Thursday, September 4, 2014

Reading Roundup (August)

Not to brag (but it's my blog, so I guess I will) . . . I read a lot of great books for the month of August. I must admit, I thought they were so great that I kind of am questioning my judgment. For example, right now, my taste buds are virtually gone. Things that I have always found to be flavorful and delicious are disgusting. Whereas corn flakes? GIVE ME SOME. See what I mean. Weird. Bless this baby (who continues to be the miracle baby).

I digress, but really, when we go to the Perinatologist's we are kind of greeted like rock stars only because everyone in the office knows our story and knows how miraculous it is. I'm sure that is an office that sees a lot (A LOT) of sad things so when we show up with my big belly leading the way its sweet to see how they know us and are invested in her. We are blessed.

But back to the point of this post. Books. Books. And more books.

Here is what I read for August:


I'm on Goodreads and put more "thorough" reviews there (thorough meaning maybe a whole paragraph). But here is the breakdown - in a nutshell.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - oh goodness it started out so strong and then halfway through it changed and became a completely different book than the one I thought I was reading. I am always interested in Booker Prize Nominations (that's how I learned about Margaret Atwood) but this one was way NOT what I was looking for. A disappointment.

The Power of Habit - so great! I really liked how it broke it down into "cue - routine - reward" its forced me to look at some of the things I do differently and it has given me hope that I can create new habits and break the ones I don't like.

All Joy and No Fun - the Paradox of Modern Parenthood - highly highly highly recommended . . . like a 5 star recommendation. I loved how she dissected down what happens to me and my relationship to my spouse as we enter various stages of parenting. It was fascinating. It made me feel less guilty about a lot of mom-guilt I have and helped me just kind of understand myself and my relationship to Greg better.

Give and Take - Read this book! So many exclamation points in this post (my sister would be so ashamed). This is a book I want to own and refer to. I would love to be thought of as a giver. One that consistently gives and helps and works to connect others while not being taken advantage of. This book was so fascinating to me that when I started reading it, I immediately had Greg load it up on his phone so that he could listen to it too and then we could talk all about it.

Landline - and finally . . . . a fun one (gosh there was three non-fiction in a row, that's not like me). Landline was sweet. I really enjoyed it - but I also really love romantic comedies (I recently watched "You've Got Mail" for the one-hundredth bajillionth time so there you go). So if you like romantic comedies - this is right up your alley.

And there August books - you are documented.

2 comments:

Justin said...

I've never seen You've got mail. True story.

ToddCat said...

I'm inspired to read some of these books, specifically Give and Take. In fact, now that you are trying to be a giver I'm going to let you give me the book. That's my gift to you so I guess that makes us both givers. We are mastering this already and I haven even read it!

You mentioned how ashamed Carrie will be by your use of many exclamation points. I only count 2 in your post. TWO. I don't think Carrie is fully against this punctuation mark. She just doesn't like to see them together. Seriously!!

Lately, I would like to address Justin's disturbing comment that he's never seen You've Got Mail. I can't even imagine how you've wasted an entire lifetime without seeing this. You should watch it now, but probably first watch Sleepless in Seatle. Really you should start with When Harry Met Sally. None of these movie's plots have anything to do with each other, but they do all include Meg Ryan back in her heyday as America's sweetheart.