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Reading, Writing, Listening, Watching: January 2019

I made a goal for January to read as many books as I could, and this morning, I finished my 21st book of the month! A lot of these were audiobooks, and since I’ve trained my brain to listen to them at 1.75x speed, I can usually get through a book in a day. No way will I be able to keep up this pace throughout the year, but it was a great way to start 2019- and I read some great books!

Books I Read

I started off with Becoming, by Michelle Obama, and loved it so much I declared it my favorite book of the year. Then, I sort of became obsessed with political memoirs, especially female presidential candidates.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

What Happened by Hillary Clinton

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris

Other memoirs I read were:

Make Trouble by Cecile Richards

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha

Maid by Stephanie Land (I can’t stop thinking about this one. So well written and an important story)

Non-Fiction

I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi

Shameless: A Sexual Reformation (I felt like this book was written especially for me)

Learning to Speak God from Scratch by Jonathan Merritt

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

The View From Flyover Country by Sarah Kendzior

Fiction

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Vox by Christina Dalcher

Articles Worth Sharing

Raising Children Without the Concept of Sin New York Times

Anxiety or Aggression? When Anxiety in Children Looks Like Anger, Tantrums, or Meltdowns Hey Sigmund

Television Worth Watching

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened Netflix and FYRE Fraud Hulu (Both these documentaries gave me anxiety while I watched, and I still have so many questions!)

Three Identical Strangers CNN Films (This doc is so fascinating, yet so sad)

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo Netflix

Other Places I Wrote

Why Michelle Obama is a Role Model for All Moms Houston Moms Blog

The Hypocrisy of Pro-Life Rhetoric Harms Families Like Mine Scary Mommy

9 Comments

  1. Dana Bahn on February 1, 2019 at 2:21 am

    I just read your article for Scary Mommy. Thank you! You seriously put words to what I’ve been trying to get my husband to understand. Lately, I’ve just been telling people that both sides of the movement have darkness – there is no “easy” in this situation. Thank you, Elizabeth.

  2. Clarissa on February 1, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    Amazing list! I appreciate these recommendations so much because I’ve always said “I need to read more” then have no idea where to begin.

    What app or service did you use for your audio books? I listen to podcasts like it’s going out of style, but am rather clueless when it comes to a book site. I’m open to purchasing a subscription to something, just not sure what.

    Thanks for your help!

    • Christina Lau on February 9, 2019 at 12:17 am

      Check your local public library. Most of them now have thousands of audiobooks available to your online. And they’re free!

  3. Todd Chipman on February 1, 2019 at 4:59 pm

    I really enjoy your insights. I read the article you recommended, Raising Children Without the Concept of Sin, which is an article I can relate to. I slso read, stop spreading falsehoods…”. Thanks for sharing your work.

  4. Rowan Raphael on February 1, 2019 at 5:47 pm

    thanks for all your posts Elizabeth. however, they come to me in very faded font. I wonder if that is at your end or my end?

  5. Stephen Sherrier on February 2, 2019 at 5:17 am

    Thanks very much for the recommendation of Raising Children Without the Concept of Sin. I was happy to see that another reader was impressed with it as well. I hope I am not being presumptuous, but I found your website through searching for Evolving Faith 2018, and I see your description of yourself as a “Jesus follower.” I wonder, then, if you (or your readers) have any helps or sources to offer to someone like me who imagines a Christianity without sin.

    In short (though I’m probably not alone) I think Jesus describes a humanity that is lost by being merciless, not by just being sinful. I cannot think that the Greek Testament epistles support my views, however, so I am largely left with the Gospels. Unfortunately, when I try to find out about a Jesus of mercy, I seem only to run into secular accounts of “the historic Jesus,” or into fuzzy notions of Jesus’ forgiving nature that glide over the actual text of the Gospels, or, of course, into orthodox Christian thinkers who believe my unaddressed sin nature will land me in hell. (And Universalism is a comforting notion, but Jesus certainly seems to have wanted to put the fear of hell into some people.)

    Am I missing something? Are there bodies of organized thought that inform people who feel that they and—God forbid—their children ought not to be immersed in a sin theology that seems not to be that which is breathed by Jesus in the Gospels?

  6. Stacey O'Brien on February 18, 2019 at 10:17 pm

    Hi! How do you speed up audiobooks? There so slow, which is my problem with them. I read really fast, but if the books went faster, I would listen to them in the care or wherever. I use audible from Amazon on my phone.. You mentioned something about listening at 1.75 speed. That would be a great help! Please advise! I read a lot of books like you do – hundreds every year. I try to especially read anything written by people coming out of the Trump White House, having been thrown under the bus by Trump, whose favorite form of treachery is to lure people into a relationship where they think Trump is loyal to them, then saying, “You’re FIRED!” with o warning, then destroying them with words on twitter. He based a whole reality show on his love of that power of saying, “You’re fired”. The insights that these people have into the chaos that is the White House is quite consistent and terrifying. Comey’s book was especially well written and clear.

  7. sharkyswaterfrontgrill on May 3, 2019 at 12:42 pm

    Shark Water Front Grill Sea Food Bar Will Provide The Freshest Sea Food at the edge of Lake Houston. Sharky’s provide the sea food at the reasonable price and fresh sea food. This is the most inexpensive seafood in Houston.

  8. Amy on September 8, 2019 at 5:34 pm

    Have you checked out the Universal Christ by Richard Rohr? You might really enjoy any of his podcast interviews or original podcasts as well. Like a breath of fresh air spiritually speaking.

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