My TOP Book Picks–and the best books for gifts!

The Best Books for Gifts and Why I Love Them!

Last month when I was trying to wrap my brain around Christmas shopping, I was looking through our bookshelf for some of our favorites to give as gifts for kids.  I was reminded of HOW special some of these books are–many of my most wonderful moments as a Mom were when we'd snuggle up and read together, and I hope and pray that all of the sweet messages have settled deep into their hearts.

So I thought I'd share some of my favorite kids' books, and while I'm at it, I'll also show you my other top picks.  

Scroll down to find these below…

• My two books
• Books for the real foodie
• Inspirational books
• Great books for kids
• Business books
• Books I keep referring back to
• Read aloud books we used when we were homeschooling:
• What I love reading just for fun/my author friends' fiction books:

(If you buy any of the below, I'm super grateful if you go through these links as it helps to pay the bills around here, and there are always plenty, especially the way I have a knack for breaking stuff!  Prices are the same for you no matter how you click over.)

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Asking for a friend… Have you gotten these books yet?   🙂

• Real Food for Rookies:

Do you have a friend or family member who doesn't understand your real foodie ways?  Or thinks you are following some kind of fad diet?  Then you need to get them a copy of my book!  I'll teach them that eating real food isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle, and it is really nothing more than mostly eating foods with no label or just one ingredient.  By ditching boxed and bagged food, and returning to our ancestor's roots of clean, wholesome eating, we can find our way back to radiant health.  I will walk them through the conversion step-by-step with helpful tips, buy-this-not-that shopping advice and recipes. Your loved one will be a real foodie by the time they finish my book.  CLICK HERE to get it.

• And here's my newest book, this one for kids:  Real Food for Happy Kids!

It's a fun rhyming book to teach kids about eating healthy, don't miss the activity pages at the back!  🙂 CLICK HERE to get it.

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Books for the Real Foodie:

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking:  Real foodies love Julia Child.  I'll bet if she were still alive today she'd appreciate the message of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  She put butter on everything, which makes her my hero!  Even if you never become adventurous enough to embark on one of her three page recipes, any real foodie will enjoy just reading through her recipes and wisdom.  Did you see my post on attempting my first Julia Child recipe making Cream of Mushroom soup?  Yummm.  Don't miss seeing some of my favorite quotes from Julia in this post.  CLICK HERE to get Julia's cookbooks.
  
• The Wellness Mama Cookbook:
  
  

My friend Katie's cookbook is a must have for those who have eliminated grains from their diet.  Her book has 150 of her most popular real-food, grain-free, dairy-optional recipes that provide simple and delicious meal ideas for busy nights.  CLICK HERE to get it.

• Another great friend, Sarah Pope, wrote Get Your Fats Straight–she's always clear and to the point, I love her style!

• Nourishing Traditions:No real foodie's kitchen -whether seasoned or a novice- is complete without this cookbook.  Packed with information of Dr. Weston A Price's research, helpful health tips, and delicious recipes, it is bound to become the cookbook your favorite cook will refer to often, just as I still do after all these years.  CLICK HERE to get it.

 

• Nourishing Broth  (See my review here:  What’s Wrong with My Stock?! Answers to Questions about Nourishing Bone Broth and Gelatin Benefits: New Book by Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla Daniel.)
• The Einkorn Cookbook — This one stays on my kitchen shelf and every recipe I've tried turns out wonderful.  I just love using this ancient grain for baking or when I'm making sauces.  Read my original post about this book:  Could THIS be the reason for the gluten sensitivity epidemic?! 

• Nutrition and Physical Degeneration — this book is a great one to give you a detailed and well-rounded view of how nutrition really does affect health!  (In case you weren't already convinced.)  I read this early on after my “food conversion“.

• Nourished Beginnings — Baby Food — this is now THE book I buy for new Moms or soon-to-be-Moms.

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Inspirational Books

• Praying the Bible for Your Children — mine has been well “loved” over the years, left out in the rain, etc.  I date each page as I pray that day for our kids.

• The Better Part–this takes you deeper into the daily scripture readings.

• Christian Classics in Modern English

• Woodlawn: I have been wanting to read this book since I saw the movie, which I LOVED! Or get the movie here, I don't even like football and it's my FAVORITE.
  
• This is a great gift to give to anyone:  Jesus Calling, Enjoying Peace in His Presence:

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Great books for kids:

• God Gave us Heaven — perfect for snuggling up and talking about what Jesus did for us:

• Adam, Adam, What Do You See? — A cute rhyming book that teaches some basic bible stories:

• Jesus and the 12 Dudes Who Did — another cute/silly look at a few bible stories, kids love this book:

• The Princess and the Kiss — a beautiful way to teach your daughter about purity (there's another one for sons):

• God Gave Us You — a special book to give new babies. This book answers the question, “Where did I come from?”  What a beautiful message for your little ones to read, or be read to, before prayers each night, it has been one of our favorites since the kids were tiny.  CLICK HERE to get it.

• Secretly Do Good Deeds–probably my favorite kids' book of all.  It not only teaches how FUN it is to do kind things for others, but it also teaches humility.  Because don't we all want everyone to know about the kind things we do?  This helps kids understand how much more powerful it is to do good things that only God knows about.  This is fun to read, too, because it's a rhyming book:

• If Only I Had A Green Nose — this teaches kids how crazy it is to follow the crowd, since “the crowd” constantly changes what they say is “cool” anyway:

• You Are Special — another beautiful lesson on how God made us each unique and He truly loves us just as we are:

• The Weight of a Mass — this book helps me not take the Mass for granted, and to remember its power:

• Firefighter Ted — this one is just funny, I love books that make me laugh.  And especially if you have a little dude who loves firefighters like we did, he'll love this one:

• The Wolf Who Cried Boy — another one that will make you laugh, hard.  🙂  Plus it teaches that age-old lesson about lying:

• Small Acts of Kindness — another neat one that teaches how special and far-reaching it can be to do something sweet for another:

• You Are Mine–this one teaches about the craziness of living in the rat race of life when making more money to get more stuff becomes all-consuming.  A good lesson in contentment to teach kids early:

• We have a new great nephew due soon too!  We're getting him this Little Lamb Bible:

• Gingerbread Baby:  The happy ending of this book, and the surprise on the last page, make the Gingerbread Baby a great book for holiday reading time with kids 3 to 8.  It will become one of your children's favorites.

More favorites but I ran out of time to snag a picture.  🙂

• Don't Worry About Tomorrow — a good lesson on worrying!  This is another one that's fun to read because it's a rhyming book.
• Love Your Neighbor — another sweet book teaching about loving others, especially those who don't have anyone, or those who aren't always likable.  Also a rhyming book.
• Just the WayYou Are — this one teaches that we don't need to impress God, sometimes He just wants us to sit with Him.

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Business books:

• Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches
• Any other suggestions?

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Books I keep for referring back to:

• Prescription for Nutritional Healing — I love this reference book for those who want to treat health issues naturally anytime we can.  Need more help with holistic or homeopathic healing?

• Joette's book, she's the expert:  Cure Yourself and Your Family with Homeopathy.

• Essential Oil Safety — this one is pricy but worth it to have on hand!

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Read aloud books we used when we were homeschooling:

• First, you have to get this book, the Read Aloud Handbook.  It'll reignite your fire for reading aloud to your kids and it also has a huge list of suggestions to keep coming back to when you need more ideas.

• We looooooved the Cheaper by the Dozen book and the follow up:  Belles on Their Toes.  They are really cute and will make you laugh for sure.

• We also read Life Behind the Wall — this one is fictional but there is a lot of WWII history woven in and the kids never want me to stop, which I loved of course.

• The Bronze Bow and everything by this author is SO GOOD.

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What I love reading just for fun/my author friends' fiction books:

• Find all of the books by one of my favorite Christian authors and friend, Hallee Bridgeman, here.  I don't know how she keeps cranking out all those amazing stories that are loaded with details and twists and turns that keep me guessing, but they're SO nice for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.  (I can't put them down once I begin, so I wait until I have a relatively free day before I open it.)

• Another favorite Christian author is my reader friend Jennifer Crosswhite!

 

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More you might like:

• Here are my top picks for kitchen gadgets–-these will help you get more done, shorten your time in the kitchen, and generally make things easier!

• Here's my whole gift-giving guide with tons of ideas!

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Happy Shopping!

NOTE that these are affiliate links, so if you click through them and buy something I'll get a small piece of Amazon's huge pie, and I'm grateful for your help at keeping this site going.  (This month I'm paying out another $500 on backend costs…ugh.)