Thanks to a recommendation from my highschool friend Becky Rusell, I recently finished reading Kate Bowler’s remarkable and moving book Everything Happens For A Reason: and other lies I’ve loved. (Amazon link) When Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer, she was 35, happily married, and had a newborn son named Zach. She was […]
book review
Book Review: A Gentleman In Moscow
Book author: Amor TowlesPublished 2016 In 1922 at age 30, the protagonist, Russian Count Alexander Rostov, finds himself sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal to house arrest for the crime of being an unrepentant aristocrat. His reputation and popularity allow him to escape execution, but he must move from an elegant suite in a grand hotel […]
Book Review: Grief Works by Julia Samuel (a helpful primer)
We cannot escape death and grief, so we must learn how to deal with them. Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, and Surviving by Julia Samuel Reviewed by Elizabeth H. Cottrell 4 stars out of 5 [NOTE: this is a more detailed review than the one I posted on Amazon and Goodreads.] Grief Works was highly recommended […]
Book Reviews: Celtic Daily Prayer and Hebridean Altars
Devotionals have long been an important part of my daily spiritual practice. I find that a short, thought-provoking devotion can help me settle down and get more focused on God. I liken it to priming the pump for drawing on the living waters of Christ. Here are two wonderful ones. Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and […]
Book Review: Keep Your Love On! by Danny Silk
Keep your love on! Connection, Communication and Boundaries Written by Danny Silk Reviewed by Elizabeth H. Cottrell I was expecting this to be a sweet, feel-good book about love and kindness. It was, instead, a bold, hard-hitting, brutally honest book about what constitutes a healthy relationship (marriage or otherwise) and how it will spiral downward in […]
Habits, Good Or Bad: They Impact Our Happiness
I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about habits and the role they play in our behavior, primarily because I’m determined to cultivate better health habits and squash as many unhealthy habits as possible during 2015. It’s become crystal clear to me that understanding and knowing myself—connecting with myself, if you will—is critical to having a baseline […]
Book Review: Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
Strange as This Weather Has Been: A Novel by Ann Pancake Reviewed by Elizabeth H. Cottrell 5 stars out of 5 Strange as This Weather Has Been: A Novel packs a wallop on several levels, and I commend it highly to any serious reader interested in a unique, powerful, and fresh voice in contemporary literature. […]
Book Review: I Like Giving by Brad Formsma
I Like Giving: The Transforming Power of a Generous Life Author: Brad Formsma • Waterbrook Press • Available in Kindle or Paperback formats Big ideas don’t have to be new I was sent this book in hopes I would read and review it, and I have to admit I was afraid it would be syrupy sweet—and […]