A Full Basket of Spring Reads for Christian Women

I’ve enjoyed these five spring reads for Christian women, and I’m happy to share reviews with you today. Keep reading to learn how you can win your own copy of one of these lovely books!

A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging

I’ve enjoyed following Kate Motaung as the host of the Five Minute Friday linkup. When I saw that her first book was coming out, I couldn’t wait to join the launch team.

Memoir is one of my favorite genres to read. Kate’s memoir is a unique story of faith, grief, and cross-cultural living. Her gentle voice tells a story of looking for home between two continents.

Kate grew up as a child of divorce, just like me. Her stories of feeling torn between two homes are so familiar. I believe adult children of divorce are looking for validation of their hurts, and Kate does so without spewing vengeance on her parents.

But that’s just part of this story. Her search for home began in Michigan, then widened as she served in overseas missions and eventually married a South African man. As one who has not traveled outside the U.S., I appreciated her glimpses of a colorful, beautiful culture far removed from the world I know.

Kate lived in South Africa for over ten years, but her heart jumped back and forth between there and Michigan. Her beloved mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Kate traveled often to visit her family. Since cancer struck her mom when Kate was raising her children, the tug of home in either place was especially strong.

Kate’s testimony of faith is woven throughout the story. Her story is proof that faith grows through testing and trials. Even though her mother dies, I finished the book with a sense of calm, knowing that all Christians will be reunited in heaven someday. I can’t wait to meet her beautiful mother there.

This book is a helpful read for a woman dealing with grief, especially if a loved one is dying of cancer. It is also a good read for a woman who is straddling two different cultures, no matter what that looks like. A Place to Land is a peaceful read that I have been privileged to enjoy.

Thank you to Discovery House for a free preview copy of this wonderful book.

Fierce Faith: A Woman’s Guide to Fighting Fear, Wrestling Worry, and Overcoming Anxiety

Alli Worthington‘s book Breaking Busy spoke volumes of truth to me. Alli’s warm, funny stories and practical applications helped me learn how to manage my priorities with greater peace. Since fear, worry, and anxiety are perennial struggles for me, I was excited to see what Alli would teach me about how to handle them.

This book is filled with practical strategies for fighting those three bullies. Each chapter has a Battle Plan for handling these problems in new ways. I especially enjoyed her chapter on betrayal. I read dozens of Christian non-fiction books every year, and I don’t see this topic covered often enough. Alli does a wonderful job with it.

What I appreciate most about Alli’s approach is her humility. She tells stories of her own struggles in each chapter, so the book feels like advice from a girlfriend-in-the-trenches, right alongside me. I know we can never completely eradicate fear, worry, and anxiety from our lives this side of heaven. But these practical tips give me new ways to look at my issues and handle them proactively.

Here is one of her Battle Plans that I enjoyed most (fighting the fear of the future):

1. Develop gratitude for what God is doing right now.
2. Think about your future self.
3. Stack up your own stones of remembrance.
4. Ask the right questions (evaluating the fearful situation–do I have any control?).
5. Trust the master plan.

There are so many practical takeaways, including the game-changing Five Bad B’s I’ve fallen prey to on a daily basis. This book is a wake-up call and a map for finding greater peace. If you like books with practical application, you’ll love Fierce Faith.

I received a free review copy of Fierce Faith from the BookLook Bloggers Program.

Searching for Spring: How God Makes All Things Beautiful in Time

Do you love reading beautiful, lyrical writing? If so, Searching for Spring will awaken your heart to fresh beauty.

I enjoy literary reads by contemporary masters like Anthony Doerr and Marilynne Robinson. It’s rare to find a similar writing style in my favorite genre of Christian non-fiction. I found it in this gem. Christine Hoover has a special gift of combining insight and beautiful language to paint pictures of spiritual truths, and I deeply enjoyed this treasure of a book.

In our oh-so-daily, fast-paced living, it’s easy to overlook the stunning beauty God hides in our days. Searching for Spring shows us how to find it by slowing down, looking closely, and delighting in the smallest joys of right now.

Christine Hoover’s framework for the chapters is Ecclesiates 3:1-8, the same framework I used for my book, Newness of Life. We both found fresh perspective from these verses, and I enjoyed her unique take on them.

So many thought-provoking images and stories from this book are still giving me pause, days later. The chapter I enjoyed the most was Chapter 8, “God Is Our Color.” She brilliantly uses a metaphor of a pure red maple tree in autumn to talk about the hidden beauty of suffering. Here is a quote from this chapter that sings with truth:

God, it seems, rewards obedience with peace, but there is a lesson we must learn from the little red leaf: the obedience of self-death is primarily rewarded later. The tree doesn’t bear witness to what nutrients the leaf has passed on until spring.

I have many sections highlighted in this book for further pondering. If you’re looking for a book to help you grow deep roots of faith, Searching for Spring is right for you.

Netgalley provided me a free copy of this excellent book.

Even If Not: Living, Loving, and Learning in the in Between

I enjoy following Kaitlyn Bouchillon’s blog and watching her lead launch teams for other authors. When her book went on sale, I grabbed up a copy, and I’m glad I did.

This talented writer and blogger faced a huge challenge when she was only a teenager. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor that required immediate surgery. Her faith rose to new levels after that challenge.

Kaitlyn also writes about the meaning of home, whether feeling comfortable in the streets of Haiti during mission trips or adjusting to life in Alabama, away from all her family. She uses the ampersand as a metaphor throughout the book, a symbol for learning to be content during times of transition.

She is a fine writer who gives practical wisdom. Here is a sampling of quotes I enjoyed in Even If Not:

• [Even if not] can be three of the hardest words to say. Maybe that’s why I whisper them to myself and to my friend Jesus with every glimpse of an ampersand.
• God is going to come through but it might not look like what we’re hoping for.
• I have found myself on both ends of the spectrum, in the dark and in the light, lonely and surrounded by community, broken and mended. But the truth is, most of life is lived somewhere in between. Most of us are in the ampersand, but just so you know–you’ll find God there too.
• He is patiently waiting and quietly longing to be the safe place we run to in the dark, the quiet we enter into when the noise of the world is blaring in our ears, the balm to our scars and the healing for our hurts.

If you are struggling in the hard in-between, this book will inspire you to hang on with faith. You can purchase your own copy here.

Holy in the Moment: Simple Ways to Love God and Enjoy Your Life

Holiness is an underrepresented topic in contemporary Christian writing, and I enjoyed Ginger Harrington‘s coverage of this important subject.

Ginger’s story involves cross-country moves, debilitating anxiety, and tests of faith. She describes how the pursuit of holiness can provide stability and peace in our challenges.

This verse sums up Ginger’s approach to holy living:

“God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering.” Romans 12:1 MSG

I appreciated the stories Ginger shared from her own life about pursuing holiness in all kinds of moments. Enjoy this sampling of quotes from Holy in the Moment:

• Just as umbrellas shield us from rain, faith protects us from questions and doubts that flood our souls.
• Faith is a gift from God, not some secret power we must manufacture on our own. Faith is inseparably tied to the power and holiness of God.
• Holy in the moment, I want love for my God to motivate all I do–work, serve, rest, and play.
• Prayer transforms any moment from mundane to significant, from temporal to eternal.

Ginger wrote an interesting chapter on how to meditate on God’s word to take control of your thought life. Since I’m working on a project with that theme, I enjoyed her approach to the subject. She offers plenty of practical applications for finding and seeking holiness in everyday living throughout this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free preview copy of Holy in the Moment.

Questions for you:

Which book do you find most intriguing, and why?

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