Are you a bookworm, an occasional reader, or “Reading? What is it?”

I love books! It doesn’t mean I read them all the time 🙂 but I love books! I try my best to find some free time to sit down and read. Vacations are perfect for that. I always bring books with me.

I really enjoyed nightly reading with my girls when they were little. It was always the highlight of my day. Even though it wasn’t always the easiest thing to do. You can agree that by the end of the day you are usually tired and ready to go to bed 🙂 But the reward for reading with your kids is beautiful! It’s a great time of bonding with your little or not so little ones. Also, it’s a great time for questions and answers, and a time when you all can learn something new. And I don’t think I need to start explaining how great and beneficial reading is to kids and adults in general.

I loved the nights when our dad read to us when we were kids. It did not happen often because of his work schedule, but I enjoyed every little moment of reading we had.

Today is my dad’s birthday. He would have been 80 today…

He was a great reader. He loved books! He never stopped reading. You could always find a few books and a Bible on his desk. He was the one who always encouraged us to read the Bible. And he was a great example. He loved the Word of God. I still have my first Bible that he gifted me when I became a teenager.

Today I want to share with you some of our favorite books. We will try to touch all ages.

Nowadays it becomes harder and harder to find a good book to read. Especially children or young adult books. With change in today’s society and its ideology, we see more and more books on the shelves of our bookstores that resemble Romans 1 as never before. We already see how school textbooks are being rewritten, how history is being retaught, how lyrics in songs and some old classics are being changed to fit more into today’s sinful liking and perverted thinking and lifestyle.

If you are a parent of small or school age children, I highly recommend starting your own home library. Buy books! Collect them! And read them all!

When Daniella was little, she loved pigs. To the point that she refused to eat bacon 🙂 She collected toy pigs as well. And of course, a lot of books she owned were about pigs. Here are some of our favorite kids PIG books:

• Toot & Puddle books by Holly Hobbie
• Rufus Goes to School by Kim T. Griswell
• The Giant Hug by Sandra Horning
• Mercy Watsons books by Kate DeCamillo

Some more good books from Kate DeCamillo are Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux.

Some more fun books for small children that Daniella enjoyed reading were:

• The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
• Where’s the Party? by Ruth Chan
• Peanut Butter & Cupcake! by Terry Border
• Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

Of course, all the original American Girl books.

Highly recommend all the classics like:

• The whole series of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
• The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
• The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

For advanced readers in elementary school or middle school readers we recommend:

• Nancy Drew book collection
• Jacky HA-HA by JamesPatterson
• The Doldrums books by Nicholas Gannon
• Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
• The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
• The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
• The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
• Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Moo by Sharon Creech
• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
• FunJungle Book series by Stuart Gibbs
• The Emperor’s Riddle by Kat Zhang
• Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenzuan
• Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
• Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

Here are some good books from WWII time period:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Hidden Like Anne Frank by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
• The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw
• Salt to The Sea by Ruta Sepetys
• Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Some good reads for high schoolers and adults alike:

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Women Who Risk by Tom and Joann Doyle
• The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
• Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry
• Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
• The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
• Living a Life of Fire by Reinhard Bonnke
• Pioneers of Faith by Dr. Lester Sumrall
• Prison Letters by Corrie ten Boom
• Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher
• Foundational Truths for Christian Living by Derek Prince

My TO-READ list:

• David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Soul of a Lion by Alice Von Hilderbrand
• What If? by Tommy Barnett
• The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Red Famine by Anne Applebaum
• The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan
• Man & Woman: A Divine Invention by Alice Von Hilderbrand

Here is a great book on gardening: The Four Season Farm: Gardener’s Cookbook by Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman. It’s two books in one – the garden guide and the cookbook.

And some of my favorite books for baking:

• The Model Bakery Cookbook
• Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa – great book if you are new to sourdough baking!
• Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish
• Living Bread by Daniel Leader
• The Rye Baker: Classic Breads from Europe and America by Stenley Ginsberg
• Jewish Holiday Baking by Uri Scheft
• Fruit Desserts by Martha Stewart’s
• Pie & Tart – William Sonoma

Happy reading everyone! And don’t forget to share with me some of your favorite books.

Natasha