Book Bouquet

Dear Readers, 

This week's blog post is a special one for all you book enthusiasts! I recently came across a unique Mother’s Day gift idea on Pinterest that I couldn't resist sharing with you: a book bouquet! I ran with this gift idea and made a book bouquet for my mom for Mother’s Day. It was super easy and can be entirely customized. 

I had a blast making this bouquet for my mom! This is how my version turned out: 

I made this bouquet with 3 books and artificial florals. You could easily make a bouquet or basket with books, chocolates, coffee/tea, a candle, book accessories, gift cards, and so much more! A friend gifted me a custom library stamp for my book collection. It’s embossed with my name, and I add the stamp to the front pages of my books. Matching a gift to a person’s unique personality makes shopping all the more fun! That’s what I love about curating gift ideas like these. 

Reading books is my stress relief, and I appreciate how they help us learn and evolve. When I read a book that sparks my imagination, and I can’t stop thinking about it, I feel compelled to share it with others. If you need a few book recommendations for lounging by the pool this Summer, I have you covered! In the list below, I also included a short summary about each book. 

10 Books You Should Read this Summer: 

Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis Majors 

This is not your average missionary book! It is a sincere wake-up call for each of us to listen and discern how the Lord is calling us to be missionaries in our everyday lives. What God-given talents have you been gifted and how should you use them more fully in your day-to-day life? If you pick up Katie’s deeply moving book, you are guaranteed to be stunned, laugh, and cry! 

What would cause an eighteen-year-old senior class president and homecoming queen from Nashville, Tennessee, to disobey and disappoint her parents by forgoing college, break her little brother’s heart, lose all but a handful of her friends (because the rest of them think she has gone off the deep end), and break up with the love of her life, all so she could move to Uganda, where she knew only one person but didn’t know any of the language? A passion to make a difference. 

By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride by Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand

Because of human imperfections, difficulties crop up in marriage, even between people who love each other deeply. You'll soon find that for this reason, although love is a gift, it must also be learned. So begins this remarkable book of letters to Julie, a young bride letters that reveal the beauty and importance of high ideals in marriage while teaching you practical tips to help you live up to those ideals daily. You'll learn how to grow in wisdom and in love as you encounter the unglamorous, everyday problems that threaten all marriages.

The Women by Kristin Hannah

An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson 

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky. Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.

The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar 

A stunning story about the Women Airforce Service Pilots whose courage during World War II turned ordinary women into extraordinary heroes. Audrey Coltrane has always wanted to fly. It's why she implored her father to teach her at the little airfield back home in Texas. It's why she signed up to train military pilots in Hawaii when the war in Europe began. And it's why she insists she is not interested in any dream-derailing romantic involvements, even with the disarming Lieutenant James Hart, who fast becomes a friend as treasured as the women she flies with. Then one fateful day, she gets caught in the air over Pearl Harbor just as the bombs begin to fall, and suddenly, nowhere feels safe.

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan 

In a country village near London, during WWII, Grace Carlisle's vicar father finds her late mother's wedding dress and presents it to her for her own wedding. The once beautiful dress is moth eaten and in tatters so the local sewing club, doing everything for the war effort to provide clothing for soldiers and citizens, get to work repairing the dress with donated cloth. Doing so leads the women to create a wedding dress lending service, allowing women to get married in borrowed wedding dresses that can then go on to the next woman.

Holiness for Housewives by Hubert Van Zellar 

This unique spiritual guide will help you grow holier and more prayerful as you perform the most menial household chores -- not in spite of those chores, but in the midst of them. Written especially for women in charge of households, Holiness for Housewives will help you better understand and respect your vocation as a housewife -- and discover in it your own God-given path to sanctity

The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter 

A fast-paced, hilarious road trip rom-com about a woman with amnesia who discovers she's the identical twin sister of a rogue spy... and must team up with a rugged, grumpy operative to stay alive. It's the middle of the night in the middle of Paris and a woman just woke up with no memory. She only knows three things for certain:

1. She has a splitting headache.

2. The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run.

And oh yeah...

3. People keep trying to kill her.

She doesn't know who. Or why. But when she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men there's only one explanation: obviously. . . she's a spy! Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she's not. She's a spy's identical twin sister.

The Pairs Orphan by Natasha Lester

New York City/Paris, 1942: When American model Jessica May arrives in Europe to cover the war as a photojournalist for Vogue, most of the soldiers are determined to make her life as difficult as possible. But three friendships change that. Journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules. Captain Dan Hallworth keeps her safe in dangerous places so she can capture the stories that truly matter. And most important of all, the love of a little orphan named Victorine gives Jess strength to do the impossible. But her success will come at a price…

If you take me up on any of these book recommendations - let me know if you enjoy them! And if you ever want to discuss books - just let me know; I am all ears! 

Lady K’s One Thing: 

Candle holders seem to be all the rage right now! I utilized some old Tequila bottles and stuck candlesticks in the neck of the bottle. Voila! Perfect table decoration for Cinco De Mayo! A fun little way to upcycle old bottles and make something unique.

Have a great week, and thanks for following along! 

Yours Truly,