What I'm Reading (and Quick Remodel Update)

**chock full of affiliate links in case the almighty Google asks and threatens my $6/mo**

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Story about several young people in London as they figure out their way through the first years of WWII. Think star-crossed lovers and coming of age. It had an Amor Towles feel. It honestly fell a little flat for me. My expectations were probably too high because I was hoping for another All the Light We Cannot See and this novel didn't quite hit that level of heart-wrenching. It's the only Chris Cleave I've read, and I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with him.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I loved this book and highly recommend it. I first encountered Kalanithi when I read his piece in the New York Times a couple of years ago, and like most of the internet, I was struck by his story: a neurologist finishing residency diagnosed with an aggressive and rare lung cancer. When Breath Becomes Air is his memoir about dying, so it's heavy, but his writing is so good and so poignant.

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

This is a book about how people spend their time/should spend their time. I liked it. She's got great statistics on how people spend their time today vs fifty years ago. After reading it, I decided to do some time tracking. This is pretty tricky for me because I'm someone who needs a lot of external motivation to maintain this type of practice. But in this instance, a disbelieving eyebrow raise from Jacob has been all the motivation I've needed to follow through, and I'm going on my second week of observing my time in 15 minute intervals.

I've LOVED time-tracking.  I haven't analyzed my charts yet, but the time tracking itself has helped me spend my time so much more consciously.

Designing your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Ah. More self help! This book is about applying design concepts to "What should I do with my life" questions. It's very interactive and has you doing lots of exercises, some of which got me thinking creatively about some of the parts of my life that I want to change. It's one of the reasons I've been blogging more! It had been hard for me to justify spending time blogging, but this book helped me look at my emotional experiences without judgment. And turns out I LIKE blogging, and maybe I don't need another justification to do it.

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A story about three generations of Indian women that spans decades and continents. I really liked this book: I liked the writing and the jumping around in time and the steady description of Indian food. But it also made me a little miserable...it seemed like every relationship was fueled by deception or resentment. I finished it one night late and crawled into bed with Jacob. I hugged him and was all "Ah love! Let us be true to one another!" and he was like "I was asleep."

>><<

Also: this is what my bedroom looks like today. 

We demo-ed (How do Chip and Joanna spell that, I wonder?) the old exterior wall the day before yesterday and now the room is twice as big and half as habitable. Never fear, the drywallers come tomorrow if we pass our final framing inspection today. #knockonwallstuds

Also the "we" here always means Jacob doing/managing everything and me in the background asking "Is that supposed to be that way??"