October Book Review 2023
I managed to finish three books in October. Nothing earth shattering here, tho. None of them were extremely deep or difficult to read.
As I am scanning our shelves of books and working through them to read, re-read and then decide to keep or give away, I came across my collection of Melissa Michaels books and worked through two of them.
I have read both before and after reading them again, I know that I am ready to pass them along. If you are not familiar with Melissa, I started following her home decor blog years ago.
She is from the PNW and I have always loved her shares of her own home, pretty house sitings around her travels and the crazy messes her doodles make. Here is a link to her blog https://theinspiredroom.net She also has a fun account on Instagram @theinspiredroom.
The first book I read was Simple Decorating: 50 Ways to Inspire Your Home. It was written in 2016 and is, as the title suggests, a kind of “list” of ideas. It was a fun read and offers some basic teachings on design, color, balance and texture. Melissa is a big fan of using what you have or improvising by adding things you can afford.
I enjoyed reading it one more time, but I am in a different season and am ready to pass this one along. Our house is pretty much the way we like it and with added ideas from Instagram posts as we enter different seasons, I can move things around and celebrate the seasons while enjoying the things we have already collected.
I found my re-read of the second Michaels book I read in October; Love the Home you Have, to be a similar experience.
In this book, Melissa talks about the various homes they have lived in starting out as newlyweds and up to having just one child left home at the time of the writing in 2015. I kept a post-it note in this one and jotted down a few quotes I liked, like this one:
“When you invite a guest into your home, they are in your sanctuary. They are invited to be themselves. You give a gift to others by making them feel comfortable and welcomed, not by changing who you are.”
Melissa Michaels, Love the Home you Have, Harvest House Publishers, 2015, page 70
I couldn’t agree more. Probably the reason I love Melissa is that we are like minded about home and its purpose. Her general point in all things is to be content with what you have while also enjoying creative ways to make your house into a home.
Melissa has a wonderful way of making her readers realize how our homes are an expression of who we are and are a haven and refueling station for the people who inhabit the walls.
At the end of the book is a 31 day challenge for loving your home where she offers some daily tasks to just pump some new energy into your space. I love this kind of motivation, but as I looked through the various suggestions I was able to pick and choose the ones I would probably follow through with and just make my own To Do List from her ideas.
I will jot my notes down in a notebook I keep of quotes and ideas gleaned from books and articles and then bless someone else with my copy by donating along with the Simple Decorating book.
The third book I read was one that was suggested to me last month by my friend, Shelly Templin. If you remember, I had read a book about Newfoundland in for my August reading. My dad was stationed at Harmon Air Force Base when I was aged 3 – 5 and when I saw a book about the area on our local library give-away shelf, I nabbed it.
The Day the World Came to Town; 911 in Gander, Newfoundland had to be ordered through the library share system. It took a while but finally the copy was delivered to our library and I was able to pick it up in time to read it with our own 9/11 remembrance still fresh in my mind.
It was so good.
Gander was one of the airports where planes coming to the U.S. from Europe were diverted when all hell broke lose in New York City on September 11, 2001.
Written by Tim DeFede shortly after the events of that time and published in 2002, the book is an inside look into several families and groups that were grounded that day in a small, obscure province of Canada.
The stories of how this grounding and interruption of flights, along with the way the people of Newfoundland opened their homes and hearts, was more moving than I can express in just a few words. I didn’t remember the U. S. Airways were closed for almost a week and I never put together the impact that would have had on commercial flights that had to be rerouted and lives that had to be put on hold.
I am so glad for the timing of reading it as we remembered the events of that day 22 years later and as wars continued in Ukraine and erupted in Jerusalem. I needed to read about people who stopped their lives to help others, who left their doors unlocked and emptied their linen closets to stock shelters.
This quote from the opening pages of the book sums it up and gives me tears as I hope and pray we would be those people every day:
“For the better part of a week, nearly every man, woman, and child in Gander and the surrounding smaller towns – places with names like Gambo and Appleton and Lewisporte and Norris Arm – stopped what they were doing so they could help. The placed their lives on hold for a group of strangers and asked for nothing in return. They affirmed the basic goodness of man at a time when it was easy to doubt that such humanity existed. If the terrorists had hoped their attacks would reveal the weaknesses in western society, the events in Gander proved its strength.”
The Day the World Came to Town; 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, Pg 7, HarperCollins, published as paperback 2003
So good.
Hope you are reading some good books and sharing what you learn with others.
As always, would love to hear any book reports from you all <3
Links to books (I receive no compensation from any of these if you order, just making it easy for you). I am sure you can borrow from library, or if you are local and want either of my copies of the two Melissa Michaels books, first request and it is yours before it heads to the thrift shop!
The Day the World Came to Town: https://www.amazon.com/Day-World-Came-Town-Newfoundland/dp/0060559713
Simple Decorating: https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Decorating-Inspire-Inspired-Ideas/dp/0736963111
Love the Home you Have: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Home-You-Have-Organized/dp/0736963073