Happy book review day, friends! It was a GOOD couple of months for me (since I didn’t finish a book in the month of February…) I really liked most of these books….and could have done without one.

I started off January…and most of February…reading The Poisonwood Bible.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it―from garden seeds to Scripture―is calamitously transformed on African soil.

This tale of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction, over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, is set against history’s most dramatic political parables.

(Book summaries from Amazon)

My mom gifted me this book for Christmas. It’s one of her favorites. And I mostly liked it. Taken at face value of how well it is written, the deeply tragic flaws of the characters in this family, it was so well done. Story-wise, it hit a nerve for me. Having grown up Christian my whole life, and then attending a private, Christian college, I feel very sensitive and uncomfortable with the missionary lifestyle that seeks to change people’s beliefs without understanding the culture and the foundation of another person’s life and belief system. This is not to say that I don’t respect the choice of people to be missionaries. It’s more so how it’s done, for me. It just fundamentally makes me really uncomfortable in real life and in this story, which revolves around a family leaving their home in the US to travel and evangelize this African community, entering this community with a “holier than thou” attitude.

Now beyond my own personal issues…I loved reading about how this family turned out. Where they all ended up as adults, and how their relationship changed. Overall, I enjoyed it and gave it four stars.

Next, I moved on to Spare.

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Right off the bat, I’m going to say that I just felt the need to read this one for myself. I’ve seen reviews all over the place and all over the map. I’d say in general, I know very little about the royal family, but I do find them fascinating. The little girl in me just thinks it’s really cool that there are queens, kings, princes, and princesses in real life in this world. And any book that was going to give insight into what that is like, well, sounded interesting to me.

I love Prince Harry and Meghan Markle together. They seem like a really good match for each other. And Harry’s love for Meghan really did come through loud and clear in this book.

On the flip side, I think most of us are well aware that there many reports out of the palace and media about behavior within the royal family, how the press treats them, etc. It seems like a very complicated and messy life to live. To have been born into, at the very least. But what really seemed to come through to me in this book was Harry’s pain. Pain that he’s been carrying around for decades, not just related to his mom, but a whole host of issues. And I think the unfortunate part of it all, while I certainly empathize that pain is a tough thing to work through, it seems like he’s worked through very little of it.

In fact, it felt like there was a serious lack of introspection into his own actions and how they contributed or hurt people of his family. Or a step back to consider where others were coming from, at the very least. And ultimately, I just finished the book feeling like he seems like a very bitter person. And that’s got to make it even more difficult for him.

Overall, I gave it three stars.

Next, I decided to switch to some fiction with Sparks Like Stars.

Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives. 

Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name—Aryana Shepherd—and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the trauma and devastating loss she endured. 

New York, 2008: Thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana’s fury and desire for answers—and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without finding the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul—a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban—and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost. 

This story was incredible. It reminded me a lot of The Things We Cannot Say, which I picked as one of my top three books of all of 2022. I loved the writing, the characters, peaking into the present day life to see where they ended up and how their past has impacted them. Oh my goodness, it was good. So, so, so good. I gave it FIVE stars, and it’s definitely in the running as one of my favorite books of this year.

And in case I hadn’t had enough of books written by famous figures, I followed that up with Michelle Obama’s new book, The Light We Carry.

In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with listeners, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Michelle Obama offers listeners a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging listeners to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.

“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” writes Michelle Obama. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will ignite conversation, The Light We Carry inspires listeners to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.

I thoroughly loved Michelle’s first book, Becoming. So I was excited to see what she had in store in The Light We Carry. And man, it did not disappoint. The more time that passes between her stint as FLOTUS and now, the more I come to really admire her. Such great pearls of wisdom. Such deep introspection and sense of service to people. She’s a gem, in my opinion. And maybe even more of a gem than Michelle Obama, is her mother. She seems remarkable. Loved the stories of the life lessons from her mom. Her saying that she’s “not raising babies. [She’s] raising adults.” Such great nuggets through the whole book!

That’s what I read over the last couple of months! I’m reading one book now that’s fantastic, and I’ve got some ones I”m really excited about lined up for this spring/summer…basically whenever new baby let’s me have time. 🙂 But I want to know, what’s the best book you’ve read recently??

My 2023 Books:

• January:
  • Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff
  • Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey

It’s time for my monthly book review! I actually started (and finished) these books in December. January has been a busy month getting back into the swing of things at work. I read two books over the past two months…

The first was Hunt, Gather, Parent.

When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother, she examines the studies behind modern parenting guidance and finds the evidence frustratingly limited and the conclusions often ineffective. Curious to learn about more effective parenting approaches, she visits a Maya village in the Yucatán Peninsula. There she encounters moms and dads who parent in a totally different way than we do – and raise extraordinarily kind, generous, and helpful children without yelling, nagging, or issuing timeouts. What else, Doucleff wonders, are Western parents missing out on?

In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop – it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.

(Book summaries from Amazon)

Oh man. I’m not even sure what to say. I found parts of this book interesting and parts incredibly dull and well, obvious, and quite frankly, not things that I would eve implement in our house. For example, the suggestion is made to get rid of all kids’ toys, as they aren’t needed in many cultures. That children just play with what is available. While I imagine that’s true, I won’t be ridding our house of toys. I’ll keep to my editing often of toys.

There’s also a suggestion that children should be included in household upkeep, and encouraged to help alongside adults. That’s been our parenting philosophy so far with Harrison and Jonathan. That as much as it’s easier to just clean, cook, fix things ourselves without the help of little hands, that actually letting them participate and take ownership of it increases their skills and willingness to help often in the future.

Overall, like most parenting books, I liked some of it. Didn’t like other bits. But didn’t find the book overall to be a profound parenting mindset shift for myself.

The other book I read this past month was Christmas in Peachtree Bluff.

When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband announce they are divorcing – and 15-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response – Caroline, at her wits end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen. With no power, no provisions, and the water rising, the circumstances become dire very quickly…and the Murphy sisters soon realize it’s up to them to conduct a rescue mission. With the bridges closed and no way to access Peachtree Bluff by land or air, they set sail on Caroline’s boat, The Starlite Sisters, determined to rebuild their beloved town – and their family.

This was the fourth, and I believe final, book in the Peachtree Bluff series. I spaced them out throughout the year so I could read this one around Christmas. And it didn’t disappoint. It was sweet, light, and just the overall perfect Christmas book for the season.