What I'm Reading

     I was the kid who got excited when the teacher announced it was time for Drop Everything And Read.  Here are two books I just finished that I think you will fall into.  

     I loved A Fall of Marigolds,  by Susan Meissner.  A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away....
     September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
     September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers…the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?
     This was my first experience with Susan Meissner.  She is an author I will be reading again.

     Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have, by Annie Downs  is wonderful.  I think Annie and I could be friends.  Annie Downs shares her journey toward bravery with honesty and humor. Using wonderful stories from her own life, contemporary real-life examples, and fascinating historical and biblical references, Annie encourages readers to grab hold of the brave life that they desperately desire.  John Piper said, "Books don't change people; paragraphs do, sometimes even sentences."  Let's All Be Brave is full of those sentences.
     Annie Downs also wrote, Speak Love: Making Our Words Matter.  A book of encouragement to use your words to build people up, not tear them down.  To speak love, healing, and hope into peoples lives.  It was a blessing to read.  It makes you aware that what you say and how you say it are truly important.
     Name the last great book you read in the comments.  I would love to see your recommendations.