This is a timely message. We don't need to look far to see how we can make this world a better place. Just start by loving through simple acts of kindness to those closest to us - our neighbors! Alexandra shares 7 practical practices that will guide us to show love to those around us. Sometimes we make it harder than it should be.

I absolutely love Alexandra Kuykendall's books. They're very personal and engaging, but they also make you think. This one makes you consider the actual relationships with the people around you. In this current time of pandemic restrictions, where digital connections are significant and important, there are nonetheless still real opportunities to get to know, or strengthen relationships with, those close to you, even if that is - as in my case - by having a chat with a neighbour from my home office window!
This is not an 'informational' or 'tell you what to do' book, but rather a book which is an insight into the author's own 'connections' path and which encourages you to think about how you are building relationships around you.
Highly recommended, especially at present (I live alone and I'm currently locked down in England as I write this.).

Oh I had such great high hopes for this book. I loved her Christmas book and was so excited to be on her advanced read team!

This just kinda fell flat for me. It's not written in the same style as her Christmas book, which I think is a lot of the problem. She had a lot of great stories, but they were so detailed, almost too detailed to hold my interest for long. Also the chapters were so long and had a lot of information in them.

The good is that I found a lot of her ideas to be really great and helpful in trying to create a relationship with my neighbors. I also loved the last part of the book with all the lists and suggestions for different aspects of your life.

So I definitely think people should read this, but know it will probably be slow and take time.

Alexandra always writes in a way that shows that she has what I can only describe as a multicultural approach to life. Although this book is written from her own American Christian worldview, this book reflects an array of experiences she and her family have had with other cultures, including in their own diverse neighborhood. As she discusses each of the 7 steps for loving your actual neighbor, there's always an appreciation and respect for the different backgrounds that her neighbors come from. Her other book Loving My Actual Life has a similar tone and style, although it talks about a challenge she did to better appreciate her overall life. If you have read that one you would certainly enjoy this one, and if you start with this one then Loving My Actual Life should be next on your list.

Amazing! From the beginning, this book brought me to tears. What an important and relevant book for this day and age!! I couldn`t recommend it enough.

As an introvert, I often just walk past or even avoid the people on the outskirts of my everyday life. I don’t have much mental/emotional/social energy to spare on a typical day. And that’s fine, for the most part, but sometimes I know I need to rethink my attitude of energy conservation and just engage with the people around me. A short conversation in the driveway, choosing to say hello to the same cashier at the grocery store every time, and being willing to jump into a heart-first conversation might mean more to the people I’m around than I might realize. It’s harder to pause, invite others in, open up my life, and see the people around me a little more, but sometimes it’s wise, kind, necessary, and right.

This book, Loving My Actual Neighbor by Alexandra Kuykendall is full of interesting stories, practical tips, and Kuykendall’s heart for being present with those on the outside of our everyday circle of people. Her seven practices for treasuring the people right in front of you include: holding a posture of humility, asking questions to learn, being quiet to listen, standing in the awkward, accepting what is, lightening up, and giving freely. Her stories are vibrant, her advice is wise and generous, and I really appreciated her emphasis on how we are not the standard behavior, judge of theirs, or perfecter of ours. In all our efforts to be neighborly, God has the last effect and all control.

“When I remember everyone’s proper place in this world, I can step out in humility. It is not thinking less of myself but recognizing I am not the center of creation. I am not in charge. I am not the standard by which the rest of the world should live. God has those responsibilities covered. And when I remember that my neighbor is also made in God’s image and has equal access to his grace, I can avoid acting as either rescuer or expert in how they are to live. There is freedom in offering love brother to brother, sister to sister, knowing we are on equal footing under God’s overarching authority.”

Kuykendall, Location 338
This book is a lovely topic-sister to Invited by Leslie Verner, Finding Holy in the Suburbs by Ashley Hales, and The Ministry of Ordinary Places by Shannon Martin.

Not her usual style of writing but very inspiring. Gives lots of advice on how to a better people person.

The book and the author’s intention is quite simple: how do we go about loving, actually actively, purposefully, intentionally, loving our neighbors?

After a brief statement of who are neighbors are without going into a full biblical theology of ‘neighbor’, the book more or less dives straight in. I guess in a sense I was looking for, almost expecting a robust-bashed-out theological study of the who-whats-wheres-whys of neighborliness and neighboring. However, really, we all know deep down that yes it is those right under our noses, the right-next-door neighbor, the across-the-street neighbor, and yes the really awkward i’d-rather-not-get-too-personal-with-them type of neighbor.

Kuykendall sets out the book, taking as her framework a text from 2 Peter which I am not quite convinced is the correct use of the text, however all the same she uses it as her framework.

Kuykendall does present readers with a helpful resource – I don’t want to say self-help type book because that’s not what it is – but perhaps more a guide to how to actually interact in meaningful ways with our neighbors, even just to be good neighbors. I have no problem with this because after-all we do have neighbors and God calls us to love them.

Whilst the book was definitely different from what I anticipated, nonetheless this was a good read and helpful in stimulating how we can engage our neighbors in meaningful ways; how to ask questions, how to be involved in their life; how to interact in the day-to-dayness of life.

It would be no bad thing if folks read the book and it caused them to take a step back and evaluate their interaction with their neighbor.

I received a free copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review. I was not obliged to give a positive review of the book.

I was given this book by NetGalley. The opinions listed are my own. Good Book! I will recommend it to our library readers.

In Loving My Actual Neighbor, Alexandra Kuykendall shares 7 practices (stemming from 2 Peter 1) that are approachable and practical. Although a good portion of the book felt incredibly simplistic and obvious (example: one practice is to listen, while another is to be generous), it was still a good reminder and something that anyone could use and be encouraged by. This was my first experience reading Kuykendall and I'm interested in reading something else that's a little less general practices and more story-based.

I read Alexandria Kuykendall's earlier book, Loving My Actual Life, and enjoyed it, so I was excited to read this new release. I found I enjoyed this one even more. I found the seven practices for loving our neighbors both practical and grounded in the Biblical commandments. I especially appreciated the way she lead the practices with "having a posture of humility,” which is so antithetical to how many Christians approach loving their neighbors and caring for those who are different from them. The stories she shares are excellent, engaging and in many ways inspiring.

In the book Loving My Actual Neighbor, author Alexandra Kuykendall writes about loving our neighbors in a world that has become disconnected from each other. Kuykendall writes: “I will be using the term neighbor to refer to those who are near enough to see, touch, smell, and hear in person, because these relationships offer some unique dynamics. There is something about being in someone’s physical presence that is different from seeing them on a screen or reading about them.”
This was a great practical book with common sense ideas. I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you are looking for a practical, Scriptural devotional for your private study time, this is it. If you are looking for a practical, Scriptural study for your small group, this is it. (This book is geared more for women, and possibly couples.) The morning that I finished this book, I knew that I would begin rereading it the following morning. There was just too many great ideas to take in on the first read through.

Kuykendall's words are both encouraging and convicting. She describes circumstances which I now see as loving my neighbor that I would not have thought of in that way because they occur naturally without great effort or sacrifice. She also describes circumstances that challenge and motivate me to be more intentional. While Kuykendall's life as a young mother in an urban neighborhood is much different from mine as a retired grandmother in a small town, her content relates well in both situations, and is easily generalized to many more.

I am grateful to have received a copy of Loving My Actual Neighbor from Baker Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I was under no obligation to provide a positive review and received no monetary compensation.

Who is my neighbor? This question was asked of Jesus and He answered it with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Thousands of years later, , Mrs. Kuykendall shows us that this parable is still applicable. As a stay at home mom and homeschooler, life easily revolves around family and yet, my family can often be on the receiving end of some not so neighborly words and behavior from me.
This book was so encouraging! The 7 principles laid out were not new (be humble, ask questions, listen, lighten up, etc.) but we’re wonderful reminders filled with humorous anecdotes to drive the point home! Before wanting to serve, be kind to, and love on those outside our homes, let’s be sure that our closest neighbors are well loved and cared for!

I especially appreciated the additional content at the end of the book “additional ways to practice the practices” and “ten ways to connect with families throughout the year.”

*I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Author Alexandra Kuykendall asks a seemingly simple question in her fourth book, Loving My Actual Neighbor: how, exactly, do we love our neighbor? It seems simple, but in an increasingly isolated and online world, it is anything but.

When Jesus named the second greatest commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38), the common interpretation is that He wasn’t talking about just our literal neighbors, but every person who is in some way in close proximity to us: our family, friends, co-workers, community members, and, yes, our literal neighbors. Kuykendall takes this commandment to heart and emphasizes geographical neighbors, examining what loving our actual neighbor means in the context of our own lives and offering practical tips on where to get started.

I especially loved chapter 4, “Standing in the Awkward,” which acknowledges the elephant in the room that sometimes talking to people you don’t usually talk to is going to be awkward and weird. This awkwardness often stems from fear, fear that we won’t be accepted, that we’ll put ourselves out on a limb and end up falling on our faces. It’s an idea Kuykendall acknowledges even in the introduction, and that is woven throughout:

“Despite these self-focused hang-ups, I know it’s not all about me. That’s the idea behind loving our neighbors, right? That we move past our agenda, comfort, and convenience and toward love.”

The end of the book includes a section on some very practical ways to actually start loving our neighbors, including “Ten Ways to Connect with Families Throughout the Year,” “Ten Ways to Love Your Homebound Neighbors,” and “Ten Reasons to Have a Block (or Street or Building) Party.”

If I had one complaint about the book, it was that it was too short! I wanted to read more. Kuykendall’s writing style is very engaging, and I would have loved to see her go a little more in depth with some of her ideas. But, this was, after all, supposed to be a practical guide to loving our neighbor, so maybe was not the place for a theological treatise.

This book challenged me to examine the human connections in my own life in the context of Jesus’ love, which is what it set out to do and what I was hoping for when I began reading.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Loving My Actual Neighbor by Alexandra Kuykendall is out April 2.

I received this book as an ARC from Baker Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

There are a lot of members of our community that are in high demand of new Christian books and when I heard about Loving My Actual Neighbor I had to jump at the chance to read it. Alexandra Kuykendall did her research and compiled a well-thought description on what it means to love thy neighbor. The stories expressed throughout the books I believe our patrons can easily relate to because we deal with these situations everyday. Our patrons will be so touched and inspired by this book that it will circulate very well.

We will consider adding this title to our Christian Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.