My Book List

FICTION
Picture Books
• Going to Sleep on the Farm, by Wendy Cheyette Lewison (fabulous illustrations)
• Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever, by Richard Scarry
• Rumble in the Jungle, by Giles Andreae
• Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne


Young Readers
• The Little House Series, by Laura Ingles Wilder
• Paddington Bear, by Michael Bond
• The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White


Novels


• All Creatures Great and Small Series, by James Herriot
• Anne of Green Gables Series, by L.M. Montgomery
• The Giver, by Lois Lowry
• The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• Papa’s Wife, by Thyra Ferre Bjorn
• Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie
• Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
• Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright
• Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss

NON-FICTION

Womanhood
• Beautiful in God’s Eyes, by Elizabeth George
• Feminine Appeal, by Carolyn Mahaney (highly recommended)


Marriage
• Each for the Other: Marriage as It's Meant to Be, by Bryan Chapell
• Married for God: Making Your Marriage the Best It Can Be, by Christopher Ash
• Sex and the Supremacy of Christ (This is a compilation of the manuscripts from one of John Piper’s national conferences. It is available as a book or in PDF format on line for free. Also, you can listen to the entire conference free online at DesiringGod.org)
Singleness and Dating
• I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua Harris
• Passion and Purity, by Elisabeth Elliot
• Preparing to be His Helpmeet, by Debi Pearl
• Singled Out for Him, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Parenting
• Don’t Make Me Count to Three!, by Ginger Plowman
• Family Driven Faith, by Voddie Baucham (highly recommended)
• Miserly Moms, Joni McCoy (practical advice for living on one income)
• Raising Godly Tomatoes, by L. Elizabeth Krueger (free book at raisinggodlytomatoes.com, very practical)
• Remodeling the Family, Bernie Shock
• Shepherding a Child’s Heart, by Tedd Tripp
• To Train Up A Child, by Michael Pearl
• Truth and Grace Memory Booklets, ed. Thomas A. Ascol (these booklets take you from 2 yrs.-old thru high school, giving you age appropriate lists of Scripture memory verses, catechisms {the complete Catechism for Boys and Girls, The Shorter Catechism, and the Heidelberg Catechism}, and Scripture reading to accomplish each year.)
• What He Must Be… If He Wants to Marry My Daughter, by Voddie Baucham

Parenting Boys
• Boys Adrift, by Leonard Sax
• Bringing Up Boys, by James Dobson


Wifehood
• Created to Be His Helpmeet, Debi Pearl
• The Excellent Wife, Martha Peace
• Me? Obey Him?, by Elizabeth Rice Handford


Theology
• Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, by Michael Horton
• Knowing God, by J.I. Packer (highly recommended)
• The Pleasures of God, by John Piper (wow)
• Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing the Heart of the Gospel, by Michael Horton and J.I. Packer
• Reign of the Servant Kings, by Joseph Dillow

Health
• The Birth Partner, by Penny Simkin (for planning on coaching a woman thru labor)
• The China Study, by T. Collin Campbell (promoting plant-based diets)
• Gentle Birth Choices, Barbra Harper
• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin (a MUST READ for expecting moms)
• The Nursing Mother’s Companion, by Kathleen Huggins
• Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler
• The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, by Henci Goer
• The Vaccine Book, by Robert Sears

The Church
• 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever
• Stop Dating the Church, by Joshua Harris (highly recommended, easy read)
• What Is a Healthy Church Member?, by Thabiti Anyabwile
• And anything else available at 9Marks.org!!!
Education and Homeschooling
• Better Late than Early: A New Approach to Your Child’s Education, by Raymond Moore (Princeton researchers expose the dangers of early childhood education.
• Books Children Love, by Charlotte Mason
• Home-Style Teaching, by Raymond Moore
• Honey for a Child’s Heart, by Gladys Hunt (Good section on the power of books in children’s lives, and then a great bibliography with some book reviews as well.)

Misc. Christian
• Charismatic Chaos, by John MacArthur
• Christianity In Crisis, by Hank Hanegraaff
• Heaven, by Randy Alcorn (Few books have affected the way I think as much as this one.)
• No Place for Truth and other books by David Wells (Fascinating books. Not light reading, but a cutting analysis of contemporary culture and evangelical churches. Highly recommended for anyone who knows there is a big problem with the shallowness in our churches and wonders what’s missing.)


NON-BOOK RESOURCES
• 9Marks.org (FREE AUDIO INTERVIEWS! I love listening to these. And excellent way to learn without opening a book! But the ministry’s main purpose is to help pastors and churches get back to biblical, Christ-centered Christianity)


• AlbertMohler.com (Cultural commentary, current events)


• DesiringGod.org (John Piper’s ministry website – tons of free sermons, all his books available online for free, great articles)


• MarsHillAudio.org (basically, a Christian version of NPR – “Provides an assessment of contemporary culture from a Christian perspective.”)

Still no baby, but we had a good midwife appointment yesterday. The baby is doing great! He or she was having fun playing with daddy yesterday while Jill was listening to his/her heartbeat - the resting heartrate was about 135, but when Travis would touch it through my belly, it jumped up to 155! That is a great sign that the baby is healthy and responding well.

I'm dilated to 2 cm. and 75% effaced. My body is giving all signs that I'm ready to have this baby. We decided that if the baby isn't born by this Sunday, we'll take measures to naturally induce. My midwife wants to wait until this weekend to be sure I'm at least 41 weeks - estimated due dates are just that - estimated! So we want to be 100% sure we aren't inducing early. Our country has the highest rates of low birth weight babies - could this be because doctors are so eager to induce labor as soon as the due date comes and goes?

She will induce with an herbal medication that stimulates my body to produce its own labor inducing hormones. Labors induced by Pitocin, the induction drug used in hospitals, are gnerally more painful because it causes my stronger and more frequent contractions. This is harder on both mother and baby. This natural form of induction merely jump starts my own hormones, so labor comenses as I normally would.

We just rented a documentary called "The Business of Being Born." It was an excellent presentation of the over-use of hospitals and doctors in birth, yet it fairly presents the need for hospitals in high-risk pregnancies and in emergencies. Unfortunately, it contains strong language, so just be aware of that if you decide to check it out. You'll probably find it at your local library.

Don't Make Me Count to Three! - A Book Review

I found this book extrememly helpful and easy to read. It is based on the philosophy laid out by Tedd Tripp in Shepherding a Child's Heart but is much easier to read and better written over all.

The basic jist is that focusing on a child's outward behavior will not solve the deeper issue of sin in their hearts. It is very possible for a child to behave correctly and inwardly be in rebellion. Christ taught that God is not merely concerned with actions, but with the heart.

For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, He speaks of the well-known command "Do not murder". But He takes it a step further and tells us not only are murderers deserving of judgment, but also those who angry with someone else. Again, He addresses the command "Do not commit adultry", and He raises the bar, saying we are not only to avoid physical unfaithfulness, but also unfaithfulness in the heart in the form of lust (Matt. 5:21 ff).

So with our children, it is not enough to have mere outward obedience. Children are told not only to obey but to honor their parents in Ephesians 6. This entails both the outward action and the inward attitude.

Ginger Plowman gives excellent advice on how to teach our children to examine their hearts and see why they are acting inappropriately. For example, let's look at tattle-taling.

Johnnie tattles on Susie who just took a cookie without asking. Both kids are sinning. So Mom asks Johnnie, "Why are you telling on your sister? Do you want to see her get into trouble? Is that how we treat others?" Johnnie then can see that, yes, he was being hateful, and the issue can be resolved from the heart of the matter.
Otherwise, Mom might just say, "Johnnie, don't be a tattle-tale," and by some miracle, he may not tattle again, but he will never be taught to face his hateful selfishness. Certainly he will want to tattle again, but he was never taught that it is wrong to have this attitude.

Susie's issue is more along the lines of greed and disobedience (assuming she's been told not to get into the cookie jar), and so her problem would be addressed not simply from the fact that she took a cookie, but that it was disobedient and greedy for her to do so.

Correcting children in this way gives opportunity to show them their need for Christ. A child may go through life thinking they are pretty good and not realizing that God's standard is extremely high - higher than they could ever reach. When a child learns that God is displeased with wrong thoughts as much as He is displeased with wrong actions, they will realize how impossible it is for them to live in a way that is totally pleasing to Him. They will see their need for a Mediator, for a Savior. They will see the preciousness of what Christ did for them in providing a way for their sin to be wiped away and for Christ's perfect life to be presented before God on their own behalf.

The author of the book does a much better job at explaining all of this. The book is very well thought out and practical. She emphasises the importance of acknowledging that you are requiring obedience and right attitudes not just because it's convenient (it really takes a lot of work to teach and train kids consistently!) or it's your preference, but because God requires parents to teach their children this way (Eph. 6:4; Prov. 22:6, 15).

Other books and resources on child training I have found helpful:

• Shepherding a Child's Heart, Tedd Tripp
• Withhold Not Correction, Bruce A. Ray
• Under Loving Command: Children-Fun or Frenzy, Pat Fabrizio (a booklet, for a copy contact: books@dime.org)
• Train Up A Child, Michael Pearl
• Raising Teens in the Media Culture: Parts 1, 2, and 3, audio by Albert Mohler (http://www.albertmohler.com/audio_archive.php, listed by date: 1-08-2006, 1-15-2006 and 1-22-2006)
• Child Training, audio by Voddie Baucham (http://defendingcontending.com/2009/02/11/sermon-of-the-week-child-training-by-voddie-baucham/)

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - A Book Review

As many of you know, I love to read. But something I love almost as much is recommending a good book to someone else and finding out that they loved it too! So, I though I would jot down some thoughts about some books I've read recently in the hopes of spreading the news about some good reads.

My first book of choice is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is pregnant, who could become pregnant at any time in the future, or who knows anybody in either of these situations (yes, I realize that that includes pretty much everybody).

So, you may wonder, why I would recommend a book on childbirth to such a wide audience? Well, first of all, I would like to point out that maternity care is not something that only a minority of people need. The majority of women have babies at some point in their life time. Second, there is a crisis in maternity care in the US that most of us are not aware of. For example, the fact that the World Health Organization has long been after the US for its ridiculously high C-section and induction rates (WHO recommends that we get our C-section rates below 15%, yet we are double that. Some doctors in Las Vegas have C-section rates of 65%!).

The US has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. The WHO is aiming for a 3.3 maternal deaths/100,000 live births, and the latest figure I found for the US was 13/100,000. Twenty countries have managed to obtain better outcomes than us.

There has been a 10% increase in preterm deliveries between 2000 and 2006(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/07stat.html). Obstetric textbooks had to add a new term to their vocabulary for doctor-caused prematurity because C-sections and inductions were being performed too early (I'd tell you what the term is, but I already returned the book to my midwife, and I can't find it anywhere on the Internet!).

Interestingly, the country with the best statistics in pregnancy and birth outcomes is the Netherlands where midwives provide all maternity care accept for higher risk pregnancies, which are attended by obstetricians. Also, 1/3 of all births in the Netherlands are homebirths.

I know that is a lot of info, but I just want to get across the idea that our maternal health care is not so great. Ina May Gaskin, the author of the book, has been a midwife since the '70's, and is a very intelligent woman with a wealth of knowledge accumulated from the 1,200+ births she has attended. Her wisdom has been sought by many obstetricians, and in she 2003 she was chosen as Visiting Fellow of Morse College, Yale University. She also is the 1st midwife to have an obstetrical procedure named after her (the Gaskin Maneuver, a highly effective method of handling shoulder dystocia, one of the most dreaded complications in birth). For more info on her go to http://inamay.com/biography.php.

I guess I should say something about the book itself. I found the layout to be friendly even to those who aren't big readers. The first half of the book is a compilation of birth stories written by mothers who had Ina May as a midwife. Brutally honest, refreshing, eye-opening. This is a great help in overcoming the fear of birth that has been so ingrained into our culture (think of the movies - screaming, clawing, rushing to the emergency room - drama, drama, drama!). Real birth isn't like this. These stories help women to realize this and can be a great aid in reducing fear.

The second half of the book addresses particular issues - the connection between the way we think and how our bodies respond, the amazing ability our bodies have to handle labor, the importance of moving around during labor, the different procedures commonly used during labor (which ones work and which ones are more harmful than beneficial), the VBAC controversy.

Gaskin doesn't just throw around her opinions in this book, though many of the techniques she uses to help women progress further and cope in labor are based on what she has found to work by trial and error in her hands-on experience in over 1,000 births. She is a very good writer and knows how to compile research, adding a legitiamcy to her work that is needed if it is to have the desired impact.

Birth doesn't have to be traumatic. It is a rite of passage that women deserve to exprience. Women also need to know the risks involved in interventions commonly used during labor, and they need to know the lack of evidence supporting many standard policies like no food or drink during labor (why are we asking women to perform the most strenuous 15+ hours of hard work in their lives, telling them they can't eat during the entire time, and then expect them to have enough energy at the end to complete the most demanding part of the whole task?!) , continuous fetal monitoring, and intravenous lines (which are needed because we told these women not to eat or drink anything and now they are dehydrated and hypoglycemic). We need to know.

So, again, if you are pregnant, or know someone who is, please mention this book. I realize not everyone will choose to use a midwife or to deliver at home as I have, but every woman needs to know that what is best for her and her baby may not be what she automatically gets from her health care provider. Even with the push for "informed consent" in hospitals, many women aren't being adiquately informed, and if they were, in many cases I believe they would not give consent. These aren't simply issues of personal comfort and preference, but of preventing death and disease in both our mothers and their babies.