But really, this book is so very much more. At the base, Jenkins has written a book honoring the beauty and wonder of nature, and her writing style conveys a respect and adoration for this world. The graceful movements of a great blue heron hunting for his lunch are described with such beauty that I found myself holding my breath, as if my presence as a reader could have a disruptive effect on the scene laid out on the page.

In addition to the multitudes of wondrous descriptions of the environments she and her son explore, Jenkins also demonstrates a solid knowledge base of both the natural and man-made history of her state. She expertly weaves in information relating to the area and historical events and people who have affected the environment- from efforts to conserve land to literary creations honoring the natural world.

But what I found most compelling was the combination of those two aspects of Jenkins’ narrative with her reflections and insights on the responsibilities of parenting. She shares her personal history and describes her motivation to create these outdoor experiences with her second-born child in an effort to connect with him during the “tween” period of his life– a time that can often be challenging for mothers and sons. (This I can personally relate to. Definitely.) With an authentic voice and a sincerity that leaps off the page, Jenkins’ musings are sure to connect with many a parent, especially because of her honesty and openness.

Ratings that go above and beyond the standard five stars should be made specially available for books like this. Magnificent. Beautiful. Intelligent. Thoughtful. Touching. Exploring the natural environment while simultaneously creating a significant set of experiences with her son makes for an opportunity to contemplate huge issues like religion, spirituality, and personal relationships, and to continue to emphasize what she believes to be important for her son to know in his heart, while giving respect to the small details of the world that can be observed and sensed in the outdoor environment. Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting has jumped to the top of my list of books to recommend right now.

Seeing as I’m including this in our best-of-the-best list, 5 Star Reads, I’m really quite thrilled to be able to offer two copies of Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting for giveaway.

Leave a comment on the post AT 5 MINUTES FOR MOM to be entered, U.S. addresses only, please. It’s open through Sunday.

Dawn may not have the wilds of Wisconsin in her back yard, but she certainly does have a ton of birds and bugs, both of which interest her children, and the stories of all their experiences are fodder for her blog, my thoughts exactly.

I love my daughter, and she’s lots of fun to take on outings.

Once upon a time there was a family who went to visit some old ruins. There was lots to look at,

there were many places to explore,

there were wonderful sights to see.

Her mother was very patient with her. She did not say, “Put down that book and play with your brothers.” (Although you can kind of see the girl’s point…)

Her mother did not say, “Put down that book and talk to our friends. Look at the old Roman road.

Put down that book and look at the cat sleeping in the sun.”

Because she was used to her daughter.

And then they all went out for chwarmas for supper.

Guest contributor Elizabeth lives in Morocco with her family, but is preparing to return to Oregon. She blogs at Planet Nomad

So, why a book attempting to address this seemingly obvious issue? Gilbert responds by asking: how firm a grasp do you think most Christians really have on the content of the Christian gospel? And, bringing it home: how would you answer if asked what’s so good about the good news of Christianity?

In fact, Gilbert asserts, and rightly so in my opinion, that many of those who claim faith in Christ would answer this most basic of questions with a response that falls short of the Biblical gospel. In the Introduction to What Is the Gospel? Gilbert excerpts various answers to that very question found on several evangelical websites and books, some of which were not only incomplete but even mutually exclusive.

What Is the Gospel? seeks to identify a clear answer to the question, an answer supported by and based upon what the Bible teaches about the good news that Jesus saves sinners. Those who already belong to Christ will be prompted to greater worship and praise for the Lord’s mercy on their behalf. In fact, one of my favorite quotes from the book occurs in the Introduction: “An emaciated gospel leads to emaciated worship.” Hearts full of the joy of the gospel will be hearts full of rejoicing in the Savior!

I appreciated both the concise nature of What Is the Gospel? (only 121 pages) as well as the timely reminder of all that Christ accomplished for me. Remembering the gospel—my sin and Christ’s sacrifice—not only moves me to greater joy but also prompts me to share the good news with greater boldness and passion. I highly recommend this book!

Lisa thanks Crossway publishers for providing the review copy of What Is the Gospel?

Mary Lynn Archibald writes this memoir to tell other potential cowpoke what life on a ranch is really like. She and her husband Carl had visions of grandeur in their heads as they signed papers on Twin Creeks Ranch. They envisioned themselves hiking, rocking in rocking chairs on the front porch of their ranch style home, lovely wildflowers and calm breezes. What they didn’t bargain for were bridges in need of repair, and cattle which multiplied faster than they could count. Hiking experiences turned into opportunities to hike ranch equipment to various and necessary locations. Their lazy life plans didn’t quite work out.

I would say that Archibald has various Bombeck qualities in her writing. She strives to make amusing that which clearly was not. Her book acts rather as a warning against those who think that living on the land is the cheap and easy way to live. She makes clear that a lot of hard work was involved.

I thought this book was ok. It’s true, I can’t really rave about it. Certainly it was interesting to hear about Mary and Carl’s life on the ranch. It was funny to hear what their expectations were in comparison to the reality that they came to terms with. If you are wondering, they no longer live on Twin Creeks Ranch, although they don’t mind the idea of country living! You should know that there are some foul words scattered about the book, occurring mostly when something is broken or causing distress.

This book is a couple’s experience of trying their hand at ranch living and all of the ups and downs related to such an ideal. Mary Lynn talks about how she read a lot of books and articles that idealized the experience for her prior to her own life decision – and this book counter-attacks such resources that might case readers and city-dwellers to look through a life ranch experience with any kind of rose-colored glasses.

All in all I can’t say that I was not necessarily wow-ed by this book but it definitely has its moments.

Carrie enjoys also enjoys the idea of living off the land and living a country life. In fact, she and her husband live outside city limits and enjoy the peace and quiet of country – and the beauty of knowing that the “city” is a mere 5 minute drive from their front door! (She reaps the benefits of both worlds!) She blogs about life and books on her own site, Reading to Know.

While I found myself laughing and reading in amazement at the story laid out, I think I would be more inclined to compare Bachrach’s style to that of Augusten Burroughs, with a remarkable ability to convey a family history of pain without sorrowful remorse, but instead with a large dose of dark humor. Chronicling her mother’s story, including family secrets and a history beyond just “colorful,” Bachrach opens a window on mental illness, from the perspective of an observant and thoughtful daughter.

After a serious accident, whose “accidentalness” depends somewhat on how you define the word itself, Bachrach’s father dies at an unexpectedly early age, and her mother’s recovery is a long shot. Uncertainty about what recovery would mean for a woman with a lifelong history of significant mental illness bonds Bachrach with her brother and sister, as they step into care taking roles as their mother defies all medical predictions, and they must learn to navigate a whole new road in their relationship with her, a road that’s been anything but smooth their whole lives.

A memoir that can chronicle observations of a mentally ill mother and the subsequent different-than-average perspective on relationships and the world at large is a powerful thing, but one that can do it with a sublime sense of humor is remarkable. Bachrach’s tone sometimes appears detached, while at other times is painfully entrenched in the emotional upheaval of the universe revolving around her mother, yet never falls into the realm of ‘woe-is-me.’ One can almost see the smirk on her face as she presents this utterly incredible story of a wild family history that includes systemic abuse, mental illness, and more than its fair share of covering it all up, because it seems as if all they have left is the ability to have a few chuckles and wonder at it all, or else who knows where they would be.

The Center of the Universe is a painful, yet so very funny, memoir that left me shaking my head in amazement that people can survive experiences such as these.

Dawn’s life wouldn’t make for a very interesting memoir, but it does provide some fun blog posts on my thoughts exactly.

I was wrong and I’m so glad I was! Rescuing Ambition, in contrast, offers a healthy dose of encouragement for believers of all walks and callings, stay at home or otherwise. Dave Harvey introduces his book by recapturing the essence of godly ambition for the believer. Ambition tends to carry with it negative connotations yet Harvey asserts that we were created hard wired for ambition. In other words, we were made to pursue glory. Our problem is that our ambition is corrupted. Right ambitions pursue God’s glory in all things; our natural ambition pursues our own glory to our own destruction. Our ambition must be rescued, hence the premise (and title) of the book Rescuing Ambition.

I appreciated all of Rescuing Ambition but I especially found the chapters on Ambition’s Path (humility), Ambition’s Contentment and Ambitious Failure encouraging and convicting. Here’s an excerpt:

Christians are flammable. God created us to burn. Not like a match, either—bright and hot but quickly extinguished. That does little good for others and brings little glory to God. Ambitions are like a blowtorch. God ignites them, he points them in the right direction, and eternal work gets done. The flame is sustained by the fuel of grace. God’s work in God’s way for God’s glory. Why burn for anything else?

Most people think of ambition as climbing, upward mobility, always looks for a step up (and willing to step on others to get it). But biblical ambition points in the other direction—the direction Christ traveled. Our Master emptied himself, lighting the path for our ambitions. We’re called to follow him.

As we empty ourselves, we find the fullness of Christ. We look out for other’s rights ahead of our own. We find joy in advancing others’ success. We ask others to help us think realistically about ourselves. We follow Christ, who was in the form of God but made himself nothing.

It’s a paradox: Godly ambition makes us downwardly mobile.

In our Christian culture so remarkably similar to our worldly culture in its pursuit of significance and accomplishment, Harvey’s message is an important one. This is a good book, one that all believers would benefit from. Highly recommended.

Lisa thanks Crossway publishers for providing the review copy of Rescuing Ambition.

Immediately, I was pulled in by Colum McCann’s writing and characters. However in books like this, regardless of how good the writing is and how compelling the characters are, if something doesn’t pull the vignettes together, it doesn’t stand up as a novel to me. Colum McCann did this masterfully. He pulled these characters together in ways that were not at all predictable, and the theme of the world turning in the midst of everyone’s separate lives runs through it completely.

I was intrigued by his ability to write in the voice of such a wide variety of people — a working class middle-aged black woman, an upper crust middle-aged white woman, an Irish immigrant priest, a mother-daughter pair of prostitutes (this is the NYC of old — gritty!), an artist couple who are trying to escape the lure of the New York partying life. Yes — all of those characters are written with such a true and natural voice, and it was amazing to read.

The real-life event that this novel centers on is the basis of Philippe Petit’s book Man on Wire, which I have not read. However, I was so captivated by this time period as McCann created it, and the event that he uses to anchor the stories together, that I rented the Man on Wire Documentary that has received much acclaim.

This movie is told in interviews from him and those who helped him over 30 years ago. It was interesting to watch, because if you are like me, you always wonder, “Why do people do things like that?” And after reading the novel, I definitely wondered “How in the world did he do that? And why??“. Except for a few drug references (referring unfavorably to someone who was high much of the time), and an odd quick scene right at the end of the movie that contains some nudity, this would be a great movie to watch with your older kids (and certainly teens could watch the whole thing).

Whether on screen or in the pages, managing editor Jennifer Donovan enjoys a great story.

Before you read this review, you really ought to check out the Youtube video which I will include for your convenience here below. Now, to set this up a bit for you – this was originally presented to me with the following lesson attached:

If this is what an earthly father is willing to do for a son whom he loves, how much more is our Heavenly Father willing to do for and with and through us? With that – here’s the video:

Devoted is a story of love and passion that a father has for his child. When Rick Hoyt was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck for a time, cutting off his oxygen supply and causes brain damage. In the 1960′s people were not really sure how to handle children with disabilities, and the Hoyts’ doctors suggested that Dick and Judy Hoyt institutionalize their son. They refused, instead choosing to raise Rick themselves, come whatever difficulties.

Dick Hoyt documents Rick’s life for us in this book – the challenges that were faced and overcome and some personal family struggles also. To be honest, in some ways, Hoyt reads as being kind of arrogant. He delights in all of his achievements to an almost excessive degree. Let me be clear – I do not fault him for those accomplishments for there is much to be proud of. But he kinda unnecessarily stresses that he’s a really great guy and easy to get along with in person. When an author has to convince me of his humbleness, I’m not all together convinced. Despite that issue with the book, I read through that to see that Dick’s heart for his son is commendable and there is certainly room on this earth for him to share his story so that others can be encouraged and inspired by it. My only other concern, if you will, (and this really isn’t a spoiler because you discover something amiss almost from the get-go) is that, ultimately, Judy and Dick’s marriage does not survive. Dick doesn’t share the details and I’m rather glad of it. I was sorry though that whatever happened between them a.) could not be resolved and b.) that Judy was left out of the family photos which were included in the book. I felt that since they were married for close to 30 years, it would have been nice to see a photo of her with her son when he was a baby. Not sure why that didn’t appear and no doubt there is a good reason. It was just sad to discover that brokenness in the family. You spend the book rooting for their success that that particular aspect is disheartening.

I think I saw this Youtube video of them almost two years ago and I was positively delighted to find out more of the “behind-the-scenes” of their story. Today’s society is so quick to dismiss those with disabilities and we parents each want our own children to be born perfect. (We quickly realize that they are not, but we hold out hope for awhile.) People who do not meet society’s standards of perfection are easily looked down upon and quickly dismissed. Therefore I very much appreciated Dick and Judy’s gumption in fighting for the right of their son, Rick, to be treated as a human being who has great worth and value. I agree with their perspective of human life – in whatever difficult form we may greet it from time to time. I admire them for their efforts to break down barriers on behalf of the disabled and for believing that anything was possible for Rick.

While Devoted‘s primary purpose is to tell the story of Rick, from birth to triathlete, it comes across more of a labor of love.

Simply put, I think the Hoyt story is intriguing and inspirational on the whole. It’s a story worth telling, worth hearing, and worth reading about. Thank you, Da Capo Press, for offering it to us.

Carrie enjoys hearing about the personal stories of others. She especially enjoys hearing inspirational stories that strengthen her faith. She enjoys blogging about faith and books on her own book blog, Reading to Know.

In all seriousness – Celebrating Cupcakes and Muffins has been absolutely awesome in providing basic recipes and tips, as well as interesting flavors to check out. Furthermore, don’t miss the word “muffin” in the title of this book. (I confess, I fixated on the word ‘cupcake’ and was oblivious to the recipes for muffins when I first cracked the book.)

My entire family is a huge fan of this recipe book. I’ve tried at least one recipe a week from this book since returning from the Book Expo. Our hands down favorite recipe for dinner are the pesto muffins. This recipe goes great with pasta dishes and soups. A close second is the recipe for roasted vegetable muffins. The texture of the muffins is absolutely perfect every single time. Fail-proof recipes! What more could you ask for? I’ve felt like the recipes for these muffins are restaurant quality and my husband heartily concurs.

As for the cupcakes, I haven’t let myself get as crazy with those. I’ve reigned myself in but one morning I made the recipe for peanut butter and jelly cupcakes with my kids. We called up daddy and met him at work to share a special little treat mid-day. That was kind of fun and as odd as those cupcakes might sound to you- they weren’t bad at all! My husband’s co-worker, who is a huge peanut butter fan, declared them to be quite tasty.

This book is very fun. It has been sitting out on my kitchen counter since my return and I’ve been browsing through it and making excellent use of it. The men in my family love bread, although I can’t say that that’s the best thing for me to be eating. I can tell you though that it’s hard to eat just one muffin or one cupcake because they are that good.

If you are looking for a basic book about cupcakes and muffins, with easy and delicious recipes – this is an awesome place to start. Thanks goes to Leisure Arts for allowing me to test Celebrating Cupcakes and Muffins! Eight thumbs up (from this household!)

Carrie enjoys hunting up new recipes to share with her family. It would probably be best if she just read about the recipes, rather than taste testing them all but life is too short to do that! She blogs about books (and not so much about food) over on her book blog, Reading to Know.

Honestly, I’m still a little flabbergasted after reading this book once straight through, and flipping back through it several times in the last few days. Odd, bizarre and just plain weird are most definitely words that can be used to describe the illustrations and texts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that Poltarnees has collected and shared here. The visuals alone truly make this book a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in children’s literature– like the ink drawing from 1890 of the “This Little Piggy” rhyme that we all know and love, that depicts each fingertip adorned with a realistic hog partaking in its respective activity. My personal favorite is the 1938 selection by Munro Leaf from The Watchbirds, which shows a figure drawn completely in wavy lines with this passage:

Squirmers never sit still. They wriggle and wiggle and twist and turn until you wonder why they don’t fall apart. This one in the picture squirmed so much we couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or girl. Squirmers are terrible at the table or in the barber-shop.

Oh my, oh my. Even seventy or so years ago, there were hyperactive children, which is nice to know!

Depicting illustrative styles that have long since gone out of fashion, a perusal of Weird & Wonderful provides a step back in time and makes for a wonderful conversation piece- it can find a comfortable place on many a coffee table. It’s difficult to convey strongly enough how unique this collection is– but if you have a children’s literature enthusiast in your life, you’ve just been informed of the best gift for his or her next birthday!

Dawn has a whole lot of weirdness and wonder in her own life, much of which is chronicled on her blog, my thoughts exactly.

Part lifestyle advice, part workbook, and part recipe guide, Eat! Move! Play! is a fabulous comprehensive guide for families trying to be conscious of how they stay healthy in their eating and exercise habits. This book includes information and thought-provoking sections on the contemporary challenges to healthy living. Solid advice and points to consider when making personal decisions are respectfully conveyed, and there are even pages that invite readers to jot down their own questions, ideas, goals and plans. I personally found the emphasis on the importance of talking appropriately about our own bodies and self-images to be meaningful, especially as a mother who in no way resembles a runway model but has three sets of ears always tuned in to any negative word I might say about my body. (Especially when one set of those ears belongs to a little girl– gender identification norms tend to demonstrate that girls incorporate their mother’s personal labels and feelings about body image into their developing ideas about their own bodies.)

The overall focus of the advice provided in this book is geared toward the family as a whole. The ‘do as I say, not as I do’ model is definitely not in play here, and responsibility for playing the part of role model in action and personal decisions about eating and exercise is placed squarely on the parents’ shoulders. Thankfully though, many high-quality and specific examples for healthy living choices are provided from ways to get your whole family active together to a wide variety of recipes to try out.

In fact, almost half of the book consists of easy to prepare, healthy and delicious looking recipes (even to this VERY picky eater, who realizes that she needs to push her own eating boundaries a little bit). Utilizing a wide variety of whole grains, proteins, vegetables and fruits, the recipes span a whole day’s meal and snack categories, and attention is given to making foods appealing to family members of all ages.

I’m happy to recommend Weight Watchers’ Eat! Move! Play! A Parent’s Guide for Raising Healthy, Happy Kids as a useful and informative resource for anyone looking to improve their entire family’s health and lifestyle.

When Dawn’s not trying to convince her children to eat a vegetable other than a baby carrot, she can be found blogging away at my thoughts exactly.