The Wounded Spirit

Book Review: The Wounded Spirit

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

The Wounded Spirit
by Frank Peretti

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian non-fiction

I bought the book used without a dust jacket, so this was the best I could do for a picture.

Peretti shares with us the difficulty he went through growing up with a medical condition that caused a deformity requiring many surgeries over his first handful of years. Fighting against infections and dealing with the condition left his body unable to develop as it should, and he went through school years smaller than the rest of his classmates. This led to years of persecution by his peers, and Peretti who was left feeling like those in authority had failed him, forcing him into the situation where he was bullied regularly, unable to do much of anything about it.

I read this entire book in one afternoon, and I won’t pretend that it left me feeling happy. I went through a range of emotions while reading, which was mostly pity and sadness, but included elation when Peretti described a turning point for him, which simply took a teacher caring enough to ask if things were okay.

More than just an autobiography about this part of Peretti’s life, he discusses the failure of teachers and other authority figures to keep kids from going through the same type of thing. The mindset that “we all went through it, you can too” or “it’s just part of life” is a big part of what he addresses, saying that it’s not nearly enough reason to turn a blind eye. That kids (and even adults) who are bullied suffer long-term effects that can cause problems in future relationships, and can lead to the bullied later becoming the bully. There have been a lot more anti-bullying programs started in the 20 years since this was written, but it does still happen.

He even puts out a challenge for those who see themselves as the victims to examine their lives for times when they might have been the bully. Even just laughing along when friends or peers are making fun of someone makes us guilty. It’s a hard thing to think about, but it really made a difference for me.

This book gave me a whole new insight into and appreciation for my favorite author and his lovable nature, joviality, brilliance, insight, and heart for God. It also puts my own life into perspective. I recommend this book for…everyone, really.

Find out more about The Wounded Spirit

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Top Ten Tuesday: My Spring TBR

/ Kristi / 13 Comments

It’s time for another Top Ten list from That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is my spring TBR. I don’t choose books based on the season (except at Christmas time), but I do keep a short list of the next 5-10 books I want to read out of the longer TBR. In the 3 months since posting my winter TBR, the way that I choose my next few books has become more structured. I didn’t want to leave any books on the list too long, or leave a series sitting too long before going on to the next book. And I’m not a mood reader. So I decided that whenever my short list gets down to 5 books, I’d add 5 more to it based on specific criteria. Each addition of 5 will include:

1 book recommended to me by family/close friends OR a book that was self-published
1 book I own
1 book to continue a series
1 book that’s oldest on my full TBR list
1 book that’s an ARC, if needed (and it always is)

Based on past experience, the below list of my next 10 planned books should be approximately half of what I read during spring. (I don’t think the social distancing will affect how much I read by a lot, since I tend to stay home a lot anyway, and I already work from home, so don’t see a lot of extra time to read in my future. Note: I’m not complaining.) The actual order in which I read these will probably change as I go (plus more will probably be added in amongst some of these):

1. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun
I read a bit of the Cat Who… series when I was a teenager and really liked them. Straight mystery was my favorite genre back then, but I’ve barely read any since coming back to reading. I’ve picked up 1/3 of the 29 books in the series over the years, from garage sales and bargain bins. It’s finally time to get back to my mystery roots, start at #1 (which I own), and go through the whole series.

2. The House at the End of the Moor by Michelle Griep
This is a Netgalley ARC. I read my first Michelle Griep book back at Christmas time and really liked it, so I’m looking forward to reading a non-holiday book of hers.

3. Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
When I first started to get back into reading seriously, before I built my TBR list up to even what it is now, I found this book at Half Price Books and decided to buy it, with no knowledge of it whatsoever. So this book is currently the oldest one on my TBR list.

4. The Outcast by Taran Matharu
This book qualifies as one that continues a series. It’s technically a prequel to a trilogy, but I’ve read the trilogy and don’t feel like it’s complete until I read this. So not only will this book continue a series, it will actually end a series for me, and let’s be honest–how often do we actually finish series we start?

5. The Treasure Map by Tyler Scott Hess
This self-published novelette is apparently a Christmas book, but I probably won’t have Kindle Unlimited for much longer, so I want to read it while I can do so with that service.

6. The Dandelion Killer by Wanda Luttrell
I’ve had this book since probably not long after it came out (2003) and read it a couple of times back then. Along with the criteria mentioned above, I also want to re-read at least 1 book a month, because I do have a lot of books I haven’t read in years that I want to read again and write reviews for and will ignore them if I’m not intentional about it.

7. Star of Persia by Jill Eileen Smith
This is also a Netgalley ARC, the story of Esther, who saved her people from extermination in Persia in around 486 BC. I’m pretty excited to read it.

8. Storm by Evan Angler
This is book #3 in the Swipe series. I wasn’t terribly excited with the series at first, but it really picked up with book #2, so I’m anxious to see what happens next.

9. The Wounded Spirit by Frank E. Peretti
I’ve had this book for a long time, but haven’t read it yet, even though it’s written by my favorite author. That’s probably just because it’s non-fiction, which I’m not usually very interested in. But I do plan to read it soon, checking off another book that’s been on my TBR for a while.

10. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
I’ve enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables series so far, and I’m looking forward to continuing with book #3.

Have you read any of these? What do you plan to read over the next few months?