Book Challenge 2011: End of Year Review

*R*

Well my friends, the year is closing and so is this book challenge for 2011. It's been fun, it's been great...it's certainly lived up to it's title "challenge"! ;) Lol!

With God's help I was able to accomplish my goal and then some! My goal for 2011 was to read 24 books, a huge goal for one who hasn't read very much in the last few years since highschool! I have always loved reading but finding great books to read that will be both entertaining, but more than that to be spiritually strengthening, can be quite difficult at times (on a tight budget that is). But it seems I hadn't really taken a good look at our bookshelves and when I did...I found an entire treasure trove of books yet to be read by myself! :D I still have bunches on my shelf I've collected that never got read this year {2012 here I come!}. ;)

~ With God's help I was able to read 31 books in 2011! ~

Thank you all for your support & prayers, your encouragement, and your comments! :) I am so blessed to have friends and reader's like you! :D I'm glad you enjoyed reading the reviews and I pray they encouraged you and maybe inspired you as well to get reading more (perhaps you found a few treasures this year yourself to read in future?)!

* My rating system:

***** = Best books ever and will read numerous times and highly recommend as everyone should read this (want my own copy too!!!)! Top Favorites. :)

**** = A good book that I would recommend and might read again sometime.

*** = Okay book...not too exciting, perhaps a few things I disagreed with. May or may not ever read again. Probably won't recommend though.

** = Disagreed with much of this book and/or did not enjoy content/writing style of this book. Won't recommend and won't ever read again.

* = Please don't read this...no one should. (end of story). ;)

{I have tried to give fair reviews/ratings but please remember these are my opinions only. You are free to think differently. ;)}
- for a full list of my reviews see here.

Books Read: 2011

January

“Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” - by Francis Chan *****

“Presenting Miss Jane Austen” – by May Lamberton Becker *****

February

“Radical” ~ by David Platt *****

“Patrick Henry: Firebrand of the Revolution” ~ by Nardi Reeder Campion *****

“Guns of Yorktown” by R.W. Daly *****

March

"Fighting the Flames" ~ by R.M. Ballantyne *****

"Homemaking" ~ by J.R. Miller *****

April

“Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce” ~ by John Piper *****

“And He Dwelt Among Us: Teachings from the Book of John” ~ by A.W. Tozer & compiled/edited by James L. Snyder *****

May

“The Pursuit of Holiness” ~ by Jerry Bridges (audio download) ****

"A Life of Obedience: Learning to Trust His Time, His Place, His Will" ~ by Andrew Murray **

June

“The Pony Express” ~ by Samuel Hopkins Adams *****

“Mere Christianity”~ by C.S. Lewis *****

July

“Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit ~ by Francis Chan *****

“The Golden Thread” ~ by Norman MacLeod (Lamplighter book) *****

August

“Heroines of the West” ****

“One Holy Passion: The Attributes of God” by R.C. Sproul [only read 4 chapters...didn't like! I think because I just couldn't get into his writing style though...not because I disagreed with him? :( Can't remember now...] **

“The Boxcar Children” ~ Gertrude Chandler Warner *****

“The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island” ~ Gertrude Chandler Warner ****

September

“The Boxcar Children: The Yellow House Mystery” ~ Gertrude Chandler Warner ****

My friend Sarah's book “The Destiny of a Few” (which I had the great pleasure of helping to edit) - ***** {this was an unbiased opinion...I'm a tough critic, right Sarah?! ;)}

“Pollyanna” *****

“Red Falcons of Tre'moine” ~ by Henry Peart ****

October

“The Rose Round” (Bethlehem Book) ****

“Red Hugh of Donegal” (Bethlehem book) *****

“If All the Swords in England” (Bethlehem book) *****

“The Passion of Jesus Christ” ~ John Piper *****

November

“Post Haste” ~ R.M. Ballentyne *****

"Facing Your Giants" ~ by Max Lucado *****

December

“Glaucia The Greek Slave: A Tale of Athens in the First Century” ~ Emma Leslie ***** {There are a few more books by this author published by Salem Ridge Press that I would like to get!!}

"Away Goes Sally" ~ by Elizabeth Coatsworth (this received a slightly lower rating than I'd have liked to have given because of one small reason about the book, which you can read about here) ****1/2

My top 3 picks for this year are:

1. “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” - by Francis Chan ~ This book was so different than any other spiritual book I've ever read! It was almost shocking, only because of his boldness in speaking the true word of God instead of tip-toeing around issues, while a great deal of Christian writer's today seem to talk only of "feelings" of Christians. :)

2. “Mere Christianity”~ by C.S. Lewis ~ I'd been reading quotes from Lewis all year and decided it was about time to actually read one of his spiritual works! I was not disappointed!! :D I take notes and write my favorite quotes from my spiritual books as I read them - this one by far received the most written out pages in my notebook! ;) Lol! An excellent read and a wonderful encouragement and I shall read again and again!

3. “Post Haste” ~ R.M. Ballentyne ~ I *think* this one will be my third choice...it's a toss up between this, the other Ballentyne, and the William Wilberforce book!! :D But I wanted a fiction on this final list + I think I enjoyed this one just a *teensy* bit more than the other R.M.B. book! ;) It was packed full of twists and excitement! And not only that, but I enjoyed learning so many things about the London post office services in the early 19oo's! :D I'm a history buff really. ;)

* ~ * ~ *

I *will* be continuing in this challenge again for 2012! :D I enjoyed it so much and having to meet up with the goal's each month really helped to stick to it! Instead of saying "I will read more"...I actually *DID*!! ;)

I'd thought about trying for 3 books a month for next year, but I decided that with so much going on next year with perhaps some travels and plans God may have in the works that it would be better to keep with 2 books a month as a goal (if I read more, that's fine too!). :) That's one of the nice things about this particular challenge...you can set just about whatever goals you'd like, whether it be by the amount of books, pages/chapters per day/week, or whatever! :D

Some of the books for my 2012 reading list are:

• The Douglas Bond's "Crown and Covenant" series {I've yet to read his books but we own them and I've heard around that they are quite good}.

• More books by Bethlehem Books Company; "Under a Changing Moon", "That Girl of Pierre's", "The Lost Barron", "God King" and "Hittite Warrior", "The Switherby Pilgrim's"...and we'll see after that. ;) Haha!

• There's also a couple of R.M. Ballantyne's {I really enjoyed the 2 I read this past year!} - "The Pirate City" is first on my list then "Hunted and Harried"!
  

• And few classics..."A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain (which I've seen movie versions of but have never read it), some of "The Bobbsey Twins" and more of "The Boxcar Children" books series'.

• I may read a few period drama type books (I have watched some of the films but not read most of the books as of yet): "Cranford" and "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell, "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens, "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen {I've heard the book is much better...}
  

• And of course my spiritual books I hope to read this year include: "Until Christ Returns", "Mary Slessor" a Heroes of Faith book (began this in 2011 but wasn't able to make even a dent in it in December. So I will be slowly reading this one through the whole year I think); "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" {John Piper}, "Discovering the Power of the Cross of Christ" and "Discovering the Power of Christ's Miracle's" both by Charles Spurgeon, "Daughter's of Destiny" {looks EXCELLENT!!}, "Why?: Answers to Weather the Storms of Life", "Esther" by Charles R. Swindoll, and "Answers to Prayer From George Müller's Narratives" (a free kindle download on the computer). :)
  

• And 1 Lamplighter book thrown into the mix for good measure..."The Boy Who Never Lost A Chance" and another Ancient history book like the one I read this month "Twice Freed" which mom read to the other kids but I've never read.
  

HaHa! Most likely I *won't* read ALL of these this year, but I do hope to make a dent in my stack at least! ;D Lol! There are a lot of great looking books here and I am so excited to get started!! I have more spiritual books I'd like to add to my shelves later this year perhaps that might be read before some of the others...we'll see. :)

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Thanks so much for stopping by! :D

See you again in 2012! ;)

God bless!

~Rachel~