“What a slacker!” I thought as I came to the realization that it is already July and I am just now posting my May Reading selections. Like many of you, time is moving throughout my life very differently these days. I usually describe myself as a planner, yet I am learning to embrace a more organic flow to my day. While spending time with my family in Boise, John and I made the tough decision to postpone our wedding, ensuring that our friends and family feel safe and healthy to travel when the time is right to celebrate together. I did spend plenty of time reading, I just didn’t spend any time writing.
Staying in has given us the opportunity to work on house projects. John has taken to woodworking and I am trying my green thumb in the garden. I feel grateful for the ability to do so. I have taken time to dive into books to better educate myself of the racism that exists within the United States and what can be done to combat it. I am listening to my body and more importantly my mind. Walking with Moxie. Reflecting. Taking breaks. Reminding myself to slow down. Reset. Relax.
I will be sharing more about our house projects, more readings, and want to read lists. Enjoy!
FICTION
Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng : 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
“All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches. Sparks leap like fleas and spread as rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles. Better to control that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like an Olympic torch. Or, perhaps, to tend it carefully like an eternal flame: a reminder of light and goodness that would never – could never – set anything ablaze. Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in captivity. The key she though, was to avoid conflagration.”
Elena Richardson follows the rules. She understands and appreciates the rules. Shaker Heights, where she lives, is a thriving community carefully planned out with immaculate lawns and excellent schools. Mrs. Richardson doesn’t believe that there are ways of doing things, but rather there is the right way to do things. She is primarily focused on raising their four children, each bound for an Ivy League education and great things. Enter Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl. Their attraction to Shaker Heights is the quality education for Pearl. They become members of the community in a rental owned by the Richardsons.
Mia is an artist and single mom doing her best to provide for Pearl. Elena mothers in the way she believes is best. The story unfolds while a family friend of the Richardsons attempts to adopt a Chinese-American baby left at a Fire Department. The friends of the Richardsons find themselves in the middle of a custody battle with everyone in town taking sides. What does it mean to be someone’s mother? Author Celeste Ng hits on many themes throughout the novel. What makes up one’s identity? The secrets we keep. How important is it to follow the rules? What rules should we follow? This is a story of the lives within a community that are woven carefully together, yet easily pulled apart.
I loved this book. I had heard from a couple of friends that this book was something they picked up and just couldn’t get into. It does have a slow start to set the scene. Ng cautiously introduces each of the characters in different lights, from different angles, having the reader craving for real action. Once the story picked up speed, I couldn’t put it down. This novel was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club and as many of you will know has been turned into a TV series on Hulu. I enjoy reading books that have transitioned to the screen. They are usually never like what I imagined them to be in my head, but that is what I think makes them fun to enjoy. I get to paint my own picture and enjoy someone else’s interpretation of the characters.
Beach Read by Emily Henry: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As the month of May crept along, my book selections got better and better. This book, Beach Read, was chosen by my book club. This is a new book! It came out May 19th, so I went to downtown Boise and purchased at, Rediscovered Books, a local book seller. This book is light hearted and fun, as a beach read should be. If you are looking for a fun, flirty, and romantic novel then consider picking this one up. Swoon!
January Andrews and Augustus Everett are both writers, but of very differing genres. January writes romance novels and Augustus, or Gus as he is known, usually writes dark literary fiction where most of the characters don’t survive. They considered one another rivals in college, each fighting for the best book deal. January, suffering from writer’s block and the death of her father, gets out of town and quarantines herself in her late father’s beach house, only to find Gus doing much of the same next door. They strike up a bet to swap genres and see who can get published first. This involves teaching one another their craft. January teaches Gus the art of romantic date settings and Gus invites January along to interview sketchy survival death cult members. Guidelines of the competition state there will be no falling for one another. Will they be able to resist one another? Will either of them finish a novel? You’ll have to pick this one up to find out!
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another light and girly read, Regretting You also had themes relating to the complicated Mother-Daughter relationship. I picked up this book because I loved Colleen Hoover’s writing style in Verity. She creates an Alice in Wonderland effect for me, where I feel as though I fall into the looking glass or deep within the story she is telling. I have been known to devour her books. If pulled away from reading them, I find myself daydreaming about the characters and wondering what they are up to, as if they were real people I know. While my first introduction to Hoover was through Verity, I learned that she writes across a variety of genres and for both adult and young adult audiences. This is not something I am accustomed to seeing from many fiction writers – but am very impressed with her range.
This story bounces back and forth between Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter Clara. Morgan would like a life for Clara different from her own. Pregnant at sixteen and married too young, Morgan felt as though she missed out on a lot. Clara believes her mother to be completely predictable (read: boring). She too wants a life different than her mother’s. Morgan and Clara disagree quite often. Luckily, they have Chris, Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father. He is the one to unite the family, amid their warring personalities. When Chris is involved in a tragic and suspicious accident, Morgan and Clara both struggle with how to go on living. For Morgan, support comes in an unlikely place, while Clara begins to date a forbidden boy. Secrets are revealed. Things aren’t what they seem. As I mentioned before mother daughter relationships are messy and complicated.
Red, White, & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey McQuiston : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was a fun rom-com and a bit steamy. If the premise of this book was read tabloid style, it would read something like, “British Prince Henry in love with Alex, son of the U.S. president?” This book is so much more than that. With the political failings of our current government, Red, White, & Royal Blue serves up more humanity, love, and reality than the one we are currently living in. The story follows Alex, whose mother is the first elected woman President of the United States in 2016. Much of his life he has been involved in politics and the tabloids. A scandal ensues when he and his sister attend a royal British wedding and Alex accidentally pushes his rival, Prince Henry right into the wedding cake. Everything is captured by the paparazzi. As damage control, their mothers, the POTUS and Queen of England, no less, force the men to agree to a truce. They will be best friends, or at least seem like best friends to the media. As they spend time together and actually get to know one another, a deeper connection develops. Their fake friendship quickly shapes into a secret romance, hidden from the world.
This queer love story made its way to the New York Times best-seller list in 2019. McQuiston’s pages are filled with modern pop-culture references, yet the themes are honest and relatable. What is the importance of love as it relates to your family, career, and in some cases, your family’s vision for you? How do you find the courage to be true to yourself and let go of the fear brought on by a world telling you to be anything but yourself?
NON-FICTION
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In the Western world, we, the science minded, believe that thoughts and feelings are the results of the chemical reactions in the brain where happiness can be an outcome. The Dalai Lama flips this notion on its head and asks, “What if the chemical reactions in the brain are the results of our thoughts or feelings?” What if we choose happiness and this choice can influence our brain chemistry? What if we have that power? According to the Dalai Lama, happiness is the purpose of life. There was no more perfect time to read The Art of Happiness than two and a half months into a pandemic.
Locked down in my home, I read this with a Mindfulness Book Club organized through work. Every week I would gather with co-workers on a Zoom call discussing the Dalai Lama’s teachings. Originally published in 1998, the concepts presented are not new, yet they are things we Americans have a hard time believing and an even harder time practicing. A co-worker was reading this for a second time, reflecting on the timelines of our reading and that this is a book that can be revisited during trying times in life. In the book the Dalai Lama separates happiness from pleasure. He discusses the interconnectedness of the world and all of us in it.
The most important message I learned from this book is that happiness is something to be practiced. To be happy is to invest in your own happiness, to spend time and energy and brain space figuring out how to create the neural pathways in your mind to foster happiness. Like yoga practice or even athletics you are trying to learn or master, practice is the key. Happiness is a state of mind rather than something that happens to us. The First Truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering, pain, and misery. The Dalai Lama helps to explain that life is not without suffering. No one can go through life without experiencing it. Therefore, the practice of happiness in one’s life become that much more important.
Rather than think of myself as the victim of the pandemic, locked inside my house, I shifted my mindset. I am safe within my home. I am learning how to successfully work from home. I am leveling up on my technology skills. I am growing and learning. I am being challenged. How do I embrace these changes and create habits of happiness?
The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The right to: Spend your own money. Go to school. Earn an income. Access contraceptives. Work outside the home. Walk outside the home. Choose whom to marry. Get a loan. Start a business. Own property. Divorce a husband. See a doctor. Drive a car.
All of these rights are denied to women in some parts of the world.
I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author, Melinda Gates. As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she has dedicated her work for the last twenty years to help people with the most urgent needs, all over the world. I loved listening to Melinda weave stories of the inspiring women she has met throughout the book. She addresses topics of child marriage, contraceptives, and gender equality in the workplace. She has found that in order to lift up societies, we need to invest in women.
One of her stories highlights the complexities of the issues faced when working to make significant change. In 2004, the foundation wanted to help lower HIV amongst sex traffic workers. They had a project with the goal to increase the education and use of condoms. The women claimed not to need more condoms or education on the use. They already had them and knew how to use them. They needed help with violence and domestic abuse. Not seeing the connection, the foundation at first declined. They did not want scope creep, which means to lose focus on the original intention of the project. As they continued their work to combat HIV, they set up safe meeting spaces for the women to drink tea together. In these spaces they began to listen to the issues the women are faced with. The women said they would use condoms if they did not get beaten when asking clients to use them or attacked by police if found carrying them. The women indicated that the only effective way they had found to stop a man bullying women, was with a large group of other women. If a woman they knew was being attacked, a whole gang of women could rush in and scare him off. So, the foundation created a hotline. A woman being attacked could text a 3-digit code and within minutes 12-15 women, a pro bono lawyer, and the media would come running to her aid.
“As women gain rights, families flourish, and so do societies… and when you’re working globally to include women and girls, who are half of every population, you’re working to benefit all members of every community. Gender equity lifts everyone,” writes Melinda. Her stories range from her time at Microsoft and challenges she has faced with inequality as a woman to helping women in some of the most impoverished parts of the world. Her humanitarian work is truly remarkable.
