Recent reads 2026.

Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts by Jennie Allen- This was a good mix of conviction and encouragement- sad that our negative thoughts can consume us so much, but so much hope in taking our thoughts captive for Christ. We don't have to stay stuck in harmful thought patterns and we can surrender our minds to Him and embrace the hope and healing He can bring. Satan wants our thoughts to stay trapped in overwhelm and incapability, but through Christ, we can experience renewal and freedom!

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett- This is a story about three grown daughters who return home during COVID in 2020 to help at the family cherry farm in Michigan. While picking, the daughters ask their mom the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor that she acted with/dated before he was famous. The story weaves back in forth in time to present day and to back in the day when she was telling the story about him. I listened to the audio version, which was voiced by Meryl Streep, which was neat. While parts of this story were slow moving to me (the second half was better than the first in my opinion), I liked the picture of the ordinary life and that the small things are what matter most that she chose for her husband and girls. 

My Friends by Fredrik Backman- Wow, what storytelling! This was a longer one, but a very compelling story. It's about one of the most famous paintings in the world of the sea. Most people don't even notice the three kids sitting on the end of the dock because it's such a small part of the painting, but Louisa, an artist herself, wants to learn about them. She comes into contact with a friend of the painter and they journey together to the painting's hometown and she learned about their lives. It goes back and forth between present tense of their journey together, and past tense telling the story of the four friends. 

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo- Oh my, in looking this one up I just discovered there is a sequel! While many rave about this love story, there is something about it that is not incredible to me. The story is interesting to read, that's not what I mean, but it's about Lucy and Gabe and their 13 year love story, but really they aren't together for the great majority of it. She's telling the story to him, while she's married to someone else. That part doesn't sit well with me, and also I didn't love a few scenes that were too spicy. It was a story that I was interested in hearing what happened, yet I'm not jealous of their story, if that makes sense. I feel this comes off as more negative than I mean for it to though, because it was an enjoyable story to read. 

A Mom's Guide to Lies Girls Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free by Dannah Gresh- If you have a daughter in the 9-12ish range, this is a must read! It was so good. This is the companion for moms, and the Lies Girls Believe book is for the girls. I read the girls book out loud to Norah as our bedtime devotional, and then read the mom guide as my own devotional. The mom guide has the exact parts your daughter is reading in it too, but with extra notes and ideas. (So I didn't reread those sections since I was already reading them with Norah, but I read the notes that went along. It would be a good idea to use both the girl and mom books at the same time.) I will definitely reread this with Lucy and Ellory too later on! Norah was 11 when we read it and about to go into middle school, and that was a really good time to read it. It goes through 20 different lies tween girls are tempted to believe, and how to counteract that with the Truth from the Bible, and also has some chapters in general about identifying lies and replacing them with His truth. I would highly recommend this for young girls!