I don’t hoard many things. My friend Krissy jokes when my kids get presents, I immediately throw them in the trash, because I don’t want more things in our home.

That’s a slight exaggeration, but I do sometimes worry my kids will be in therapy later about the ruthless way their mother got rid of all their stuff. But in all honesty, they’re already in therapy, and I throw away everyone’s stuff, not just theirs, on a regular basis.

My point is, I hate stuff. I’m against clutter. I don’t think more is better.

Except for books.

Give me all the books.

I predict one day I will die as a result of a very tall pile of books falling on me while I’m trying to add just one more to the top. I have no restraint when it comes to books.

With that confession out in the open, I have decided I need to stop buying all the books for a minute and focus more on reading them. Not that I haven’t been reading. I read all the time. But I buy them faster than I can read them and things are getting a little out of balance.

This year, I want to be intentional about tackling some of the books I’ve been meaning to read, but haven’t because I get distracted when I randomly grab a new book at the library or order another new book from Amazon. It’s embarrassing how many great books I have waiting to be read. So here’s what I’m reading in 2018:

Parenting books
Battlefield of the Mind For Kids by Joyce Meyer
Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World by Marybeth Hicks
13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do: Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success by Amy Morin
Bringing Up Girls: Practical Advice and Encouragement For Those Shaping the Next Generation of Women by Dr. James Dobson

Enneagram books
The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth by Christopher L. Heuertz
The Road Back to You Study Guide by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile (I read the book last fall, but my friends and I are going through it together and we’re using this guide.)
The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert

Quiet time books or studies
(I’m finishing The Daily Bible by the end of January. Yes, I am taking thirteen months to read the Bible in a year. *high five* When I’m done, I’ll be using these for my morning Bible study time.)
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
30 Days to Peace: A One-Month Creative Journal
30 Days to Joy: A One-Month Creative Journal
The Most Misused Verses in the Bible by Eric J. Bargerhuff
Out of Context: How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible by Richard Schultz
The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories are Misunderstood by Eric J. Bargerhuff
Write the Word: Cultivate Renewal by Lara Casey
She Reads Truth: Romans

Fiction/Memoir/Poetry books
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle
Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan
The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Shrill by Lindy West
Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

Writing + creative books
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart
Blog Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
On Writing by Stephen King (I’ve read this before and want to re-read it.)
On Writing Well by William Zinsser (I read this in college but want to re-read it as well.)

Self-Help + healing books
Safe People: How to Find Relationships That are Good for You by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend
Codependent No More by Melody Beattie
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
Boundaries by Dr. Henry Coud & Dr. John Townsend (I read this last year and want to visit it again.)
Not Quite Healed by Cecil Murphey & Gary Roe
Getting the Love You Want Workbook by Harville Hendrix (Chris and I will do this together; we haven’t read the book it goes with so we might have to add that to the list at some point.)

Confession #2: As I was making this list, I kept grabbing more books off my shelves to add, because I’m starting to get anxious about saying I’m going to read these specific books. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER GOOD BOOKS THAT NEED ME TO READ THEM?

I’m an Enneagram type 8 so the minute anyone tries to control what I do (even myself!), I react by doing the opposite. I hate being bossed around so this will go well, I can tell. *sighhhhh*

This is normally the part where I ask for your recommendations or book suggestions, but I’m too weak right now. I can’t even hear what someone else is reading, because I will get distracted by it. So instead, have you read any of these? I’m all over the place with books. I can tell you without even reading these that some of them will contradict each other (I mean, come on, Lindy West and Dr. Dobson on the same list? We’re in for some exciting times, guys!).

 

DISCLOSURE: AFFILIATE LINKS USED FOR SOME OF THESE BOOKS.

I read some things last month.

I would never had said I could lose my love of consuming books, but September was hard and I didn’t read much. October (my favorite month of the year) found me emerging from the fog and picking up some books again.

Here’s what I read:

The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
This book. The Road Back to You will make my list of top books of 2017 without a doubt. Learning about the Enneagram has rocked my world, and I’m completely sure it will rock yours too. Please read this book. Let’s be better friends, spouses, parents, children, workers, and humans together. (I’m writing more about this next week, don’t you worry.)

Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is always just what I need. Especially last month (oh, and this month too…) when I needed to be reminded again and again of what mercy looks like in my life and what it looks like in others’ lives. If you love the craft of writing or want to be reminded of God’s goodness in our lives, Hallelujah Anyway is a good one.

A Fierce Love by Shauna Shanks
No. Absolutely not. I hated this book. I ended up quitting it a few chapters from the end. In A Fierce Love, Shauna Shanks tells the story of her husband cheating on her, staying in their house while saying he wants to be with the other woman, and her lessons through this horrible time. I picked this up hoping for a little marriage encouragement and Shanks is so sappy, sweet, and submissive I felt physically ill reading it. Her reactions to her husband’s betrayal feels fake and forced–this whole story felt weird.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
You know I loved Made You Up by Francesca Zappia last year. Or was it two years ago? Either way, I love that book. Her new one, Eliza and Her Monsters, is okay but not as all-consuming for me. I’m not a big fan of stories with two story lines (Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl did this too; I didn’t like it then either), especially when it gets too fan fiction or sci-fi. Two genres I just can’t seem to get into. But younger readers are going to like this one. I liked it, but it was going to be hard to compete with Made You Up no matter what Zappia came up with.

Read anything good in October?

Two things happen when I’m going through a tough time: I want to read books I can relate to in the midst of my struggle, and I want to read books that have absolutely nothing to do with my struggle.

Immersion and avoidance.

So here’s what I read in August:

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel
Mogel is a Jewish child therapist and family counselor who wants us to raise self-reliant children and gives such good ideas and information. Even without the religious background of why, this book is chock-full of wise advice and practical ways to raise kids who will eventually be on their own. If we want the best for our children, we need to raise them with that end in mind. Mogel provides us with a guide on how to do that well.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
As we all know, I love a good romance YA novel. This book is the third and final story in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. Lara Jean is a high school senior trying to juggle college applications while still planning a future with her high school sweetheart. It’s cheesy but fun. I will say, this series is pretty clean in terms of YA novels. The main character chooses not to have sex with her boyfriend and that’s not the normal choice for teenagers in fiction; it’s addressed in the story and I think parents would be safe in recommending this to their kids. (They’re turning the first book into a movie–so read it before the movie comes out!)

The Magic of Motherhood by Ashlee Gadd
GAG. Don’t read this book please. It’s a waste of time. The cover, layout, and inside photography are absolutely beautiful so you’re going to be drawn to this collection of essays on motherhood by random people who write on the internet. But don’t be fooled. The writing isn’t good, and it feels forced. I quit halfway through because I’m afraid bad writing is contagious.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub
I downloaded this audio book for a week I was spending a lot of time driving for work and needed something high-interest and beach read-ish to listen to. The Vacationers did not disappoint. It centers around a couple whose marriage is crumbling due to infidelity and they take one last family vacation because it was already planned before everything came crashing down. The couple’s kids are older, one is graduating high school and one is in his late twenties living in another state, and everyone travels to the beautiful Italian countryside to spend a few weeks. The relationships, the betrayal, all of it felt hard and wonderful. This book is enjoyable and I related to it in more ways than I imagined I would. Good summer read.

Searching For Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
This is good. Very good. If you wrestle with faith, grew up churched but feel weird about it now, find it difficult to connect Jesus to what his church does, or just wonder about what you’ve been taught–this is the book for you. Reading Held Evans was challenging. I felt her echo things I’ve struggled with. Sometimes I agreed with her thoughts and biblical interpretation and sometimes I did not. But her heart–and her love of Jesus after pushing hard against things that felt off about her faith–is beautiful to read. I highly recommend this book to get you thinking.

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing by Jen Waite
This book was an impulse download from my public library. A memoir about a woman who was married to a textbook psychopath, Waite tells the story of meeting, marrying, and having a baby with a man who seemed perfect but then a switch is flipped and he’s gone in an instant. As things start to unravel, she realizes the lies she’s been fed her entire relationship and the manipulation she’s been under from the beginning. You won’t be able to put this one down; it’s a shocking train wreck you can’t turn away from. I will mention, Waite isn’t that great of a writer, but it’s easily ignored when her story is so compelling. As the book ends, you can see there isn’t much resolution–it feels she’s still currently living this mess, still healing, and she just rushed a book out before she could complete the story–and that’s kind of annoying, but it’s still worth a read.

That’s it for August. What did you read last month?

 

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DISCLOSURE: AFFILIATE LINKS USED

As I shared a few weeks ago, I’m taking a break from the Saturday Weekend Read book reviews. The main reason is I’m not making time to write the individual reviews, and I would start stacking up books to write reviews over, dread it, and then not write anything at all (even other posts) because I would see this stack of books waiting to be reviewed.

This is not the only reason I haven’t been writing recently, but it’s one of my many excuses. Email me for a list of my other, just as lame, ones.

So now I’m just writing a post to wrap-up what I read during a given month.

We’ll see how long this lasts.

July was full but relaxing. Is that possible? I got some good reading time in.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Read this book. It’s YA fiction with an unreliable narrator and such a great twist! It started off a little slow, but when it finally got interesting, it got reallly interesting. The main character is a rich high school girl from a Kennedy-esque family on the east coast. Her and her cousins spend a month each summer with their families and grandfather on their own private island near Martha’s Vineyard. One summer something bad happens and Cadence can’t remember exactly what it was or why everything is so different now. That’s all I can say, but read this book and then tell me what you think! (I’m actually using this book as my first book club with students this school year, and I can’t wait to read it again with them.)

Kill You Last by Todd Strasser

This is the summer I tried to stop buying more books and made a pointed effort to work through my to-read list. It had gotten a little out of control and so I started requesting all of them from our local library and just working my way through them all. Kill You Last was on the list and I actually have no idea why. What I’m guessing is a student told me to read it. It’s a YA mystery-thriller book and sorta cheesy. It’s something I would have loved in middle school, but it was just silly as an adult. Give it to a middle level reader–but don’t bother with it yourself.

Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Oh, man. This one is good. Really good. It was on my to-read list and I borrowed it from the library, but I liked it so much I want to buy my own copy so I can read it again and write in it. Bolz-Weber is an atypical woman minister in the Lutheran church. Her path to Jesus follower is broken and bumpy but it is so good. She doesn’t shy away from things she doesn’t understand, worries she has about our witness, and loving people the traditional Christian system has said we shouldn’t. I found a whole lotta Jesus and a whole lotta Jesus in this book. I highly recommend it for anyone who struggles with what Christianity looks like or questions what the Church is doing. This book will make you think even if every single thing she writes isn’t something you agree with.

The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch

The majority of the time I read The Chronology of Water, I was afraid to tell anyone. This book is rough and, in a lot of parts, really horrific. Yuknavitch has had a really painful, horrible life that started with a father who sexually abused her and her sister. And from that place of absolute brokenness, she goes on a rampage of self-destruction. At times, I could only read a chapter and then I’d have to let it sit for a few days. What kept me going was Yuknavitch’s AMAZING writing and the hope that she could recover her life. I recommend this book but with caution. It’s hard to read the things she lives through and so many of the choices she makes as a young adult. This book is full of heartbreak and misery–but stick with it. It’s worth it.

The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Historical fiction isn’t normally my jam, but I picked this up at a thrift store and it sounded interesting. The Aviator’s Wife is a fictional look at the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her famous husband, Charles Lindbergh. It covers their unconventional marriage, the kidnapping of their first baby, their children, their adventures, and their struggles. The Aviator’s Wife is such an interesting book. The shadow Anne had to live in, the distant Charles who was never around, and the secrets revealed as his life nears its end are engaging and compelling. Reading this book makes you want to go get a biography of Charles and read more about Anne. Their story probably isn’t what you think it is. (If you like historical fiction, I’d also recommend The Paris Wife by Paula McLain about Hemingway’s first wife Hadley; these books felt similar to me.)

Read any good books in July? What are you currently reading?

LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS? ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ? WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING? FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO ALL THINGS BOOK-RELATED: @THEMARYGRAHAMREADS.

DISCLOSURE: AFFILIATE LINKS USED

This is, for now, the end. I’ve felt it for a minute, but couldn’t figure out how to actually do it. The end of the weekend read book reviews. For a while, I’ve felt it was a chore to write the reviews. I would stack finished books on my desk but never get around to writing about them. I’d forget to take a book picture before returning a borrowed book to the library. I’d start to write a review and then never come back to it. I dreaded having to write a post about a book I read. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to realize I don’t have to write them. This is my blog! I can do whatever I want! I don’t have to write book reviews! No one is the boss of me here! *leprechaun kick* For now, I’ll still be sharing books I read on my book Instagram account. What I imagine happening is maybe a monthly rundown of what I’ve read with just a short blurb about a book as opposed to a whole dedicated Saturday post. Who knows if that will actually happen or not. But for now, it’s goodbye weekend reads. Will they be back later? Will this go to the remember when? section like outfits posts and how-tos? No. One. Knows. 

Gulp. This book is super creepy.

The Spider and the Fly by Claudia Rowe is a true-crime story of a serial killer and the reporter who tries to figure him out. I need to start with saying, I’ve been listening to the My Favorite Murder podcast and apparently I have a morbid curiosity with murders. Do with that what you will.

So when I came across The Spider and the Fly at my local library, I added it to my stack without hesitation. The night I started reading it, I woke up at 3 AM absolutely terrified, sure someone was in my house getting ready to kill me.

Now I remember why I don’t read scary stories.

But still, this book memorized me. Rowe explores serial killer Kendall Francios’ life, reasons, and history to try and figure out what leads a man to become a serial killer. But Rowe doesn’t keep her distance from the story, she makes it personal, crossing lines reporters are told not to, and the story becomes about her redemption as well as Francios’ unraveling.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. It’s creepy and chilling and horrible. The Spider and the Fly by Claudia Rowe asks whether serial killers are truly human and relateable to all of us and the answers she finds will scare you. Read this one, but only with the lights on in the middle of the day. Okay, thanks.

Purchase a copy of The Spider and the Fly by Claudia Rowe here.

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Oh my goodness, this book is so twisted and dark.

Sometimes when I go to find audio books on our public library’s site, I get frustrated because all the books I want have a waitlist, and I don’t like to wait for things. It annoys me that all the books I want to read are also wanted by other people. LAME. So I put my name on a million lists and then just start clicking other titles they recommend out of fear of never getting an audio book checked out…and that’s how I ended up with My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry. (Side note: without fail 3-5 books I’ve been waiting for FOREVER will all show up within a few days of each other and then I have to hold marathon listening sessions not from joy of reading, but fear of losing the book and going to the bottom of the list again.)

ANYWAY. Back to My Husband’s Wife. Gah, this book is dark, dark, dark. If you like psychological thrillers with twisted endings, this book is for you. (And the audio book is read by a woman with a British accent which makes the story that much better, truthfully.)

The story centers on Lily, a self-conscious, unhappy woman who meets and marries a man within a few months. There are problems from the beginning, but you think they’re her issues and not his. As the story switches from present-day (someone is covered in blood and dying–we don’t know who) and the past (Lily’s life as a criminal lawyer), the reader begins to understand the choices that have led Lily to unknowingly make moral choices that will affect her life and those around her forever. By the end of the story, one person is dead and two are in jail. Goodness, this book is messed up.

I loved it and it was highly engaging. This would make a great vacation read, you’ll be hooked and won’t want to do anything else until you get to the end so leave room for lots of reading when you start this one. My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry is enjoyable and chilling.

Buy a copy of My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry here.

LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS? ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ? WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING? FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO ALL THINGS BOOK-RELATED: @THEMARYGRAHAMREADS.

I came across You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson while we were in New York City last fall. I love visiting independent bookstores in places we visit and try to buy at least one book every place we visit. Since I’m on a budget, I often can’t buy every book I find so I end up taking pictures of them with my phone and then adding them to my to-read list when I have a minute.

I ended up getting You Can’t Touch My Hair for Christmas. I love Robinson’s no-nonsense style of writing and truth-telling. She’s funny, smart, and thoughtful. Her recall of pop culture events from her childhood is shockingly accurate. I seriously can’t understand how she remembers that much about her youth.

Beside the humor, You Can’t Touch My Hair is also thought-provoking and socially conscious. Robinson makes good points about living as a black woman in America, women’s issues, and struggles to still have the same rights as other sexes and races. I enjoyed reading this book even if some of her views differ from my own. But hearing from someone whose life experiences are different than mine is always helpful and important so I’m going to keep reading books that push me and make me think. I highly recommend you do the same thing and You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson is a great place to start.

Buy a copy of You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson here.

LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS? ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ? WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING? FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO ALL THINGS BOOK-RELATED: @THEMARYGRAHAMREADS.

I’m not actually sure how I ended up downloading this audio book from the library. I think all the books I was looking for were wait-listed and this title was suggested. I was desperate. I clicked download.

Stretch by Scott Sonenshein is all about people and companies that do more with less and the idea that most of the time, the more resources, money, time, etc. we have means we accomplish less. When our resources are limited, we’re more likely to think outside the box and be more creative.

I like those claims because I always feel like I don’t have enough time, resources, money, or anything else. I always wish I had more: more hours in the day, more time to sleep, more weekend, more patience, more margin.

Stretch is all about how constraints and challenges actually work in our benefit. It’s chock full of stories of people and companies who were able to stretch when they came up against challenges and how stretching actually led to their success.

If business, growth, creativity, or doing more with less is your thing, I highly recommend you check out Stretch by Scott Sonenshein. It’s an inspiring, interesting read.

Buy a copy of Stretch by Scott Sonenshein here.

LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS? ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ? WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING? FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO ALL THINGS BOOK-RELATED: @THEMARYGRAHAMREADS.

Um, what?

I learned about We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler when someone shared it on Instagram. It is an interesting book. It’s hard to give a good summary without giving away part of the story the reader isn’t told until about halfway through, but I’ll try…

The main character, Rosemary, is missing a sibling. The circumstances are iffy and the narrator’s memory from when she was a small girl is unreliable, but from her point of view, it’s definitely Rosemary’s fault. Her older brother blames her. Her mom’s depression and downward spiral are all her fault.

But no one is talking about what happened. As a reader, you’re often left with questions and stories that don’t seem complete. And then. And then you learn the rest of the story.

It’s definitely a unique book. At times I felt lost as I read the story, but as the missing bits start to come out, you’re left with a family trying to do the right thing even though it hurts and destroys so much. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler would be a good book club read because you’ll need to ask questions and share your thoughts with someone.

Buy a copy of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler here.

LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS? ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ? WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING? FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO ALL THINGS BOOK-RELATED: @THEMARYGRAHAMREADS.