books

Bomb: the race to build and steal the world's most dangerous weapon 5/5 Awesome book! Better than a james bond movie!  I laughed and cried.

Bringing up Geeks 4/5 great book about how to protect kids from going up too fast in a crazy world

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers 5/5 One of my favorite parenting books. I need to buy this one and mark it up.  Clare picked it up one day and was thumbing though it and later said, "mom, that book said you should show love even when you don't feel like it.  You don't do that."  Totally broke my heart. Obviously I have things to work on.  The think about this book I liked is that it was how to be a happy mother and focused on decisions I should make to be a strong and wonderful person rather than give a list of things i need to do with or to my kids to make them great.

A few things of note. I loved the phrase "kiss on a check from God."
-Like many parents have a rule of one activity per child, parents/moms should have the same rule for themselves. If they are super committed to exercise then there isn't time to PTA, etc. etc. Dont' sign yourself up for too much.
-Sometimes we show our love to kids by signing them up for lots of stuff, pushing, buying and running kids around. They may interpret this as conditions to be met in order for them to be accepted by us!
-do not compete with others. YOU ALWAYS LOSE!!!
-Every child should know that regardless of what she does, even if it means that she sits in her closet for the rest of her life, we will love her ad express our love to her. When we do that, we love unconditionally.
-We love less when we are disappointed. Our problem is our expectations, if we cute the list of expectations we have for our kids in half, I can guarantee that our disappointments will be cut in half and life will be a lot less stressful. (I am still trying to figure out how to do this and still push kids to be great. I am too pushy by nature so this is hard).
-Kids' expressions of love can be fickle. we can't depend on a steady stream of love and need not be angry when moods are less than perfect.
What is the purpose of mothering: To raise emotionally, intellectually and physical healthy kids. Do our daily lives reflect that purpose?

Unbroken 5/5 The most incredible book I've read in a while. So inspiring. If you are not going to read it at the very least you need to find an interview of louis zamerini on you tube and watch it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9O5yVzc0vQ

Life of pi 4/5 It was tough to read this book at the same time as Unbroken since they are both about surviving on a raft. Unbroken is real and life of pi is fictional.  In the end, even though life of pi was boring, it was incredible that the author was able to capture the same spirit of survival that you find in a "real" survivor story. The human soul is so strong and will go to great lengths to survive under the most difficult circumstances.

A short history of nearly everything by BIll Bryson 4/5 At first I was kinda annoyed at how fast things moved along and without enough detail but I really enjoyed the writing style and it peaked my interest in a few areas that I will go looking for more detailed books about. I find that I have such a special place in my heart for the biological sciences. Hearing him talk about protazoa and cells makes me feel warm and cozy. I miss my days of teaching biology!



I almost always have an audio book and a paper book going at the same time.  I've read some good things lately that I didn't want to forget!  If you have a book to recommend, I'd appreciate if you leave it in the comments! Thanks!