I Thought It Was Just Me - Brené Brown

I Thought It Was Just Me

Title: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

Author: Brené Brown

Publication Date: 2007

Pages: 305

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I'm a big fan of Brené Brown's work.

Date Completed: 5/31/18

Summary: Brené Brown's research about shame will be seminal. Her influence is already wide-reaching as so many people resonate with what she's learned. 

What I Thought: I've been exposed to Brené Brown's work through a lot of avenues, but I've never actually read any of her books before this. Somehow, that seems kind of insane to me, but it's true. My goal is to read through her recent work, starting with this one. I heard her say once in an interview that her work makes the most sense in order because it follows the path of her own growth, so that's what I'm doing. 

When I taught Critical Thinking, we spent a chunk of time talking about emotional intelligence and also about moral sentiments. Included in those conversations were discussions about shame, guilt, and how those sentiments affect us. Brown's work around these ideas totally changed how I taught those subjects. In fact, I incorporated a lot of content from this very book into my last semester because I started reading it in February and then didn't finish before my library loan ran out and I got sent to the back of the waiting list again.

Forever Chic - Tish Jett

Forever Chic

Title: Forever Chic: Frenchwomen's Secrets for Timeless Beauty, Style, and Substance

Author: Tish Jett

Publication Date: 2013

Pages: 240

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: It's been on my TBR list forever.

Date Completed: 10/28/17

Summary: French women seem to possess some undefinable, elusive quality which keeps them eternally chic. Jett sets out to uncover their secrets and make them accessible to her readers. 

What I Thought: When I started this book, I did not realize it was targeting mainly toward "women of a certain age," as Jett calls them. I turned 30 this year, so I don't think I fall in Jett's idea of that category yet. I contemplated putting it down early on because of that, but I figured there would likely be some valuable tips for me even now. 

Jett covers a variety of categories: skin care, makeup, hair styles, fashion, diet, and more. She is an American ex-pat who married a Frenchman and has consequentially lived in the country for many years. Her research for this book seemed to largely consist of conversations with her French friends and observation of the women around her. Some chapters were certainly more interesting and practical for me than others.

What Color Is Your Parachute? - Richard N. Bolles

What Color Is Your Parachute?

Title: What Color Is Your Parachute? 2018: A Practical Manuel for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers

Author: Richard N. Bolles

Publication Date: 8/15/2017

Pages: 354

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Date Completed: 10/16/17

Summary: Looking for a job or wanting a career change? Bolles offers practical advice about how to make that happen in today's world. 

What I Thought: When I saw this book offered on Blogging for Books, it seemed fortuitous. As many of you know, I'm exploring a career change from college instructor to...something else? Not exactly sure quite what yet, but probably something in either the non-profit or public policy sectors. 

Bolles' book is an old classic in the job hunting world. It's been around for ages and the copy I received is the 2018 version, updated for the current world. 

Killing Wonder Woman - Tenaya T. J. Tison

Killing Wonder Woman

Hey! There's a giveaway at the bottom of this post! Make sure you read all the way through and enter for your chance to win!

Title: Killing Wonder Woman: Setting Weary Women Free to Win at Work and Soar in Faith

Author: Tenaya T. J. Tison

Publication Date: 3/13/17

Pages: 264

Genre: Chick Lit / Faith / Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: TLC Book Tours

Date Completed: 4/15/17

Summary: Tison encourages readers to conquer "Wonder Woman" also known as the unattainable ideal to which so many women find themselves striving. 

What I Thought: Book tours are great, but I especially love when I can tell the books came straight from the author. When I got this one, it seemed to have come from Tison's home address and she had written a personalized signature on the title page for me. Authors, my reviews are as impartial as I can make them, but that's a good way to leave a positive first impression of your book. 

On to the book itself...

Tison clearly is passionate about her subject matter. She has poured her heart out onto the page. Her enthusiasm for empowering women of faith radiates on every page. She has had a transformative experience and wants desperately to share it. That much is clear. 

Beyond the Label - Maureen Chiquet

Beyond the Label

Title: Beyond the Label: Women, Leadership, and Success on Our Own Terms

Author: Maureen Chiquet

Publication Date: 4/18/17 (That's today!)

Pages: 288

Genre: Memoir / Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I'm on the TLC Book Tour

Date Completed: 4/9/17

Summary: Chiquet takes readers through her professional life, starting as a high school exchange student and through her years as global CEO of Chanel. Along the way, she weaves in some advice for women who looking to forge their own leadership path. 

What I Thought: I was very excited to join the tour for this book. I had not heard of Maureen Chiquet before, although I have certainly heard of Chanel. You may remember another TLC Book Tour I did a while back for a biography of the brand's founder, Coco Chanel. I looked forward to reading Chiquet's book for very different reasons. A book about women and leadership? It was no question for me.

I've been wrestling a lot more lately with my own professional goals and where I want my career to go. I thought I had it all figured out, but as my 30th birthday approaches, I'm rethinking some things and wondering if a reconfiguration may be ahead for me professionally. That being said, this book and the one I'm reviewing later in the month, Killing Wonder Woman, both came at a timely point for me. 

Modern Romance - Aziz Ansari

Modern Romance

Title: Modern Romance

Author: Aziz Ansari

Publication Date: 6/16/15

Pages: 288

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: Suzanne at Tattoed Missionary wrote about it

Date Completed: 2/16/17

Summary: A comedian writes a book about romance. While this is as entertaining as you'd expect, it's also surprisingly thoughtful and informative. 

What I Thought: I have read a good number of the popular comedian memoirs in the last few years. You may have read my reviews of them. I expected something similar to those here. This, however, is not a memoir.

Ansari, who I know from the awesome show Parks and Recreation, has written a book about romance. He partnered with researchers to do real honest-to-goodness research and studies. Just like Suzanne at Tattooed Missionary, I was really pleasantly surprised to see graphs and charts and research and everything. 

The Defining Decade - Meg Jay

The Defining Decade

Title: The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter -- And How to Make the Most of Them Now

Author: Meg Jay

Publication Date: 2012

Pages: 241

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I saw Jay's TED Talk

Date Completed: 1/15/17

Summary: Jay, a clinical psychologist, discusses the importance of the twenty-something years.

What I Thought: I have had this book on my TBR list for quite a while. Years. Every since I saw Jay's TED Talk back in 2013. Yet, just as Jay discusses in the book, time flies in your twenties and this book in particular had thus far escape me. 

In December, though, I was culling my TBR list and noticed it again. Since I turn 30 this year (*cut to me weeping in the corner*), I figured I better get on with reading a book about life in your twenties. After all, I'm down to only seven months of my twenties left - a thought which only mildly terrifies me.

I was really nervous to read the book. A message that seemed important and timely at 25, now felt as though it could be threatening. What if I read the book and felt like I had wasted my twenties? It was a legitimate concern going into the book.

Jay breaks things into three main categories: work, love, and "brain and body." So let's tackle those one at a time, too.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Title: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Author: Marie Kondo

Publication Date: 1/15/11

Pages: 213

Genre: Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: Everyone is talking about this book

Date Completed: 8/15/16

Summary: A plan to organize, purge, and tidy up your home.

What I Thought: This book has gotten so. much. buzz. It's insane. It was everywhere I looked there for a while. Nothing says first world like everyone buying a book to teach them how to get rid of stuff. 

Kevin and I are currently (slowly) working our way through a little purge of our own, just in an effort to get rid of things we don't need or want. Not inspired by this book, I swear; Marie Kondo would have some serious judgement about our methods. It was complete coincidence that I got my hands on a copy of this book in the midst of our fall purge. 

As Kondo notes, we have all heard and even adhered to dozens of organizing tips over the years. This idea is nothing new. We have too much stuff and getting rid of it can be so freeing, if not just downright necessary. 

Scary Close - Donald Miller

Scary Close

Title: Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

Author: Donald Miller

Publication Date: 2/3/15

Pages: 256

Genre: Faith / Memoir / Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I've been a Miller fan for a while.

Date Completed: 6/1/16

Summary: In the authentic, thoughtful style for which he has become known, Miller explores the idea of intimacy and how terrifying it can be to truly tear down the walls around your heart.

What I Thought: I have been a Donald Miller fan since college. My freshman roommate had to read Blue Like Jazz for a class and I remember picking it up in our dorm room and flipping through the pages. It intrigued me. It would be a couple more years before I read it myself, but I remember that moment distinctly as my first interaction with his work.

When I did get around to reading him....wow. I think I can confidently point to Miller as one of the first Christian authors I connected with as an adult. He ushered me into a new way of thinking about my faith. For the first time, I was recognizing both the fallibility and the beauty of the church and of individual faith. Reading him, I think, was one of the first times I realized that there was true Christianity outside of the fundamentalist bubble in which I had grown up.

Keep Moving - Dick Van Dyke

Keep Moving

Title: Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging

Author: Dick Van Dyke

Publication Date: 10/13/15 - Today!

Pages: 256

Genre: Memoir / Self-Help / Nonfiction

How I Found It: NetGalley

Date Completed: 8/18/15

Summary: Dick Van Dyke shares his approach to aging gracefully and maintaining an active lifestyle long past the point when culture expects you to do so. 

What I Thought: Who doesn't like Dick Van Dyke? He's charming and vivacious, at least on television. And, I imagine, in real life - at least if his memoirs are any indication.

I read Van Dyke's earlier memoir, My Lucky Life, back in 2011. It was, in fact, the very first book I ever reviewed for this blog. How times have changed! I enjoyed his literary voice back then and did in this new memoir as well.

I found this guy on NetGalley. I don't know that a Van Dyke memoir is going to be getting tons of marketing at this point, so I was glad to have noticed it there. I enjoy these inside looks at the lives of celebrity personalities, particularly when told from their own perspective. 

French Women Don't Get Fat - Mireille Guiliano

French Women Don't Get Fat

Title: French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure

Author: Mireille Guiliano

Publication Date: 12/28/05

Pages: 263

Genre: Self-Help / Food / Nonfiction

How I Found It: It's been around for a while now.

Date Completed: 9/25/15

Summary: Guiliano explores the idea that French women have a secret to staying thin. Their diet includes all sorts of things Americans find guilt-inducing: chocolate, wine, bread, rich foods. Yet, the obesity levels in France are far below those in America. Guiliano wants to get to the heart of the issue.

What I Thought: I am not in the habit of reading diet books. Although, I have put on a good 15 pounds since getting married three years ago, a fact with which I am extremely uncomfortable. Still, I know what needs to change if I want to lose that weight: diet and exercise. Portion control and physical activity are the way to a healthy lifestyle. It's well proven, but none of us like to hear or enact that wisdom.

Instead, Americans love diet fads. We love someone telling us there is another way - some secret path to success that doesn't require exercise and allows us to eat all of our favorite things. Guiliano is, whether she would admit it or not, appealing to that exact desire. The book is marketed in a way which makes you think it shares one of those secret pathways.

Beyond Ordinary - Justin & Trisha Davis

Beyond Ordinary

Those of you who have been around the blog for a while know I have casually participated in Tyndale Media Center's summer reading program.  It's so hard to find a good reading program for adults these days.  Our library didn't even have one for kids.  This one requires the participant to read five books from Tyndale's list of recent releases; you are then rewarded with a free book.  I've completed books one, two, and three and logged my thoughts here.  Now, book four.

I chose this book from the list because Amazon offered it for free one day at the start of the summer. Most of you know, I am newly married (ten months today!); a marriage book appealed to me.  Beyond the title, I really knew nothing about the text of the work.

The Most Important Year in a Man's/Woman's Life - Wolgemuth & DeVries

The Most Important Year in Man's/Woman's Life:

What Every Groom/Bride Needs to Know

As Kevin and I approach our wedding day (this Saturday!), we have spent a lot of time investing in our future marriage.  This is one of several books that we read (or are reading) together.  This particular one, written by two married couples - Robert & Bobbie Wulgemuth and Mark & Susan DeVries - was recommended by our pastor and his wife as part of our premarital counseling.  Really, it is two books in one.  As you have probably already deduced, one half speaks specifically to the groom, while the other half is meant for the bride-to-be.

Captivating:Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul - John & Stasi Eldredge

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

Kevin and I are diligently trying to prepare for pre-martial counseling by reading a few books together.  This was the latest in that line-up.  I had read this book in high school, so it was a re-read for me.  John & Stasi Eldredge are a husband and wife team who teamed up to write this book as a follow up to John's best-seller Wild At Heart.  The book is an examination of what it means to be a woman, from the Christian perspective.