I have no idea how I'm going to get through this upcoming week, I feel like THIS IS IT and all of my Christmas prep needs to be done by Sunday night. You know, NO PRESSURE or anything.
The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure
Dr. Chris Thurber
I have no idea how I'm going to get through this upcoming week, I feel like THIS IS IT and all of my Christmas prep needs to be done by Sunday night. You know, NO PRESSURE or anything.
The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure
Dr. Chris Thurber
I can't even bring myself to acknowledge that I am 19 books behind in my Goodreads Challenge. I set my goal for 128 and I'm at 101... well, 102 if I count this one. Do I think I'm going to read 19 books between now and the end of the year? Man.... I don't know, but it isn't looking good.
The Hookup Dilemma - Constance Gillam
Well, I'm behind in life... as usual. Actually, all of this week was mostly spent laying in bed because vertigo strikes again. I also started having tremors but only in my torso, arms, hands, and head, so that was fun. I have no idea what is causing them, but I've increased my cortisol treatment in the hopes I've just got some weird thing and my body needs extra help fighting it off. I have no idea, it's really just a guessing game anymore.
The only good part was I got to read a little more! Well, at least until the tremors made the book move too much and I got dizzy. I'm a super fun time, y'all.
The Flirtation Experiment
Lisa Jacobson and Phylicia Masonheimer
One of the challenges that we, and most other couples, face is keeping that spark alive. I always laugh when I hear people say, "I love him but I'm not in love with him" because to me, that's insanity. The love you feel at the beginning isn't meant to last. Things change as you change, and you just have to go with it.
So let's talk about this book, it is a rather quick read, so I'm confident you can get through it in a weekend easily. Matt and I aren't particularly religious so while the book does feature a Christian approach to marriage, there is still a lot of things to take away from it that you'll find useful in your own marriage. One thing that was a huge learning moment for me in our early years of marriage is that a fear of intimacy can manifest as anger. The authors mention that "anger can be a gut-level response to fear of loss, fear of intimacy, or fear of failure. In my case, I lashed out at Josh whenever I felt like I was failing."
Hi- I'm fully guilty of that. I know that I get angry with or towards Matt when I'm stressed out, I'm overwhelmed, I'm anxious, I feel like I really suck at life. I think we all do that at some point. It's taken me a lot of years to make myself pause and really ask myself WHY am I so angry right now? Does yelling at anyone really help this situation? Do I get it right every time? Good lord no. I try really hard though and I think that's something that comes with getting older and gaining maturity, too.
Overall, this was alright. I'd give it a solid 3 stars for me but I think that's also because again, we aren't particularly religious, so a lot of the Bible references weren't relevant to us. I think if you have a relatively good marriage, this might be helpful to make it better, or work on some areas that need improvement. If your marriage is really struggling, this isn't going to get you out of the ditch, so to speak. It is a pretty quick read though, and the humor throughout really helped this from feeling like a self-help but rather, an informative counseling session with a friend who has been there and done that.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy for review and having me on this tour!
Um, where are my true crime junkies at? If you know me in real life, you know that I am obsessed with true crime documentaries, podcasts, books, etc. so when I saw this one come up I literally squealed out loud because I knew this was going to be wild. I wasn't wrong.
The Book of Timothy
Joan Nockels Wilson
Set in Rome, Chicago, and Anchorage, and spanning thirty years from crime to confrontation, The Book of Timothy: A Sister's Pursuit recounts in lyric movements a sister's journey, partly through trickery, but eventually through truth, to gain a long-absent admission from the priest who abused her brother. While on that journey, Nockels Wilson, a former prosecutor, confronts not only the priest, but her personal quest for vengeance. She further seeks an understanding of how the first Book of Timothy, the work of St. Paul, contributed to the silencing of women in her once loved Catholic Church. This Book of Timothy promises to take the reader on a quest for justice and down a path of unexpected coincidences that ends where it first began: out of a great love for a brother and in the power of first memory.
I'm not going to lie, I am probably the most impatient person I know, so this one got a little slow for me in parts, but I'm glad that I stuck with it. I'm also not really a religious person, so though this is heavily centered around religion, I was here for the greater story- the love this woman had for her brother, and trying to not only get the truth out of the man who changed her brother's life forever, but also somehow make it right.
Huge trigger warning though, this book revolves around sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests, so if that triggers you in any way, this is not the book for you. I can see how large portions of this book would be upsetting to anyone who has gone through that, or even somehow connected to it, so just know that's what this book is about.
Interestingly, this is mainly Joan's story, of being a sibling to someone who was a victim of these awful acts, and how she is really a secondary victim of this. I also really like the connection being made to survivor's guilt, which is something I never really understood until going through it myself, not related to sexual abuse but instead my surviving death experience. I really struggled for a long time with wishing I had just died, and feeling guilty knowing there were so many women who would give anything to be here, but they did. Why me? Those are some really strange feelings to have so in a way I could relate to this author. I also really liked her explaining what it was like to know after the fact that these awful things were happening and they really had no idea. It speaks to the insidious nature of sexual predators and proves that they are really, really good at what they do. It's evil and it speaks to the power they have over their victims.
Parts of this book were hard for me to read, and others were just fascinating because her perspective was one we don't always hear from. To combine that with faith, and trusting the word of God, and that God always has a plan for you, meanwhile you, or someone you love, is being abused in such an awful way, it makes it hard to understand how this is part of the plan. Nevermind the fact that many of these priests used scripture to justify their actions, it's just wrong on every level, and I can understand how someone may not come out of it OK in the end, no matter the therapy they receive.
My only issue, which might be just my cognitive impairment showing up here, is the jumping around in the timeline. It skipped forward, and then jumped back quickly, and I had a hard time following along. I just wish the story was more linear because I found myself having to re-read sections just to understand where we were in the story. I'm not sure if others had this issue, so it might really just be me, but I had a hard time with that.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours, author Joan Nockels Wilson, and Boreal Books for having me on this tour and sending me a copy for review. Definitely a fascinating story on a topic that just keeps popping up and it's so damn sad.
Happy Monday!
Did you guys do anything fun this weekend? I have been busy catching up with my blog, and reviews, made some ornaments, wrapped a bunch of presents, and I think I only have one more to get for one of my kids and then I'm even with everyone. (I have a thing about being even, it drives Matt nuts.) I even ordered our Christmas cards, got our Christmas letter printed, and hopefully I can get those out this week. Oh man.... that means I need to go to the post office. I dread that place in December, it's absolute chaos. Maybe I'll just send Matt... ha!
Cynthia Starts a Band - Olivia Swindler
Once there, she decides she's starting over, going back to basics. She's living with her cousin, changes her name to Cynthia, and decides to take a writing class. While this all sounds lovely, you can't run away forever, and it becomes increasingly clear that things can't get better unless she reconciles the things she ran away from to begin with. Her fiance is very much a dirtbag who, to the rest of us reading this book, is completely controlling and abusive and she needs to RUN, not walk away from. Like everything else in life, hindsight is 20/20 and when she is able to put some distance between them, she's slowly realizing that what she thought was normal was incredibly toxic and awful. It wasn't just him either, everything she was surrounded by was essentially using her and while everyone kind of blows it off as show business, Eleanor/Cynthia is deciding that she isn't going to settle with that.
To be honest, it kind of reminds me of Taylor Swift... kind of. While everyone assumes Eleanor/Cynthia will just go with the flow and let it unfold the way they want it to, she decides she's going to take control of her life for real this time, and tell her side of the story. She's going to stand up for herself and if people don't like it, that's alright because she's OK with who she is. She isn't relying on that validation from others anymore.
Overall, I liked this one. I liked the story, I found it relatable for all women, I think we all go through that phase where we lose ourselves a bit and it takes a conscious effort to get back to the path we're supposed to be on. I love that the author showcases that relationships can be toxic and abusive without overt violence, which is something that I don't think teens and young adults recognize until they are far away from it, if they even get that chance. I also really liked how the author drove the point home that the key to success and happiness comes from us, that's our job, and no amount of validation from others is going to do that for us longterm. It's OK to be scared to step out on your own, and it's OK to insanely mess up when you do it, but it isn't the end of the world, you can always bounce back.
Thank you to Morgan James Fiction, author Olivia Swindler, and PR by the Book for having me on this tour! I love reading debut authors, and I am so excited to see what Olivia does next, I definitely encourage you to pick this one up.
I am all about a good gift book and National Geographic is BRINGING it this year. You could probably get a book for every person on your shopping list and the best part? Books are super easy to wrap, am I right??
Wild Seas - Thomas Peschak
Not surprisingly, Matt says absolutely not.
Also, there is a photo on page 123 of a Cape gannet bird and it is flying directly at the camera and it is terrifying.
I don't know if it's obvious yet that the section on seabirds was my favorite, but it is what it is. I'm a fan of seabirds. The photos in this book are, quite possibly, the best photos I have EVER seen in any National Geographic book, and if you know NatGeo at all you know that's a pretty major statement. Not surprisingly, Thomas Peschak is one of National Geographic's most popular photographers and this book showcases that start to finish.
I loved that the book shows us all of the beauty and the best of the oceans and seas around the world, making you feel incredibly tiny and insignificant, but also the destruction that humans are causing. I went through this book learning new things, but also learning more about things I already knew, while at the same time having the point that there is a whole lot about our planet we don't know anything about driven home.
The book is broken up over seven sections: Sea Turtles, Manta Rays, Seabirds, Sharks, Sardines, Galapagos, and Conservation. I already mentioned the Seabirds section was my favorite, but if there was ever a section to keep me firmly out of the water all together, it would be the Galapagos section. The subtitle? Dragons and Vampires. Just..... just don't read that if you are planning a tropical bitch vacation anytime soon because it will ruin it for you because it is full of creatures nightmares are made of. To think all of those, and so many more we don't even know about, and just..... swimming around under water? NOPE. A whole bunch of nope, nope, nope.
This book was wild, y'all- I so highly recommend it. Thank you to TLC Book Tours and National Geographic for having me on this tour and sending me a copy for review. I'm going to stick to pools, I'm just throwing that out there.
I mean, if there is a cooler book to get a tween/teen right now, I don't know what it would be, to be honest.
Dude Perfect
A section that I know every kid will geek out over? World records. When I worked in a school library, the book that kids fought over was any that included world records, no matter how bizarre!
Kids are going to really enjoy this one and if you're a school librarian, or maybe just want something fun for in the classroom, definitely add this to your list. If you're shopping for a kid who has everything and wants nothing, this is the ideal gift. They won't be able to say the dreaded, "I'm bored" again!
Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Tommy Nelson Books for sending me a copy for review! Penelope and I have been trying tricks for about a month and even at six years old, she's better than me at basically everything.
I'm slowly getting through my stack of books I have to review, but at least I had the prescence of mind to take notes as I went through books. Sometimes I'm just super smart, you know?
Baby, Unplugged - Sophie Brickman
It's totally covered in this book. In all though, this is a really interesting book, which covers all of the big topics we wonder about. I'm not going to lie, when I think about technology and children, I'm more worried about my elementary school aged children, and of course the middle/high school kids, too. I feel like it is easier to control the technology access with babies and toddlers than it is older children. Regardless, this is a pretty solid read for parents who struggle with technology, they will likely relate to the author because Sophie Brickman relates in a way that it feels like you're chatting with your friend who knows what she's talking about.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy for review!
I mean, I'm a Pisces and I am a Pisces through and through. Literally obsessed with the ocean, all things water, I'd like to be a fish or something, but I know I'd probably be eaten on day one so I guess maybe that's not a great plan. When I saw this I literally HAD to get my hands on it and whoa boy..... it DELIVERED.
Ocean - National Geographic