Books that Changed my Life...

My whole life, I have gone through spurts of being super into reading books, and then I can go for months without cracking anything but a textbook. Recently, I have been in a novel-reading phase. Not so much as one of my roommates, who sometimes would much rather spend the day with a book than with people, but that's ok.

Aside from liking novels, I have never really been into the Christian novelists who are known to write easy-romance reads for ladies. Until recently. I was in LifeWay a while ago, and picked up a book by Karen Kingsbury, called Even Now. The book caught my attention, and was one of those sweet books that I could (and probably did) lay in bed all day and read huge chunks of at a time. As soon as I finished the book, I found out there was a sequel to it, and I had to get it. I bought it and started reading it soon after. The sequel is called Ever After. It too, caught my attention, but more, it caught my heart, and has given me a new, interesting outlook on something in my life that I have never really given much interest to.

Let me explain. Being my MK-self, I have never really felt very patriotic towards the U.S. In the book Ever After, there is a young soldier, the romantic interest of one of the main characters. I won't ruin the book for anyone who might want to read it (once you have, let's chat!) , but things that happen in the book have made me evaluate my level of loyalty to the country whose passport I hold. Yes, some silly mistakes have been made, many of which have cost lives, but because of this book, I am reminded that there are men and women giving their lives for my freedom, and for my privilege to have citizenship to this nation.

This is where one of my many MK complexes comes in...when I finally declare appreciation for the United States, I suddenly feel disloyal to every country I have ever called home. No, I don't have voting rights in any of them, but I do have an opinion about their politics. No, I probably will never live in either one of those countries again, but as I have said before, my past will always be a part of who I am and affect who I become in the future.

Needless to say, I highly recommend these two books, Even Now and Ever After by Karen Kingsbury. And, I went out and bought two more books by her....yes another session will soon begin!