I love reading just about everything, watching comedy and documentary-type things, and have recently embraced the podcast. I also enjoy hearing about what other people are reading, watching, and listening to. Here's my two cents worth.
Read
The tagline is "for the woman who feels she is both too much and never enough". The authors help work through the reclaiming of these words, both"wild" and "free", and what they mean to us as Christian women. It's a testament to the season of life I am in right now that I can say that I both loved this book, and at the same time cannot remember anything about it. I have approximately zero takeaways from it. I found it so encouraging and enjoyed reading it each evening after long days with the kids (aka each and every day), and yet I'm pretty sure I forgot all but the most blurry of details by the time my head hit the pillow. I'm glad I purchased this one - I will definitely be reading it again someday!
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT. First things first: I refused to buy it. I borrowed my brother's copy of the book when he was done with it. The whole we're-releasing-the-script-because-it's-a-play-but-then-going-to-market-it-like-it's-the-eighth-book just smacked of WE WANT YOUR MONEY to me. I enjoyed it because, well, it's HARRY POTTER, and also, the writing is just so dang good. J.K. Rowling has a clear gift, and Harry Potter is a phenomenon for a very good reason. The dialogue is fantastic, but, y'know, as a play, that's pretty much all there was, and I missed the details and descriptions from the books. I also found the entire plot to be repetitive (you have the entire magical world at your fingertips and - wait - Polyjuice Potion AGAIN?!?) and predictable (I figured out Delphi's parentage WAY before it was "revealed"). It was also pandering: all the going back-and-forth through time to give you different scenarios...it seemed like they wanted to give every possible fandom a taste of what could have been. And yet, I still enjoyed it. Unlike the original books, though, I will probably never read it again. Anyway, tl;dr...if you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll enjoy reading it, but it's not life-changing or anything.
A re-read for me. It's quirky, intelligent, and easy to read. The perfect summer novel, and one of my favorite books. The characters are funny and relatable, and the structure and writing of the book is unlike anything I've read before.
I suppose in retrospect it should have been obvious - clearly I didn't read the description closely enough when I put a hold on it from the library - but this is a cookbook (and pseudo-memoir). I never really wrapped my head around the idea of reading a cookbook until lately. Probably because the only idea in my head of a cookbook was my mom's random Betty Crocker and church cookbooks stashed in a cabinet growing up, occasionally pulled down to make a trusty favorite. No prose; just recipes. Why on earth would you "read" something like that? I stand corrected. I'm already all-in to the author's ideas on the importance and structure on family dinner, but enjoyed reading her thoughts and copied down several recipes from the book that we've already tried ourselves. The Fish Presents and Chicken with Bacon-y Brussels Sprouts were both winners - I could eat the bacon-y Brussels sprouts everyday just on their own. Meal planning had been feeling a little stale lately (no pun intended - ha!), but this book and some new recipes helped rejuvenate what was feeling like such a chore.
Watched
Michael Pollan's book in documentary form. You should ABSOLUTELY read the book before, (or after, it doesn't really matter), though the documentary stands just fine on it's own. It explores how we as humans have harnessed the elements of fire, water, earth, and air to transform our food, focusing hard on one food-item per episode (bread, cheese, etc.). It's fascinating, and ties in to his other works as a commentary on sustainability and eating local. Michael Pollan is also just incredibly well-spoken, and I enjoy listening to him.
Mostly, though, I watched more than my fair share of the Olympics this past month. (USA! USA! USA!)
A short (15-20 minute) podcast by two sisters-in-law that focus on how the truth of the Gospel relate to our work as moms. I love that the episodes are quick and easy to listen to, so I can usually listen to them in one chunk (though not always...#momlife) while getting ready in the morning or cooking dinner in the evening. They touch on a lot of topics, and while with the time limit aren't able to go very in-depth, they are challenging and thought-provoking and I find myself pondering topics I may not otherwise have thought about. One of my favorite episodes is #11: What is Mom's Time Worth?.
Talking to writers? Yes, please! It can get a little fluffy for me when they talk about their process and...I don't know. If you listen, you'll know what I'm talking about. They can just be a little dreamy and frou-frou for someone as realist as me, but I do enjoy listening to some of my favorite authors talk about their works and their process. The first episode I listened to is one of their most recent, with Glennon Doyle Melton (can't wait to read her new book very soon!).
I agree with every word you said about HP. Nailed it.
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