Bookworm Time

I never realized how much I would love looking through baby board books, but when I went to Barnes and Noble this week, I was mesmerized.  So far I have purchased only the three shown above.  But by the time our grandbaby arrives in late August/early September, I hope to have a pretty amazing library for him or her.

Reading aloud to babies and toddlers is so beneficial.  It helps the child learn the rhythms of the language, it builds vocabulary and comprehension, even at a basic level, and it allows a significant bond to develop between adult and child.  I can’t wait to read to my grandchild!

But, in reality, I just love to read.  Here are a few books I have recently read, am reading now, or plan to read in the next few days.

I’m about halfway through a very interesting book – When Truth is All You Have by Jim McCloskey and Philip Lerman.  It describes how Jim rose from a troublesome life of discontent to regain his faith and pursue the ministry.  Initially, his intention was to serve as a Presbyterian minister.  Yet during his stint as a prison chaplain, he came to the realization that his true calling was to help rescue people who were in prison for crimes they had not committed.  Long story short, McCloskey founded Centurion Ministries.  At the time of the book’s publication in 2020, Jim and his staff had freed sixty-three innocent people in thirty-seven years.

If you read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson or saw the movie by the same name, the stories of the wrongly convicted are similar.  The stories are sad and complicated.  Some cases take years of investigation before they are turned around.  But when the truth is finally revealed and accepted in court, there is such joy for the prisoner and his family at an overturned conviction.

And now to a book I finished last week and one I will be starting next week, most likely.

Last week I finished The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.  The story captures the struggles of people during the Depression, especially those living during the Dust Bowl and then migrating to California for a better life.  In most cases, their new life was never better.

Although this book was heartbreaking, it helped me to understand some of the challenges my own parents had as they farmed in Wisconsin during the 1930s.  (Money was always tight during the Depression.  Mom would explain how she and my dad would try to scrape together ten cents so they could each have a scoop of ice cream once a month.  One large scoop cost five cents.)

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster is my new Book of the Month Club selection for March.  (The Four Winds was my selection for February.)  All I can tell you about the Coster book is that it’s a fictional story about racial tension between two families – parents and children.

So that’s it for now.  In the words of someone’s Facebook post this morning,

“Anyone who has time to clean is not reading nearly enough.”