read two books a month

For the month of November I managed to read three books, and one of them I had read before five years ago.

“The Discipline Book: How to have a Better-Behaved Child from Birth to Age Ten”, by William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N., is a book written from the perspective of attachment parenting. I like this book in that it can be used as a true guide in how to interact with your child from birth in order to avoid most of the major discipline problems today’s parents have to deal with.

“Como agua para chocolate”, by Mexican writer Laura Esquivel, is the novel on which the blockbuster film “Like Water for Chocolate” was based. Like the film, the novel is rich in fantasy imagery, or what has been established as Latin American “magical realism”. What I truly loved about this novel is that it lends itself perfectly to be read aloud. I read half of it to my baby boy, and he was enthralled by my reading voice…

“How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People-Their Secrets, Their Stories”, by Rick Foster & Greg Hicks. I read this book for the first time in November of 2005 and absolutely loved it, so much so that I made a note to myself inside the cover of the book to give it as a gift to some of my closest friends. For some reason, I never did. The second time around my judgement is clearer. The book IS informative and inspiring, but this time I realized that it is based on what I now perceive to be a misguided assumption: the belief that our purpose on Earth is to “be happy”. Let me be very clear on this: I don’t think that we should live miserable lives, full of sadness and senseless hardship. I do believe that we should strive for happiness in everything that we do. In that regard, I am completely in accord with the first choice the authors point out: Intention. You need to conciously choose to be happy and find happiness in whatever circumstance you find yourself in your life. However, I believe that what gives MEANING to our lives is not happiness but PURPOSE, and one that includes some kind of service to others. Our job, so to speak, is to make sure that whatever endeavor we choose to realize our purpose in servicing others makes us happy. With that in mind, I can honestly recommend this book to others. :-)

“Next to Godliness: Finding the Sacred in Housekeeping”, edited by Alice Peck is what used to be known in the 18th century as a commonplace book, a compilation of book excerpts with commentary from the person reading and choosing said excerpts. It is very inspiring.

“Los 10 mandamientos del matrimonio” is a Spanish translation of a book written by Ed Young. It details the most important rules or “commandments” from a Christian point of view to achieve a long-lasting and healthy marriage. There are lots of good information in this book and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. Beware, however, that it IS written from a Christian viewpoint, so if you don’t like to read anything having to do with the Bible or God, don’t read it. On the other hand, I think you will be missing out ;-)

“Life’s Greatest Lessons: 20 Things that Matter”, by Hal Urban, and

“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”, by David Allen.

Both highly recommended.

The list:

1. “The Year of Magical Thinking”, by Joan Didion

2. “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding”, edited by La Leche League International

3. “Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care”, by Jo Frost

4. “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: the Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith”, by Marcus J. Borg

5. “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, by Jane Smiley

Now, I have to be straight here… I didn’t start to read all these books in the month of August. The only one I started and finished in the same month was Didion’s book. The other four I had started several months before, one before my pregnancy, a couple when I confirmed my pregnancy, and another a couple of months ago.

They’re all great on their respective areas, but the ones I enjoyed the most were Didion’s and Borg’s books. “The Year of Magical Thinking” started kind of slow, and for a time I thought it was going to be one of those books about yet another author wallowing in depression. Actually it made me think about the nature of grief but without “sounding” like self-pity.

The book by Borg was a further eye opener for me. I had already read, twice, another Borg book, “The Heart of Christianity”, and it made me realize that I can enjoy the Bible, and take it seriously, without taking literally, like when I was a child, what it says. I can also focus on what being a Christian is really about: having a personal relationship with God and developing compassion so I can carry out the second biggest commandment: Love thy neighbor like yourself. Both books are highly recommended.

Smiley’s book I recommend to any person who loves “serious” literature, and even more to those who fancy themselves “novelists” or at least “writers”. Her list of 100 novels is totally idiosyncratic yet helpful to those who want to become better writers and/or novelists.

“Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life”, by Margaret Kim Peterson; and “The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance”, by Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD.

Loved both books.

Well, yesterday I finished the second book for the month of June, “One True Thing”, a novel by Anna Quindlen. There are still five days left, and it is possible to finish a third one. Let’s see.

My initial goal was to read 52 books a year. That’s a book a week. I have realized that so far the most I can read in that time are about 40 books, and that’s neglecting other important stuff (like studying for my bar exam). So this is my new commitment: two books a month, and if I can, then more. But two books a month is the absolute minimum.