Life seems to set a new tempo during the summer months. The usual rushed Sunday that includes getting out the door for church, running all the errands and doing all the laundry…it all of a sudden doesn’t seem as urgent. That picnic at the park that was scheduled for one hour turns into three gloriously lazy hours. The laundry doesn’t urge us to attend to it – after all, we’re the boss of our laundry! The laundry can wait for us.

There is only one summer of 2016 and we are intentionally living so bold and bright in it. We are grieving for the recent tragedies in our world, we are letting the kids stay up a little later to catch the fireflies, we are going to call that friend and let them know we care, we are going to laugh a little deeper and smile a little longer, Lord knows we are going to lick the batter off the spoon ourselves!

And we are most certainly making time for all those books we’ve wanted to read.

So to usher us into this season, a reading list!

Three Books to Inspire Action:

  • Small Matters: How Churches and Parents Can Raise Up World-Changing Children by President and CEO of Compassion, Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado
  • The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance by Bethany Hanke Hoang and Kristen Deede Johnson
  • The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence by Gary A. Haugen

Three Books on Faith & Hope:

  • Unashamed: Drop the Baggage, Pick Up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny by Christine Cane
  • Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love by Katherine and Jay Wolf
  • Rooted: The Hidden Places Where God Develops You by Banning Liebscher

Three Books from our Compassion Bloggers!

  • Giddy Up Eunice: Because Women Need Each Other by Sophie Hudson
  • Like a River from Its Course by Kelli Stuart
  • Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind and Soul by Ruth Soukup

(Please know that any opinons reflected in these books are not necessarily the opinions of Compassion.)

If you’re looking to really go outside the box and read long, long novels check out this list on Modern Mrs. Darcy. Some really fun finds!

Lastly, two of our bloggers wrote posts about their own books for summer. So check these out:

Library posted on Perfect Lucky
My Three Favorite Recent Reads posted on KatieAxelson.com

Here’s to being intentional this summer and here’s to reading all the books!