All The Light We Cannot See
Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel follows the stories of a young French girl and young German boy whose lives intersect while trying to survive World War II. Blind Marie-Laure’s father builds her a perfect model of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way around. Your senses will be tantalized as you discover her world alongside her. Especially when she joins the resistance.
When orphan Werner wins a spot at an academy for Hitler Youth, he thinks it’s his ticket to a life of which he has only dreamed, but his struggle has only just begun. Werner’s internal battle between what is right and wrong begins long before he gets to the battlefield.
Parallel to both of their stories, there is the mystery of a legendary French diamond, and the Nazi who is obsessed with finding it and bringing it back to Germany.
It’s a gripping story of people who find good in the world – and themselves, despite the odds.
The Martian
OK, you’ve got to be a little bit of a nerd to enjoy this book. When Mark Watney gets left on Mars, he has to get creative to survive. And that creativity involves a whole lot of, well, science. The story is mostly told through the perspective of Watney’s journal entries, and his sense of humor will have you wondering how your mental stability would be if you were 140 million miles from civilization. Through every success and mishap, you will be amazed at Watney’s resourcefulness, and pulling for him to get home.
How To Talk So Kids Can Learn
You don’t have to know me very well to know about my love of children. I just can’t get enough of them and I love making a child feel cherished and valued. I am always interested to know how I can make my interactions with them even better…
My favorite part of this book was how it consistently used cartoons to illustrate and even compare how different word choices illicit different responses from children. It is primarily psychology based without an academic tone. I think parents and teachers alike could get something out of this book that would allow them to communicate more effectively with their kids.
The Gifts of Imperfection
This is one of those books that connects the dots, solves the puzzles and looks straight through to your soul. Dr. Brown describes the difference between healthy-striving and perfectionism. She also explains why perfectionism is actually an addiction. The biggest takeaway from this book for me is that we try to be perfect because we think it will reduce the risk of pain, but in reality it keeps us from really connecting with people, which is what we actually want. If you think you might need to read this book, you do.
Modern Romance
Full of all the wit you would expect from Aziz Ansari, this book will have you laughing out loud. My inner sociologist appreciated the current intriguing statistics on topics related to modern romance such as online dating, as well as the evolution of dating and marriage over the past century. What I didn’t expect was that Ansari personally conducted hundreds of interviews, not only in America, but in Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Paris as well. He isn’t afraid to point to and draw from his own romantic endeavors either.
As I anticipated, this book had its fair share of crude humor and foul language, but for the most part I don’t feel it took away from Ansari’s analysis of modern dating. I’m impressed that he saw a gap in today’s social science research and took it upon himself to fill that gap.
liv in words 