The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger

I saw the movie a few years ago. A friend from book club had the book as a suggestion to read. We didn’t end up picking it for a club selection, but I asked to borrow it. I felt like reading something light and witty. I wasn’t disappointed.


Andrea Sachs dream is to write for The New Yorker. She believes she is on the fast track for that dream job when she lands a position as the assistant to THE editor of Runway magazine. Little does she know what the job is going to require of her physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I enjoyed the book (but could have done without the language). You know, so often when we are in the midst of something, we really are blind to how it is affecting and changing us. We are focused on just the moment to moment to achieve the end goal and don’t realize that we could be causing our world to fall apart around us.

That’s why it’s so important to have balance – something I continually struggle with.

Night - Elie Wiesel

I read this book in preparation for reading through it with my 8th graders in a few weeks. I will be doing a cooperative unit with the social studies teacher and am really looking forward to it – even though the topic is so dark.


I have read many books about the Holocaust, so I don’t know why I had never heard of Elie Wiesel’s Night. Especially since he received a Nobel Peace Prize for it.

This book is a first-hand account of Mr. Wiesel’s experiences as a Jewish boy during the Nazi regime. The book begins with a little background on his life pre-Hitler. He was studying religion; his father an important figure in his hometown of Transylvania. They hear murmurings of what is to come. At one point, they even receive warnings. However, what is happening to the Jews is too impossible to believe, and it could never happen to them. The story continues as Elie Wiesel is transported and interned at various concentration camps.

The story is both gripping and graphic. Tragic and horrifying.

I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around such atrocities being enacted upon other human beings. I really hope my students can grasp a bit of the story and a bit of the horror. After all, they will be the ones entrusted to make sure such things never occur again.

Captain Wentworth's Diary - Amanda Grange

This was interesting to read after just reading Persuasion. You get to experience the same story, just from Captain Wentworth’s perspective.



I think Ms. Grange did an excellent job staying true to the characters of Jane Austen’s original tale. The story was delightful to read, and I enjoyed it.

Persuasion - Jane Austen

Book club book for February…a nice romantic story.


I’ve read Persuasion before, but believe I enjoyed it even more this time. After having reading more of Austen’s novels, I was able to pick up on more of her satire about high society.

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot was engaged to a common sailor, Wentworth. He was beneath her in both station and society. She was convinced by her godmother to break the engagement, despite her deep love and attachment to him.

Now their situations are reversed. Captain Wentworth has returned to shore a wealth man, while the Elliot’s fortune has dwindled. Yet can the embers of love still burn between them?

Loved it.

Safe Haven - Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks does it again. Another look at tragedy and triumph all wrapped up in a picturesque setting.


Katie shows up in a North Carolina town with no past but hoping to build a new future. There she meets Jo, a grief counselor who becomes a friend, and Alex, a widowed single-father who might be ready to move on as well.

Sparks’s character description of the person from Katie’s past was really quite disturbing. Not in a “have to put the book down” kind of way. But in a “Wow. And there really *are* people in the world who think that way” kind of way. It was completely believable.

Some parts of the plot and turns in the story were a bit too “expected” and convenient for my taste.

However, overall, I still absolutely enjoyed the narrative and the way in which it was told.

I have a horrible tendency to pick up the second or third book in a series, thinking it’s a standalone, and read it first. That was the case with this book. Publishers really need to label those things better!


I had been doing some heavier reading and went to the library in search of some “fluffy fiction.” Family Treasures fit the bill.

Caitlin McBride is an image consultant. When a teenager nominates her father, Caitlin gets wrapped up in more than just revamping Devon Walsh’s physical appearance.

It was a satisfying, predictable book. Just what I needed.

Tea with Hezbollah - Ted Dekker & Carl Medearis

In this book, Dekker and Medearis walk you through their Middle East travels as they search for a modern day “Good Samaritan.” Intertwined throughout the prose and interviews is a parable regarding one girl’s encounter with a current “Good Samaritan.”


It was an interesting concept. The authors begin in Egypt and travel through Syria, Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries to discover what others (perceived enemies and friends alike) think of Jesus’ ultimate teaching of living your neighbor as yourself.

I enjoyed the premise. But I didn’t enjoy the book much until I was about halfway through it. The text was very choppy, in my opinion. So it wasn’t until the middle of the story that the pieces started to fit together for me, and I could really dive into the people Dekker and Medearis were meeting and what they were learning.

I did learn a lot. About how some in the Middle East view the U.S. And I began to, perhaps for the first time, think of Middle Eastern Muslims in a different way as well. Even the self-proclaimed terrorists and leaders of Hezbollah. It was a bit challenging. But that is probably part of why I ended up liking it.

And it challenged me on a larger scale too. Who in my life would I consider my “enemies”? And, regardless, Jesus still calls on me as a Christ-follower to love them and pray for them. I’m working on it.