LMAO I went full beast reading mode in March. Here’s why. I decided that a big part of my self-treatment, maintain-my-sanity plan was reading. It was a common thread on the days I felt good. It has the ability to pull me out of a funk. So I decided I would read. Every. Single. Day. Even if it was just a little bit. Before, I was reading almost every single day, but it wasn’t my explicit intention to read every single day.

When I made it a decision to read every single day, it meant I had to plan and prioritize it. I had to get over the idea that I can only read when *everything* is done, and the guilt that I sometimes feel when I read instead of scrubbing my house or finally hanging up my laundry. Nope. You know why? Because reading is progress that can’t be undone.

That’s something my best friend told me and it rang clear as a bell. You can clean your kitchen, but it will get dirty again. You can do the laundry, but it’s just a matter of days (or hours) before you have to get started again. You always have to feed someone again, change someone again, bathe someone again. So much of Mom Work has no discernible progress, or the progress is just temporary.

But READING. You make progress, even if you just read a paragraph! It can’t be undone! In a world full of distractions and interruptions, reading is progress you can make every day that isn’t undone. I found it also helps with my attention and anxiety issues, because I have to focus and eliminate distractions. It’s just so good for me. And Reese! We have started doing our reading in the morning after breakfast. Before we get a riled up on a play date or make a mess with toys or turn on a mind-numbing cartoon. This has been a good shift.

Anyway. That’s why I went nuts with the books this month. And It Was Awesome. I put these in the order I read them for convenience, but feel free to skip around. It was a totally random assortment and just because you aren’t into the first few doesn’t mean you won’t be interested in one of the seven books lol.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

You’re too smart to be influenced by the size of your bowl or the location of the snacks, right? Wrong. Brian Wansink and his various research teams have conducted years of experiments all about the way we serve and eat food. For example, if you put a fancy label on a cheap wine – do people enjoy it more and believe it tastes better? Yes. These skills can be used to help yourself eat healthier, eat less, or get your kids to eat more vegetables. 

This book was on Everyday Reading’s year of books and I seriously loved it. It was so much fun to read and instantly applicable. It’s all about the psychology of eating and serving food. How are we accidentally picking up 100-300 calories a day? How can we accidentally cut 100-300 calories a day? This book is fascinating, funny, and helpful

Good

• He’s not preachy at all, like many food/diet/science books can be. He’s just normal and funny! His light tone made this book a pleasure to read.
• Cool anecdotes. I am still sharing random, applicable, hilarious anecdotes in everyday conversations with people. It’s just so interesting!
• This is not a diet book. He proclaims in every chapter that “the best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on.” He loves a McDonald’s Diet Coke and fries, so naturally I am much more inclined to listen to him.
• The concept of a “Mindless Margin” was so interesting to me and flies in the face of many modern-day diets. He’s not about elimination diets, crash diets, or intense control. We can accidentally, mindlessly eat 100-300 extra calories a day via some of this psychology. But we can use it to mindlessly, painlessly eat 100-300 fewer calories a day!
• The idea of the Nutritional Gatekeeper hit home. I’m the Nutritional Gatekeeper in my home and it means that I need to use these findings to improve my family’s health. What I learned in this book impacted how I shop, how I cook, how I serve, and even how I store the food in our home.

Less Good

• Honestly I can’t think of anything? Possibly the repetition, just because many of the findings are similar or predictable. But it’s truly just so good.

Recommendation: All moms/Nutritional Gatekeepers, anyone who wants to eat healthier or who likes to try dieting or mindful eating.

The Obsession

One night Naomi Bowes peeks out her window to see her dad sneaking into the woods. What happens when she follows him will change the course of her life forever. As a young adult she finds a rhythm as a traveling photographer that helps her feel peace and escape her haunted past, but when she falls in love with an incredible fixer-upper house in a tiny and beautiful Washington town, she makes the surprising decision to settle down. Just long enough for the past to catch up with her in a violent way.

This was an impulsive, late night library download onto my phone and it did not disappoint. It’s scary and intense and sucked me right in. I’m always a sucker for serial killers, and it made for a really chilling and weirdly romantic read? Idk but I liked it!

Good

• This book just opens with a bang. And closes with a bang. There’s some amazing action and I feel like she wrote it really well.
• I liked Naomi. You feel for her. You root for her. She’s a strong, powerful, independent woman.
• I loved her family and the complexity of her relationship with her mother. I especially loved the uncles!
• The romance is a little silly but I enjoyed it. Some good steamy parts too but nothing beyond an R rating.
• The renovation of her home through the story made for good visuals and progress. And you fall in love with the little town and its people. This would make for a really good movie.
• This is a fast, addicting read! Reading it on my phone

Less Good

• This is an adult book. There’s swearing, violence, and sex. It’s tasteful and nothing feels excessive, but it is something to keep in mind if you avoid that kind of thing.
• Some parts are eye-roll cheesy.

Recommendation: an awesome beach or pool read! Great if you love true crime and some steamy romance.

We Were Liars

Every summer the Sinclair family retreats to their private island. It’s a safe haven for four teenagers – the Liars. One summer a terrible accident occurs, but Cadence can’t remember it. When she returns two summers later she is determined to uncover what happened that summer, and what happened to their complicated and dysfunctional family. 

THIS BOOK. Idk what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. I was floored. Like a physical blow. This book came highly recommended by so many people and I’m so glad I read it. And by read it I mean binged it in 24 hours.

Good

• There are so many important themes in this book. Wealth and class. Race. Family dynamics. Death. Aging. Coming-of-age. Mental illness. Forgiveness. Reconciliation.
• I actually really loved the poetry of the book. The way it’s written is fresh and interesting.
• I love being kept in suspense! This book keeps you guessing. The reveal happens in small steps and then a big bang. It’s awesome.
• The ending!!!! I’ve seen a movie with a kind of similar storyline, but even then I didn’t see it coming. I finished it at like 2 am and was thiiiiiiiiiiis close to waking up Ryan to talk about it. But he would have murdered me so I texted like 4 people instead. I’m normal.
• Even though they’re rich and entitled and whatever, I am a sucker for a good representation of teenagers.
• Though I had to grieve for days after this book I was very satisfied by the ending. I like to be shocked, I like to be satisfied, and I like to have a book stick with me.

Less Good

• Gat annoyed me a lot.
• The high levels of confusion and passive-aggressive conversation/internal narration can get a little tedious, but not enough to slow me down.
• This will wreck you. You may not be in a place for this, so just be prepared for some serious emotional damage.

Recommendation: If you like YA fiction, Gone Girl-style dark thrillers, or fast mysteries. Definitely a must-read for this summer.

A Wrinkle in Time

Meg Murray’s dad has been missing for years, but they haven’t given up on him. When a mysterious, other-worldly presence arrives in their home, Meg and Charles Wallace embark on a galactic journey that tests them and brings them face-to-face with the evil forces who imprisoned her father. 

I read this in like 3rd grade and didn’t think about it again until I saw Mindy Kaling’s name in a promo. I decided, like everyone in the Orem Library system, to reread it before the movie came out. I’m glad I did, even if it make the movie a little ridiculous.

Good

• The message of the book is love and goodness. It’s about acknowledging the negative things in life and refusing to let them control you. A powerful message for young kids – especially girls.
• It paints a beautiful picture, and I at least liked that the movie brought the visuals to life so brightly.
• A grumpy, angry, outcast girl makes for a great protagonist. Meg is a hero, without needing any of the traditional heroic qualities.

Less Good

• It’s important to remember that this book was written in the 70s. That makes it easier to deal with the weirdness and makes the sci-fi parts much more impressive.
• Meg is obnoxious and you get a little sick of her whining.

Movie Thoughts: Disappointing. They twist some important parts of the story and they BOTCH Charles Wallace, in my opinion. But I loved the way they portrayed Meg’s insecurities and faults, and that it’s ok to have them!

Recommendation: This is a great book to read with Elementary aged kids, and would make a good read-aloud for a family.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan Stevenson is a human rights attorney who focuses on legal equality for ALL accused, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, history, or state. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative and has dedicated his life to freeing those wrongly or over-harshly imprisoned, getting prisoners off death row, and helping the disadvantaged and underrepresented. He shares stories about children, teens, women, families, and even innocent men who have been treated unfairly by the justice system. 

This was a pick for Bon’s Book Club, and not a book I would have read otherwise. That’s why book clubs are important! This is an important book, and one that shows us a perspective we may never encounter in our own lives.

Good

• It’s easy to trust that the justice system is doing its job. I think it’s critical that we understand how deep racism, prejudice, and human fallacy can go. Stevenson shows errors at different levels of the justice system through a variety of experiences, which illustrate a system that can do a lot of harm.
•  I was so warmed by the compassion Stevenson feels for every individual. It’s easy to demote the personhood of people who have made mistakes, but every single person is worth so much and is deserving of fairness, compassion, and justice.
• This makes me want to speak up to defend those convicted of crimes, and to challenge those who say things like “Well, you shouldn’t break the law.” as if breaking the law means you deserve the terrible things that can happen to someone in prison or during the legal process.
• I learned a lot about the justice system and appeals process. It was incredibly informative.
• I especially appreciated his efforts for kids and teens. They’re just too young to be sentenced to life in prison! It’s crazy that we can put a kid away for the rest of his or her life based on something we did before their brains were completely formed. We have to have more hope for youth than that.

Less Good

• All of those heartbreaking stories were powerful. But I didn’t feel he took any time to talk about why we’re harsh with some punishments and why laws have been written to require minimum sentences. He doesn’t address high rates of recidivism. He slams the war on drugs without admitting the serious damage they can do to society. I completely understand his points, but at times it felt a little one-sided sensationalist.
• He doesn’t really provide any solutions. I completely support a firmer look at our sentencing, racial trends, and prison conditions. I do think we have a mass incarceration problem. I support the death penalty, but not as it’s implemented right now. But he didn’t really share anything that will improve the problem, other than sharing his stories and knowledge.
• The point that really lost me was when he defended a mother who didn’t go to prenatal care because with a previous pregnancy she had been busted for having cocaine in her system. I believe that she was wrongfully convicted for the later charge, but there was just a little too much justification and a blind eye turned to choices and lifestyle. Maybe it’s far too white conservative of me, but I do believe there are times we can err by compassion.
• Sometimes the legal processes can get tedious. I had to skip a lot.
• This is pretty long and intense, so it wouldn’t make a great vacation or audiobook in my opinion.

Recommendation: If you want to be more informed about wrongful convictions, harsh sentencing, prison conditions, and racial bias in the justice system then definitely check it out.

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3)

Confessions of a Domestic Failure

Ashley Keller is a hot mess. She’s a new mom drowning the responsibilities that she loves and hates in her new role. Suddenly she is offered the opportunity to turn it all around. Her favorite mommy lifestyle guru, Emily Walker, is offering ten new moms the chance to be a part of her Motherhood Better Bootcamp. Will she rise to the very Pinterest-y occasion?

I never just grab books off the shelf. I’m following 4 books clubs and have a Goodreads Want-to-Read list that is a thousand books deep. But this one caught my eye! It was on the entrance display shelf as you walk into the library, and the back cover blurb had me sold. It wasn’t the best book ever, but it was laugh-out-loud funny and leaves you feeling uplifted in motherhood.

Good

• I’ve never read anything else by her, but her writing style is so fun. It’s readable, hilarious, and very girlfriend-y. You can tell she has a background in blogging and Twitter.
• The struggle of motherhood is captured so realistically, for the most part. The idea of getting something half done, leaving a million things unfinished, and the beauty that can creep through those darkest moments.
• She has a knack for portraying the mommy wars. You know those backhanded comments you get from other women about the way you parent? Laditan knows them intimately, and fleshes them out in a hilarious way.
• The message of the book is that we’ll never be perfect, but being real is achievable. I can always get behind that.
• I loved the complexity of Ashley. Her marriage, feelings about her daughter, desire to be perfect, critiques of other people, loneliness, body image… all of it felt so real and relatable. I think every single mom can see at least some of her issues reflected in Ashley Keller.
• Laditan also does a great job of writing relationships that are complex and imperfect. Their marriage is a mess, but beautiful and normal. Her mother-in-law makes her blood pressure rise but comes through when she’s needed. Ashley goes from victim to hero to victim to hero several times, just like each of us. She tries successfully and unsuccessfully to make friends. It’s all real and fun to tag along.

Less Good

• Maybe it’s my upholder, Type A nature but I had a hard time by halfway through the book. “Just wash your hair!!!! Just do cry-it-out!!!!! This is insane!” I know it’s a book so it’s radicalized and comedic, but the thought of her messy house and unwashed hair and terrible decisions… stressed me out!
• The end wraps up a little too cleanly and everything works out for her, despite aforementioned terrible decisions which bugs. Sorry for being a Hermione.

Recommendation: This is the PERFECT vacation/beach read! It would make a great ebook read too. Funny, light, and a fresh take on motherhood that will leave you laughing and liberated.

The Couple Next Door

A young couple leaves their baby sleeping at home while they go next door for a dinner party with their friends. When they return to find their baby missing, the whole world falls apart. It isn’t long before the secrets start emerging and lives begin to fall apart.

I believe I downloaded this between 1 and 2 am when I couldn’t sleep. I’ve seen it pop up as a suggested title after several different thrillers I’ve read. I kind of wish I hadn’t wasted my time on it, because it doesn’t deserve to be in league with Gone Girl or Girl on the Train, but it was an interesting quick read.

Good

• There are a lot of questions to keep you guessing. You suspect almost everyone.
• I feel she did a good job describing the visceral response of Anne when her child is missing, when she’s interacting with her husband or Cynthia.
• It’s a pretty fast paced and quick read especially on ebook. And at 2 am.

Less Good

• It’s just too ridiculous. Marco’s whole story is just bizarre, the father’s whole vibe, Anne’s past… just too many weird things that were so far-fetched.
• This is a book about an abducted infant. So. Moms might want to steer away.
• The weird third-person internal narration threw me off and I don’t think it’s the best way to share a story.
• You don’t particularly like anyone, so that is always difficult for me.

Recommendation: ??? If you want a thriller, grab Gone Girl or Reconstructing Amelia. This is fine if you’re in a pinch and need a fast, thriller read. Perhaps at an airport.

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

Rachel Held Evans is an evangelical Christian blogger. She has gained a following by sharing her honest and vulnerable journey with church and modern Christianity. Here, she writes about the beautiful and disappointing moments she’s had with community worship, and the unlikely places she has found Jesus. 

This was our pick for Millennial Mormons Book Club for March. *Technically* I finished it in April but I finished it before I wrote this so why not add it to this comically long post. This book is a natural pick for people who are frustrated with mainstream and modern Christian churches. It’s the Millennial religious crisis manifesto.

Good

• I absolutely loved the way she invokes Jesus. She talks about the parts of Christ’s life that we never seem to apply to our lives – hanging out with sinners, turning traditions upside down, choosing imperfect people to lead. There is absolutely nothing that says Christ intended his church to be shiny and perfect.
• She accurately describes the way I, and many of my peers, have felt in church. Surrounded by certain, doubtless people who ridicule those with questions and insist you can’t be gay or alternative in any way and also be a part of this kingdom. Those feelings of being lost in a sea of our brothers and sisters. Hiding that inkling of doubt that feels like it might be a cancer, because no one can know you don’t always feel 100% solid. It’s nice to feel heard in that.
• The chapter on Communion was my absolute favorite. The way we eat together, feed each other becomes a kind of worship and sacrament.
• I walked away from this book with a renewed sense of responsibility in my ward. Church is important, and it’s a two-way street. I understand more fully what is required and what we can receive. The value in communal worship and religious community.
• I saw a lot of things in her I didn’t like – but this is good because I recognized them in myself and really understand some ways I need to change.
• This helped me drive a nail into the coffin of my young and liberal church criticism. Well, I hope. Listening to page after page of bitter, elitist criticism left me defending the church, defending Christianity. And that was something my heart and mind needed to do. I needed to come back to a place of love, trust, defense, and identity in the church again. I am so thankful for that.

Less Good

• I just don’t like her that much. I don’t think we’d get along. It made it hard sometimes to empathize because she’s just so cynical, bitter, entitled, and judgmental. And it was harder to swallow, even when she acknowledged it, because it was everything she hated about the church?
• So much of it lacked direction and seemed randomly assembled. The first half was very difficult for me to get into. The part about creating and collapsing their own church was useless, in my opinion. Only three sections were great, and a couple were good, but the rest were just rants with stretched biblical backing.

Recommendation: The disillusioned in the church. Parents, leaders, and teachers trying to understand the mass exodus of Millennials from faith.

Whew. Honestly I don’t want to read seven books in a month again because this review was far too tedious to write.