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Things My Son Needs to Know about the World – Fredrik Backman

Rating: 5 stars!!!

Cliff Notes: Fredrik Backman is my favorite author, and I would read the yellow pages if he wrote it. Pause reading this blog post and go put this on your TBR. I can wait…

Full Summary: OK we are back from your TBR. If you saw this on my Goodreads, it looks like I read the book in a foreign language. Nope, just too impatient to wait for the Goodreads entry in English because THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Backman can make you laugh hysterically through the gut wrenching tears left over from the previous paragraph. And as we all know from Truvy in Steel Magnolias, THAT is the best feeling.

This book is different than Backman’s others in that it is non-fiction and is a collection of essays and anecdotes from his early experience with fatherhood. Might be a good choice for all the parents that have cherubs out of school for the summer. This would be a good book to interval read in between giving the kids 1,593,288 snacks per day (even though they only ate once during the school day) and watching them cannon ball into the pool. You all have my thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:33:36-05:00May 25th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Normal People – Sally Rooney

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: Audiobook – excellent with accents!

Full Summary: I wanted to bonk these characters upside the head and drive them to therapy. And the ending! I wanted to throw my phone across the room when I realized it was over because it was SO FRUSTRATING. But alas, that is why it is titled, Normal People. We all do dumb things and are a hot mess in need of therapy.

This easily could have wrapped up with a tidy bow and I applaud the author for not taking that sappy route. I will be back for more from Sally Rooney!

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:33:49-05:00May 24th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Peer Pressure is Real

I am a huge fan of the public library system and at least half of the books I read are borrowed from the library. I use a couple different apps to borrow from the library and promise to cover this in another post. The Libby app is one I use, and man – are they putting on full court press with the peer pressure lately!

10 People Waiting.
I don’t need that kind of pressure in my reading life!

They recently added a new feature that tells you how many people are waiting on you to read the book. The screen above is the first time I have seen this, and I picture all 10 people surrounding me with their arms crossed, feet tapping, eyes rolling. Sighing – the whole 9 yards It is like when you came in from recess on a hot day, and the kids in line behind you at the drinking fountain told you to hurry up before you even bent down for water. “Save some for the fish!” was always the hilarious comment shouted. I hated those bastards.

The notification I want to see is the number of days early I have returned books. Maybe a badge I can put on my Libby profile saying I am a consistent deadline beater! How about it Libby!?

What features do you want added to reading apps to celebrate you!?

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:09:26-05:00May 24th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Daisy Jones & the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5 stars, go add your name to the wait list at the library!

Cliff Notes: Audiobook, narrated by a cast led by Jennifer Beals. I loved the format and the story was heart wrenching.

Full Summary: The heartbreak of unrequited love, addiction and recovery, the strength of women was what made this book so gut wrenching for me. There were several times where I wanted to highlight what I heard to tell you about it, but I listened on audio. And when I say listened – I had a hard time shutting it off.

I also loved the format of unreliable narrators and alternating point of view. The alternating happened immediately, like you would read in a magazine interview or something of that nature instead of alternating chapters or halves of the book like some other novels do.

I think they are making this into a movie, and after listening to it with Jennifer Beals as Daisy, they MUST cast her in that role.

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:33:59-05:00May 23rd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

Rating: Did Not Rate. This is a book I didn’t finish so I did not rate it.

Cliff Notes: Did not resonate with me.

Full Review: This book was one I just did not connect with. Critics have given this book rave reviews and it has sold a gazillion number of copies through the decades. I read about 15% over a week or so and just could not relate.

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:34:11-05:00May 23rd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Lawn Boy – Jonathan Evison

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: Cute story, love the voice of the narrator. Read on Kindle.

Full Summary: I was definitely cheering him on through the story. If this were a TV show I probably would have shouted at the TV a few times when he was making bad choices. I would recommend this book as a beach book perfect for vacation.

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:34:39-05:00May 22nd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Thermacell Lanterns

This post is the first of a new series: Life Savers. It is based on the the Barbara Brown Taylor quote that Jen Hatmaker paraphrases on her podcast. The question is this:

What is saving your life right now?
Barbara Brown Taylor

Yep, such a big, meaty question and the answer is a lantern. But not just ANY lantern, Bob! This lantern gives me HOURS of time in my favorite space with one of my favorite people during my favorite time of the year. Let me explain…

Warm weather is my favorite season. I know that is not a traditional season, but in the South, seasons are untraditional. From April to October in North Carolina I would love to eat all meals outside (even lunch in August when our porch feels like the surface of the sun). I want to read out there. I want to write out there. I want to nap out there. I want to grow my plants and flowers out there. I want to throw the ball for Lucille out there.

… and Lucille wants me to throw the ball for her out there!

But I also love my husband and want to spend a couple minutes of each day with him. But alas, bugs also love him and want to spend *all* the minutes with him. And devour him. So each evening we would shovel our dinner quickly, then he would run inside to avoid bugs. But with this lantern, we can stay out for HOURS. Seriously. I was skeptical and insisted we borrow a friend’s Thermacell first to try it out because it sounded too good to be true. One night we hung out after work on the porch, ate dinner on the porch, forced The Boy to do his homework on the porch, then worked on our individual projects on our laptops on the porch. HOURS of joy!

I don’t really understand how it works, but it really does – even my husband the mosquito magnet agrees. Another bonus is that there is no open flame, no smoky candles. This is important to me because I am clumsy (open flame – yikes) and have asthma (candles and incense – wheeze). We bought refill cartridges when we bought it and replace them every 15-20 hours. And its $30 bucks. It is saving my life right now, making life sustainable.

What barriers are keeping you from doing what you love? Let’s talk about solutions to get you heading towards making life sustainable!

By Susan Sanders|2019-05-20T17:13:23-04:00May 22nd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Quitters DO Win Sometimes!

I often have people talk to me about abandoning books. I have no shame in my DNF (Did Not Finish) game. I am not afraid to abandon a book and encourage you to look at why you would not stop doing something that was not lighting you up. Life is too short to read books that do not put wind in your sails just as life is too short to stay friends with energy vampires and life is too short to wear jeans that are too tight.

It is not that it is a bad book. Despite what James Joyce said, I do not believe there are bad books. I can appreciate how hard an author works on a book and to call it bad just seems like a big kick in the pants. I hope anyone reading what I write will give me grace when something I write doesn’t land with them.

It is hard to abandon books that critics and the public RAVE about. Sometimes I think it is the chapter of life I am in vs. where the author was when he was writing. More often I just decide I am different than everyone else and move onto the next book in the stack.

Let’s talk numbers though. I do believe in skipping the rating if I have not finished a book. I would not want to bring down the average rating for an author if I have not finished a book. I have a specific shelf in Goodreads for DNF books so that I can make sure they do not count in my annual book statistics.

Tell me all your thoughts and opinions about DNFing!

By Susan Sanders|2019-12-12T19:10:38-05:00May 21st, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments

When Dimensions Collide

It is true that we need uncluttered spaces – remember Gretchen Rubin’s Rule of Adulthood, “Outer order leads to inner calm.” And it is true that we should surround ourselves with the things we love – and for me one of those things is books. But sometimes those two ideas are in conflict with each other. What happens when a principle from your mental health dimension collides with a principle from your environmental dimension?

When this conflict – or any conflict really – arises, we need to consider falling back to our priorities. For example, I love to see books on my nightstand. I am excited to see what potential there is in the books that are coming my way. I think books are beautiful – the colors, the fonts, the pictures or photos all lend themselves to an ever-changing decoration scheme of my side of the bed. It is a priority to have things I love around me and easy to access. Its easy to read before bed when there are options at my fingertips.

I don’t love clutter though. Clutter makes me anxious. As Barbara Hemphill tells us: Clutter is postponed decisions. Postponed decisions make me anxious. Therefore, the photo above would be doubling down on that anxiety for me – clutter and procrastination. My palms are sweaty just thinking about it.

In this example I would fall back to my priority of decreasing chaos (i.e. anxiety) by removing SOME of the books from my nightstand. I usually have a stack of about 5 books that are next in line to be read. This allows for books to be part of my landscape (allowing for beautiful things that bring me joy to be visible) while still minimizing clutter because most of my books live in other places around the house. Additionally, I generally do not reread books so when I am done I am very eager to share them with people so books are always leaving my house. While I do have some books that have meant a lot to me that I do keep (admittedly considerably more than the Marie Kondo recommended 30 books), I make sure they are stored / contained / displayed in a way that does spark joy. I can hold both principles at the same time.

Try thinking of the phrase “both / and” instead of “either / or” when making your decisions. It is a way to avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water while still remaining true to what speaks to your soul.

By Susan Sanders|2019-05-20T11:18:34-04:00May 21st, 2019|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

A dog arse in the face is helpful whilst working on hamstring flexibility.

Last September I had knee surgery to clean up some old sports injuries. Part of rehabbing from that is regular strength training and stretching exercises. Lucky for me I have a Physical Therapy Assistant who lives with me full time. Her name is Lucille – here she is helping my with my workouts.

Squirrels are ideal resistance for hip abduction strength training.

By Susan Sanders|2019-05-19T15:51:16-04:00May 20th, 2019|Health & Fitness|0 Comments

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