Holy cow. It’s a blog post. On a day that’s not Tuesday.

HOORAY!!

I’ve decided to tiptoe back onto the blogging scene, because a leap could be disastrous. Too much going on in this head and heart for that. Neither you nor I could handle what might come spewing out of my mouth (fingers). I do promise to slowly “catch you up” on all that’s been transpiring around these parts.

Baby steps.

So how about I talk about some books that I told some awesome folks I’d talk about and then TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL. The past few weeks have been chock-full of ball-dropping, and I’m chomping at the bit to climb out of the (ball) pit.

Here goes.

I read a lot of books. And I get a lot for free. And people want me to tell other people about these books I get for free (which I totally understand, being someone who has given away plenty of books and begged people to tell other people about them). But sometimes I don’t really love the books. Or maybe they were okay but not really what I’m into right now. Or maybe I just get completely overwhelmed by the millions of books I’ve read and don’t know where to start.

So I’m going to tell you about some books. And I’m going to link to the books in case they’re something you’d like to buy/read for yourself. And the links will go to my Amazon Associates Account, because if you buy them, I get some of your money. Score!

Which reminds me. People are always asking me how they can make money off their blogs. “What tips can you share?” they ask. Well, I can share all kinds of tips, but none of them will make you any money, because I don’t make any money off of my blog. That would require more effort than I’m willing to expend. Heck, I can barely even WRITE POSTS these days.

Here goes (I mean it this time).

The Get Yourself Organized Project (Kathi Lipp)

I like Kathi a lot. She’s got a heart of gold and makes me laugh. We “met” a couple years ago because we shared a literary agent. Kathi has gone on to write a bazillion books while my writing career came to a screeching halt. (You can read more about that here. And ha ha–I just reread the post myself and I used some of the same words about Kathi then that I wrote just now. Can’t teach an old dog.)

This book is #5 in a series: The Husband Project, The Marriage Project, The Me Project, The “What’s For Dinner?” Solution, and The Get Yourself Organized Project. I think I like The Husband Project best. I used to love organizing books, but once I read Organized Simplicity (one of my favorite books EVER) and realized that the best way for ME to organize my crap was to not HAVE so much crap, I don’t read these sorts of books much anymore.

Praying God’s Word for Your Husband (Kathi Lipp)

This book is very similar to The Power of a Praying Wife (Stormie Omartian). If you have that one, I don’t think you’d need both of them. But the idea of praying for your husband regularly (daily, HOURLY) and especially praying SCRIPTURE over him? LOVE. And Kathi’s writing style is down-to-earth, easy-to-read, and fun.

Choose Joy (Kay Warren)

This is a good book (really good), and it really hit home for me after some of the stuff we’ve been through recently. Kay has seen and experienced a lot of suffering in the past few years, lots of tough situations she has taken as opportunities to choose joy. But the book of Kay’s that I REALLY love the most is Say Yes to God. Here’s what I said about it last summer:

This book? ROCKED MY WORLD. It used to be called Dangerous Surrender, and I remember reading it a few years ago and thinking, “Wow, that’s some powerful stuff. Hmmm…” And that was that. But this updated/expanded version? Popped into my life at the exact time that God is yanking on my heart to do some radical things to alleviate suffering around the world. A friend of mine at Zondervan sent me a copy of the book (with no pressure to review it–she just thought it would be something I’d like), and I DEVOURED it. Marked it all up and want to read it again. It inspired me like NUTS and scared me half to death. Read it. I mean it.

88 Great Daddy-Daughter Dates (Rob and Joanna Teigen)

I’m not a daddy, so I can’t give this book the review it deserves. I skimmed through it, and it looks like fun. If Gabe decides to read it (or try out some of the ideas), I’ll have him tell you all about it. If you’re a dad with daughters, you should give it a whirl, especially if you’ve never taken your daughter on a date and don’t know where/how to start. Gabe has been “dating” our girlies one-on-one since they were about three years old, and it’s pretty awesome.

Enough (Will Davis)

If you’re someone who is blasted sick and tired of me talking about how we Americans are too rich and have too much stuff, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. This dude is speaking my language, and I highly recommend this book. HIGHLY.

The subtitle is Finding More by Living with Less. And that’s the thing I seem to have a hard time conveying to people who don’t get (or like) my purging/paring down/getting by with not so much. Less really is MORE. Really truly. Having just enough brings JOY, joy you can’t find when you have way more of something than you need. Enough is a real place, and it’s a good place. Not enough = not good. More than enough = not good. Enough = joy.

Any of these books sound like something you’d like to read? What good book(s) have you read this summer?