Hi friends!
May was a great month for
reading. While we’re experiencing the expected ups and downs of maternity leave
with a two year-old and a newborn here, it’s nice to be able to catch a few
moments to read to either escape into a fantasy world or to think about
possible solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. I got to read the
best book I’ve read by far this year – spoiler alert see Moment of Lift below – so that that was nice.
Also, I’ve included more pics
of my adorable children in a shameless attempt to attract a wider audience. I
guess that makes this a mommy blog and a reading blog. Although that might
limit my audience to bibliophile mommies, and I’m not sure how big that
demographic is. Oh well, maybe I’ve found my niche! Let me know if you fit that
category.
Shout out to my Mom and my
sister and brother-in-law Jon and Julia for recommending some of the books I read
this month. Also to Bill Gates, but there’s no way he reads this. Side bar: I
follow Bill Gates on social media — is this weird? — and I pretty much wait
with baited breath for his book recommendations because the man reads some
great books! So if you follow him too, you might see some overlap.
As always, let me know if you've read and enjoyed any of these books and if you have any recommendations for future reading.
Happy days and happy reading!
Tonya
The Four Agreements: A
Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Miguel Ruiz
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Sure
Review: This book had some good advice:
speak impeccably, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, and
always do your best. Ruiz is a type of medicine man from the Toltec tribe, and
explains that these four tenets are the way to a life free from the evils of
this hellish world. I thought he made some good points, but he wrapped the
advice in assumptions that he made no attempt to justify and in a lingo that
was a little too mystical for my liking. Like I said, his message and the
advice made sense to me, but the delivery method was questionable.
Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes
Review: The best part of this book is
that it’s short, to the point, and packs a punch. Beard is a professor of
classics and brings her knowledge of all things ancient and Roman to an
interesting question: what has been the relationship between women and power
over the centuries? The answer is unsurprisingly depressing. Turns out that
forbidding women from holding power is not a new phenomenon. She illustrates
this with examples from several classic texts and myths and then draws
modern-day parallels to the MeToo movement, and the mistreatment of female
politicians in our day. She concludes that instead of trying to forcefully
change the power mechanisms present in our society today to accommodate women,
we should redefine what it means to hold and wield power in our society. She
does all of this in just over 100 pages, which makes the whole thing even more
convincing.
Capital in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Piketty
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes, especially for those trying to figure out what’s wrong with the world
Review: I decided a while ago
that I wanted to better understand income inequality and what the heck happened
with the world that led to the resurgence of nationalism and populism when the
events of the 20th century seemed to definitively illustrate that
these were really bad ideas. So, I read this 750-page book written by a French
economist about income inequality. Did this book need to be 750 pages to
understand what I wanted to know? Probably not. There was a lot of extraneous
information that could have been cut or reduced, but I understand that Piketty
was building an argument that he knew would be, and since has been viciously
attacked from all sides and all angles, so he wanted to thoroughly prove his
point. In the end, he recommends a world-wide wealth tax to address the
problems that capitalism has created since the 1980s. He goes into depth
explaining what would need to happen to create and enforce this tax and why it’s
justified. After slogging through his entire argument and reasoning, I have to
say that it makes sense to me too.
The Powder Mage Series (Books 1-3) by Brian McClellan
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes for those who enjoy epic fantasy
Review: These books fall
soundly in the epic fantasy, creative magic system, and intense world-building
genre. (Any fantasy book that starts with a map generally falls in this category.)
McClellan delivered several interesting surprises that broke the typical
storytelling arc throughout the three books, and the action scenes had my heart
thumping and my fingers glued to the book. McClellan clearly has a gift for intricate
plots, weaving together multiple storylines, and writing action-packed
sometimes graphic scenes. While McClellan does a good job creating heroes who
are flawed but still likable, some of the character arcs could have had more
development. Overall, a great addition to the genre, but not quite on par with
some of the books from my favorite fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson.
The Moment of Lift by
Melinda Gates
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes!
Everyone should read this book!
Review: This was the best book that I’ve read this
year, and everyone should read it. As noted above, I follow Bill Gates on
social media, so when I learned that his wife, Melinda, had written this book, I
knew I wanted to read it. This book changed the way that I think about the
world. In particular, it opened my eyes to the importance of empowering women
to eliminate extreme poverty. She explains her own journey as she came to
understand why women’s empowerment is crucial, and beautifully expounds stories
from her own experiences and from women she considers role models. I loved her
definition of feminism: “Being a feminist means believing that every woman
should be able to pursue her potential, and that men and women should work
together to take down the barriers and end the biases that still hold women
back.” I agree completely! Parts of this book were very hard to read, and parts
of them I could strongly relate to. As a Girl Mom, I want my daughters to inherit
a world where they won’t have to think about many of the problems described in
this book because we’ll have solved them. Seems like a worthy goal to work
towards.
Mommy Corner!
Maya looking as cute as ever.
Chloe took her first pictures. She's got some natural talent.
I've been working hard to make sure Maya has a breast milk stash when I go back to work. Any other mom's out there do something similar? I now live in fear of a prolonged power outage...
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