BOOKS
I’m not sure this is the best time to start reading a book about childbirth and midwifery, but this book is burning a hole in my book pile and I’m too curious to wait. It may very well go right back to that pile after a page or two, depending on the graphic-ness, but the idea of reading a midwife’s journal while I anticipate the birth of my first child is just too poetic not to give a shot.
We heard Jonathan Martin preach this past Sunday, and up until that point, I wasn’t quite sure why our pastor was so excited. Okay, great, a guest preacher. But then, as I settled in to a new voice and new perspective from the pulpit, and after I started crying without being able to stop, I realized why he couldn’t wait for us to hear Jonathan Martin. I loved what he had to say about the Parable of the Lost Son (or two lost sons), and I’m psyched to start reading his book. (Pastor Chris ran up to his office after the service just to get me his copy to take home.)
TELEVISION
I am never the first to find a tv show, so why start now? And yet, I have finally found this entertaining, witty show that allows me to enter a world I don’t understand while sitting on my couch and decompressing. It’s not as intense as some of the other shows I’ve watched, and this is a good thing. Without that intensity, it still works through issues of family, relationships, self-preservation, selfishness, and creativity. I love it.
MUSIC
Gabe and I saw this funny and heart-felt duo in a small, black performance space. Our elbows kept touching, I couldn’t cross my legs, but none of that mattered when the music filled the room. They peppered their performance with stories, and afterward, we stood in line to buy their latest record and have them sign it. I love their folky-country vibe.
READ IN 2019
Kitchen Yarns — Ann Hood
READ IN 2018
Living with a Wild God — Barbara Ehrenreich
Miller’s Valley — Anna Quindlen
Enon — Paul Harding
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking — Susan Cain
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine — Gail Honeyman
When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos — Jordan B. Peterson
READ IN 2017
[this is my most embarrassing year of reading since the age of 5 — I blame falling in love and getting married, but I’m still not so sure that’s a good enough excuse]
America’s Women — Gail Collins
My Name is Lucy Barton — Elizabeth Strout
Commonwealth — Ann Patchett
The Bean Treas — Barabara Kingsolver
Road to Little Dribbling — Bill Bryson
Upstream — Mary Oliver
READ IN 2016
Searching for Sunday — Rachel Held Evans
Captivating [sometimes I read for research…]
Yes Please — Amy Poehler
What Do Women Want? [again, research]
A Field Guide to Getting Lost — Rebecca Solnit
He — Robert A. Johnson
The Enlarged Heart — Cynthia Zarin
The Road to Character — David Brooks
Tips from the Top — Kreigh Knerr
The Giver — Lois Lowry
Pastrix — Nadia Bolz-Weber
Wise Blood — Flannery O’Connor
Ariel — Sylvia Plath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
Far From the Madding Crowd — Thomas Hardy
The Colossus — Sylvia Plath
Gut Feelings — Gerd Gigerenzer