Tag: book reviews

rocket city mom book reviews

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I have the honor of being the local book correspondent on Rocket City Mom (RCM), the #1 Online Parenting Resource in Huntsville, the Tennessee Valley, and North Alabama. I review and host a virtual book club on Facebook specifically for moms. Each book is selected because of its mom quotient: does it shed light on a topic of importance to moms? Will it be entertaining for moms, giving them a break from their day? Will it help them navigate the journey of this insanity called mommyhood? It’s a lot of fun and if you’re a mom you should check us out.

Today’s link list contains of three books that I have read and reviewed on the RCM website. If you’re looking for a good read, these come highly recommended.

  • Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes – this one helped me come out of the tailspin created by the arrival of the Buddy Man, 10 years into my marriage. A highly entertaining read; you will definitely laugh-out-loud. The perfect little book to pick up over and over again. It’s also great pick for someone who wants to start a reading life.
  • I Know How She Does It by Laura Vanderkam – Laura (yes, we’re on a first name basis LOL) is my time management guru. With great tips on how to handle time, this book set me free.  But first it made me angry. I use this one as a reference, all the time.
  • Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple – a funny little novel about the quirky, and totally relateable (to me, at least) Bernadette. The story telling method is very unique: emails, letters, FBI interviews, articles, and an emergency room bill. Bernadette finds humor amidst a darker side of life and does it brilliantly.

Have you read any of these? I’d love to hear any recommendations for books that moms will love. Please share in the comments.

til tomorrow, enjoy life

P.S. No, I didn’t select these books because of the matching color. That was totally coincidental. I couldn’t believe it either!

Catch up on the rest of this series.

book review: “the happiness project”

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At the beginning of 2011, I wasn’t in a good place.  I had a wonderful life (a pretty decent job, a wonderful husband) but I was feeling blah! My sister had just gotten a new puppy, Radar, but needing to go back to work. He was still too young to be left at home alone.  So, I drove up to nanny.  While I was there, she asked me if I had read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. I had not.  When she went to sleep, I stayed awake and read the first chapter: “Getting Started”. It set off the waterworks.

I am happy – but I’m not as happy as I should be.  I have such a good life, I want to appreciate it more – and live up to it better. I had a hard time explaining it.  I complain too much, I get annoyed more than I should.  I should be more grateful.  I think it felt happier, I’d behave better.”

She introduced a word that I had never heard of before: malaise – a recurrent sense of discontent and almost a feeling of disbelief.  That was what I was feeling.  I had to have this book! And I went out the next day and bought my own copy.

Every month, Gretchen tackled a new category: January – Boost Energy where she tried to form habits like going to sleep earlier and tackling a nagging task. And in February – Remember Love, she tried to give proofs of love and quit nagging.  So on and so forth.

At that time, I was convinced (note that I said at THAT time) I was a very logical person – a left-brain, definitely.  And Gretchen was approaching this very subjective topic of happiness in a logical, systematic, and determined way. I don’t know how to make you understand how much that appealed to me. It was definitely what I needed at the time.

The results of Gretchen’s work have become permanent fixtures in my life.

Her concept of writing personal commandments, “personal overarching principles that can guide decision making”, appealed and I have slowly developed my own over the years.  They include: Be authentic and Find the Peace. Her quote: “the days are long but the years are short” has been a refrain that I utter every week as I make it through the day.

Gretchen took her happiness project and focused on the details of habit formation in her next book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives.  That led her to seek to understand why it was so much easier for some people to form habits than others which led to her next bestseller, The Four Tendencies. I’m an Obliger and that knowledge has led to some amazing realizations in my life, albeit a conversation for another day.

You can’t go wrong reading any of these three books if you are interested in becoming happier and forming habits that have a decent chance of sticking.

til tomorrow, enjoy life

Catch up on the rest of this series – This Bookman: Meditations & Miscellany.

quick lit – next page, please {august 2018}

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Quick Lit {August 2018}

I feel like my reading life has been weird this month.  I have felt the urge to plan my reading for the rest of the year: looking at the three books that I need to finish the Modern Mrs. Darcy’s (MMD) 2018 Reading Challenge, meeting my goal of reading 38 books this year, and reading books for my work.  However, random books have appeared in my life that just had to be read right now, throwing off my carefully-laid plans.  Well, at least I am only six books away from my yearly goal and it’s only September.

Currently Reading

  • Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. “I have time to think.  That is the great, the greatest luxury.  I have time to be. Therefore my responsibility is huge.”
  • Transformational Speaking by Gail Larsen. Just beginning this one and while I have no desire to a transformational speaker, I am working to be a transformational writer. Hoping this will help.

Read

  • The Girl Who Takes and Eye for and Eye by David Lagercrantz. This one wasn’t as good as the others. As I write this, I am having a hard time remembering the storyline. That tells me something.
  • Write Happy, Write Smart by Cheryl St. John. The kick-in-the-rear I needed to get my writing life together. And the catalyst for prompting that reading plan I talked about earlier. Written for writers, St. John shares some interesting truths about conquering fear, releasing perfectionism, and others that are applicable for everyone.
  • Still Lives by Maria Hummel. A dark and twisty novel that was August’s Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick. Boy, does Maria Hummel have a way with words: “Most days pass in a pleasurable blur of words and pictures” – that’s a good line. But the book paced a little slower than I prefer.
  • The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Astonishing Dialogue Taking Place in Our Bodies Impacts Health, Weight, and Mood by Dr. Emeran Mayer. Very interesting scientific facts regarding probiotics and your digestive system. The most fascinating thing that I learned was that your digestive system has its own nervous system, known as ENS, that is practically independent of the brain. And is often referred to as the “second brain”.  Thus the accuracy of such statements like, “I feel it in my gut.” WOW!
  • How to Walk Away: A Novel by Katherine Center. One that entered my life quite suddenly and that I just had to read. Which I did. In two days – I absolutely loved this novel. Center takes a difficult and depressing event in her character’s life but somehow makes it an enjoyable read with lessons to boot.  She is also majorly gifted in writing from a character’s point-of-view.  I was inside Maggie’s head and was thoroughly impressed.
  • I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel, of Modern Mrs. Darcy fame. This sweet little volume of Anne’s reflections of her reading life inspired me to do my own reflection of my love of books and reading which led to some pleasant and even tearful experiences. Coming soon.

 Abandoned Reading (Temporarily)

  • The Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Emily Wilson. I have been reading a lot (6 books this month alone) and I want to slow down and savor this one when I don’t have as much of a reading agenda.

What have you been reading this month? And I really could use your help with the MMD category: Book nominated for an award in 2018. Thanks.

enjoy life…