Playing Favorites

Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose. —Neil Gaiman

I feel you, Neil. While I love reading other people's lists of favorite reads of the year, producing my own is as hard for me as giving up Coke Zero. Okay, clearly not as hard because I've managed to eek out a list and I'm nowhere near giving up Coke Zero. But there was pain involved, I assure you, and lots of anxiety. And as all my favorite lists do, it comes with the disclaimer that it is subject to change at any given moment. So for today, here are my top five books of 2015.

Kristen Hannah's The Nightingale is the book that helped me recover from my All the Light we Cannot See withdrawals. That was a tall order, I assure you. It's been awhile since I loved a book as much as that one, it was my hands down favorite read of 2014, no nail biting or gnashing of teeth involved in that pick. While The Nightingale doesn't quite reach those same heights for me, it's still one that will not disappoint.

Oh Ivan. I still owe you that ode. As complicated as my relationship is with picking favorites, I'm pretty sure The Bartender's Tale is my favorite of Doig's works. If Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through it makes your list of top reads, do yourself a favor and meet Ivan Doig. Read more about my love for him here.

In talking to a few of my friends about this book, I'm realizing Ove may need to come with a warning label. While I loved this curmudgeon from the get-go, for some he appears to be more of an acquired taste. But fall in love they did, so stick with this one if at first you aren't as besotted as I am with A Man Called Ove. Read more about my obsession with Ove here.

This is the book I gave away most last year and I've yet to hear anything but rave reviews. Odds are you'll love The Rent Collector as well. You can read my review of this gem here.

The world needs more Wright Brothers and David McCulloughs. I am seriously smitten with all three of them. I can't think of a single soul who wouldn't love The Wright Brothers. At least not one over the age of sixteen-ish. Read my raving review here.

To stave off my impending anxiety attack over playing favorites with the books I loved in 2015, please check out the other seven that may well be one of my favorite five tomorrow, or in five minutes. You'll find them on our bookshelf.

Posted by Rachel

Book Club Monday

If sweatpants are your everyday attire, you’ll end up looking like you belong in them, which is not very attractive. What you wear in the house does impact your self-image.

Sounds like Marie may be a Seinfeld fan. She would probably be even tougher on George than Jerry. Do you think she feels the same about yoga pants? I cringe to think of what she'd say if she could see me writing this in my pajamas. This sister is tough. She may even scare me a little. But I've heard fear can be a great motivator, so here's hoping she'll be able to whip me into shape. She's definitely got her work cut out for her.

I've almost finished reading the book and am getting ready to dive in. First, I have to take down Christmas. Small obstacle. But I'm hoping to report some significant decluttering progress by next week. Perhaps I'll even be able to walk into my walk-in closet by then. A girl can dream.

How about you? Have you started? Are you being kinder to your socks? Have you stopped wearing sweatpants? Keep us updated on your progress!

Posted by Rachel

Happy Imperfect New Year

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. —Anna Quindlen

I just had an aha moment. Oprah would be so proud. This time of year I always think of my high school friend Christy and what we came to call the New Year's Eve Curse. Every year, bless our little naive hearts, we had big hopes for the perfect New Year's Eve. One that would find us at the right party and getting kissed at midnight by the boy of our teenage dreams. And every year, those hopes would get dashed into a million sad little pieces. It was comical really. It seemed we had a knack for always being at the wrong party, while our friends, and—more important to the success of the night, the boys we liked—rang in the new year somewhere else. The most notorious of all our New Year's Eve fails was the year the clock struck midnight while we were racing from one party to the next. We pulled the car over and laughed until we cried.

Which brings me to my aha moment: I'm afraid that New Year's Eve Curse is a metaphor for my life. I'm in the car (both figuratively and literally), racing from one task to the next, while the big stuff—the important stuff—is happening elsewhere, without me. Or if I'm present, I'm only partially present, with a million to-do's racing through my mind at any given moment.

If Christy and I had stopped chasing after the perfect New Year's Eve, we probably would have had some pretty great ones. If I'd stop letting society's, and in turn, my own, unrealistic expectations dictate how I live my life, I'd find that while my life may be far from perfect, it's pretty dang good. If I'd just slow down enough to enjoy it. Shift my focus. And give myself and all my glorious imperfections a much needed break. Learn to live with my whole heart, rather than my current standard of living: distracted, harried, and overwhelmed.

My aha moment and shift in thinking is brought to you...or really me...via Brené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection. I can't recommend it loudly enough. I needed this book. I don't have time to write and you don't have time to read all the reasons I love this book. Especially when you could, and should, just be reading the actual book. It is a book that will change the way you think.

I'm new to the Brené Brown party, and I'm an instant fan. I love that this isn't a self-help, how-to book—we have plenty of those. Rather than describe what makes this book different, I'll let her do it. Is that cheating? It feels a bit like cheating. Maybe it's really just more of accepting that I don't have the words or the time to explain it as well as Brown does. How's that for embracing my imperfections?

"How-to" is a seductive shortcut. Why cross the swamp if you can just bypass it? But here's the dilemma: Why is "how-to" so alluring when, truthfully, we already know "how-to" yet we're still standing in the same place longing for more joy, connection, and meaning?

We know how to eat healthy. We also know how to make good choices with our money. We know how to take care of our emotional needs. We know all of this, yet...We are the most obese, medicated, addicted, and in-debt Americans EVER.

Why? Because...we don't talk about what keeps us eating until we're sick, busy beyond human scale, desperate to numb and take the edge off, and full of so much anxiety and self-doubt that we can't act on what we know is best for us. We don't talk about the hustle for worthiness that's become such a part of our lives that we don't even realize that we're dancing.

If we want to live and love with our whole hearts, and if we want to engage with the world from a place of worthiness, we have to talk about the things that get in the way—especially shame, fear, and vulnerability.

Amen.

Posted by Rachel

Squirrels, Cynics, and Superheroes

I promise to always turn back toward you.

Holy Bagumba!  It’s Wednesday and I’m writing Tuesday’s post.  Wow.  Maybe I, too, am living in denial.  Better yet, I’m trying to break into Rachel’s alternate universe—something tells me there’s a soft place to land there with books a plenty and ginger snaps that don’t sit on the hips.  A girl can dream, right?  

Speaking of dreaming…I wish I were Kate DiCamillo right about now.  DiCamillo is a rock star in the children’s book cosmos.  She’s a natural, so it’s no surprise she earned the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature title for 2014-2015.

Books like Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and now Flora & Ulysses have enrapt children and adults alike.  She is a decorated and delightful author.  If you haven’t read DiCamillo, you really should.  

I highly recommend meeting both Flora and Ulysses—they’re as endearing as they are eccentric.  In fact, the precocious 11-year-old cynic and her superhero squirrel have made the tough task of getting my boys up the stairs to dress for bed a piece of cake.  (Cake makes me think of Ulysses, whose appetite is as big as his desire to type poetry.)  My fifty-something husband took ardent offense one night when we had the gall to read this story without him.  He, along with the rest of us, has laughed out loud as we moved through this captivating tale involving a vacuum cleaner, superheroes, a little shepherdess lamp, spy advice, giant donuts, and love.  Oh, and seal blubber!  Did I mention there are pictures of this dynamic duo?  The novel is intermingled with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black and white and wit.  

It’s no wonder Flora & Ulysses was an instant New York Times Bestseller, a 2013 Parent’s Choice Gold Award Winner, and a 2014 Newbery Medal winner.  Let’s say you only love The Illuminated Adventures half as much as we do—you’ll still be an indisputable fan of an unlikely (and unforgettable) friendship.

P.S. Can’t wait to read DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale—it goes on sale April 12th, 2016!

Posted by Tracy

Book Club Monday...on Tuesday

The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.

Let's all pretend this is Monday. And while we're at it, we'll pretend tomorrow is Kid Lit Tuesday.  Welcome to how I live my life: in denial. Or maybe it sounds better to say welcome to my alternate universe? Heavier on the crazy but perhaps less pathetic? Not to worry though, this life-changing book is about to work its magic on me.

So here's how our little obligation-free book club is going to work: we'll post each Monday (yes, on real Mondays) about that month's book and invite your comments and thoughts. Feel free to eat yummy treats while reading our posts so you feel like you're at an actual book club. We'll also create a hashtag for each month's books so you can share your thoughts on Instagram as well. Or in this month's case: your clutter-conquering masterpieces. If you're really brave, you can post before and afters. I'm telling you now, there will be no before shot of my closet.

On the months we can manage to pull off being in the same state as each other, we'll host a chat on Periscope so we can talk live to all of you about the book. Talk about a win/win: we all get to discuss the book together and no one has to clean their house beforehand. That's my kind of book club.

So if you don't have your copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, get one quick and start reading and decluttering. Her companion book, Spark Joy, will be available on January 5th.

Posted by Rachel

Weekly Wrap-up

Now imagine yourself living in a space that contains only things that spark joy. Isn’t this the lifestyle you dream of? —Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Marie Kondo. She must have heard that we've chosen The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up as our January Book Club read, because she's releasing its companion book on January 5th. Not the magic wand we were wishing for, but hopefully Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up will be the next best thing.

You. For understanding that this whole blogging thing is new to us and we didn't anticipate how hard it would be to combine our chronic Christmas overachieving and keeping up on the blog. Here's to getting better at this in 2016.

Did we mention you? For managing not to roll your eyes when we say, yet again, that we didn't get to that review of The Gifts of Imperfection. By we, I mean me (Rachel). I'm the lone culprit in this debacle. There are few books that I want everyone I know to read. This is one of them and yet I can't manage to sit down and write a proper review. Again, I'm only in the beginning stages of my recovery when it comes to my chronic overdoing at Christmas. Clearly, I have a long way to go.

New books. We hope your Christmas was lovely and you found a book or two or three under your tree yesterday morning. Tracy gave me one I hadn't heard of via one of our most trusted sources for recommendations. I can't wait to dive into A Song for Issy Bradley.

COMING NEXT WEEK

Book Club Mondays. Details on how our little online book club is going to work.

I'm not even going to say a review of The Gifts of Imperfection because that would just be embarrassing.

Feeling Nostalgic

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. —Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

If I had to come up with one quote that best describes Tracy, that Jane Austen quote may be just be it. Tracy has never loved by halves—she's all in. Lucky, lucky me. My kids are lucky too. They've been the benefactors of so much of Tracy's goodness. Nowhere is that more evident than in our Christmas book collection, most of which comes from her. Like this gem. I opened it up to see what she wrote inside:

Merry Christmas Emma, Zannah, and Ben too! (2004) Toot & Puddle are some of my favorite characters as are the three of you. We love you, Tracy, Matt, Mattie, Abbey, Sam & baby too

She was just days away from welcoming her little Luke into the world, yet she still found time to send a favorite read our way. How fitting that it was a tale of deep friendship and how one friend will stop at nothing to keep his promise of being home in time for Christmas. I happen to know a friend just as true.

One of my favorite traditions when my kids were younger was to read a book each night around the tree. It was a guaranteed moment of quiet at the end of days crammed with too much hustle and bustle. And more often than not, that book would have an inscription from my favorite friend.

Posted by Rachel

Weekly Wrap-up

Life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.  —Louisa May Alcott

photo courtesy of Abigail Jackson

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Puffin in Bloom. We also love you, which is why we are giving away a set of these lovely classics with stunning covers by Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co.. Follow us on Instagram to enter.

The Gifts of Imperfection. We're embracing our own imperfections and reviewing this lovely book next week instead of this past one like we promised. We're certain Brené Brown would approve.

Oh my heavens, these. And if you aren't following @_megconley on Instagram, you'll want to remedy that pronto. Her brilliant one-sided dialogue with a hilariously disinterested store clerk while purchasing these bandages is not to be missed.

Every nursery or child's room needs one of these.

This is so lovely, it almost makes us want a Kindle.

COMING NEXT WEEK

Review of The Gifts of Imperfection. Really.

Is it horrible to say your guess is as good as ours? 'Tis the season.