Blogging for Books- Take 2

The Daily Question: My Five Year Spiritual Journal

by Waterbrook

Think Goodreads states it best on their description of this book... The short questions at the top of each page are quick to answer—but their impact could be life changing! You’ll go back and answer the same question a year later for five years in a row, creating a time capsule of soul transformation.

This description intrigued me and as someone who likes to journal I thought- Why not?  So it arrived and it is lovely, useful, and easy to get done daily.  The cover is very serene, not overly feminine, but pretty with blue, green and white flowers and leaves gracing it's cover. The size, 4 x6, in hardbound cover makes it just "cute" if I can describe a book's cover in that way.  It is also small enough in size to take in purses, travel bags, etc.   Each day has a question to journal or answer daily.   I was worried it was going to be overboard with "religion", but it really is more "spiritual".  Here are some examples of questions I've answered thus far:

What do you have a hard time leaving as is?

Do you feel more comfortable alone or in big groups?

When God looks at you, He sees _____.  When you look at yourself, you see______.

What motivated you today?

Each page as a date and month and then there are 5 areas on each page that start with 20___.  You fill in the year and write your answer- you get about 4 lines per that day's answer.  The goal is to answer the daily questions and in 5 years you will have a book of answers, ideas, and perspectives on your life, your spiritual being and I think the ultimate goal is these answers will help you know yourself better.

I REALLY like this style of journal.  It is reasonably priced- $14.99 and I liked it so much I have already purchased a few others as Christmas/Birthday gifts for special people in my life.  My only negative comment is the type face and front cover art is very feminine and I think it is heavily marketed for women, but I think the above questions could be asked to a man and it could be marketed to either sex as a way to journal yourself over 5 year's time.  That's the only negative. 

I'm so grateful my Bookie friend introduced me to Blogging for Books. I thank Blogging for Books for sending me this book for review.  Can't wait to order my next one.   

September Reads

The following are what I read or listened to in September.  These days I'm averaging about 1-2 audiobooks per month and then 2-3 books of reading per month- monthly average about 5 reads. If I could change one thing in my reading life it would be to be reading more.  One thought is all the time I waste on social media and email daily.  So I'm going to try a new daily time limit on both "tempters" per day.  It is the middle of October so we will see how many books I can read by the end of the year However, I also think my ability to read or listen to more books also correlates with how great the "reads" are.  September I read some books with pretty heavy subject matter and that tends to weigh me down in my speed of reading.  I also, recognize that my "likability" for a certain book can also increase the speed of reading.  So books I love I read quick, books I am not really digging I tend to get in a "holding pattern" and can't quite get it done as fast as I'd like.  So with 2 and 1/2 months left in my 2017 reading year I plan to try and be more thoughtful in the books I invite into my life in hopes that I will become a more productive reader.  If anyone has any great suggestions on how to become a more productive reader let me know.  Happy Reading !

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

One of my audiobooks for September.  It was just OK.  I liked the premise which was an 11 year old girl, Anna O'Donell, has stopped eating, and only takes water, but lives on. "How does she survive on water alone" the main plot line.   Due to the amazing feat of the fasting of this girl the local catholic church wants to document this miracle and so the community brings in a nurse and nun from outside the village to observe her fasting and document that the child is truly involved in a miracle- subsiding by faith alone.  The book takes place in Ireland, and the nurse is a former student of the one and only Florence Nightingale.  I think I was more intrigued with the nurse's story more then the child's story throughout the book.  This book could read like a mystery: What is keeping this girl alive if she isn't taking any sustenance?  Why did this girl start fasting?  What is the back story with the girl's family?  and Lastly, how does the nurse and her back story play into the book?  I didn't realize until after listening to the book that this author wrote the nationally acclaimed, and made into a movie, "The Room".  Can see some cross over in psychology topics from the two stories. Wonder if when writing this type of story the author experiences any depression, anxiety, stress over the character's duress endured?  

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

This was our book club read for the month of September.  I have had it on my "to read" list for several years and was happy to finally get pushed to read it.  It is an amazing story of 9 Americans who persevered at collegiate level crew and then went onto represent the USA in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Things I liked about this book were the characters: Joe Rantz (came from nothing, bad family situation throughout childhood and even through adulthood, amazing girlfriend/wife who helps him accomplish much, and amazing strength to overcome physical/emotional odds), Al Ubrickson (coach of the Washington crew team, and 1936 USA crew team, serious, stern, non-emotional, amazing leader while man of few words), and George Pocock (builder of the boats, talented craftsman, mentor to many especially Joe Rantz, silent supporter). I also, of course, loved the way Daniel wove the history of pre-WWII stories into the story of these 9 men.  What I struggled with in the book was the minutiae, the details, the over explanation of some of the rowing techniques and at times the book just seemed to slog along.  I'm glad I read it and it was an extremely good reminder of what one can do mentally to overcome physical, financial, and social roadblocks in life.  There is a YA version of this book and think it would be very motivational for a junior high aged student to read.

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Last month I listened to "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and loved it.  Well no disappointment again with this book on audio.  Jenny reads the story herself, which I think makes this audiobook even more enjoyable, and believable.  In "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" Jenny tells some pretty funny and not always funny stories about her life, her family, her marriage, etc.  This book takes it a step further and the elephant in the room is really let out- Jenny's battle with mental illness.  I know how can a book about anxiety and depression be so enjoyable? Well that's where Jenny's talent to tell it like it is and not get overly morose comes in to save the day.  This is a five star book and I encourage anyone to go out and get this book.  All of us know someone or maybe personally have struggled with anxiety and depression and this book allows us to talk about and explore the mental illness struggle with open eyes and some humor.  Please, read this book or better yet listen to it!

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

The cover had me immediately. I knew I would read this book, just by the looking at the cover.  I know maybe not the most intellectual way to decide to read a book, but most author's and editors/publishers know that the cover can sometimes make or break the book.  Well this cover sells the book very well. However, I was somewhat disappointed by how the cover made me think what I was getting into was a WWII story that would be informative, but yet a little dreamlike, filled by of course horrors, but more so by "niceness"/"romanticized" war stories and friendship as the lilacs and the three friends walking arm in arm so portrayed to me.  Well I was hoodwinked!  This story is a WWII story about women and it was VERY informative of a little place called Ravensbruck- largest concentration camp for women during WWII.  Two of the main characters are present in this camp- one a polish girl and the other one of the only female German physicians at the camp.  The last character never steps foot in the camp, but is an American who works at the French consulate. Their I'm really not going to say much because this book will suck you in and the stories of these three will unfold, weave together, and ultimately give the reader a picture of the horrors of WWII, the aftermath that I was somewhat oblivious to (What happened to people of Poland- mainly Polish women), and the way life and things like love, family, and friendship continue on during some of the most trying times in history.

  

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

I was asked the other day if you could recommend an author to read who would it be. I answered, "Louise Penny".  I LOVE her Armand Gamache series and this is the latest.  I LOVE her books so much I pre-ordered this one to arrive to my door after it was released.  I recommend reading this series in order- this is #13.  Louise has an amazing way of writing a mystery that allows the reader to visualize or make the picture of the story as graphic as the reader wants.  She doesn't give every detail of the atrocity committed. She writes just enough to let the reader take it from there and that is true writing genius.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy a good old blood/guts murder mystery, but her mystery writing is really story writing with a little death, deception, and sin written in.  Her characters are so believable.  Her setting is so believable- it reads like creative nonfiction. You will want to go to "Three Pines" and meet the people who live in this fictitious community after reading just the first book.  I again won't discuss the story line here, because that would just be giving it away.  Instead I hope if you haven't read her Armand Gamache series this review pushes you to getting to the library, visiting your local bookstore, or going online and purchasing her first in the series "Still Life", and reading on from there- you won't be disappointed!  

The Power of Meaning- my first Blogging For Books Review

So one of my Bookies has been blogging a lot about books lately.  I'm pretty jealous she blogs about books at least once a week, not once a month like me- there always has to be an over achiever among us :).  So this Bookie introduced me to this great site bloggingforbooks.com.  You sign up and the company will send you a book.  All you need to do in return is blog about it- get the word out about the book they sent you.  Before you can request another book you need to post a review.  So with no further ado here is my first review of my blogging for books Book.  

Emily Esfahani Smith has put together a great read about finding purpose or meaning in your life.  I think no better than the present to be reading this book as I've struggled recently with answering some of life's tough questions: am I making a difference in my patients lives?  Am I having a positive impact on my children as their mom?  What do I need to be doing to figure out what my true purpose is on this earth?  So when I saw this book as an option I jumped at the chance to review it.  

I could tell this book was a good one because since I own it I can write in it and underlie sentences or phrases that catch my eye during reading.  This book has a lot of chattynatty script now written in it- a sign of a good book.  

Overall I gave this book four stars.  Although nonfiction Emily does a great job of weaving real life stories throughout the book and the weaving of educational content on finding purpose/meaning along with these personal stories really makes the book flow quite easily.  It was a fast read and smooth going.  The only reason I couldn't give it a full 5 stars was there was one part of the book that just didn't do anything for me.  I think this is just because of the content and the type of gal I am.  That part was chapter 5 on Transcendence. This however, was just one of the many chapters and I got so much out of the rest of the book that I still would highly recommend this book to anyone who is like me that is always asking the What if's?  or the Why's? or the How come's?  

The words or themes that most impacted me in my reading were her evaluation of four pillars of meaning: belonging, purpose, storytelling and transcendence.   Belonging is such an epic part of having meaning within this life road we are on.  Emily, as I said a few lines earlier, has an amazing way to talk about research studies in one line/paragraph and then the next line or paragraph is tying the research study and it's findings in with a personal story and "belonging" the personal stories definitely impressed upon me the importance of having loved ones, family and friends present in your life to give it meaning and feel purposeful.  The purpose section of the book was great also.  I loved the story in this chapter that highlighted a man named Coss Marte.  He grew up on New York's lower east side.  It wasn't a great neighborhood and he got involved in drugs and went on to become a successful and very rich drug dealer.  However, his dealing and selling drugs ended one night when over two pounds of cocaine and $5000 in cash were found in his apartment.  He was sentenced to prison.  He became very focused on health and wellness within the prison and he also found his faith.  He helped others become healthy through physical fitness on daily basis in prison.    When he left prison he decided to open a gym to continue his purpose of helping others be healthy.  He today is a successful owner of gym that utilizes a prison-style workout program to help his members get in shape.  Emily writes "Coss's story contains an important insight: living purposefully require self-reflection and self-knowledge.  Each of us has different strengths , talents, insights and experiences that shape who we are.  And so each of us will have a different purpose, one that fits with who we are and what we value- one that fits our identity".

The third pillar is storytelling.  This may sound kind of cheap or chintzy, but it makes sense.  I especially liked the discussion and definition of "narrative identity".  Emily writes... "McAdams describes narrative identity as an internalized story you create about yourself- a personal myth, as one writer puts it, 'about who we are deep down- where we come from, how we got this way, and what it all means". Later she comments, "When we want people to understand us, we share our story or parts of it with them; when we want to know who another person is, we ask them to share part of their story in turn." I could totally identify with this idea.  I love to share my life story with others and in turn I also like asking people I meet about their stories.  I am definitely a story teller.  

Although I said I didn't like the transcendence chapter it is one of the four pillars.  Emily defines transcendence as "experience is one in which we feel that we have risen above the everyday world to experience a higher reality."   Maybe this is just to lofty a thought so maybe hard for me to grasp.  However, what I did take away from this chapter was a reminder of how important being present and being mindful is in figuring out or understanding one's purpose or meaning in life.  The famous quote of Jon Kabat-Zinn reads "mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgementally."  This was a needed reminder.  

I also very much appreciated in the beginning of the book how she spends time analyzing/evaluating the idea that being happy is equivalent to having meaning/purpose.  I won't give away what she found when she researched this topic.  You'll have to read it to find out what role happiness plays into our purpose in life.  

It was a great book to review, so with that I will say thank you for this book  Blogging for Books