53. Slow: Simple Living in a Frantic World by Brooke McAlary [Audiobook]—Australian Brooke McAlary reimagined her life after an extremely stressful season of life, followed by postpartum depression. She decided to slow down to live an intentional, values-centered life. Yes, this did include decluttering and minimizing, but it was about so much more: connection, contentment, and finding balance. I appreciated McAlary’s encouragement to find a personal “why” for slow living, rather than “keeping up with the Jones’” (even the minimalist Jones). The end of the book felt a bit repetitive, and slow, but maybe that was the point?
54. Low-Demand Parenting: Dropping Demands, Restoring Calm and Finding Connection with your Uniquely Wired Child by Amanda Diekman—Amanda Diekman is mom of autistic kids, and a late diagnosed autistic adult herself. In this book, she writes about the dysregulation she and her household experienced when demands were too high, and what happened when she decided to drop those demands and provide safe, calm, nurturing presence instead of expectation. Diekman explains how to look for adult expectations under demands placed on children, how to drop those demands, and how to care for self in doing so. She even provides helpful worksheets in the resources section of the book to assist in this process. While I am torn about whether or not parents should drop all demands of children (and I would argue that Diekman focuses on prioritizing—letting go of what doesn’t matter to leave capacity for what does), I think this book has some helpful information to offer, especially for parents of children struggling with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). If nothing else, the book offers a huge does of empathy for parents struggling to make peace with a household that is far from what they dreamed, hoped, or expected.
55. The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman’s Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home by Katherine May—This book is billed as the author’s discovery and wrestling with her diagnosis of autism, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a beautiful story of her walks on the South West Coast Path, the processing she did while engaging in them, and how she gained strength and self-acceptance while doing so. There is some language in this book (as some words that are swear words in the US are not so in the UK). The book is not religious, but has some spiritual undertones. (The author calls herself an atheist.) These things not withstanding, I found reading the book the opposite of electrifying, but rather calming and insightful, and motivating of myself to want to write about how some of my life’s feats have transformed me.
56. Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hours by Gayle Haggard with Angela Hung [Audio book]—I knew that this would be a hard book for me to read [ahem, listen to]. Ted Haggard’s fall from grace rocked the evangelical world when it occurred. Once the pastor of New Life Church, he lost everything when his illicit relationships with a homosexual masseur and use of illegal drugs went public. This is his wife’s tale of why she stayed with him. It is also the story of how the church handled the situation poorly. Despite Haggard himself having set up a board of overseers and restorers to handle conflicts like this, the church instead amputated the family from it, refusing not only to allow them the ability to tell their story/testimony to anyone, church members or media, but also forbidding them to attend the church, associate with its members, or even meet with church staff beyond the overseers. The church sent the Haggards away to receive counseling, and upon completion, told them they would need to move out of the state of Colorado, the state in which New Life Church was located. My thoughts and feelings ran the gamut while listening to this: from disgust at the lies Ted Haggard told, to frustration at Gayle Haggard for seeming to forgive his indiscretions so easily, to appreciation of the ways Gayle chronicled the benefits of EMDR in their healing, to a new awareness about how poorly the church handles sin. After finishing this book and reading that the Haggards are back in ministry as shepherds of a new church, I am really not sure what to think, of any of it. My goal in reading was to understand more about the evangelical church and reasons why people oppose it. Well, I got more than I bargained for, in gaining a new perspective into the need for the church to help heal and redeem its own. I am glad I stayed with this book but honestly, had I been reading, I think I would have given up. The fact that the audio kept going helped me get through the dark spots to the other side.
57. Fools Rush In by Janice Thompson—I am not one for comedy, especially slapstick comedy, and if this isn’t one, I don’t know what is. Italian turned Texan Bella Rossini is trying to run her parents’ wedding venue and faces trouble at every turn. Her uncle starts watching a parrot. Campfire singes the eyebrows off someone. Bella falls in love in a month. While this book has some yummy references to Italian food and some quotes worth requoting (in English and Italian—about life, faith, love, etc.,) the whole book is just pretty ridiculous. I honestly had a hard time getting through it. While I’m curious if the other books in this series might be any better, I also wonder if I’d be a fool to jump into more books that ust aren’t my type.
58. Wake Up with Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years by Sister Jean with Seth Davis [Audiobook]—Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt saw a lot in her 106 years on earth. Born after the end of World War I, she lived through World War II, the war in Vietnam, COVID, and the racial tensions of the 2020s. She left California for Dubuque, Iowa to become a nun as a young lady, and went on to have a long career in teaching, ranging from elementary school, all the way to college work. After her retirement, at age 75, she became the chaplain for the Ramblers men's basketball team at Loyola University. She gained prominence due to media coverage and grew to become quite the beloved figure (even having bobbleheads made in her image). Sister Jean calls herself “old-fashioned," but she was also progressive, moving from wearing a habit to normal street clothes (and even Loyola University Nikes), and using technology. Sister Jean was a strong advocate for youth sports, and for integration of all genders and races into sports, stating that “sports is a great teacher.” (She helped start sports leagues at some of the institutions at which she taught.) Sister Jean has somewhat of a universalist theology, but I wasn't listening to this book for religious lessons. I listened for the stories Sister Jean tells, for the inspiration, and for enjoyment. I got all of that, and more. Sister Jean died in 2025, but man, what a legacy of purpose she leaves!
59. Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski with Donald T. Phillips—I read Coach K's story in 2024 (Coach K by Ian O'Connor), but this book gave me new insight into the way Coach K lives, and I say lives because his coaching is as much a way of life as his way of life is the way he coaches. Coach K values what he calls “the fist” of “communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride.” Life, for him, is about relationships, and so is leadership. This book is about basketball, but it is also instructional for anyone who leads. Heart matters. Health matters. Holding onto values while times are changing matters. As a Duke basketball fan, I enjoyed reading this book for its basketball content, but more than that, I appreciated the insights it gave me into the team culture Coach K initiated and sustained during his long tenure at Duke.
60. What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci [Audiobook]—This was not the book I thought I was reading. I wanted to read the book Taste, which is more of a memoir. (Oh well, I now have that book saved on my never-ended online Libby library to-be-read list.) This is more of a journal: of life, and of what author and foodie Stanley Tucci ate. There are parts that read like recipes, but since I listened to the audiobook, I did not record them. Tucci writes about cooking in his own hotel rooms while away from his family, and about trying not to stay away for too long, or to force his children to travel with him, since he chose his career, not them. What I found most interesting was Tucci's inclusion of his kids in so many of his activities, and how their needs and tastes impacted his own eating. I appreciated Tucci's writing about the values of involved parenting, and I smiled as he recounted the joys of finally figuring out a way to eat together with his children as a family. This was not a life changing book in any way, and it had language I would rather avoid, but overall, it was some interesting background noise for life, like having a cooking show playing on the TV while going about the daily duties of living.
61. The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine [Audiobook]—This was a good book, although at this point in my life, I have to say that it makes me very sad. What Tremaine proposes is having a “council” or “collection” of 10 different types of friends, to cover 10 different types of scenarios. I am lucky if I can name 10 friends, and if/when I do, they all live hours, and/or days away from me, falling into the old friend, battle buddy, and/or soul sister categories of friends. Nevertheless, I enjoyed listening to Tremaine describe her life council of friends (a term she got from one of her friends) and the book got me thinking about a project I started some time ago chronicling the roles of various friends in my life. Maybe I should get back to that...or maybe I should get back to focusing on friendship, even if it requires me making that a “to-do” on my daily task list, as Tremaine says she has. All in all, this was was a worthwhile/listen/read, and I would recommend it.
62. The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life by Mike Rucker—Michael Rucker is an organizational psychologist and behavioral scientist who, for a time, forgot how to have fun. More about the value of fun, and less about himself, this book is an argument for integrating fun into relationships, work, and community. Rucker shares both the science behind the value of fun, as well as giving anecdotal evidence from his own life, and the lives of others. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book (maybe it was fun?), and it makes me want to consider more ways to bring fun into my life.
63. Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors: Brain-Body Sensory Strategies That Really Work by Robyn Gobbel— It took me a while to get around to reading this book, and I am glad that I did! Quite a bit of the content felt familiar from the years I have spent listening to the Big Baffling Behaviors podcast. Reading the information through the story of fictional parent Nat, however, put "flesh" on the concepts, so to speak. I found the chapters about levels of watchdog (alert) and possum (shutdown) behaviors extremely helpful. I also appreciated the attitude of empathy and care that Gobbel portrays towards parents in her writing. This is a niche book, but for people in this niche, it is a treasure!
64. The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Organism, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good by David J. Linden—Let's be honest: This book was way over my head. Michael Rucker referenced it in The Fun Habit, and I thought it would be interesting. It was, except that it was a lot of brain neurochemistry that is above my pay grade. What I did learn is that pleasure is more complex than we think, that addiction can be a form of learning, and that I should have more empathy for people who struggle with addictive behaviors. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book to the everyday person, but I would recommend learning more about the brain and having compassion for others, a compass of which I think our culture needs more of!
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And that's April, with a pretty niche list of books. Has anyone ready any of these?
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