Sunshine Days
favorites
The end of November just snuck right up on me this year with Thanksgiving being a little later in the month. I hope you are all feeling more on top of life than I am at the moment!
In news that should not excited me as much as it does... My local library has a new director, & that means we have Hoopla again! (Small town drama, am I right?!) I'm very much looking forward to having the chance to work through my "favorites" list & hopefully get back to listening to more books next month.
Not my typical book, it's part memoir, part self-help, part humor, part academic. This brother-sister author team brought forward an incredibly painful part of their life in order to make others feel less alone. The brother is a comedian & writer in the entertainment industry, finding humor in his experiences. The sister took a different path to dealing with the pain of her youth to become a doctor who works to give each of her patients the support she never felt she received. It's insightful & poignant. The book will resonate with many who have experienced feeling like an outsider simply because of the body they live in.
Sharon McMahon is a very popular figure on Instagram, doling out historic & civic facts that we all should've learned in high school. She used to pride herself on being very centrist/unbiased in her analysis, but in recent months, her bias has unfortunately become more obvious. This book is interesting, fitting right into the author's wheelhouse of giving us information that should really be in those textbooks. (I did recognize Septima Clark's name because there was a school named for her back in the Charleston, SC area where I grew up, so I really liked learning more about her!) Sharon does a pretty great job of bringing the stories to life, making this a great read for any history lover.
Along the same lines as The Anxious Generation and The Coddling of the American Mind (both by Jonathan Haidt), this book analyzes the correlation between the rise in mental health crises & the growth of the mental health profession. The author poses the very real concern that we are creating many of the problems our young people are facing. While Anxious focused on the ills of social media and online gaming, the author here focuses on the medical community & their complicity in encouraging these extraordinary behaviors. If you don't get to read this book, just take this one warning that Shirer gives: Don't let a medical professional bully you into leaving your child in a room alone with them. Yep, even as the child gets older. The "mental health questionnaires" are intrusive & destructive. Your child's mental health is important, but you don't need a doctor to tell you that! (OK, I'm getting down off my soapbox.)
I had the chance to read this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. I am so interested in this idea of creating a culture of disciple making. Gravitt starts his book by establishing the reasons for a solid foundation, using the story of the building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's an apt illustration! He then walks through the do's and don't's of enacting such a program in your church. Obviously, this book was aimed at people in church leadership who make these types of decisions. But I can see how many of these principles can be carried out by any believer. After all, we are all called to make disciples!
I listened to this book, but I could see buying a physical copy in order to read it as more of a study. I really think it could be fun to set it next to Scripture to read the verses in context & discuss with other ladies. I do appreciate much of Abigail's message of how women are not "less than" in Scripture & they are not "less than" in the Church, the home, and in the world. Just because their roles look different from those of men, doesn't make the role that men have as better. We are gloriously different. We are not supposed to be the same. We are also not supposed to cave into what society says we are. Our Creator King has told us who we are & we can rest in the identity He has given us.
A collection of short biographical sketches, this book is a helpful resource for young readers who are learning about the long journey for racial equality. While this author's focus is on justice for those of African heritage, racism & the Civil Rights movement extends far beyond into other races & discrimination. The figures we learn about made changes that are being felt in those fights as well. While I do not adhere to every word of the author's commentary, I do appreciate his desire to introduce these concepts & important people to young people.
My daughter & I are slowly nearing the end of our Betsy-Tacy journey. In this book, we watch Betsy enjoy her senior year & graduate from high school. Her friendships are changing, her goals are maturing. She finally seems to be seeing eye-to-eye with Joe. It's so interesting to read these books & see the differences in so much of our culture from that time period. Dating & expectations & education--all was so different from our modern times.
That's all for this month! And now with Christmas coming, we'll see what actually gets done....
Cheering you on!
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