Category Archives: books

A Small Life Book Club: Essentialism

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I’m a little late too the Book Club game this month. I apologize if you were waiting for the riveting discussion that I’m sure will ensue 🙂 I just had a lot going on and I know not all of it was essential. Ha-ha.

Anyway, this month I listened to the audiobook version of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*. The author, Greg McKeown, has a lovely voice and if anything, listening to the audiobook favorably influenced my opinion of the book. That hasn’t always been the case when I listened to audiobooks in the past. See: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this book. Most people chase everything instead of chasing the right things. The right things are the things in your life and career that will make the most impact. Unfortunately most of the tasks that we do are unimportant. It’s answering email. It’s picking up the dry cleaning. It’s filling out that form for the 5th time because someone lost it again…

I know on an everyday basis that most of the work tasks and many of the life tasks that I do are nonessential. I know that checking my email 394834923293 times a day doesn’t contribute to my productivity. I know that doing the dishes isn’t going to contribute to my big life goals. I also know that if I don’t do it, no one else will. Which leads me to my biggest problem with the book. I think that the principles are very difficult to apply to government, service or “worker-bee” jobs. It would be easy to say “no” to pursuing menial tasks if I was higher up the food chain. Unfortunately, much of my job is filling out forms and filling up the printer’s paper tray. Even if I did advocate for essentialism, I don’t think I would ever see an institutional change. It’s sad, but true.

I also think that as a person with a limited income, essentialism is difficult to apply to my personal life. Yes, I want to work on writing a book, but I can’t afford to pay someone to do my laundry, clean my house and cook my meals. That has to be done on an every day basis by me.

Although some of the principles of the book are going to be extremely difficult to implement, since reading this book, I have begun to question the nonessential things I can control. Do I really need a Facebook? No. And as soon as I download all of my pictures, I plan to get rid of it. I also reinstalled Rescue Time to keep me off of distracting sites. And I’ve taken off my email’s sound alert, so I don’t run to my email each time I hear the new mail ping. These little things have been extremely helpful, but I’ve yet to free up large chunks of time for essential projects.

Have you read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*? What did you think? How have you limited nonessential things in your life to make space for the important stuff? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

P.S. July’s pick will be Scarcity: Why having too little means so much*. Feel free to leave suggestions for future books in the comments!

*Affiliate links.

A Small Life Book Club: May’s Pick

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This month I’m going to be reading Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less* by Greg McKeown. Although I would consider myself a minimalist in terms of “things,” I often take on too many hobbies, tasks, chores, projects and just extra work. I’m incredibly interested in how to “get the right things done” instead of trying to get everything done. And this book promises to show me how. I’ll be discussing the book on June 1st and I hope you’ll join along.

Happy reading!

love,
melanie

*Affiliate link

A Small Life Book Club: The Power of Less Discussion

The Power of Less Book

Welcome to book club! Let’s settle in with a glass of wine (it’s Friday, right?!) and get to chatting! This month we read, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life* by Leo Babauta. Leo is of Zen Habits fame and this is one of many books and articles that he has written.

Full disclosure: I again, listened to this book via Audible*. This time I didn’t mind the speaker’s voice so I don’t think that swayed my feelings towards the book, but I do think at times, I missed things because I’m not a naturally audible learner.

What I did grasp from the book were a few key concepts that, although very basic, have been helpful for me in achieving goals in the past. Although, when Leo listed how many goals he has achieved in the beginning of the book using these methods, I felt like I have achieved NOTHING. He’s written books, run marathons, grown his blog to hundreds of thousands of readers and so much more.  He also has 6 kids and gets up at 4:30 am everyday. Crazy pants. Anyway, I think he really has something with the 3 “Most Important Tasks” (MITs) concept. I write down the 3 most important things that I have to do each day in my planner and my “MITS” always get done.

I also really liked his suggestion to start (almost comically) small when achieving goals. If you want to exercise everyday, start exercising for 5 minutes a day. It’s more important to establish the habit first than actually achieve results. I know that I would have trouble with this suggestion. I’m an over-achiever, but I’m going to try it with my next big goal.

Leo also suggests just pursuing one goal at a time. This would be the hardest suggestion for me to follow. I want to achieve so many things and I don’t want to wait an entire year to start the next goal. I want to both exercise every day and grow my blog. I don’t know if both would be possible by his standards.

I did like that his methods are easy to understand. Nothing is revolutionary, but nothing seems impossible either.

Did you read The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life?* Let’s chat in the comments

love,
melanie

*Affiliate links.

A Small Life Book Club: April’s Pick

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Thanks for joining along for March’s book club discussion. It was fun! I appreciate everyone’s insight and I’m looking forward to doing it again. For April, I’ve picked The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential… in Business and in Life.* I love Babauta’s blog, Zen Habits. That may be obvious; I link to it almost every week! I’m excited to learn how limiting clutter can help you accomplish goals. We’ll be discussing this one on May 1st. That’s plenty of time to check it out from your local library, buy it from your local bookstore or order it from Amazon using my affiliate link above.

Let’s get to reading!

love,
melanie

A Small Life Book Club: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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We’re opening up the book club with the #1 best seller: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing* by Marie Kondo. I’ve heard so much praise for this book. I had to find out what it was all about.

Full disclosure: I listened to the audiobook because I’m a busy lady. That may have colored my review. I didn’t love the reader’s voice. It was robotic and put me to sleep several times. Not even kidding. At one point the reader broke from the deadpan and did several different voices to represent different testimonials. It was such a 180 that I laughed for a good 10 minutes. I even backed up the audiobook to listen to that part again. So there’s that. Anyway, on to it!

Kondo’s approach to “tidying” is this: keep only items that bring you joy. Honestly, I found that idea to a bit far fetched. Do any of my socks bring me joy? No. Do my washcloths bring me joy? No. But both are necessary for life. At one point, she suggested that we throw away our sweats and women should dress elegantly for bed. I was cussing up a storm after that one.

But Kondo did present a few gems of decluttering wisdom. She suggested that we only declutter our own stuff. I love that approach and always suggest it to friends/family who want to minimize. The best way to help others declutter is to set an example. It’s dangerous and rude to throw away other people’s things. It leads to mistrust and you could really harm someone’s emotional ability to get rid of stuff in the long run. I also liked her hippy-dippy theory of thanking items for their use when getting rid of them. It takes some of the guilt away.

On the other hand, I’m not 100% sure I agree with her approach to decluttering. The “KonMarie Method” suggests that instead of moving room by room, one should declutter by item type. For example, you’ll first find all the clothes in your house, gather them in a pile on the floor, then ask if each one brings you joy. If not, the item is thanked for it’s one-time purpose and put in a bag to be thrown away. In theory this seems like a good idea, but I only live in 188 square feet and I am overwhelmed by the thought of finding every single piece of clothing I own and dumping it in a pile. She also claims that none of her clients have ever rebounded into clutter. That just seems unlikely.

We are having a canned food drive at work so I tried the KonMarie Method with all my canned goods. (That’s not one of the items on her list, but I thought I could try to see if it was applicable to other situations.) I took all the canned goods out of my pantry and put them on the floor. I asked myself if each one gave me joy. They were food, so the answer was “yes” for almost everything. I got distracted half way through and ended up leaving a pile of cans on the floor for half a day. That’s something else I didn’t love about the system, there’s no estimated time line. I know it will take a different amount of time for different people, but it could take some people months to go through all their clothes that way. I don’t know without a personal organizer standing behind them that most people could keep up that kind of momentum.

Overall, I give this one a big, fat “MEH.” Was it “life-changing magic” for me? No. Will it work for some people? Yes.

Did you read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”? I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments!

love,
melanie

*Affiliate link.

A Small Life Book Club

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

I’m starting a new feature on ye olde blog and I hope that you’ll enjoy it too! One of my goals this year is to read more and I need a bit of motivation. That’s why I’m starting a book club. Each month I’ll announce the book that we are going to read. (I’ll also take suggestions!) And then I’ll read it (I hope you will too) and we’ll discuss it. Easy enough?

Since this is “A Small Life” Book Club I’m thinking the books will center around minimalism, living small and life-changing adventures! The first book we’ll be reading is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing* by Marie Kondo. You can check it out from your local library or purchase it on Amazon using the link above.

I’ve heard great things about this book. In fact, people are starting to use the author’s last name as a verb to mean tidying up. Too bad my last name is hard to pronounce or I’d totally try to make that into a thing meaning “small living.” We’ll discuss this book on April 1st. I hope you’ll join me!

love,
melanie

*Affiliate link.

Book Review: The Big Tiny: A Build It Myself Memoir

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetWhen I was in the earlier stages of this blog, I did a lot of book reviews. I tried to do one a week, but I got burnt out. I love to read, but the pressure of having to read so much in such a short period of time time really sucked the fun out of it. One of my oh so many goals this year is to read more– especially at night before bed. I usually spend much too much time scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram before I sleep. It isn’t good for me. In fact, I just read a study that it might be killing me! While I think that’s article is a touch sensationalist, I can’t deny that staring at a little blue screen right before I sleep isn’t as healthy as reading a good ol’ fashioned book.

Over the holidays I got the chance to finally finish up a book that I’d been reading for months. The book was entitled The Big Tiny: A Build It Myself Memoir by Dee Williams. Dee (I can call her right that? We’re friends now.) was one of the first (and most famous) pioneers of the tiny house movement. After she was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, Dee decided she needed a change in her life. While sitting in the doctor’s office, she read an article about a gentleman who built a tiny house and she couldn’t get it out of her head. The Big Tiny follows her story of building a tiny home, living in it and eventually teaching other people to do the same.

I think I live pretty small (188 square feet), but Dee truly lives tiny in 84 square feet. (That doesn’t count her loft, sleeping space, but still that’s super small.) Throughout this story I continually admired Dee’s courage. If I was a single lady, I don’t know if I would have ever taken the plunge into small living. I’d probably just rent an apartment and continue into the debt cycle forever. Dee figured out how to build an entire house by herself! She hammered and nailed and put up walls with a a serious heart condition. She’s one courageous lady.

I enjoyed that this book wasn’t a how-to manual, but at times I was a bit bored by the stories of Dee’s everyday life. Her life in the tiny house was interesting, but I found myself skipping through some of the stories about her life prior to the tiny house. But let’s be real, my everyday life is pretty boring too.

This book wasn’t a life changer for me, but it did inspire me to be more resourceful. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in tiny living.

What have you been reading lately? Let’s discuss!

love,
melanie

Books to Give as Wedding Gifts

Photography property of Corey Balazowich. Discovered via Flickr.

Photography property of Corey Balazowich. Discovered via Flickr.

It is upon us! Wedding season! For many of you wedding season has already begun, but for George and I, the majority of our wedding activities are beginning this weekend. The dresses, and devotions, and drinks will kick off with a trip to a friends’ wedding in West Virginia. Then, we’ve got two more weddings in September and our own wedding in December.

Questions always arise about a gift when one is playing the role of wedding guest. The majority of the weddings we will be attending do not have a registry– which can be a blessing or a curse. The idea of a gifting on such a momentous occasion has inflicted a little bit of worry in my mind, but going registry-less can also be exciting. It gives the chance to show-case talents or give the people what they really want– CASH.

With registry-less weddings, I like to give a thoughtful book with money inside. Picking out books is my talent. And yes, I’m spoiling the surprise. Oops! Here’s some of my tips and favorite books for wedding gift-giving.

1. If the couple is going somewhere exotic on their honeymoon, a phrase or guide book is a helpful and entertaining choice. For our friends who were going to Italy on their honeymoon, we got them a Dirty Italian phrase book stuffed with cash. I hope they stunned the Italians with their knowledge and dirty-word skills.

2. I think marriage help or marriage advice books are way too personal to give at a wedding. Those types of books may even send the wrong message to the happy couple. But a book of other people’s love letters? Well, that just sounds divine.

3. Have the bride and groom expressed interest in learning a new skill or do they have a collective hobby? Now would be a great time to give a book on canning, gardening, or homemaking skills– if your couple is into that sort of thing. I particularly like Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry. It’s filled with hi-res pictures and makes canning look surprisingly hip.

4. Does your couple like fiction? Classic love stories like this illustrated Bronte Sisters collection would be fitting. Personally, I would prefer a few lovely classic novels to start a personal library in our home together. I’ve been swooning over this classic novels box set for over a year and would love to receive it as a wedding gift. Hint, Hint!

Do you have any tips about wedding gift giving? Have you ever given a book as a wedding gift? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: Audio Edition Review

Last week I took an unexpected trip to visit a few relatives in Kentucky. It was a long car ride, but visiting my family was overdue. During the 12 hour drive, George and I listened to David Sedaris’Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. Or rather, I listened to it and George endured it. Audiobooks aren’t really his thing.

Anyway, if you are a David Sedaris fan, like I am, don’t start this book (or audiobook) with expectations of side-splitting personal memoirs. This book is a real departure from the David Sedaris I know and love. No stories of childhood angst lie within these pages. Instead, this book told modern fables of wood land and barn yard creatures.

Often the short story format works far better than the novel format for audiobooks and this recording was no exception. The book was read by four different folks: Sedaris, Elaine Stritch, Dylan Baker and Siân Phillips. By far, Elaine Stritch was my favorite of the voice actors. She is brilliant as Jack Donaghy’s vile mother on 30 Rock and it was so refreshing to hear someone with a non-voice actor voice read. Does that make sense?

Overall, I didn’t love this collection as much as some of Sedaris’ previous work. I did enjoy the tales of the creatures withdownright human qualities. The animals were prejudice, mean, dull, and of course, entertaining. I would definitely recommend the audio format to anyone interested in the book.

It just wasn’t my favorite David Sedaris piece. If you’ve never read his work, I’d recommend reading Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim or Me Talk Pretty One Day first.

Have you read Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk yet? What did you think?

love,
melanie

 

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Am I the only one who didn’t love Persepolis? There were aspects of the book that I appreciate, but overall I give it a big, fat meh. I appreciated the portrayal of a girl living in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The Islamic Revolution is a topic rarely discussed in Western literature. I also appreciated the accessibility of the graphic novel format. This book could easily fit into a high school World History course. I just didn’t love it, ya know?

I didn’t like the main character, Marji. Although she and her family had their fair share of struggles, their hardships seemed much less severe than the realities of their neighbors and friends. Their family is rather well-to-do and I would have appreciated a story of those who experienced the harsher realities of a revolution. Does that make me a bad person? I’ve never experienced the harsher realities of war or a revolution myself. Am I a hypocritical critic?

I know this is her memoir, and Marji lost her uncle and many people she loved which is insanely awful. To me, Marji just gave off that spoiled teen vibe– something I can’t stand and one of the reasons I did not become a YA librarian. (I suppose in some ways the spoiled teen vibe was rightful, she was a young teenager during the novel– I just hate it!)

I also wasn’t crazy about the graphics. The drawings were a little simplistic for my taste, but one could argue they represented the simplicity of childhood and all that jazz.

This book was often compared to Maus. Maus was better. I still might read the second book in the series, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. I wasn’t happy with the ending.

Did you read Persepolis? What did you think?

love,
melanie