Thank you for your feedback via the short survey last month! Most of you seem happy with what gets shared here, so I’ll continue on much the same. These newsletters have been long lately, either with lots of books or lots of thoughts, so I haven’t shared much personally. At some point, I might look into splitting this into two newsletters each month — maybe adult books in one and kids in the other? To be determined.
Our oldest, Arthur, turned five a couple weeks ago. Five! How can that be? It snowed on his birthday and we wore all the winter gear to the zoo. Then last Sunday we had to cancel his birthday party because he spiked a 103 degree fever: he and his sister are both closing out the month of April with Influenza A, and my guess is that I’m it’s next victim. What a month! What a string of months: food poisoning in February, colds + sinus infection in March, and now the flu.
But at least we’re still reading books?!?
Here’s what I read in April:
Jane Austen’s Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
by Josephine Ross
I am so sad to say that this was just “meh.” As a Jane-ite, I had high hopes. But what I thought I was walking into was a tongue-in-cheek set of faux letters between Jane Austen and a niece, and instead it was merely commentary on a few passages of letters, tied up with explainers of how Regency-era manners and society worked. It felt like it was trying too hard to be funny, and I could really only muster 2 stars for it.
Goodreads | Do Not Buy This Book
Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection
by Kate Bowler & Jessica Richie
This was a really lovely read for Lent, but it’s not lenten-specific: you could pick it up anytime you need something encouraging and beautiful, that isn’t afraid to also talk about how hard life can be. Each reading is a few pages, and it’s crammed with Bowler’s characteristic wit & humor that you find in No Cure for Being Human and Everything Happens for a Reason.
Pride & Prejudice (audiobook)
by Jane Austen; read by Elizabeth Klett
Does this book need a review after 200+ years? I don’t love audiobooks, but I got the idea to listen to a favorite instead of re-read it and I really enjoyed the experience. Looking forward to listening to more on the same feed, like Anne of Green Gables!
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a life Interrupted
by Suleika Jaouad
Someone in Exhale Creativity recommended this and I nabbed it off the Lucky Day shelf at the library. I went in with no expectations, and in case you also know nothing: this is a cancer memoir, along the lines of Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens for a Reason or Nina Riggs’s The Bright Hour. It was a hard book at a time when I didn’t need a hard book, so my review may be tainted. Jaouad’s story is heartbreaking: she is 23 when she receives a leukemia diagnosis, tearing her away from a first job in Paris and back to NYC where she undergoes years of rigorous treatment. She narrates how her treatment changes her, physically and emotionally, and how it affects the relationships around her, and ultimately the trajectory of her life. It is well-written, but at times frustrating: Jaouad is so young as she goes through this, and it can be hard to see how little emotional support the healthcare system provided. It was an eye-opening look at how the years of cancer treatment can leave the person at the center feeling quite alone as caretaking weighs on their social circles.
Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life
By Dennis, Sheila & Matthew Linn
My friend Ashley Brooks sent me this one, saying “the title is weird, but I promise: it’s a simple, straightforward explanation of spiritual direction.” She’s completely right: this short, illustrated book is a gift — not a children’s book, as the cover might convey. It’s a look at using the examen in your own life: asking yourself what you are most grateful for and least grateful for at the end of the each day, and looking at patterns over time to help direct you in the ways that God would have you go. I loved it, and I will return to it often, I’m sure.
Now What?: How to Move Forward When We’re Divided About Basically Everything
by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers
Releasing May 3rd, this is the team behind Pantsuit Politics and their follow-up to I Think You’re Wrong But I’m Listening. In this book, Beth & Sarah walk through how the layers of the relationships in our lives affect how we see things differently — and how to work through those differences to repair and maintain kind, loving relationships with the people we need most, even when we feel like we’re on opposite sides of a chasm. The books works through the layers from those closest to us (families of origin, partners, children) to the workplace and the global citizenry, helping readers to reframe their approach to conflict and see it as a place to build strength and trust into relationships, not a reason to leave them in the dust.
*I received an ARC of this title while serving on the launch team, but also pre-ordered a copy with my own money.
What I’m Reading Next:
I’m still working through The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr, and I grabbed a copy of Let’s Talk About Hard Things by Anna Sale off the new release table at the library (I think it’ll pair well with Now What?!). And I need some fiction: next up is going to be The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.
What I’m Reading with Kids: All the Potty-Training Books!
Tennyson is potty-trained while awake: woohoo! Here’s everything potty-related we read, found helpful, and didn’t hate:
Potty by Leslie Patricelli — Simple, but a hit. Tennyson has it memorized.
P is for Potty — An Elmo lift-a-flap book (We also watched Elmo’s Potty Time many, many times).
How to Potty Train Your Porcupine by Tom Toro — Funny and entertaining.
Don’t Go There by Jeanne Willis — Hilarious with cute rhymes, about a martian learning where not to go.
My Big Girl Potty — A classic step-by-step in a huge board book format.
Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right — I read this with Arthur and somewhat followed the author’s advice. I did not like the author — she was bossy.
This post from Susie at Busy Toddler is also really helpful.
I’ve Got to Go — Meh — I’d skip it.
We also added a few more books to our spring list here, including a new favorite: Busy Spring.
That’s it for now: what have you been reading & loving?
Here’s hoping that when I write this newsletter in May we are all healthy!