Books on my nightstand for the weekend of July 26-28th
I’ve long since wanted to write book reviews and have started many but then never finish them or publish them. Maybe I will at some point, but it seems easier just to show what’s on my nightstand with some snippets. And then if you readers want to know more or want to start a conversation about any of them, I would love to dive deeper into what resonates with others.
Summer weekends (what’s left of them) are turning out to be my reading time where I have large chunks of time to read. Ahhhh…and I love reading.
My mom can attest to many nights as a kid where she’d find me awake well after my bedtime with my head under the covers and a stolen flashlight trying to keep on reading. She always took away my flashlight, sadly… or that’s my memory of it…
I love reading.
Some books stay for a long while….others come and go and come back…and others are read in a couple days and move out to the bookshelves.
Here’s this weekend’s line up….from top to bottom…
This weekend’s book pile….reviewed from top ol’ the pile to bottom…complete with kid approved ladybug bookmark.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood
Just picked this up this week at a used bookstore after a coaching conversation about money and where do my fears of financial scarcity come from. And besides, a good friend encouraged me this week to read something “foreign” from her home country - of Canada. Atwood is one of my favorite feminist writers – we can thank her for Handmaid’s Tale and other goodies. I’ve just started the book but Atwood promises to explore all the taboo nature of talking about finances along with capitalistic and patriarchal notions that create and fuel our beliefs about money.
If Women Rose Rooted: The Journey to Authenticity and Belonging by Sharon Blackie
This is a re-read because I loved it and I’m attending a workshop in a couple months by Blackie who is an Irish writer and psychologist. I want to write a whole other post about this book and its impact on my thinking. In short, she refutes Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey and creates the Eco-Heroine’s journey by weaving in Irish myths and storytelling along with contemporary heroine’s work. It’s about reclaiming, voicing, rooting down, and growing as women. So. Good. Must. Read. Re-read.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Well, multiple friends recommended this book to me and I’m so glad even though ancient what-nots are NOT my thang. I loved the re-telling of the story of a strong, yet kept down (at first), goddess/nymph/woman/witch – Circe. While fiction, it fit wonderfully as a break from my non-fiction read on women’s rage (Rage Becomes Her, coming last in this list.) I felt envious at first for Circe’s hundreds of years to overcome the patriarchal, oppressive gods system she was born into and envious over her time to commit to developing her powers and witchcraft, as it were. Read this in 2 days, and dragged out the last couple chapters 2 more days so it wouldn’t end.
Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Helps Us Grow by Elizabeth Lesser
Literally, just came in the mail yesterday so I was only able to open it last night and read the intro before falling asleep. This one was a recommendation from my coach trainer/creater, Martha Beck. It’s like Lesser wrote the first part for me! The book is a series of stories about her own life and those whom she’s worked with over the years at her Omega Institute. She starts in the introduction with a quote by Anaïs Nin,
And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
Was more painful than the risk it took to bloom.
Let that sit with ya for a bit…
Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life by Darcey Steinke
New release on menopause meant to tell a different story than the typical ‘shhh, don’t talk about it’ or ‘try to make like it isn’t happening’ approaches that women face from everyone it seems. I’m recently coming into these conversations about menopause so it’s fascinating to know the history and research on it. Steinke writes it as a diary without dates but with data and other resources reflected on combined with the author’s own experiences. Steinke connects our discomfort with menopause being similar to our “intolerance” for women’s anger. Shifting the purpose of a woman’s life away from the “girl meets boy” narrative to one where women are the heroine’s of their own lives through “girl meets adventure.”
The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming your Power, Creativity, Brilliance, and Dreams by Debbie Ford
The Dark Side is another coaching recommendation and has been a many-month read, in part, because it causes so much reflection and self-work as I read. This book definitely has a lot of underlining and margin notes and is one I refer others to in my coaching practice. If I could sum it up thus far (and it won’t do it justice), it’s about knowing that the issues I/we have with other people are actually my/our own issues looking back at me/us. Then once I/we have awareness of what those (my shadows) are, I/we can start to accept them back as part of me/us – as gifts to my/our growth.
The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children by Shefali Tsabary
I heard her talk about the approach on an Oprah Super Soul podcast (check it out here) and just kept resonating with it. What I gather is it is kinda like with Debbie Ford’s work – know your own shit and shadows as a person so you can be more intentional as a parent and not project your own issues onto your kid. But I realize this has been on my nightstand for a few months and needs to be moved to the top to read as G gets ready to start 1st grade…
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly
Finally, we get to this. I could write A LOT about this topic and likely will post on it later but here’s a start. Never in HIStory has it been okay or acceptable for women to express their anger. As such, anger gets internalized and turn in on ourselves (emotionally and physically) and taken out on (usually) other women and kids through forms like gossip and power. Men’s anger = accepted, passionate, a leader. Yet, what is our anger, as women, there to show us? Chemaly says this of anger:
“it is a rational and emotional response to trespass, violation, and moral disorder…
Anger warns us viscerally of violation, threat, and insult.”
Anger and rage has a purpose; yet, how out of touch have I been with that purpose and how have I allowed it instead to affect my health. And how often this comes up in conversations with other women that I have, especially in our current political climate. This will be topic I’ll grabble with for a while and would encourage other women to pick up and read…
What writing this has taught me about myself and my current reading patterns:
· I have amazing friends who recommend some badass books! Keep it up, people!
· I’m drawn to (or likely pushed to) examine women’s (including my own) rage and anger (at society, politics, people, relationships, ourselves).
· I’m really, really drawn to reading and talking about the journey or questing that life/universe invites us to go on in this human body. How this questing looks for women today and through history. How those who choose to embrace their quest as opposed to those who are numb and just floating through their life. Maybe it’s the researcher in me or maybe this just reflects my own stage in life…
What you reading and loving?
How do books show up in your life to teach you things?
I hope you pick up something good to read this weekend! Check out your local used or new bookstore today!
And let me know if you want to dive into any of these more with me….