I still can't believe I read 7 books this month! I would attribute this excess amount of reading to my increased hours at the gym. I look forward to climbing onto that stair master or that elliptical if it means I can get in over 30 minutes of uninterrupted reading time. That gift of a gym membership has been the best thing ever for me and my reading obsession, and I suppose for my health.
My favorite book this month was Shauna Niequist's Present over Perfect, followed by The More of Less, and both of these could warrant their own blog posts, but I can't imagine I'll get around to that, but maybe? And I really enjoyed It Ends with Us By Colleen Hoover. Least favorite was See Me by Nicholas Sparks.
Present over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, more Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist
This book was so good! I wish I owned it. It was different than all of her other books as it was about her and her stuff rather than little short stories about her and her community and friends. I am really leaning in to these themes these days and as we lean in to a simpler season of life I'm realizing that it most certainly does lead to a more soulful way of living. So much truth in her words. Boundaries are important, knowing yourself is important, knowing your capacity is even more important, and never losing sight of the fact that our families should get our best selves is the most important of all.
Amazon blurb, "Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection. Shauna offers an honest account of what led her to begin this journey, and a compelling vision for an entirely new way to live: soaked in grace, rest, silence, simplicity, prayer, and connection with the people that matter most to us. In these pages, you’ll be invited to consider the landscape of your own life, and what it might look like to leave behind the pressure to be perfect and begin the life-changing practice of simply being present, in the middle of the mess and the ordinariness of life.
The More of Less: Finding the Life you want Under Everything you Own by Joshua Becker
Again the theme of simplicity repeats itself. I LOVE these types of books. I'm all for purging, simplifying, and reorganizing. I love that kind of stuff. My husband, not so much. I mean he likes when things are organized and when things have a home, but he doesn't like having to get rid of stuff. But every so often I purge his man drawers and reorganize them. And after reading books like this, I'm aware of just how much stuff we really do have, how many things we don't even use. Having less is so very freeing, having a 770 square foot home even more so because then you have actual limits and boundaries on how much you can actually own. And this book just reminded me of this.
Amazon blurb, "Maybe you don’t need to own all this stuff.” After a casual conversation with his neighbor on Memorial Day 2008, Joshua Becker realized he needed a change. He was spending far too much time organizing possessions, cleaning up messes, and looking for more to buy. So Joshua and his wife decided to remove the nonessential possessions from their home and life. Eventually, they sold, donated, or discarded over 60 percent of what they owned. In exchange, they found a life of more freedom, more contentment, more generosity, and more opportunity to pursue the things that mattered most. The More of Less delivers an empowering plan for living more by owning less. With practical suggestions and encouragement to personalize your own minimalist style, Joshua Becker shows you why minimizing possessions is the best way to maximize life. Are you ready for less cleaning, less anxiety, and less stress in your life? Simplicity isn’t as complicated as you think.
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
You guys I've read so many books by Colleen Hoover, and I normally finish them in a matter of days as they are such quick reads. And this one was my favorite. It's so different than her others. But truly, if you want an easy read, with a romantic storyline that leaves you wondering just how it might end, then check out her books.
Amazon blurb, "Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up - she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan - her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price."
Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
This is so different from anything I'd ever read, especially with the title Creativity, Inc. I don't really see myself as a creative, but I really enjoyed this book and learning about the ins and outs and the makings of Pixar. Really interesting to read about their work culture and their team dynamics and their value for candor and true honesty as a means for growth.
Amazon blurb, "Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.” For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable."
See Me by Nicholas Sparks
I should start off saying, I have read ALOT of Nicholas Sparks books, and if you've read books by him, then you know that they follow a traditional pattern. This book did NOT follow that traditional pattern and it threw me. It was a mystery, which is not Nicholas Sparks genre. I hate to say it, but I think he should just stick to his traditional pattern and his usual storylines. But alot of people really liked it! Me, not so much.
Amazon blurb, "Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. With a history of violence and bad decisions behind him and the threat of prison dogging his every step, he's determined to walk a straight line. To Colin, that means applying himself single-mindedly toward his teaching degree and avoiding everything that proved destructive in his earlier life. Reminding himself daily of his hard-earned lessons, the last thing he is looking for is a serious relationship. Maria Sanchez, the hardworking daughter of Mexican immigrants, is the picture of conventional success. With a degree from Duke Law School and a job at a prestigious firm in Wilmington, she is a dark-haired beauty with a seemingly flawless professional track record. And yet Maria has a traumatic history of her own, one that compelled her to return to her hometown and left her questioning so much of what she once believed. As a series of threatening incidents wreaks chaos in Maria's life, Maria and Colin will be tested in increasingly terrifying ways. Will demons from their past destroy the tenuous relationship they've begun to build, or will their love protect them, even in the darkest hour?"
This is the second book I've read by this author. The first one was a Man Called Ove, and I liked that one better. This one was about relationships and family and a grandmother and her granddaughter. It was a cute story, but they interweave a made up world that the grandmother created for her granddaughter and some fantasy stuff that I just passed through, and then later realized it was real life stuff that I probably should have read so that I could connect it all, but it was too late by then! :)
Amazon blurb, "Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other."
Girl at War by Sara Novic
I really enjoyed this book, but then again I really love historical fiction as I feel like I'm learning something about a time and place while also following the storyline of a created character.
Amazon blurb, "For readers of The Tiger’s Wife and All the Light We Cannot See comes a powerful debut novel about a girl’s coming of age—and how her sense of family, friendship, love, and belonging is profoundly shaped by war. Zagreb, 1991. Ana Jurić is a carefree ten-year-old, living with her family in a small apartment in Croatia’s capital. But that year, civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, splintering Ana’s idyllic childhood. Daily life is altered by food rations and air raid drills, and soccer matches are replaced by sniper fire. When the war arrives at her doorstep, Ana must find her way in a dangerous world. New York, 2001. Ana is now a college student in Manhattan. Though she’s tried to move on from her past, she can’t escape her memories of war—secrets she keeps even from those closest to her. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, Ana returns to Croatia after a decade away, hoping to make peace with the place she once called home. As she faces her ghosts, she must come to terms with her country’s difficult history and the events that interrupted her childhood years before. Moving back and forth through time, Girl at War is an honest, generous, brilliantly written novel that illuminates how history shapes the individual. Sara Nović fearlessly shows the impact of war on one young girl—and its legacy on all of us. It’s a debut by a writer who has stared into recent history to find a story that continues to resonate today."
You read so much! I'm inspired.
ReplyDelete