Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner?

It’s been said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.” The pressure of that can be staggering as we spend our days looking for that big thing that promises to take our breath away. Meanwhile, we lose sight of the small significance of fully living with every breath we take.

Melanie Shankle takes a look at this in her latest book, Church of the Small Things. This is the second book by Shankle I have read. I enjoy her humorous writing style and real life, down to earth stories. This book was a collection of stories that was a great reminder that the small, mundane things of life are just as important as the things that often see much more attention. I especially liked her opening chapter where she looked at the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and wondering about the mom who packed that lunch for the boy. You never know what your everyday moments of life could be used for.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley.

ENTERTAINING & THOUGHT PROVOKING!

Melanie Shankle's Church of the Small Things: The Million Little Pieces That Make Up a Life is highly entertaining. It is also filled with many thought provoking statements that make you stop and reread them and just think on them for a few moments before you move on to her next anecdote. Shankle has lived a rich, full life. Please understand I don't mean her life has been full ease and without problems. In the midst of everyday normalcy, she has learned to live a life full of love of family, deep, lasting friendships, fabulous fun times with family and friends, how to share her life globally and to be comfortable in her growing relationship with the Lord. Shankle never shies away from her personal struggles and allows you to laugh with her as she goes through life. This book is wonderfully encouraging in its message to avoid making the mistake of missing out on the wonder and miracles of the small things right before our eyes in our quest for the biggest and brightest things that loom just out of our grasp. I think this quote best describes Shankle's message: "We are in God’s will when we wake up with a willingness to go wherever he leads that day, to seek him in the ordinary, and to love and influence the people around us." I was provided an ARC of this book by NetGalley & Zondervan. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This isn't my first book of Melanie Shankle's. I read her first three when they released. But Church of Small Things is somewhat more different than the first three. It's still funny, with a clear Melanie Shankle voice, but it approached a more serious plethora of topics. She writers about family, parents and grandparents, her sister, her husband and daughter, about friends, church and community. If you are familiar with her other books you may have read about all these before. Not to mention, if you know her blog, most certainly you will feel like you already know about the people she writes about. Some chapters read more like a blog entry, without the serious-toned or meaning-filled ending. Readers and non-readers of the blog will like it nonetheless. Other chapters are more serious, without the extra-funny parts, and I enjoyed those the most. It's like reading the saga of a Southern family.

I like how she approaches every chapter. She may start from a random idea, but the story is deeper and has meat to it, and you read it feeling like she's telling this personal anecdote and life lesson to a small group of friends, you among them. Melanie is good at telling stories that hold your attention, but without thinking too highly of herself. She is down-to-earth and easy to relate to, despite the decades and countries that maybe separate her from her readers.

I don't usually skip parts in any of the books I read, but this time I did. I just skipped the chapter about her dogs. I don't read the blog entries about the dogs, nor the shenanigans they too often find themselves in, nor do I care about the haikus one of the dogs is compelled to write too often after every event of its life. Those dogs are neurotic and they stress me out. I also regret reading the chapter about her wide selection of pets over the years. Maybe not wide in your opinion, but 3-5 too many in my opinion.

All in all, I sure had a good time reading her memoir. Of all her books so far, this had the most memoir-like feel to it, and the one I enjoyed the most. About her third book I said it was better than the first two; this time I must say that her fourth book is better than her first three. Having followed her writing over the years, I can tell she has become more comfortable in her writing. Now I cannot wait to read her next one.

My only regret is that the advanced e-book copy I received did not have the Foreword by Ree Drummond.

Melanie Shankle is one of my favorite bloggers to read and I have always enjoyed her books as well. I appreciate the wit and humor that she adds to each small story, but especially appreciated this book and the emphasis on how the small things really matter in life. Each of the stories and bible verse references were so appropriate for a wide audience that I think a lot of people will really enjoy this book.

I love me some Melanie! At the least, she's a friend in my head. At the most, she's my spirit animal. Melanie writes about the small, every day minutiae that make up a life.

I have been a fan of Melanie Shankle and her writing since her first book was published several years ago. Melanie has a great sense of humor and she is an excellent storyteller. These facts make her books a joy to read. One of the things I appreciate about her writing is that she focuses on a specific theme in each of her books - marriage, for example, or friendship. In Church of the Small Things, Melanie's words and her stories remind us that many times, it is not the big things in life that are the most important, but the myriad of small things that are done on a daily basis. Even though these things can feel mundane and ordinary in the moment, Melanie makes the point that they are more important than we think they are; many times, these small things have eternal ramifications. I believe this is an important message right now because so much of our culture is focused on things like whether or not you have a platform and how many followers you have on social media, Instead, Melanie urges us not to look past the small things - making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our kids, pausing for coffee with a friend, curling up with a good book at night. I love and appreciate this timely message.

I just re-read my review, and I realized that I refer to the author as "Melanie", instead of using her first and last name, as I usually do when I write a review. That is a testament to the author and her writing style: she makes me feel as though we are friends in real life!

I recommend this book to any reader who loves to read funny and relatable stories that are well-written and poignant. I would have loved to have this book a few years ago when I was knee-deep in stay-at-home motherhood; it would have been a huge encouragement to me that the work I was doing then mattered. I will definitely be purchasing this book for my younger mom friends to encourage them.

Pick up this book! Seriously, I felt like I was spending time with a good friend listening (or reading) her stories about everyday life. The simple acts, she calls them, of life are actually significant. I love reading a book where the author doesn't try to sugar coat things, and Melanie certainly doesn't sugar coat things. I felt like I could really relate to everything in the Small Things I Wish I'd Known in High School chapter since I am approximately, if not, the same age as Melanie. One of the small things is "Tucking your jeans into your socks just makes you look like an ice cream cone. An ice cream cone with a big, crispy perm on top." Oh good grief, I think I have photos of myself impersonating an ice cream cone!

There are so many funny things in this book. If you don't laugh reading the Bangs, Bangs You're Dead chapter then you might need to check your pulse!

What is great about this book is that every woman will be able to relate to something. Church of the Small Things is written like a memoir, and Melanie shares memories from childhood to present day. There are memories with her grandparents, sister, dogs, friends and family. This is why I feel like every woman will be able to relate to this book in some form or fashion.

The small things sometimes turn out to be bigger than we thought, and they are significant. You'll find this lovely, reflective, funny memoir hard to finish. Why? Because it is so lovely you won't want it to end. After reading this I have determined to pay attention to the small things a little more. I hope you will get this book, read it, and learn to look for the small things too.

Church of the Small Things: The Million Little Pieces That Make Up a Life is available for pre-order at Amazon, ChristianBook.com, Barnes&Noble, etc.

The author doesn’t disappoint with her quick wit and excellent sense of humor. There were definitely some laugh out loud moments. Melanie Shankle has an easy, conversational style that’s very appealing to her readers. For me, the book’s structure was odd. It felt like several blog posts randomly strung together. While I appreciate her efforts to delve into deeper topics and express her Christian worldview (which I fully support and agree with), the observations were rather trite and overshadowed by the more shallow anecdotes, such as those regarding her family pets. The book description states, “she speaks directly to the heart of women of all ages who are longing to find significance and meaning in the normal, sometimes mundane world of driving carpool to soccer practice, attending class on their college campus, cooking meals for their family, or taking care of a sick loved one.”
I kept waiting for the part that delivers what was promised in the above book description, and she never quite gets there for me. I guess by the fourth book from this author, I expected something more substantive.

In "Church of Small Things" is a fun memoir that shows it's really the small things in life that mean the most. Covering memories of her grandparents, sister, dogs, friends, and family, this is a sweet book showing that life is truly lived in the small everyday moments.

I received a copy of this via NetGalley.

Out of all the books I read this week (and I usually read ten or more each week), this was definitely my favorite! I laughed out loud so many times with the narrator....it was like we were girlfriends catching up over some coffee. She keeps it very real, but any woman of a certain age (which would be 'oh so still very young!") will be able to relate to all of these stories, beginning with her youth and progressing through the stages of parenthood. I look forward to seeing what she comes out with next, and may have just found my new go-to inspirational author!