What's on the bookshelf?

So I've mentioned that I have a book pile-up waiting to be read. I just finished Dragonfly in Amber, which is the second book in the Outlander series. A lot of boggy history, but I plowed right through all 700 pages of it, so it must not have been too painful. :) It left off with a cliffhanger, so of course now I am salivating, plotting on getting the third book. Sometimes when I get pretty hyper about something like this I just go ahead and go crazy and indulge quickly just to get the whole thing over with and put myself out of my delirium. Once I get through the 6th book I'll be done with Outlander.....unless she writes another one. :)

I get a lot of my book suggestions from friends and bloggers who also love to read. Maybe you'd enjoy a few of my current awaiting reads:

Bless and Be Blessed by Peter M. Lord is a small book with a powerful message. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now. Basically he is talking about the power of our words. The Bible says that we have the power of life and death in the words we say, and this book encourages us to use our words to bless and bring life to others. One method is to take opportunities to say the kinds of things to people that are sometimes not said until a person is dead. Isn't it odd that we can let a special person in our life go on to the grave, without us expressing our feelings to the person? But then we tell others at the funeral about it! We need to share and hear these words while we are living. I'm sure I will write more about this when I'm finished with the book.

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter is my book group book for September, and is a story based on the author's own life. I read this book probably more than a year ago, and am looking forward to reading it again. My memories of this book are that it struck an extremely wide range of feelings in me. I can remember some of the most hilarious stories, and I also recall that there was at least one situation that made me cry bitterly. I love books that really grab ahold of me, and this is one. I recommend it heartily.

Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. Basically, it comes from a Christian viewpoint, dashing all the false guilt that Christian people often have with standing up for themselves, and gives encouragement and instruction to those who wish to learn how to set and enforce boundaries in their life. I'm almost all the way through it. I've set my boundaries, and compared to the wild love story and great adventure of the Outlander books, it had gotten set to the side. :)

Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen. This is a tiny little book that I picked up on a whim when I saw it on the New Books cart at my library. I thoroughly enjoyed Anna Quindlen's book Loud and Clear, and thought I'd like to read more from her. So here is sits...

Raising a Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis was recommended to us by a friend whose son also had a Christian Bar Mitzvah sort of 13th birthday celebration a few years ago. I better hurry up and read this, since my son's party is two weeks from today! Fortunately, my husband hasn't been side tracked by the love story of a time traveler and an 18th century outlaw, so he's about half way through it, and it's more important that he read it than I do. But I will! Basically, it's a book encouraging parents on how to effectively help their sons grow up to BE real men, rather than to falter along not really knowing what a real man IS. (Quiz: How many of you are even sure YOU know what a real man is?) Seems like a book that is way past due and I am looking forward to reading it.

What's So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancy is something I saw recommended at Our Green Room (on the blogroll over there------>) and that's all I know. Ditto for Connecting by Larry Crabb. I get a lot of book ideas from Our Green Room (I think maybe I heard about Bless and Be Blessed there as well).

Teen-Proofing by John Rosemond is a book I picked up on a whim while walking through the stacks at the library (something I should try to refrain from doing, but can't because it always yields such treasures!). Love him or hate him, John Rosemond's straight talk to parents is refreshing compared to all the limp, smarmy advice out there today. Since I'm about to have a teenager, I guess I thought I should get educamated about it. ;)

So, "only" 8 books actively waiting for my attention....if you don't count the ones I own and that have been given to me as gifts that also haven't been read. AND if you don't count the herb and alternative medicine books that I *also* plan to read one of these days. I actually did part with a few books, unread, on my last library trip, since I couldn't even remember why I borrowed them in the first place. Gotta get this runaway train under control somehow.

So what's on *your* bookshelf? (Try not to tempt me, though....)