The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self (Michael Easter)

Why I have this book: My son recommended it sometime in the last year, so I bought it. I have both the ebook and audio versions, but I ended up just listening to it.

I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads. I admit the narrator (the author) wasn't my favorite — his reading wasn't super expressive — but overall, the book had a great message and gave me a lot to think about. The life lessons were supported by research and experts, and it was all interspersed by stories from a trip he took to the Arctic to hunt caribou. I liked the life lessons and research better than the hunting saga, but I get that he was sharing what he learned during that experience and was tying it all together with what he was trying to teach us.

There was a lot of profanity when he was quoting his hunting buddy. Other than that, I don't recall anything offensive. (Again, writing this a couple weeks after reading it!)

Six "books" in the Memories on the Lake series by Sage Parker

Why I have these books: They were super cheap... the whole series was around $10 total, so I bought them. They sounded interesting, so...

First off, each book was more like a novella. I'm not sure why they were marketed this way, but they averaged about 77-80 pages each? When all was said and done, it would have been a book  of about 470 pages had it all been in one novel.

I enjoyed the first few, although I thought it was strange how quickly the protagonist and her children seemed to get over her husband's death. Maybe the writing just wasn't deep enough to portray the loss appropriately, but it was literally just a few weeks before she seemed to be over it.

I gave the first four books three stars each, then gave last two books only two stars each. If it had been one book, I'd probably have given it two starts overall.

It feels like cheating to get six books counted for my yearly reading goal on Goodreads, but that's the way they come up, so I guess I just read six books instead of one (as it should have been). Also... why does Goodreads put things in the wrong order if you enter more than one book on the same day? To look at my "Read" shelf, it appears as though I read them out of order. I can assure you that I did not. 

That's about it.

Fairly clean. There may have been some swearing. I'm once again writing this several weeks late, so I don't really remember. Oops.

Midwives (Chris Bohjalian)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library.

I actually read this book years ago when it was still fairly newly published. I remember loving it then, so I decided to read it a again. 

I gave it four stars on this second reading. (I didn't have Goodreads or this blog the first time I read it.) I'm very impressed that the author is a man, but wrote the book in the voice of an adult woman remembering events from her teenage years. He did a great job making it a believable voice! He also writes in such a way that you can picture everything happening. I plan to read more of his books.

This is another book I finished a while ago, so I will date this for that finish date and excuse anything I get wrong in the following "content" summary.

There may have been some swearing, but I don't recall anything too strong. Some mentions of teenage sexuality, but not descriptive. The story deals with death.

The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library after a friend recommended it.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. Lots of twists and turns right up to the very end.

To be honest, my "I can read and function normally while working" attitude from before took a nosedive, and even though I finished this book on January 15 (which is when I'll date this post), I no longer have that attitude. It's been survival mode. Listen, my amazement at working moms is very strong. I don't know... maybe if it's a job you love, it's different.

But... anyway... this isn't meant to be an essay on working outside the home. I only meant to say it's about a month after I read this book, so I can't give too many details. All I know is that I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Pretty sure there was profanity and some sexual situations (not very descriptive, if I'm remembering correctly.) Also involves a missing woman and some domestic violence, affairs, murder.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club (Lucy Gilmore)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library because it looked and sounded good.

It was three stars good. It actually was four stars good until toward the end. The story is told from the perspectives of a handful of book club members, and it was all good until the voice of the older, cantankerous man. In my opinion, the author didn't capture his voice. It didn't sound like him as he had been described the whole time. 

The ending fell flat for me. The "engagement" part didn't really fly. The backstory of the two professors didn't make much sense depending on what year that was supposed to have happened. Maybe they aren't as old as I was imagining? I don't know.

The premise was cute, but it just didn't completely come together for me.

I think there was some profanity. I don't recall anything sexual.

Dangerous Love (Chad Ford)

I should add the subtitle before anyone starts thinking this is a smut novel:

Dangerous Love: Transforming Fear and Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World

Why I have this book: My son recommended it, and it was available to borrow from the ebook library in both audio and ebook form. I just listened to the audio, though.

I gave this three stars on Goodreads. I feel somewhat conflicted by it.

On the one hand, it sounds lovely. If we just love unconditionally, see others as people (rather than objects), and expect nothing in return, we are "loving dangerously." In other words, it takes a willingness to be vulnerable. It feels risky and dangerous because the other person might not respond or want to fix things. I guess the hope is that if nothing else, we feel peace.

On the other hand, I can't help but think about how the current way of thinking is that we need to set boundaries in our lives when relationships are toxic. We need to protect our peace and not allow others to treat us badly.

Which is better for mental health? Always trying to love and be kind no matter how you are treated? Or being able to love (or at least forgive or have inner peace) from a distance in order to protect yourself from toxic relationships?

I just don't think it's as black and white as the author wants it to be. Interesting that he seems to have a difficult time living the principles he teaches (by his own admission) including in his marriage which apparently ended in divorce, as well as with some career issues. (If the marriage survived, he didn't talk about it. I don't know what happened after the book was published. He is currently married, but I don't know if it's a second wife or if he reconciled with his first wife.) Which is fine! Nobody is perfect, we all struggle, and not all relationships work out. He just came across as so sure that what he is teaching is the answer to every conflict, but it's not working that way even in his own life. 

Anyway, the principles can work, I'm sure, in some circumstances, but not in every situation or in every relationship.

Clean. He does discuss some political violence.

The Things We Do for Love (Kristin Hannah)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library.

This one earned three stars from me. I thought it was going to be four stars, but the love scenes were a little unrealistic (not descriptive... just the vibe). I mean, I guess some readers might think they are realistic if that's how it works for them... anyway...

I also wish there had been an epilogue.

But it did keep my interest, and I liked the storyline. I would give it a 3.5 if I could, but it's not quite a four star book for me.

There is some occasional profanity. The love scenes are very mildly descriptive. The story involves unwed pregnancy, pregnancy loss, adoption, and substance abuse.