Books I Love
Books that make you feel better about your parenting:
1. When Did I Get Like This? Amy Wilson I laughed, I cried…seriously. This book will be re-read by me over and over. Essential.
2. It Sucked and then I Cried Heather Armstrong Written by the pioneer of the blogging world.
3. Bad Mother Ayelet Waldman Such an interesting, well-written, affirming read.
4. Naptime is the New Happy Hour Stefanie Wilder Taylor Hi-lar-ious!
5. Half Baked Alexa Stevenson A funny, touching, and riveting tale of a high-risk pregnancy and the NICU
6. I’m OK…You’re a Brat! Susan Jeffers This book made me cry the first time I read it; I felt so validated and finally not so alone.
Actual books on how to be a better parent:
1. Parenting with Love and Logic & Early Childhood Magic Dr. Charles and Jim Fay You will actually find helpful strategies for perplexing parental predicaments. (Hee hee…alliteration.)
2. The Highly Sensitive Child Elaine Aron, PhD Mostly helpful because I happen to have one.
3. Motherstyles: Using Personality Types to Learn to Parent from Your Strengths Janet P Penley I personally am a huge fan of the Myers-Briggs test, and I love any material that interprets one’s results.
4. Siblings Without Rivalry Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish I’m not even finished with it, and I have found so much relief and help in their suggestions for validating you child’s feelings about their siblings and providing healthy coping strategies.
My favorite escape books:
1. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Just read this a few weeks ago, finished it, promptly re-read it. Yep, I do that sometimes.
2. The Hunger Games Trilogy. Oh, yes, I’m a 34 year old woman not ashamed to admit I love them. Oh, and yeah, I loved the Twilight Books, too. And Harry Potter.
3. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares. She wrote the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, too, and I wholeheartedly love them all as well.
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Duh.
5. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. If you like this sort of thing, these books are excellent. Can’t wait for the third in the trilogy.
6. Velva Jean Learns to Drive by Jennifer Niven One of my all-time favorites, and a rare book that I have read twice. Some of the most unforgettable characters I have ever fallen in love with. Read it now- you won’t be disappointed with the vivid Appalachian backdrop and mesmerizing storytelling.
Other Notable Books:
- She Matters: A Life in Friendships by Susanna Sonnenberg This book was so mesmerizing and inspiring to me that it sparked the idea for HerStories: Tales of Friendship, the series on women’s friendship created by Jessica Smock and myself. Read more about that project here.
