What Are You Reading? - mariadismondy.com


Hello! Let’s start the first few months of the year off by sharing books we are reading! I love a good book suggestion. I often times switch between reading fiction and non-fiction (normally a parenting focused book) and we read children’s books on a daily basis too.

To see a comprehensive list of books I’ve read, check out my goodreads account.

Often times I will listen to a book on tape when life becomes too busy. This way I can listen while I am exercising or driving. I use audible to download my audio books.


A recent read of mine:

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.


A parenting book I recommend:

The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey

Modern parenting is defined by an unprecedented level of overprotectiveness: parents who rush to school at the whim of a phone call to deliver forgotten assignments, who challenge teachers on report card disappointments, mastermind children’s friendships, and interfere on the playing field. As teacher and writer Jessica Lahey explains, even though these parents see themselves as being highly responsive to their children’s well being, they aren’t giving them the chance to experience failure—or the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems.

Overparenting has the potential to ruin a child’s confidence and undermine their education, Lahey reminds us. Teachers don’t just teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. They teach responsibility, organization, manners, restraint, and foresight—important life skills children carry with them long after they leave the classroom.


My kids pick:

Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown

The class homework assignment is to write a story, and everyone seems to be writing about something interesting…except Arthur. Will he find something he cares to write about or will his story be a big mess?