Book Reviews: 1 to Read, 2 to Listen + 3 to Ponder
Three Women – Lisa Taddeo: If you want a book that will surprise you, punch you in the gut and make you think about it long after you’ve finished reading, this is it. The non-fiction work is derived from a journalist’s eight-year journey across the country to understand real women’s desires and their stories. The power in Taddeo’s storytelling is it reads like fiction, and all three women’s narratives will captivate you.
Grade: A
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know – Malcolm Gladwell: Gladwell can do no wrong in my mind, and this book was just as fascinating as his others in a completely new way. He examines our interactions with strangers, through the lense of history, pop culture + psychology, to try and make sense of why and how we invite misunderstanding into our lives. Though not a “self-help” book to teach us how to talk to strangers it does give us unique perspectives, which we could all use a little more of.
Note: highly recommend this one on audiobook, you hear the actual interviews, media clips + historical re-enactments
Grade: A
What Happens in Paradise – Elin Hilderbrand: The second in Hilderbrand’s current series, this is such an easy, great read. There’s mystery, romance and it’s set in a tropical paradise. What more could you need?
Grade: A
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery – Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile: If you’re not sure what the enneagram is – pause, google it, then come back. If you’re new to this whole enneagram business and want to actually learn more (vs just following meme accounts on Instagram) this is a great book to get you started. It offers some history, a little depth on each number, details on wings and access, and provides great real-life analogies to help you understand yourself better as well as those around you.
Grade: B+
The Dutch House – Ann Patchett: I’m obsessed with this book, and it will most likely be my book of the year (followed closely by Where the Crawdads Sing). The story seems so simple – it follows a brother and sister through the typical ebbs and flows of life across five decades, with the house they grew up in (The Dutch House) as an unsuspecting framework for their lives. I don’t want to say much more, just read it or listen to it …
Note: highly recommend this one on audiobook, Tom Hanks narrates and is just fantastic (because obviously, it’s Tom Hanks) Also, yes I’m getting into audiobooks lately!!
Grade: A+
The Family Upstairs – Lisa Jewel: Such a strange, twisted, dark story about an orphan who inherits a house when she turns 25, which leads her to a horrifying discovery about her birth parents. It’s a little slow to start and the characters lacked depth, but the story was so bizarre and surprising it kept me reading.
Grade: B+
xo xo
You can read all my book reviews here.
Book Reviews: Malcolm Gladwell, Mothers and Daughters + Mysterious Bookstores
Like I said in my last book review, I’m on a reading binge, and I’m loving it! It slowed down for a while during a busy season at work and moving, but I’m back at it and already have my next 3 books lined up. This batch was a great batch of books, all very different, but all very good.
The Tipping Point – I feel like I totally missed the boat on this one because everyone else read it years ago, but I am now officially the biggest Malcolm Gladwell fan. His writing is simply superb, weaving in hard facts with anecdotes so perfectly that you believe everything he says without batting an eye. And the topic is F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G. It’s one of those books that seems like a boring book you’d read for a class, but then you secretly fall in love with it.
Grade: A+
Glitter and Glue – I’d read reviews of this one in magazines, then mom borrowed it from the library so I picked it up and could hardly put it down. It’s just a great, true-blue story of the relationships of mothers and daughters and how they change over time. It would be a great vacation read – easy, light-hearted and makes you shed a tear or two.
Grade: A
Uncommon Marriage – We read this autobiographical book with our community group about facing obstacles in marriage and how to deal with them. Of course being the non-sports fan I am I had no clue who the Dungys were and thus didn’t know how the story would turn out. As I read, I was so encouraged by their life story, their public display of faith and their continued spousal support. Also, I learned a little bit more about football.
Grade: A-
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – This book recommendation came from an avid reader who had nothing but good things to say about it, so I knew it would be good. I picked it up in the airport on my way home from San Francisco and read half of it on the flight. (Come to find out it’s set in SF, which made it feel even more perfect) This book starts out so unassuming and normal about a boy in a bookstore, then slowly turns into a story with just enough magical whimsy to make you feel like a kid again believing in secret codes, immortality and clandestine underground meetings in NYC.
Grade: A-
xo xo
m.davis xoxo 