The other day I was putting together my Christmas wish list and realized that a good portion of the things I’d love to receive are book-related. That’s not terribly surprising. I’m a book person through and through. Since it can be so tough finding unique Christmas present ideas, I thought I’d share some of my best ideas for gifts for book lovers (besides books that is! Okay, well only a couple books).
I recently discovered this book subscription service and think it’s so cool. They have book subscriptions based on mood, which is a unique, and frankly practical, take. How often do you skip over a book you know you’d love because you’re not in the right mood? I did the 3-month fall subscription and really enjoyed it! You can buy a gift card or a subscription for your favorite reader.
Plant-themed Bookmarks
These bookmarks would make great stocking stuffers for the book lover in your life .
Books Are My Love Language Sweatshirt
I can see myself wearing this sweatshirt pretty much every day through the winter. It looks comfy and cozy, perfect for a day spent reading.
Audiobook Subscription from Libro.fm
This company has such a neat concept and is a great alternative to Amazon for audiobooks. Each purchase supports a local, brick and mortar bookstore. How cool is that?! They have pretty much the same selection as Audible (excepting the Audible exclusive books, which aren’t too terribly common anyways). I’ve been using it for about a year and love it. The double benefit of getting a book and supporting a local bookstore is one of the ideal gifts for book lovers.
One More Chapter Sweatshirt
I love this sweatshirt with every book lover’s mantra proudly on display.
Conversation starters to get you talking about books
These conversation starters sound like an awesome way to get to know your favorite bookish people. I’m dying to try them.
Books Coffee Happiness Tee
This looks like such a comfy tee to wear year round. My entire book club would be jealous.
Classic Books Scratch Off Poster
These posters work overtime as decor and #readinggoals and an incredibly fun sticker chart.
Bookshop.org gift card
This is another way you can buy books online to support local bookstores. You can either purchase a book you know they’ll love or buy a gift card so they can pick out their own book.
Wisdom Tree Book Lamp
How fun is this book lamp? Especially for bookworms that can’t help but read multiple books at once.
My reading life took a sharp turn when we decided it was time to start trying for a baby. I’m the type of person who loves to read any and all books about topics I’m currently curious about. Naturally, this was no different when it comes to pregnancy books! Today I’m sharing some pregnancy and parenting books I’ve already read or am currently reading to prepare for having a baby.
Pregnancy and Parenting Books I Finished
Real Food for Pregnancy
This is a great read even if pregnancy isn’t totally on your radar yet. The way you eat for months or years in advance will affect how your pregnancy goes, not to mention how your monthly cycles go before pregnancy! I feel much more confident about how to eat to nourish my body well from this book.
I adored this book. Emily Oster is an economist who, when she discovered she was pregnant, wanted to find out the whys of common pregnancy advice and the numbers behind them. I feel that way too! She looked up tonnnns of studies and her training as an economist makes her well-suited to interpret the data. I particularly like how she gives you the facts and lets you make a decision for yourself. With no shaming. It was also helpful to read what decisions she made and why. I never felt like I needed to make the same exact decisions as her when reading (well, except maybe the decision not to smoke and do hard drugs, but I digress). This book made me feel a lot more confident when it came to navigating things like lunch meat, scooping the litter boxes, and choosing which prenatal tests to do.
As someone who has lived in France for a year, I found this book fun and nostalgic. The author definitely had a strong French bias – as in, the French parenting way is THE way. That being said, there were still a lot of good things in the book and I’ll probably revisit it again in the future. It’s worth reading as food for thought and a look into another culture, even if you don’t plan on following the advice.
Pregnancy and Parenting Books I’m Currently Reading
Before You Were Born I Knew You
This book is all about “praying for your pregnancy, birth, and baby.” Phylicia is one of my top 3 favorite Instagram follows. I’ve learned so much from her over the years about theology, parenting, and pregnancy! So far I’m loving this book. It’s encouraging and also gives me ways to pray over my pregnancy, upcoming birth, and baby in ways I wouldn’t have thought of (especially since this is our first!). Would highly recommend purchasing this ebook!
I picked this up based on the advice of Nancy Ray and love it so far. I’m going against my grain and NOT reading ahead. The chapters are divided into weeks of pregnancy. Each week gives you an update on what’s happening with your body, with baby, and some advice for the pregnancy in general. I love the more natural approach to birth and am so enjoying reading this one as I go.
This is a book that Charles and I are reading together. I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed when it comes to all the different parenting styles and philosophies. Since we’ll both be working after baby is born, I felt that a structured parenting style made more sense for us, so this is what we’re starting with. I’d love to read books with other philosophies as well, but I haven’t stumbled across any yet. I would love your recommendations if you have any!
I only got a few pages into this book before I had to flip to the front and check the date it was originally published. Since this book was written in 1965, the way it describes hospital births is very much outdated. Even so, it was fascinating to hear about how childbirth often took place in the early 20th century and see how it evolved over the years. For example, oftentimes the fathers weren’t even allowed in the delivery room. Even today, while it would be crazy not to expect a husband or father to be in the delivery room, there’s still an idea that he’s a mostly useless person in there. I love how this book brings about awareness of a husband’s supporting role and changes his role from mostly passive observer to active participant and coach.
This one came recommended by a LOT of people I trust. Even though I had heard about it for years and knew that there was a lot of New Age influence, I really didn’t know much about it until I started reading. Spoiler: there’s a lot of New Age influence. I started by reading the birth stories in the beginning. They were all positive and encouraging, but some of them felt a little out there to me. I’m currently skipping ahead to the second section of the book which is more about the physiological process of natural childbirth, which is much more helpful and informative for me. It’s definitely worth a read if you’re intrigued by natural childbirth!
This book came recommended by Emily Thomas on her wonderful blog and has a lot of solid advice on hitting developmental milestones. I started skipping around in it because I felt like it was a bit too early for me to find it useful. It would definitely be a book handy to have on the shelf when we have a little one learning to crawl around. In the meantime, I’m using it to figure out which baby gear I should register for, or as more often the case is, which I should NOT. This book was also helpful to skim before we looked at daycares, as it gave me more specific things to look for and questions to ask.
P.S. Emily has some other great recommendations on pregnancy and parenting books here.
This is another one that feels a bit too early for me to be reading without an actual child in our home yet. I’ve started skimming this one as well and plan to come back to it when our baby is a little older. It’s all about how simplifying brings about real and significant mental health benefits for your children. As I crave a simple and more minimalistic household anyways, this totally jives with me.
What pregnancy and early parenting books do you recommend?
Almost all of the books I’m reading I’ve found through recommendations. I’d love to hear what books you’ve read and found interesting, useful, or encouraging!
You might be seeingThe Midnight Libraryby Matt Haig popping up on summer reading lists a lot this year. It’s a popular book right now! It was a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award winner, New York Times best seller, and a Good Morning America book club pick. My book club and I recently finished reading it and we had a LOT to discuss. So is it worth reading?
I’d say so!
But also… that depends!
The last book we read took me a while to get into. Like, a couple hundred pages. The Secret Keeper had me pretty hooked from about page 10, which is always a fun thing to happen when you’re reading! But expectation didn’t quite meet reality for me with this book.
For one, this book should have definitely come with some kind of warning about the suicide themes in it. It’s a major part of the book that hits you about 10% of the way in. We had someone in our group that just experienced a loss (like the week we started reading it). We probably would have picked a different book if we knew.
One of my group members also pointed out that when a book like this has suicide as a major plot point, there should be a number for the suicide hotline or something. I don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers in saying that at the end of the book, suicide isn’t seen as the answer to all of everyone’s problems…. but you had to get to the end of the book for it to make that clear.
How do you feel about philosophy?
Descriptions of the book made it sound like it would be heavy on philosophy. And while there were a few quotes, and a pet named after a philosopher, it wasn’t a super heavy theme in the book. Depending on your feelings about philosophy, that could be a good OR a bad thing.
How do you feel about alternate realities?
Some people have BIG feelings about things like whether there is such a thing as an alternate reality. If that’s you, that may hinder your enjoyment of this book. The book definitely operates under the presumption that there is such a thing, and it’s a large part of the plot. This doesn’t really bother me, but if that’s something that could ruin a book for you, you’ve been warned.
I did feel that the way the alternate realities was handled in the book felt a bit sloppy. There were some missed opportunities and I felt that if the author had spent some more time writing, they could have made the book a bit more interesting and intricate.
My TLDR
The Midnight Library was an easy, entertaining read that I’d recommend. It’s not something that I’d probably read again and again, but not many books are! It would make a great vacation read. Overall I liked the message that your life is worth living. But probably the book could have listed some help hotlines and maybe a trigger warning for suicide at the front.
In general, I somewhat expected a book that was more intellectual and serious than it ended up being.
Did you read The Midnight Library?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below.
In the month of March I completed 7 books and read approximately 2,528 pages. Not every book I read deserves its own blog post (like this one), but I always love hearing what other people have enjoyed. Or better yet, what they have NOT enjoyed. So I thought I’d share some of my recent reads (and my ratings for them) here.
How I rate books
Here’s my simple star rating I’ve been using. I tend to give out 4 stars very generously. I suspect that the more I read, and the more I rate and pay attention to what I liked and didn’t like in a book, the less generous I’ll be with those stars. But only time will tell!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
It was amazing
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Really liked it
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Liked it
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
It was okay
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Did Not Finish and/or really disliked it
Books I’ve read recently
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I love love love Louise Penny’s series. This particular book almost felt like there were too many different narratives going on. At the same time, she has such a way of capturing people. I love that she shows you how they’re perceived by other people and then later how those misconceptions can be so, so wrong. This book definitely plays a lot with perception and reputation. Also, this is the second time I’ve read it and I remember there being a totally different murderer, so obviously I did not pay close attention the first time around. Ha.
HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style by Elizabeth Holmes
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This book was a delight. I’ve been following Elizabeth Holmes on instagram for a couple of years now and LOVE her commentary on royal fashion. It’s made me so much aware of how much your clothes speak for you! She included so many gorgeous pictures in this one too. I bought this before Christmas but didn’t dive in until this interview. And then I spent the next week obsessing over all things British royals. Thus the next book….
Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words by Andrew Morton
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This biography was written after Diana top secretly recorded herself sharing all about her life. With that in mind, I had to keep reminding myself that it was definitely biased to her point of view. Even so, I found it so tragic and beautiful. What stands out to me is the legacy Diana has left vs the legacy Prince Charles will leave. In part, I’m sure it’s due to her martyr status. If she hadn’t been killed at such a young age, the world might remember her differently.
But I think that it’s also so much more. He scoffed at the way she spent her time and felt that she should put “duty” first like him. She poured herself into her boys first and marginalized people groups second and accomplished so much more in her short lifetime. Those are the kind of upside-down principles that Jesus talked about so much, so I love to see real-life examples of them. She’s definitely an example of how “feminine” traits (such as compassionate, people-centric, and intuition) while seeming to be weaker, can actually accomplish so much more in the long run, and always have a lasting impact on the hearts of people.
This book was written by the Chief Usher of the White House, who worked closely with the first families from 1956 to 1969. It was so fascinating to see how the different presidents and their families lived – their different personalities and how they coped with the presidency. J.B. West definitely held back when he could have been more salacious, which I have mixed feelings about. I love that he protected their privacy even when he wasn’t required to, but also I would have liked to see more truth brought to life I guess? He certainly made Kennedy seem like a family man when he was quite the opposite. Even so, I still highly recommend the book!
I finished the last book that Diana Gabaldon has released in the Outlander series last year and have gone back to re-listen. I love what Gabaldon has done with this series. It’s fantasy and historical fiction and romance. The characters are believable and interesting. And I learn so much listening to them! I actually see the length of the books as a plus, too. Sometimes it’s tough to start new books and get introduced to new characters and settings while multi-tasking. Since I LOVE to listen to audiobooks while cooking, cleaning, driving, etc., relistening to really long series makes me really happy.
This particular book feels like it goes so fast at times and SO slow at others. Finding out who the main antagonist of the book is at the end was quite a surprise. I’ve learned from reading this book that I enjoy a good twist.
This series is NOT rated PG and there are a number of trigger warnings.
The first time I read the Louise Penny books, I raced through all 12 that were out (at the time). Now I’m going through them a bit more slowly and looking forward to 2-3 whole new books I’ve never even read. This particular one starts off a little slow and then the last 2-3 chapters fly by and I’m immediately looking for the next book in the series to read. It has to do with murder at a monastery, which opens up all kinds of life questions. 100% recommend this series for anyone who loves mysteries!
Historically I have not been great at abandoning books I’m not enjoying. I definitely want to get better at that! There’s way too many quality books out there for me to spend time reading something that makes me miserable. I only have one officially abandoned book out of the books I’ve read recently:
Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Charles and I were listening to this fantasy series together and grew pretty bored with it. The first book showed a lot of promise, though we weren’t totally satisfied with it either. The main character never knows what’s going on and just seems to get dragged along from place to place. There are also A LOT of made up gods and races in this series that we were having a tough time keeping track of. Perhaps it would be better if we weren’t listening! But we finally called it quits and now we look forward to listening to books together again.
Last month I checked something exciting off my bucket list by starting a BOOK CLUB! I don’t know why it took me so many years of my life before I was in a book club, but here I am and I couldn’t be happier! We kicked things off with The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. This book was a WILD. RIDE. and ended up being a great book to start off with.
I actually read this book the first time a couple of years ago. I found myself thinking about it for months afterward. There were different things that came back to me even after that, which is a big deal since I’m the type of person who forgets what happens in books approximately 2 days after finishing them. The book started off slow for me but is definitely worth pushing through for the end! I refused to let my husband talk to me when I got to the last 30 pages because I was so wrapped up in what was happening. And this was when I already knew what happened!
Quick Summary
The book follows two main storylines. The first begins in 1961 with a 16-year-old Laurel. The Nicholsons are a tight-knit family, but Laurel is at the age where she’s starting to pull away and become more independent. During a family birthday party, she’s hiding from her sisters when her daydreams are interrupted when she witnesses her mom kill an unfamiliar man with a cake knife. Obviously things are not the same for Laurel after that. We fast forward to 2011 as she tries to unravel the event she witnessed in 1961 before her ailing mother dies.
In the second storyline, we follow a set of characters in the 1940s in wartime London, including Laurel’s mother Dorothy. It was so interesting to get a better idea of what London was like during World War II. I had heard of air raids and rationing and the like, but this book made it so much more clear in my mind.
The book has themes of family, secrets (duh), and aging. It’s a beautiful read. Kate Morton’s prose is fantastic. I found myself underlining pretty and insightful sentences over and over. She also does such a fantastic job with character development. The characters feel like real people and the family dynamic is so on point. It led to us discussing our own family dynamics during book club. If you’re looking for a book club book, I’d definitely recommend The Secret Keeper.
Have you ever been in a book club before? Tell me all your thoughts!
I LOVE a good book on productivity. Not because I am a super organized, productive person. Quite the opposite actually. Discipline, organization, and productivity do not come naturally to me. I have to work really hard at it, and I’m always trying to figure out how people do the things that they do. I was really intrigued hearing about Do More Better by Tim Challies.
This is the first book I’ve read about productivity from a Christian perspective. He starts off by talking about the theology of productivity, which I love. We so often forget how much the things we believe about God affect the way that we live our lives. In this book, Challies walks you through the steps to determine your areas of responsibility and let go of any of the things you don’t need to be doing. So helpful! The rest of the book is about finding the right tools. Challies recommends getting one tool for each of these arenas:
Task management
Scheduling
Information collection
Task Management Tools
He highly recommends Todoist, which I had heard about before but hadn’t really used. I decided to give it a whirl since the free version is so robust. I set it up the way Challies recommends using the “areas of responsibility” I had worked through earlier in the book and wow wow wow, I love it. My productivity skyrocketed after I implemented this tool. Having ALL my tasks in one place where I could easily prioritize the important and the urgent gave me peace of mind and the focus that I was lacking. It also helped me realize that I was biting off way more than I could chew. My frustrations in not getting “enough” done were often because I tried to do too much.
Because I’m the research-obsessed person that I am, I did a fair amount of googling other task management tools as well. Asana, Trello, Google Gasks, and remember the milk all came up a lot. I also considered utilizing the reminders/tasks app in my iPhone as well. The main consideration is that it should be something that’s fairly simple to set up and something that you’ll actually use.
Scheduling Tools
This was a tool I did not need to spend any time implementing. I already have my Google Calendar and my Apple Calendar synced. I love how Google Calendar can pull appointment suggestions from emails. For example, when the veterinarian sends an email with the next appointment, Google automatically adds it as a calendar event. Syncing it with my apple calendar makes it so that I can view those appointments (plus the address and any other info I saved) on any of my devices.
At some point I’d like to start sharing Google Calendars with Charles, but since both of us are home almost 24/7 still, there’s really no need.
Information Collection Tools
The last toolset he recommends is an information collection tool. Reading this chapter inspired me to start using Evernote again. I used it a lot in wedding planning, but haven’t used it since. I created a new free account to start fresh and plan to start saving things like tax documents, car documents, etc., there. These are things that I’ve previously saved on my computer, which I backup about twice a year. The benefit of saving them in Evernote instead is that it’ll give me more labeling and search options, but also be a more secure backup and allow me to access them from any device. Win win win.
The thing I didn’t love about this book
One thing that was incredibly distracting for me in what was overall a great book was the author’s examples in regards to women’s productivity. It was evident that he comes from a strong traditional, complementarian background. All of his examples of women involved them doing tasks at home, for their husbands, or for their children, whereas the examples he had of men’s productivity varied greatly. Even if I strongly believed in traditional gender roles, these examples would still come across as tone-deaf. What about women who aren’t married and don’t have kids? What about women who ARE married and do have kids but also lead small groups, start a book club, run a ministry, work outside the home in order to pay the bills, and so on.
I debated sharing this as an issue, as the book isn’t actually about gender roles. In the end, I decided to share because I found this distracting and it left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. That being said, I think it’s a fantastic book to read, particularly if you feel like your life is missing the organizational frameworks necessary to keep track of tasks, appointments, and important information.
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
