Book Club

I love to read. And when I say “read” I really mean listen to books on my iPod. It is a multi-tasker’s dream.  However, it is what I was doing when my weight went through my sink. But I digress.

For my birthday my in-laws gave me some money that I am going to be using towards a subscription to Audible.com.  Audible is a division of Amazon that offers a wide selection of audiobooks. I typically use the library and will continue to as I read about 3-4 audiobooks a month and my subscription only will cover one book a month.  I am using this as a supplement to the library since they don’t carry everything in audio format.

My first download is Madeleine Wickham’s 40 Love. I love a feel-good, no-brainer, girly book and Madeleine Wickham is a perfect author for that.  (She also writes under the pseudonym of Sophie Kinsella, the author of the Shopaholic series.) 

Also on my list are:

Beth Harbison is another girly author.  She wrote Shoe Addicts Anonymous and it was a cute book about women’s friendships.  I always love the easy to “read” ones.

I saw the trailer for this movie and it looked cute, so I thought the book would be even better.  We’ll see.

I also just finished Heaven is For Real. I was waiting for it for about 6 months at the library and just thought it was the best book. It was one of those that has stuck with me even weeks after I read it.  Whether you have ever lost someone (or not), it is just such a great story about what to expect after this life.  

For the record, I am always hesitant to read books that might be sad, and this book wasn’t sad at all. Just wanted to let you guys know that in case that was holding you back, too. Or am I just weird like that?

Brief synopsis for those who haven’t read it:

• Young boy gets very ill and close to death from appendicitis
• A few month’s later starts talking about his experience in heaven
• He tells of people he met in heaven including Jesus and family members he has never met, heard of or even seen pictures of

One of the things that I thought was really interesting in the book is how the family would ask Colton (the young boy) every time they saw a picture of Jesus if that was who he met.  They finally got to the point where instead of asking if it was Jesus they would ask him what was wrong with the picture they were viewing.

When the family came out with their story they received an email that night and were asked if they had heard of the child prodigy Akiane Kramarik.  She is a child prodigy with a gift for painting who has had visions of heaven since she was four.  She has painted amazing pictures including many of Jesus.

There was a CNN video about Akiane and the dad watched the video and paused it on the image of Jesus she painted.  The dad called Colton in and asked him what was wrong with this picture of Jesus.  Colton stopped in his tracks and was speechless. A few minutes later he told his dad that nothing was wrong with the painting.

I would embed the video, but for some reason that is not happening. You can view it here.  Also on my reading list is the hard copy book of Akiane.  (My sister-in-law let me borrow it.)

Anyway, fill me in on what you guys thought about these books and let me know if you have any recommendations for others!