be successful in running a profitable business.  The author shares her personal success story about running a horse-boarding ranch.  It lists further resources including books and web sites in the back which would be helpful to any entrepreneur.  I finished this in two days.

 

You can purchase this on Amazon or from her website at Author's Box.

 

Visit her website called A Book Inside--How To Write And Publish A Book. Her blog is very helpful to anyone interested in writing and getting published. 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom

Thought Tuesdays With Morrie was a bit slow reading, but it was touching and certainly thought provoking. It's a record of conversations between a man and his former college professor who he admired and became friends with when the professor was dying from Lou Gehring's disease. The professor shared his feelings about a variety of subjects, including how he felt about dying and becoming like a baby again, helpless. It was sort of depressing, but yet had enough good philosophical thoughts to keep me reading. The one I liked best is that he said "Love Goes On." When the professor was asked if he worried about being forgotten when he died, his answer was,

I don't think I will be. I've got so many people who have been involved with me in close, intimate ways. And love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.

I agree with this because the loved ones I've lost are still alive in my thoughts.
(Karen's review 3/09)

 Have you read this one? What did you think of it?