Skip to main content

What I Read in November

Flowers from Pike Place Market

This month I spent more time finally catching up on my scads of magazines than I did reading hard or soft-bound books. I'd let my magazine pile get pretty tall over the past 6-8 weeks (some over 6 months) simply because of moving, and life. I love magazines and devour 3-4 subscriptions a year. I don't have a tablet but even if I did I might still pay the extra amount for the in-your-hand shiny paper feel. I love Relevant and just renewed that for my perhaps sixth year, though I was all caught up on those. I also have gotten Martha  Stewart Living for free over the last three years or so (Thanks, Recyclebank!) although that has recently come to it's end. Sad. I'll get over it.

The magazine that is the prize-winner, though, is Mental Floss. I literally had 3 issues backlogged because of moving and just reading them one after the other was like a week-long giant sundae with about 7 cherries on top. It's a random magazine that has all sorts of stories that are well written, witty, and fascinating. Who ever knew you wanted a magazine with a front cover picture of a Napoleonic cat riding a unicorn? Surely, you do!

Followed by my gorging plate of trivia, I slowed down to read front-to-back three quaterly issues of Taproot Magazine. This magazine is more like a book than a magazine, because there are no ads, the articles can be very long, and there are always a couple recipes for whole foods meals and DIY craft instructions. The photography and the artwork is usually really great, and although it's expensive (hence, no ads), I got it late last year when I found out one of my favorite artists, Geninne Zlatkis was going to be producing the 4 cover art pieces for the year.

The two books I did manage to finish this month were:
Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist  I really expected this book to be a bit more pushy and argumentative than it was.  I don't often follow Sarah's blog, but I have read a few things I liked and I wanted to know what was inside her book with the provocative title. The main gist of this book is to encourage the egalitarian view of women within the church and in their life's calling. I found this book to be repetitive, and I felt like the last page or two of each chapter was basically saying the same thing over and over again.

Small Victories by Anne Lamott: Anne has another book out and I waited quite impatiently with my library to have the privilege to be the first to pick it up. She can pretty much do no wrong and her books usually flatten me with her wordy metaphors and quirky personality flaws. I haven't finished this but I'm over halfway. I'll do a full review in December.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Home School Activities: Board Games We Love

My children have recently become enthralled in the world of board games. I was never a board game player. Sure, I remember long summer hours (days? it seemed like it..) spent around a Monopoly board, but I was never one to suggest to get out the cards, or a game. As my children have grown and they are now able to do activities with me, I started noticing that they really took to puzzles (when done all together) and the one or two board games I happened to have kept in the storage room. They were always asking to play Candy Land and so I figured I should branch off a bit. Over the course of the last year, I have found GREAT games, even ones that I love to play alongside them. The amount of 'teaching' they have gotten through games is jaw-dropping. Counting, team-playing, math related patterning, are just some of the skills I've watched develop. I asked before Christmas on facebook what my friends and their own kids loved and I was thrilled with the response. We have found ov

July Reads

Birch Bay Sunset, rainbow hues July has been hot out here. When you live in the top story of an apartment building, and there's no air conditioning, it can feel just over the needle of uncomfortably warm when the day is above 76 degrees. We've kept blinds shut, windows open, and a fan continually blowing as it's perched in our living room window well. Just about the only thing I feel like doing after a long day is laying on the couch straight in the fan's air circulation path, and read a good book. I had some unique picks this month. * #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso  This book was just plain fun to read. Amoruso developed the iconic ebay store NastyGal way back when vintage selling on ebay was a thing. Now she's a millionaire with a kicking website that she started from scratch and didn't owe a dime to anyone else for. It's a great 200 pager with stories on dumpster diving for daily food, entrepreneurship tips, and being the backwards kid that no one t

Top 10 Books of 2017

early sunset in Ft Langley  I love reading all these "Top 10" lists of favorite books read throughout the year, so I'm adding my two cents.  I'm involved in a Book Club that I love with women from our church, a small group that meets every week and goes through a book every few months, my own list, books I'm reading aloud to the kids and  books I'm reading for educational purposes (think professional development). I took a look at all of those combined and this is what I got, in no particular order:  *  The Problem of God  by Mark Clark - I loved going through this academic apologetic book with my friends from church. It led us to great discussion, and good food for thought. I listen to Clark's sermons every week and so knew I'd probably love his writing style, too. If you have objections to Christianity, or are feeling confused about what to believe, this is a great primer.  * You're Smarter Than You Think  by Dr. Thomas Armstron