Ninety percent of the books I read come from recommendations on blogs I follow. In the spirit of paying it forward, I thought I’d start sharing my reads as well in a monthly round-up.
My goal for April was to read four books, though really what I wanted was to stop wasting all my nursing time refreshing Facebook over and over. Seven books later, I’m going to call the month a success. It’s unusual for me the last few years to have read so many fiction books. I think it’s the summer weather. Even if I can’t be at the beach, light reads are perfect this time of year.
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby by Tracy Hogg. As with most parenting books, I took what I wanted and left what didn’t jive with my own parenting philosophies. Paige and I had started to develop a routine right at the time I read this book and Hogg’s sleep-eat-play philosophy helped me fine tune things for us. I found the advice around setting a routine more useful than the advice around sleep as it wasn’t split out by age and I didn’t feel comfortable with some of her suggestions for my two month old.
Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady’s Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy by Kim West. This book (and advice from my SIL, Brittany) is the reason I’m awake to write this blog post. We went from bedtime taking nearly two hours and sleep stretches of only ninety minutes or two hours max to twenty minute bedtime and four to five hour stretches of blessed sleep. No tears have been shed, everyone is getting more sleep, and we all wake up smiling. I love that the book is broken out by age and that the techniques we’ve used to help Paige sleep better seem completely appropriate for her. I bought a copy of this book and plan to continue with the techniques as she grows.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. Sometimes you just want a sweet young adult love story to get lost in for a bit and high school love, complete with cringe worthy moments, annoying parents, and popular kids is perfect for that. If I had to pick one beach read for this summer it would definitely be Eleanor & Park.
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. This is a sweet tribute to the time the author spent reading with his mom after her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. I loved all the book suggestions, but really loved the story of a mother and son making the best of what time they have left with each other.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. By the time books show up in my library queue I’ve usually forgotten what they are about. This book, while a relatively easy fiction read, delves into some heavy topics without making them feel weighty. At the same time it’s a sweet love story and has you thinking about how we treat the disabled in our community. High recommend and would put it in my new made up category of “beach read with good social commentary”.
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty. This is a great summer beach read. It’s my second Moriarty book and while I enjoyed What Alice Forgot more, this one is entertaining as well. Its the story of thirty something triplets and their age and current life status is something I could really identify with right now.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. This book has been on my Goodreads ‘want to read’ list for years. It came up in The End of Your Life Book Club and I added it to my library holds and finally managed to read it. It won the Pulitzer Prize so it’s obviously a good book, but is it terrible if I admit I’m at a place where I’m enjoying beach reads a bit more?
I’m currently reading Beautiful Ruins and have a few more books by Liane Moriarty on deck for our vacation. I doubt I’ll read as much in June given that I want to spend some time ‘working’ around nutrition, but I still plan to spend my nursing time with my nose in a book instead of the internet.
West Coast Martins 