Eat a Peach by David Chang

I didn't realize I was going to be reading another Asian-American immigrant/child of immigrants story, after reading We Were Dreamers and Portrait of a Thief, but it turned out to be a part of Eat a Peach too. David Chang is a famous restauranteur who opened Momofuku in NYC in the early 2000s, and his memoir is unexpectedly candid about his flaws and his mistakes. He doesn't even spend a lot of time apologizing for what he's done; he just acknowledges them and talks about his mental health problems and the things he was going through at the time. He was blunt and sarcastic and definitely not a stereotypical memoir-type author, and I thought it was a really interesting view into the life of a professional chef.

That Sounds Fun: The Joys of Being an Amateur, the Power of Falling in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby by Annie F. Downs

This is another one of these unexpectedly Christian authors that I accidentally stumbled across and ended up reading her book. I liked the idea of the title, because I feel like books that are about hobbies and being an amateur sound up my alley, and will be motivating to help me try new things and get out of my ruts. And I thought this was a fine book, with cute essays and stories, but honestly nothing super shocking or brand new. It was only about 6 hours and I got through it super quickly and don't remember anything super concrete about it, even though it was just a few weeks ago. So it was so-so. 

We Were Dreamers: A Superhero Immigrant Story by Simu Liu

I honestly have no idea why I decided to check this book out--I'm not a big Marvel person, but I did really like Simu Liu in Shang-Chi and I have really had an interest in Asian stories lately. I was really surprised by Liu's openness about his experience as a Chinese-Canadian immigrant and what he dealt with in relation to his parents. It was definitely a hard childhood with extremely high expectations, and I couldn't help but think about all of the Asian kids I went to high school with, at a similar time as Liu, and wonder how extreme some of their lives were while we were in high school. He was super open and shared stories that I would have been tempted to gloss over. And I loved how he talked about his grandparents, and how his voice got choked up multiple times as he talked about them. He seems like someone I would like to be friends with in another life. 

Saints 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent: 1893-1955

My mom asked if we would read this book for her birthday and then we could all have a discussion about it. I didn't end up finishing it by her birthday, but did the next week before our discussion. It was a super interesting time period of church history, which I hadn't honestly learned a lot about before. There were a lot of great stories about different people in different countries over this wide time period, and I honestly just wished they would have delved a little deeper and maybe split this into two different books so they could have done more. I love that the Church is being really upfront about the things in our history, but there were a bunch of stories that are frustrating to read, like the treatment of black members for decades of our church history. 

I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America by Tyler Merritt

I basically only know about this guy because he is dating Jen Hatmaker, who has written several books I've read but also is one of the funniest people I follow on Facebook (maybe the only non-real life human I actually follow on Facebook). It seemed like he was kind of a public figure himself, although I'm still not exactly sure what for, and I basically saw that he'd written a book and thought I would read it. It was a fun read, kind of a memoir about his life growing up in Las Vegas and getting into musical theater and Christianity, but also filled with important info and discussion about racism and being black in America and being judged for the color of his skin. I really enjoyed it and his vulnerability and honesty about his past mistakes, but also his hilarious, relaxed, and simple writing style. 

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

I really liked this heist novel about some college students getting asked to steal the Chinese Zodiac heads from the Western museums where they've been held since being stolen from China 150 years ago. It was billed as an Ocean's Eleven-type book, and that comparison was what got me interested. But what I ended liking about it were the different characters and their interactions, and the history of Chinese art and what it's like being a Chinese immigrant, and the morality of museums keeping art that has been stolen. The plot definitely started off stronger in the first half of the novel than in the second half, where it started to get a little slow, but it was still a fun book. I was definitely rooting for them and hoping they would earn the 50 million dollars they were going for. 

Anne of Manhattan by Brina Starler

I actually really loved this Anne of Green Gables retelling except for a few sexy parts. I didn't want to read about Anne and Gilbert having sex--I wanted it to stay cute and pure like in the original series. But I did really like the premise of a modern-day Anne living in Manhattan and coming across Gilbert again after years of being separated. It was a great retelling.

The Home Edit and The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin

I have liked watching The Home Edit on Netflix, and I feel like I could totally be a professional organizer. I basically wanted to check out their two books to get some ideas about getting our house more organized, and this was a quick read with some great images and ideas. I honestly would never implement so many of their ideas, though, because it would be insanely expensive to get all of those matching containers, and because I think they like containers a little too much. I don't need a separate box to put boxes in in the pantry. But they definitely are helpful. 

I also read the sequel which just had more pictures of fancy rooms and not a ton of specifically helpful tips. But super quick and easy to read, so that's great. 

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

I really loved this graphic novel. I'm so interested in this genre of realistic graphic novels that depict hard, real-life events, like Dancing at the Pity Party. I think it's such an effective way to show emotion and to use simple language to convey what happened. (I remember I wrote a whole essay about the comic book format in Maus my sophomore year of college. I think I need to re-read it.) This is a graphic novel telling the story of a refugee camp in Africa (I can't remember the exact country now), which is an extremely hard and sad topic, from the perspective of two boys living in the refugee camp. I loved the relationship between the two brothers and what they learned as they grew up, and how it showed that there was still hope even in one of the most difficult places on earth. 

I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist

I'm discovering that there is a whole genre of Christian self-help authors that I don't know anything about. I think of Jen Hatmaker as the prime example, and there are a whole bunch of women who orbit around her and do very similar things (although maybe they're all orbiting together and I just know of Jen Hatmaker the best, I don't know). Over the years, I keep accidentally reading books that I think are just books of essays or memoirs and then realizing that they belong to this elite club of Christian female speakers who all know each other and do the same thing. This was one of those times. I actually really like it and enjoy their books, but it's always surprising how many of them are basically doing the same thing. I had never heard of Shauna Niequist, but she apparently had some big drama in her family and the church her father ran, which she kept alluding to cryptically in her book, and which I of course had to google. But I'd never heard about it so that wasn't part of the draw for this book. I liked her essays about what she learned from moving to NYC from her hometown after living there all her life, and about parenting boys and learning from mistakes and stuff. The main title of the book is a great reminder. 

Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass

I saw this one described as a Caribbean-inspired retelling of Persuasion, and I was all in. I am a sucker for a Jane Austen re-telling, obviously. In this one, the setting was the biggest draw, and I loved the details of what it was like living on Trinidad (or Tobago? I can't remember which one?). I felt like the story dragged a lot though, and I didn't feel the same sort of connection to Reyna that I do to Anne in Persuasion. I also felt like her love interest, Aiden (and his name feels way too white boy to fit in this story also), was just boring and not very nice most of the time... but maybe that fits with the original story. It took me longer than it should have to get through this book because I didn't really want to pick it up much, but it was still cute. 

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez

After reading Part of Your World, I wanted to check out some more Abby Jimenez because it reminded me how much I enjoyed her books. I hadn't read this one before but it was supposedly somewhat related to The Happy Ever After Playlist, which I loved. I felt like this one was very cute and sweet, but not anything to write home about. Vanessa is a travel blogger who secretly has a family history of a disease that she believes is going to kill her like it did her sister, and she starts getting to know Adam, the lawyer next door after she starts fostering her niece. Honestly, I don't remember too much about it. Jimenez is super good at making real connections between characters, but I didn't love the side characters and the side issues in this one as much (Vanessa's crazy family and health issues just felt blah and maybe over-dramatized). Overall, a solid enjoyable romance, but not my favorite. 

Office BFFs by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey

I listened to the Office Ladies podcast from the beginning, and I really enjoyed hearing all of Angela and Jenna's stories about their time on The Office. I loved hearing their voices and hearing about them as real people, not as characters on a TV show, and I loved their friendship. So I wanted to check out their book as well. I listened to it as an audiobook because I really love their audio format, but it ended up feeling basically a lot like their podcast, especially because many of the stories they told I had heard on the podcast. I still enjoyed this book, but if you've listened to the podcast, it's pretty similar. 

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

I LOVED Jimenez's Happy Ever After Playlist, and I definitely wanted to read her most recent book when I heard about it. I had to wait for like 3 months at the library for the audiobook version of Part of Your World, but I was so excited when I finally got it. I got really into it and I loved both main characters. Daniel was clearly a better guy and I was rooting for him. Alexis was super snooty and kind of got obnoxious, but I liked how she developed as a character over the book and became more capable and more aware of her biases and problems. I was kind of annoyed about how she just kept insisting "our worlds don't fit! We can't stay together!" But she didn't explain anything or tell Daniel why it wouldn't work and it felt like a ton of unnecessary baggage that wasn't necessary. 

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

I feel like the main draw of this book was the setting of it being in the academic world of a STEM lab. I liked the romance here between the two characters, but I honestly COULD NOT handle some of the awkward scenes at the beginning of this fake-romance. There were numerous scenes I had to skip through--a few because of being too smutty, but more because they were so uncomfortable and unbelievable and I couldn't read them. Like where she somehow gets forced to apply sunscreen on her fake BF's bare back and chest? That would never happen! Or where her friend forces her to sit on his lap in a crowded auditorium during an academic lecture? What??? Honestly, I loved the main character, Olive, and her love interest, even though he basically had no major personality traits other than being dark and brooding and extremely buff. But I would have liked the book more if it hadn't been so beyond unbelievable for me. 

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

I needed a few super quick and easy romances this week as we led up to school starting, and I blazed through this one in just a few hours. I thought this was really cute, a romance about a screenwriter who falls in love with a A-list movie star. I liked how the story didn't follow the plotline that I expected--which was kind of the point, based on the title--and how Nora and we had to wait for the romance to fully come back together after getting broken apart. I thought it was a really fun read and I liked Nora's character and how she managed to handle things so well. 

The Secrets of Happy Families by Bruce Feiler

This was a book I didn't expect to get so invested in. This is a parenting book that's not based on advice from therapists, but based on research about what works and how to make your family as happy as possible. I didn't feel like much of this information was brand new--I've definitely heard it all before--but it was really well-organized and really easily accessible, and I highlighted a bunch of sections that I wanted to remember. I wanted to write them all down here so I can refer back to this... since I just read this as an e-book from the library. 

-Family Meetings! Super helpful to allow your family to adapt and improve on a weekly basis. Three questions to ask: 

1. What things went well in our family this week?

2. What things could we improve in our family?

3. What things will you commit to working on this week?

-Agile Family Manifesto:

1. Solutions exist.

2. Empower the children. Allow kids to have a say in setting their goals each week and decide on their own punishments/consequences. 

3. Parents aren't invincible. 

4. Create a safe zone. 

5. Build in flexibility. 

-Build in a family narrative. The most healthful narrative is the oscillating family narrative: we've had our ups and downs, we had setbacks, but no matter what else happened, we always stuck together as a family. Kids who can answer the questions in the "Do You Know" scale are better adjusted and happier.

-Family dinner is the ideal time to give kids this family history. Ideas: 10-50-1. 10 minutes of quality talk per meal. Let your kids talk at least 50% of the time. Teach your kids 1 new word every meal, playing simple vocabulary games. Have autobiography night; have the kids tell you stories from their own past. Word game night: thesaurus night, alliteration game, fill in the blank, what's the difference between...

-Have a family mission statement. Keep it short, make it a memorable experience coming up with it, post it in a prominent place. Decide what are your family values (he has a list of 80 in the book) and which you want to emphasize the most.

What words best describe our family?

What is most important to our family?

What are our strengths as a family?

What sayings best capture our family?

"Creating a family identity is the collective equivalent of imagining your best possible self. It forces you to conceive, construct, then put in a public place a written ideal of what you want your family to be."

-Talking about money. All couples should have quarterly meetings to discuss financial matters. Talk about money with your kids and have it be an ongoing conversation. 

-Handling conflict. Teach your kids to think about yourself first. What did you do? Be curious about the other person and what they're feeling. Apologize. Have the conversation or you'll be handling conflict for the rest of your life. 

-Marriage relationship: Try something novel with your partner, go on double dates. 

-Spaces: Kids need their own personal, private space. They love to create "secret" hideouts like clubhouses. 

-Vacations: Making a vacation into an "amazing race" style game with points for accomplishing certain tasks. Send them on "missions" to accomplish things and keep them excited. 

Biggest points:

Adapt all the time. 

Talk a lot. 

Go out and play. 

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

I am not super involved in Georgia politics so I don't know a lot about Stacey Abrams specifically, but I am super impressed with her ability to write a legal thriller in addition to multiple runs for office and working as a high-powered attorney. This book was really well done, and it didn't feel like some pet project of someone who doesn't know how to write. It felt like a real thriller and it definitely got pretty dark. I thought the question of "What would happen if a Supreme Court justice fell into a coma?" was a great way to start a fun story. I felt like there were a few things I never quite wrapped my head around and had to just assume that Avery knew what she was doing, but it was fast-paced enough to keep me interested and I wanted to know how she was going to get out of it.