Now that doesn’t mean it was easy for Lincoln or that everyone who is depressed is promised to go on to achieve great things… but it’s possible. Shenk does a great job of pulling together extensive research in a way that is fairly readable and interesting.

The perfect gift for your counselor, history buff or social working friends.

The story of her mistake and his forgiveness is a beautiful and powerful reminder of how fallible we are, especially when we’re traumatized or under huge amounts of stress. It’s nice to know that even deep hurts that go back for years can be forgiven and moved past when people are willing to put aside old differences.

To be fair, I’m a Christian and he approaches “The Year of Living Biblically” without any faith in God at all. So it starts out feeling like a gimmick to sell books (and he would probably agree that it was at least partially that). I held out for some redeeming moment where he realized why he was REALLY on this quest and what it meant to him attempting to live with faith in something for a year.

There were a few glimpses of that, but far too few to keep me from being disappointed. While I admit that I was hoping the year would really show him his need for God, I also came to feel that he was toying with things that aren’t really meant to be toyed with. I love his humor and his willingness to be self-deprecating, but the blase approach got old (really? Wearing a white robe and carrying a bible around? That’s not trying to be like Jesus, that’s just being weird for the sake of being weird).

If you’re attracted to the oddball passages of the Bible or you wonder how anyone can take it literally, this might be an interesting read. He is kinder towards some of the “oddball” beliefs than many religious people who preach tolerance. But if you’re looking for a moral message, keep seeking.

For me, that’s an important distinction and an improvement. Not only do the Goodwin’s feel inspired to spend a year living on homemade, homegrown or used items, but they explore what it says about their faith to have chickens in their backyard, to make their own birthday party decorations and to give microloans to struggling families in Thailand. Their entire enterprise was started on December 27 when they were fed up with all of the junk that’s bought and exchanged at Christmas. I don’t know about you, but I’m already thinking about (and dreading) the shopping, wrapping and exchanging for a few moments of pleasure (before the kids are off to the next thing).

It doesn’t have the great recipes that Kingsolver’s book contains and it’s perhaps lighter on environmental depth than some of the other options in the environmental living genre (you’re not going to read extensively on CAFO’s in this book, but it’s not devoted just to local food either). But it’s a great book to read with your bible study group or a gift to give to a friend who’s been toying with the idea of starting her own garden but gets intimidated easily. It may also inspire you to buy a lot more local goods as Christmas gifts this year (or even make some gifts), which would almost certainly be a good thing.

The book is full of strange, hilarious and occasionally serious facts from his reading. I learned about a Chinese uprising that killed 20 MILLION people that I’d (sadly) never even heard of. I found out that the Mozart/Salieri rivalry was just fictional (they were actually friends). And I read aloud the juiciest and funniest bits to whoever was sitting near me as I was reading.

The best part of the book, really, is for those of us who really do want to know it all. We have a curiosity that can never be satisfied. We can’t seem to resist checking the facts and looking for more in-depth answers than are provided on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. It’s a fairly small club and I’m not always sure it’s one that I really want to be in, but I can’t help myself. For other “know it alls”, this book may be just what the doctor ordered.

Mr. Feller has twin daughters who are still young when he gets a cancer diagnosis that sounds very serious. Suddenly, he and his wife are faced with the idea that he may be leaving them much earlier than he’d ever expected. He looks to his friends to form a “Council of Dads” who would guide his daughters, giving them invaluable fatherly advice.

The book is touching and deep. If nothing else, it will lead your man to wonder what kind of friendships he has and perhaps inspire him to gather more like-minded men around him. It’s definitely thought provoking, in a meaningful way.

Thanks to Carey for suggesting this book.

I would get my best pregnant friend, “From Here to Maternity: The Education of a Rookie Mom“, which I found more amusing. Konig’s books are real, which is great and they’re not all silly stories. Some of them have a point and some of them are touching. I just didn’t feel the depth of humor that I was looking for. Worth a read, but not going to impress the pants off of you (unless, of course, they’re your old maternity pants, in which case, maybe those will just fall off – here’s hoping!).

And these aren’t sissy traveling stories either (well, okay, several of them are just about road trips gone bad, but several of them are quite clever). Some of these people traveled internationally, let witch doctors “heal” their kids, carried dirty cloth diapers around in their luggage, etc. I laughed, maybe not until I cried, but out loud at least several times.

The only problem was, I was waiting for the car seat/camel story.

And I never found it.

In the book’s defense, there is a story about riding camels with children. No mention of car seats was made, or if it was, it was SO in passing that it was completely missed.

And the title just made such a picture in my mind, a mom trying to clamber up onto a camel with her infant in a Graco car-seat – do you put it on the hump? In between the humps? Will it fit? Do you loop the reins around the babyseat so it can’t fall off?

It’s a cute book, a wonderful gift for a couple who’s having their first child and insisting that they’ll still travel with their baby. Just don’t expect that title story to be in there.

And it didn’t. Cash Peters book about his exploits going from an NPR on-air personality to a reality show, on-camera TV personality is funny. It’s not really laugh out loud hilarious, but it’s charming and interesting. If nothing else, it will probably teach you something about how “reality shows” are made (hint, the REAL in reality is sooo distant as to be non-existent).

I enjoyed reading about the places. I got some good ideas on where I might like to visit and where I definitely would NOT like. Come to think of it, most of the places he went are more on my “do not visit” list, but at least now I can make an informed decision.

If you know someone who enjoyed his TV or enjoys his voice on the radio, this would be a great gift. Or if you just have a friend that’s a frustrated homebody when they really want to be a world traveler, this is a great gift to make them realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Greitens became a Navy Seal but he’s not a military lifer and he isn’t just a naive goody two-shoes. He’s been to gritty places, long before he became a Seal. And he doesn’t mince words about what it’s going to take to improve this world… compassion AND strength. He doesn’t propose simplistic solutions and he doesn’t sugar coat the state of things in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I think this would be a great read for high school kids who want to be inspired and to know that hard work CAN still make a difference. And it’s a wonderful overview for anyone thinking of joining the military or the peace corps.

So now you know how to get me to read a book… post it to your Facebook without recommending it. I might just get intrigued.