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 Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.
Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.
A parenting book I recommend:
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.
In Grit, she takes readers into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.
My kids pick:
The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble With Friends by Stan Berenstain
The new cub in the neighborhood, Lizzy Bruin, is the same age as Sister Bear–and she’s also just as bossy. After a fight threatens their budding friendship, both cubs learn that you can’t always have your own way if you want to have friends.