Right now, I’m working through The Coddling of the American Mind.
I cannot remember where I heard about this book! Maybe on a podcast? In a blog post? I wish I remembered.
Anyway, I got it from the library, and I’m about a quarter of the way through.
Basically, the book’s premise is that we, as a society, are becoming far too fragile in our ability to tolerate discomfort and disagreement, and that our children/teens/college students in particular are becoming more and more mentally and emotionally fragile the more we put them in a “bubble”.
(Things like participation trophies come to mind.)
I don’t have a fully formed opinion on the book yet since I still have so far to go. But I can see the author’s point about how difficult and challenging experiences do often produce more resilience in people.
And I can see how a life where you are protected from almost every difficulty could give you little ability to withstand difficulty.
I am currently reading “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett.
And I just finished “Atomic Habits”, a recommendation from the FG blog.
I recently read The Dutch House too. Even though it’s fiction, it made me appreciate the relative lack of family drama in my own life, lol.
I’ve just finished The Five: the untold stories of the women killed by Jack the Ripper which was fascinating and sad all at the same time. I’ve started today President Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’, I’m glad I’m off work at the moment as it’s a very thick book!!
I’m reading “Parenting Without Borders,” which looks at the way many different countries approach topics like sleep, feeding, education, character building, etc. I like it a lot!
The author is very balanced and explanatory; she’ll show how, say, parents in Sweden and Japan approach feeding their children, and even though the approaches are very different, she highlights the values behind each method and its strengths.
Have you seen the blog Cup of Jo’s “Parenting Around the World” Series? There’s a lot of content on that blog I don’t like, but that series was fascinating. You can find it with a quick Google search.
Gentle and Lowly, S.L.O.W.L.Y………
Dane Ortlund
“The Secret Stealers” by Jane Healey.
I am a very character-driven reader and tend to read fiction; no exceptions here. The main character is an American girl who studies in Paris before World War II and, via the US government, returns and becomes involved in the French resistance with her Parisian friends.
This was a Prime First Reads book. I have low to mixed success with my choices from that program. In this one, the writing is a little stilted at times and some plot twists are easy to guess, but the character is still pretty good and I’m within half an hour of done.
Currently, a strange one entitled “Mrs. Perivale and the Blue Fire Crystal.” It’s about an elderly woman who is chosen to go (with her butler and seven cats) on a quest to save a village of Inklings, which are these . . . creatures. I don’t know. A friend gave it to me, so I’m reading it. It’s okay. My middle son is reading it, too, absent any other options at the moment, and he seems to be enjoying it.
The last one I read was better, though. It’s a cookbook by Shannon Hayes (she became slightly famous for her book “Radical Homemakers” several years ago), called “Long Way on a Little.” She actually cooks more like I do than any other cookbook author I’ve ever read, which is interesting.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest. A fun, easy read (a fictional story, not a cookbook). And Animal Farm along with my son for his freshman high school English class. I hope they do a good job discussing the themes.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest sounds fun!
I am listening to The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. I am only about 1 hour into the 9 hour audiobook, but I am really enjoying it.
I’m listening to Into the Deep by Colleen Coble on Hoopla and just started reading Heavenly Places by Kim Cash Tate. I found Kim Cash Tate after realizing that my Christian fiction choices were greatly lacking in diversity. This is the second book of hers for me (I loved the first) and she had me hooked right away. I’m really interested to see where she takes the main character and the rest of the story.
Two very different books. I just finished Storm Glass by Jeff Wheeler, which was a great semi-fantasy book that turned out to be an easy and interesting read. It’s a made-up world that has many ties to our own. And I’m currently reading All Adults Here by Emma Straub, which is such a modern take on family, life, and love. I’m really enjoying how it tells the story of one New England family, and their various lives.