Welcome to my collection of book reviews. Here I share thoughtful reads that encourage faith, reflection, and creativity. From devotionals to inspiring stories, these are books that stayed with me long after the last page.
Author: Dara Horn Genre: Nonfiction; Jewish; Essays Rating: ★★★★★ Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews is a powerful and unsettling collection of essays that confronts the world’s fascination with Jewish tragedy while often ignoring Jewish life. Through sharp historical insight and cultural critique, Horn examines how societies memorialize Jewish suffering—especially the Holocaust—while remaining uncomfortable with living Jewish communities…
Author: Sonali Dev Genre: Fiction Rating: ★★★★★ Sonali Dev’s Incense and Sensibility continues her Austen-inspired series with a story that blends romance, emotional healing, and high-stakes public life. The novel follows Yash Raje, a rising political figure whose ambitions are nearly derailed after a traumatic incident leaves him struggling with severe anxiety. India Dashwood, a brilliant and intuitive…
Author: Dr. Jen Gunter Genre: Nonfiction; Women’s Health Rating: ★★★★★ Dr. Jen Gunter’s The Menopause Manifesto is a comprehensive guide to understanding menopause through the lens of science, medicine, and women’s lived experience. Drawing on extensive research and clinical knowledge, Gunter walks readers through the biological realities of menopause—what actually happens in the body, the symptoms women may…
Author: Lea Geller Genre: Women’s Fiction Rating: ★★★★★ Lea Geller’s The Truth and Other Hidden Things follows Bells Walker, a forty-something mother who suddenly finds herself in that strange middle season of life—her children growing independent, her role shifting, and her sense of being seen slowly fading. When an unexpected pregnancy collides with a husband who doesn’t…
Author: Daniel B. Oden and J. David Stark Genre: Religion; Church History; Churches of Christ Rating: ★★★★☆ Scripture First: Essays on the Stone-Campbell Movement and the Future of Biblical Authority by Daniel B. Oden and J. David Stark gathers a range of scholars to examine how churches shaped by the Stone-Campbell heritage understand Scripture as the…
Author: Bart D. Ehrman; Craig A. Evans; Robert B. Stewart Genre: Religion; Debate Rating: ★★★★☆ Can We Trust the Bible on the Historical Jesus? brings together two well-known New Testament scholars Craig A Evans and Bart D. Erhmann, in a focused debate over one of the most important questions in biblical studies: how reliable the…
Author: Signe Pike Genre: Historical Fiction – Early Britain Rating: ★★★★★ In a season when the world itself feels loud and uncertain, it takes a lot for a novel to truly hold my attention. Signe Pike managed to do it again with The Forgotten Kingdom. From the first pages I was completely immersed in her richly…
Author: Natalie Jenner Genre: Historical Fiction Rating:★★★★☆ This historical fiction novel is a must for any Janeite who has every visited Chawton and Jane Austen’s House museum and Chawton House. It tells the story of the Jane Austen Society forming to secure and protect artifacts from her family. Its very genteel. Sweetly written characters. I…
Author: Louise Miller Genre: Fiction Rating: ★★★★★ Louise Miller’s The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living begins when Livvie Rawlings’s carefully built life in Boston goes down in flames, sending her retreating to Guthrie, Vermont, the small town where her best friend lives. What begins as a temporary escape slowly turns into something deeper as Livvie finds herself…
Author: Rick Bragg Genre: Memoir; Cookbook Rating: ★★★★★ Rick Bragg’s The Best Cook in the World is part memoir, part Southern food story, and wholly a tribute to the women who carried families through hard times with faith, grit, and whatever they could put on the table. Through memories of his mother and the food she cooked, Bragg…
