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TBR: July 2025


Well hello there, anyone reading this! 

It's been a minute. (Six months' worth of minutes, really.) 

There was a seismic shift in my life last December which necessitated an about-face with all of my priorities and routines. (I'm not talking about any of that here, though.) Today I feel healthier, clearer, and more hopeful than I have in nearly a decade, and am just starting to pick up a few of the things that I put down for that long season. At the top of the list is one of my dearest loves, reading. 

So far in 2025 I have read only one book each month, for my in-person book club. I plan to read a few others in July, but just a few. I'm still figuring out where the edges are in this new season. So instead of simply jumping back in, I've been easing into things and seeing if they still fit.

Thanks be to God for His help over the six months I spent figuring things out. I'm grateful for His care and patience as well as His wisdom and healing as I continue shifting. Figuring out midlife has come in fits and starts for this gal. May I never forget how He has held me through it. 



You can click on the cover image for each book to be taken to its Goodreads page.


The first book I'm reading is the selection for book club this month, Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. Considered a modern classic, I'd never heard of it before one of our members put it up for consideration. After reading the description and a few reviews, I'm really excited to read this!


I read Cindy Rollins' first installment of this series when it came out in 2016 but didn't realize she had released another. The same friend who recommended this month's book club selection, gifted me a copy of this book in December. It sat on the shelf for quite some time but is feeling like the right book for this time.

Do you ever read a book that sort of stops your heart from the first page, because it pierces something inside of you? You read a line or insight from a writer that so perfectly describes something in your own human experience that your breath catches and you lean in closer? You lean in because you want to hurry the next part and see if this person has unbelievably tapped into your own story or if it was just one fluke line. But then as the rest of the idea unfolds your senses are increasingly heightened and your heart cries, "Yes, exactly! How does this person know about such a specific part of my life? How do they know precisely what I am feeling?" I've experienced the same thing with songs as well, many times. Songs that felt written about me.

This book is doing that for me. Instead of gulping it down, I'm forcing myself to read it slowly, a few pages each day.


Finally, a wild-card. This ended up on my TBR after recommendations from two sources and just came available from my library holds list. So I'm gonna' give it a go! It sounds...interesting. Not the type of book I frequently read, but then some of my favorite stories have been those outside of my normal wheelhouse, so I'm not going to judge the book by it's blurb.




 

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