Far From the Madding Crowd

This book is by Thomas Hardy, an English novelist of the early 20th century.  The heroine is Bathsheba, but she is a tragic character, struggling against her passions and social circumstances, a favorite topic for writers of this time.  Three different men love her and want her as their wife, but her capricious folly and skewed ideas of what love means cause her to make tragic choices.  The writing style is very descriptive and I especially admired his description of a stormy night where I could feel and wind and cold and see and hear the lightning, etc.  It is also a lesson in the agrarian life of its characters.  The societal dos and don'ts limit the desires of the people and cause scandal and distress to the townspeople.  Bathsheba is a strong, independent woman, but succumbs to her misled passions, realizing too late the consequences of her rash choices.  I enjoyed the book.  If you've read it, tell me what you think the title represents!!

This book was just lovely. It saved me on my 9 hour flight from Venice to Canada where I hadn't downloaded the app to watch movies on the plane. I freaked out for a minute then realized I had this book to read!

It is set in Ireland as the author is a famous Irish novelist. Chicky is a girl who leaves her homeland for New York and returns years later. She buys an old house and sets up a bed and breakfast. The story begins with her story, and then each chapter is the background and story of characters who come to stay at her bed and breakfast for a week in winter. It really is like reading a bunch of short stories, but they all connect somehow. Characters are mentioned in others chapters and then you get to learn their background during their own chapter. Well written and an easy read. It was fun and made me think about going to Ireland someday, but not in winter!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I listened to this book while cleaning at night and during the day (thanks Poppy!)  She starts by giving some background on what a happiness project is. Then she lays out her happiness project and what she did and learned throughout the year. She has lots of research on happiness and has several quotes that are very enlightening. I plan to get the physical copy of the book for Christmas so I can underline and highlight it. There is even a coloring book with some of her best quotes on Amazon!

What she did was pick 12 general areas to work on each month. January was Energy, February was Marriage, one month was Work, etc, etc. Each month she had smaller checklist goals that she would follow. For her energy month it was declutter, get more sleep, etc. Her goal was to make them habits and continue doing each months goals in addition to the current month she was in.

I found it very interesting to listen to. She had some good points, but here were some of my favorite/ones I remember:

-Be yourself. Sometimes we think, I shouldn't feel this way or need this, but I do, and thats ok. (She mentioned she loves getting gold stars for anything she does. She shouldn't need them, but she wants them)

-50% of your happiness is genetic. The other 50% is your life. So you do have a lot of control.

-Realize that you might be doing things "for other people" but you are really doing it for yourself. And that's ok.

-Kids DO bring happiness. She sighted some article that said having kids lowers your happiness because you lose freedom. She called BS and said she is able to enjoy more things that she would not do or experience if she didn't have kids. (Go to zoos, watch silly cartoons, etc)

Thats all for now. A great book with great ideas. It motivated me to clean out my closet and be a better mom.

Dressing Your Truth by Carol Tuttle

I just hosted my book club for this book last month. I was very interested in it after Caitlin mentioned they had read it in her book club.

The opening is all about laying the foundation for her profiling system. She emphasizes that each type of energy is beautiful and everyone has all types in them.

The meat of the book is detailing qualities, challenges, examples of the four energy types. It was fun to read and highlight the parts that were true to me. I immediately profiled myself a type 2. I highlighted almost the whole chapter.

The end is all about how to purchase her online product and why you should spend so much money on yourself because you are worth it, etc. I skimmed most of it.

Our discussion was fun and we had mostly types 3's and 4's with me the only 2 and another girl maybe a type 1. I made cookies to match each type (type 1 of me, or maybe type 2 for the attention to detail). Funfetti cake cookies for Type 1, Almond Poppyseed for type 2, Dark chocolate orange for type 3, and shortbread half dipped in dark chocolate for type 4.

This book is intriguing because I like to profile myself and be a part of a group. As I was reading the Type 1 section I thought, "This is me! I am optimistic, like to make things fun, etc". Then I started reading Type 2 and thought, yep this is me. I struggled through type 3 as it was nothing like me at all, and possibly Logan. Then I ready Type 4 and thought, "This is me! No wait, this is more Logan". So I figured I was a type 2 with a small type 1. And Logan was a type 4/3. Lovely, I hope they get along as well as we do. But then I looked at the clothing she suggests and I was way bummed. Type 2 should wear flowing and gray undertones. Boring! I love my bright yellow shirt and my white and dark color striped shirts! I wished I was a 4. So I reread 4 and thought ya, I am quiet and I LOVE rules, and I like to be alone sometimes. So maybe I am a 2, 1, and 4. Logan said it was all baloney (so type 4) and detailed to me how it was so. He did say that I look best in natural and neutral colors (boo). So, I think I will wear whatever makes me feel happy. I definitely won't wear any type 3 stuff because I don't feel comfortable in it.

The book was fun to read and gave great topics to discuss. Read it and tell me what type you think you are! I have my suspicions for all of you, but she says in the book "Only YOU can type yourself!"

I just finished this book last night for my book club. It was lovely! It's set in Regency times in England. A young woman solicits help from a man to find her betrothed whom she hasn't heard from for quite some time. The story is about their quest to find him and what happens along the way.

Within the first two chapters I had the whole story figured out. I read it quickly so my suspicions could be revealed true. It did seem to drag a little as I was anticipating the ending resolution. Overall it was a fun read.

The main character is a headstrong lady who prefers to do things on her own because she can and has no need for a man to do things for her. I was worried this would be another "female empowerment" issue (I for one don't enjoy those because I like men being gentlemen and women being ladies). But the male character gave a really strong argument on why it is important for men to be gentlemen and for women to allow them to serve them. She says,

"Nathan, I want us to be equals in this. If I am capable enough to do something, why shouldn't I do it? Why does that have to be unladylike, just so a man can put himself above me?"

He replies, "I have no such designs, I know that we are equals. I accept it and rejoice in it. In fact, I think you are far above me, which is as it should be. But for Gosh sake, Moira, let me have a little dignity as a man!"

He then goes on to say that he is a gentleman and he knows of no other way to be, if she doesn't let him be a gentleman then he will feel he isn't doing his best or being true to who he is.

Cute story.

How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen

This book was given to Logan by Poppy. He never read it and my book club chose it for our February book. So I read it and discussed it with Logan :) It has little paragraph summaries at the end of every chapter so he might just read those real quick to get the main ideas.

 It was a bit rough training my brain to read a non fiction book. The first section is all about business and uses business terms and ideas. I got through and it started getting good! I love analogies and this entire book is one big analogy. How you have a successful career/business are the same things that will give you a happy and successful life. The first section was about finding happiness in your career. I discussed with Logan his job and work atmosphere and he found it very enlightening. I tried to connect it to my "career" as stay at home mom and it was a stretch at times, but it worked.

The second section was about finding happiness in your relationships. We have to invest in relationships early on so we can get the returns when we need it most. I loved his ideas about raising kids. We need to teach them how to process things and situations to help them grow and be successful people, rather than just give them "stuff". We need to stop outsourcing our childrens education on hard work to other people. He mostly meant not letting our children do things like clean the house or mow the lawn but paying someone else to do it. The most important thing he talked about was culture. He first talked about the culture of a business, what is allowed and what is expected of employees and employer. Then he said that we need to create a culture in our home or one will create on its own. Figure out the basic principles you want your children to have or emulate. Then you live your life and create or foster experiences that will teach those values. For him one value was to work hard, so he always had a kid in the yard with him when he needed to mow. I think this is really important. If we don't create a culture that we approve of and work towards, a negative or lazy or even rude and damaging culture could materialize.

The last section was about living a life of integrity. It was short and to the point. Don't lie and always keep your promises. Just once will never be just once.

Maisie Dobbs

I just read this book for book club. I really really enjoyed reading this book. So well written and in the middle section reminded me of Downton Abbey. Clean and a great read. It kept you second guessing until the climax!