February Wrap-Up and Plans for March

I know that February is only a couple of days shorter than the other months, but it feels about a week shorter!

Reading

TBR Pile Challenge: Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones and Longbourn by Jo Baker. It's tempting to get cocky about the fact that I've already read 4 from my list and it's only February, but I'll resist that because I've got several nonfiction titles on there and I don't think they'll be easy.

Nonfiction: I read two nonfiction books this month: Nomadland by Jessica Bruder and Fetch by Nicole Georges

I read a total of 6 books this month, which is a little less than usual. I attribute that partly to the amount of tv I watched, but I also recognize that I usually listen to more audiobooks than I have recently. I still love audiobooks, but I've been listening to more podcasts than I used to.

Listening

Went to a restaurant this month that
had popcorn-flavored butter.
I repeat: popcorn-flavored butter.

My only audiobook this month was Tempest by Beverly Jenkins, the final book in the Old West series.

I'm listening to the same podcasts as always: Smart Podcast Trashy Books, The Readers, Code Switch, and By the Book. I still love them all! I do most of my listening on the bus and walking to the bus. I usually drive to work one day a week (when I work until 9pm) but this month I drove more frequently because of early interviews and evening programs and meetings. I think things will be back to normal in March, and I'm already thinking about what my next audiobook will be. I'm taking suggestions!

Watching

I watched Harlots this month, which I highly recommend if you have Hulu. 

Season 3 of The Great British Baking Show was better than Season 2 and I've already begun Season 4. I really dislike the new opening montage because it shows you things that are going to happen! Like, someone's baked good falling apart catastrophically when they tried to remove it from the pan. Why would you show us this ahead of time? Gah.

At the recommendation of a couple of coworkers I've started watching the new One Day At a Time, which I'm really liking so far. There's still a Schneider, but the family is Cuban-American and the mom is an Army Veteran and it's very interesting and modern and funny. Oh, and the mom is played by Justina Machado, who looked SUPER familiar to me, and it turns out she was Vanessa Diaz on Six Feet Under. She is super adorable and I love her.

Knitting

All this tv means that I've actually been doing some knitting! The body and hood of my East Neuk Hoodie are done, including the trim around the hood, which involved picking up about a million stitches (slight exaggeration.) I've now got several inches of sleeve too, which is very exciting progress-wise but not knitting-wise. Sleeves are boring and kind of irritating, but necessary for overall warmth, so I'll be soldiering on.

Cooking

Paul Hollywood would not
approve of my bread,
but fuck him.

I have spent a great deal of 2018 so far baking things and then eating them, which has got to stop. I need to re-focus on cooking rather than baking, with the exception of savory baking like bread. 

Last month I mentioned making an index of recipes I use so I don't need to look through every cookbook I own when trying to come up with ideas of what to make every week. I've put together an Excel spreadsheet with tabs labeled "rotation," "have made," "to try," and "sweets" (which I think merits it's own page) and I already feel more organized and like I have a better handle on what my options are when it's time to put together a grocery list.

I mentioned cooking with a friend last month, and we got together again - at his place this time because he doesn't have an irritating dog - and we made Spiced Sake Soba from the Wagamama cookbook, and I brought marinated mango for dessert from the same cookbook. I forgot how delicious and simple fruit desserts can be, and I really need to investigate these more. The dish itself is soba noodles and vegetables topped with salmon and a sauce. I picked this recipe because it looked like it was fairly easy and maybe I'd make it again. It was quite tasty and I'll try to make it again soon I think.

Other things I made this month: cheese enchiladas from Joy of Cooking, a chicken and rice salad for cookbook club at work (which I am possible running now?) from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, French-style fish in a packet from Moosewood Cooks at Home, Tamarind Chicken, Coconut Rice, and Sweet and Sour Tofu, all from Dinner by Melissa Clark, which I really need to buy rather than repeatedly checking out from the library. My baking included the bread from Joy of Cooking again, buttermilk biscuits and cornbread from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook, and Cardamom Cookies from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Oh, and these weird peanut butter cookies from Smitten Kitchen/Ovenly that came out flat and overdone on the outside but raw in the middle and I ate them anyway. I don't know why I feel compelled to list all the things I cooked this month, but it sure makes me feel like I accomplished something.

Doing

Sarah MacLean and Kristan Higgins!
Being awesome!

I saw some authors I really like at the Boston Public Library. There are only a few romance authors from whom I've read more than one book, and two of them were going to be appearing together. I was supposed to work, but swapped my Saturdays so I could go. It was Sarah MacLean and Kristan Higgins and they were SO GREAT. It was actually Sarah MacLean who reminded me I was interested in watching Harlots and spurred me to actually do so.

I also went to see a couple of shows, one of which was Waitress. It was cute and fun and I'm glad I went even though at the time it was pouring out and I was tired and wanted to stay home.

What else? Work was incredibly hectic as I was interviewing people for a full-time position in my department, but thank goodness we ended the month by hiring someone who I think will be fantastic.

In summary, most of my pictures this month were of bread. Sorry. I'll try to do better next month. Speaking of which....

Plans for March

I think my only exciting plan so far is that I'm going to see Roxane Gay at the Museum of Fine Arts in the middle of the month. It's on the night I work, so I rescheduled my book group and took the day off because I have priorities.

To be honest, I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to take time off during January of February, but I think other than Roxane Gay day, I won't have any vacation days until April. (Side note: can we start a new holiday and call it Roxane Gay Day?) 

How was your February?

Longbourn

Longbourn by Jo Baker (2013)

We've heard one story about lives of people who lived at Longbourn, that which was told in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Here, Jo Baker imagines another story, that which took place in the servants' quarters and stars the housekeeper Mrs. Hill and the maid Sarah. While all the Bennet girls are wrapped up in their social lives and getting of husbands, so is Sarah wrapped up in her own dramas and romances in between waiting on the Bennet family. This story begins with the arrival of a new footman, James Smith, who brings a bit of excitement and mystery to the household.

When James arrives the reader knows there is something up with him based on the reactions of other members of the household. But it quickly subsides and they get into a routine. You do eventually find out the mystery and it's a good one, but in the meantime it's not constantly dangled in front of you. It's just in the background, waiting, as other situations are unfolding more prominently. In the foreground Sarah is intrigued by James, but then her attention is drawn to Ptolemy, footman for Mr. Bingley whose presence comes and goes with his master's wooing of Jane Bennet.

Sarah is young and hasn't seen much of the world, but longs to experience more. Her impulsiveness leads her to some potentially reckless decisions, and I worried about her a bit. Though at the same time I was sort of rooting for her to break away from her job and just run away and follow her passions and find some excitement. Don't think any of this means that she's not responsible though. She's a hard worker and cares a lot about the other members of her household, especially the younger maid, Polly.

I loved the details of day-to-day living, as I always do in good historical fiction. I had to look some things up: black butter, chilblains, shoe roses. It's kind of fun to do that, and read a little about, say, the fashions of the time. And I always enjoy just getting a sense of what it was like to live in a certain period. I always know that what I'm getting is the experience of a particular social class, and this gave me the opportunity to make a direct comparison to another class (that of the Bennet's) in the same time and place, which was super interesting.

All the events are cleverly tied to events in Pride and Prejudice, which was neat if you're familiar with that story. But you don't have to have read it (or watched any of the adaptations) to enjoy this story because I think it holds up on its own. I can't help but compare and I will say I was surprised by the completely different perspective on certain characters, especially Mr. Collins. In the original he's rather a joke, but here, from Sarah's perspective, he's just trying to fit in with the upper classes to which he doesn't really belong. I loved that Baker views him from such a different angle than Austen did.

As much as I've been wanting to read this for quite a while, I was also a bit skeptical about reading a take-off on a classic, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading Longbourn. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and, of course, to fans of Pride and Prejudice. This is my fourth book from my 2018 TBR Pile Challenge, but I'm trying not to get too cocky about my progress since I haven't picked up any of my nonfiction books yet, and I think those will be the real challenge here.

Fetch

Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole Georges (2017)

I don't really read "dog books." I'm sure I'm being unfair, but I always assume they are sentimental homages to the author's dearly departed pet. Plus, other people's dogs are apparently wonderful, loyal friends and mine is predominantly a whirlwind of biting and growling. So maybe it's just jealousy. But I saw this one on a list somewhere, and thought it was a book that could possibly make me feel better about having a bad dog, since it's about someone else with a bad dog. But to be honest I went into it with some skepticism.

I needn't have worried. This memoir is, indeed, about a bad dog and, rather satisfyingly, the dog doesn't magically become a wonderful, affectionate creature - rather, Nicole learns how to be Beija's companion in a way that minimizes the bad behavior and allows them to remain together. The relationship is fraught with difficulty. Unstable housing situations meant that Nicole had to make some major life changes from the beginning to accommodate her pet, such as moving in with her boyfriend when she was only 17. The difficulties were so severe a couple of times that Nicole even tried to rehome Beija. But over time, her situation became more stable, and so did her relationship with her dog.

Fetch isn't just a book about a dog, though, it's about Nicole's coming-of-age, her family, her relationships and sexuality, and her life in the 90s punk scene. All of this brought more depth and context to the story; Beija was the constant who stayed with Nicole through all the major changes in her early adulthood.

I like the style of illustrations, which of course is important in a graphic novel. Often, I can still get into it when the style isn't my kind of thing, but her illustrations were definitely the sort that I like. Her character drawings are fairly cute, but still convey a range of emotions. I liked looking at the art just as much as reading the story. In one two-page spread she's at the park observing a guy throwing up leaves in the air, his dog leaping in joy and playfulness. So Nicole tries the same thing with Beija, who just runs away in fear. I feel you, Nicole, I really do. My dog once barked in terror at a baked potato.

For some reason I haven't been picking up graphic novels as much recently; I'm even behind on Saga, which I love. Sometimes I think I just don't want to read that in format, though to be honest when I start reading one I always kind of forget that I'm reading a different format than I usually do, if that makes sense. At any rate, I'm glad I happened across this list of new-ish dog books and I'm glad I impulsively requested this through my library's network. I read it all in one day, which is really the best way to enjoy a graphic novel if you ask me. If you like stories about young people struggling through their 20s and trying to find their way in life, or appreciate stories about difficult pets, I do recommend this one.

Silver Sparrow

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (2011)

James Witherspoon is a bigamist. It's 1980s Atlanta and he balances his time between two families - the "legitimate" one and the secret one. In each family he has a teenaged daughter, each of whom in turn tells this story. The first half of the book is told by Dana, who has grown up knowing that her father has another family who he lives with most of the time, just stealing away regularly to visit Dana and her mother. Because his other daughter Chaurisse is around the same age, great pains were taken to make sure the girls didn't come into contact with each other and the sacrifice always had to be Dana's. In the second half of the book, the narration is from Chaurisse. Rather than getting the same story from another perspective, it picks up after the events of the first half, though we do get some back story as well.

I've been wanting to read this book since I first heard of it, soon after it was published. I'm not gonna lie, I was drawn to it because my father also had another family and I had never read anything about that kind of family situation before. This was a very different situation on the outside - these are black families in Atlanta as opposed to white families in rural Maine - but thematically it is the same and even took place in the 80s when I was also a teenager, though I think Dana and Chaurisse were a couple of years older than me.

The story is written in an easy conversational style that I really liked reading, and I think it would have teen appeal. I also really loved how 1980s it was - there was even a reference to George Burns in the Oh, God! movies, which I had completely forgotten about, so I had a nice moment of nostalgia there. Of course the meat of the novel is about the two related families and the man who ties them together. I like that Jones didn't paint James Witherspoon as a horrible person, just a flawed one, and didn't make either of his families more or less sympathetic. Everyone in this story is imperfect, but they feel real and their problems are no more or less dramatic than real life.

I found the ending a bit rushed, to be honest. There is a climactic event, shall we say, and it all wraps up pretty quickly after that. The second half of the book is told from Chaurisse's perspective, but the epilogue goes back to Dana and I wish it had been much longer. I want to know her motivations for doing things we learned she did from Chaurisse's story, and I wanted more about the emotional fallout from the events from both views. So my only criticism is that I wanted more, which means that I'll definitely be interested in reading more from this author.

Tayari Jones has a new book out, in fact, called American Marriage. It's very popular as it was picked as an Oprah book so I've already put myself on the wait list. I really like how Jones writes about unusual family situations so I think I'm really going to like the new book as well. As I mentioned, I first heard of Silver Sparrow several years ago, but I kept being reminded of it through recommendations such as this great list of 100 Books by Black Women Everyone Must Read. I put it on my 2018 TBR Pile Challenge and it's now the 3rd book from my challenge list that I've read so far this year.

Tempest

Tempest (Old West #3) by Beverly Jenkins (2018), narrated by Kim Staunton

In this third and final book in the Old West series, Regan Carmichael leaves Arizona Territory for Wyoming to be a mail-order bride. During her first encounter with her husband-to-be she shoots him, so they're off to a pretty rocky start. (It was a misunderstanding, but still.) Dr. Colton Lee has been clear from the start that he's not looking for a love match, but only a mother for his daughter Anna. When he meets Regan he starts to have second thoughts, but remembers how difficult it was to find a woman willing to move to this wild land for him. So they carry on with their plan to get married and, of course, their marriage of convenience becomes something more.

Like in the last book, Breathless, there was very little angst between our hero and heroine, just a slow realization that they meant more to each other than they expected. When they first met, Colton was taken aback by Regan's outspokenness, her ability to use a gun, and the fact that she sometimes put on jeans and got dirty. His first wife, Adele, was traditional and ladylike, and it took him a while to get used to Regan. Oh, and Regan wasn't a virgin either, and she was honest about that. She and Colton had a great conversation in which it became clear that he thought sex is basically something that men desire but that women just provide. Regan schooled him on this topic pretty quickly.

But most of the tension in the story came from others in their town who made it difficult for Regan to settle in and feel at home. First and foremost was Colton's aunt Minnie who, up until now, had been a very big part of Anna's life. She was a strict, unkind woman who ruled by fear and discouraged Anna from having any sort of fun. Consequently, Anna was rather meek and afraid. Now that Regan was there, encouraging Anna to come out of her shell and be more confident (and get dirty!) Colton didn't want her around Minnie as much, especially when they learned that Minnie told Anna it was her fault that her mother died. Meanwhile, someone was threatening Regan's life, although it was unclear who or why. This family had some major hurdles to get over before they could really settle down.

As I know I've mentioned before, one of my favorite setups is a woman moving to a new place and setting up a life there. This had all of the elements that make that kind of story work for me. Regan is getting to know people in the town and trying to figure out who will be her friends. One of the first people she met and liked was Spring, Colton's sister, who was somewhat of an outcast in the town. But she was friendly and down-to-earth and the two became fast friends. Regan was also invited to a gathering of ladies in the town where the reception was a bit cooler. Some of the women were nice, and some were more stand-offish. It was a mixed-race group and it was clear that some of the white ladies weren't especially pleased with that. And of course there was a woman in town who had hoped that she would be the new Mrs. Lee.

I loved watching Regan settle into this town, develop a relationship with her new husband, and with his daughter. Colton was a country doctor who would treat anyone who needed it whether they could pay or not, so he was a bit financially strapped. Regan, however, came with her own financial independence which caused some heads to turn in the town when she began upgrading their kitchen so she could do some decent cooking and baking. The owner of the general store doubted her ability to pay for the items, and I loved watching her stand up for herself and buying the things she needed - and wanted - despite the judgement cast upon her from the townspeople. I also loved her relationship with Anna, who needed a mother like Regan and thrived in her company.

As with the other books in this series, I listened to the audiobook version which I pre-ordered so I could begin listening as soon as it was released. This one had the same narrator, Kim Staunton, who always has a pleasant easy voice that is enjoyable to listen to. I wish she hadn't tried to do the Chinese accents (and I think I had the same complaint about the last book) but those were just a few short parts and didn't really detract from the overall experience.

I've really enjoyed this series and I'm a little sad that it's over, but I know that Beverly Jenkins is a prolific author so there's lots more out there from her to read. One of her older books, Indigo, seems to be recommended everywhere, and I'm also interested in her Destiny series, one of which I think is about a lady pirate which, yes please. She also has a popular multi-book contemporary Christian series called Blessings, which isn't my jam but might be yours. I do encourage any romance reader who hasn't yet tried Beverly Jenkins to check her out.

Sunday Knitting

I have not done one of these posts in forever because I haven't been knitting very much and my progress is so slow there's not often anything to show. But today! Today I have an exciting update on the sweater I've been knitting since the spring of 2016.

I have finished the hood!

And that's not all. I also had to go around and pick up stitches and knit the trim.

It gets a little fiddly at the end, because you have to sew down the edges at the bottom, crossing a bit like so:

I seriously don't know why I bothered with the button holes as I don't have buttons. I'd only want ones that match the yarn color and I have no idea how I'd find buttons that match exactly, especially considering I'd have to order them online. But also maybe it should have buttons to make the neckline look right? I didn't think to try it on after I made the edging so I don't know.

This is supposed to be the end of the project, except I went out of order and now I have to make sleeves. Two of them. So expect photos of this finished project sometime in 2019. (I wish I was kidding.)

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (2015)

Since she was five years old, Minnow lived with her parents in a cult in the middle of the woods. They called it the Community and their leader was known only as the Prophet. No matter what he asked of them, they unquestionably obeyed. If anyone rebelled, they were punished severely. Minnow rebelled, and they cut off her hands. Now the Community has been destroyed, the Prophet has been killed, and Minnow is in juvenile detention for assaulting, and almost killing, the first person she encountered on the outside.

Although it's a punishment, being in juvie is liberating compared to her previous life. Minnow is still adjusting to living without her hands, but she also must adjust to this whole new world full of things like television and candy and scientific facts. In the Community, women and girls weren't even allowed to read, so now she's learning to read for the first time. Her roommate is a tough girl named Angel who is in for murder, and many other kids there are afraid of her, but she and Minnow become friends. Angel is always reading, hungry for knowledge, and obsessed with Carl Sagan. I kind of loved her.

But the past isn't entirely behind her. She doesn't seem to care much about what happened to her family, but in the melee that ended the Community, a boy she cared a lot about was killed. Jude wasn't from the Community - he lived out in the woods with his father. They were also cut off from the outside world, but basically just lived in their own private world. She would sneak away to spend time with them, at first as friends when they were kids, but as they got older their relationship became deeper. It was bad enough that she had contact with an outsider, but he and his father were black - the Community called them "Rymanites" and forbid any interaction. In addition to dealing with her loss of the only person she felt really close to, Minnow was regularly visited by Dr. Wilson, who wanted the full story about who killed the Prophet and was convinced that Minnow had the answers. Minnow didn't want to talk about Community or how it ended; she wanted to just live her life. But she wasn't going to be able to move forward without dealing with these parts of her past.

I don't know why I so enjoy reading about people living in oppressive societies, but I was pretty sold on this book as soon as I heard what it was about. But this was so much more optimistic since it begins with Minnow's freedom from her oppression. Despite everything she lost and all that she had to deal with, I found it to be mostly positive. She finally had hope for the future, and a new best friend who taught her so much about the world. (And ok, her friend was a murderer, but she had a very good reason for doing it.)

Oakes's writing was a pleasure to read. Her turns of phrase were inventive and perfect and often evoked a strong visual image. One passage I liked came after Dr. Wilson gave Minnow a copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which is a bit beyond her reading capabilities.

"There's plenty in the book I don't understand, and those parts stay behind, bolted to the pages, but there are things I can skim from the surface like fat from a milk pail, and I sort through all the information with something like fingers, fingers inside my mind."

Here's another part I liked:

"All around, the rigid trees groaned with human-like voice, their insides frozen in the position they'd held themselves before winter hit. I imagined how it might've gone, one night in November, they were sleeping and suddenly their entire bodies became stuck like steel. And, now, suddenly, I could pick my head up and face the winter sky and glimpse the tops of trees and move my body in any motion I chose."

I think my favorite description is one I can't share because it's at the end during a fairly significant reveal.

There's so much interesting stuff going on in this book - I haven't even mentioned the secrets in Jude's family - and I'm hoping it will lead to a good discussion at my book group at work next week. (I also hope I don't forget all the details before then!) I think it was someone from the group who suggested it, and I'm glad they did because I hadn't even heard of it. All in all, a great story well told.

Nomadland

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder (2017)

When we think about retirement, most of us envision hours of leisure, maybe travel, and perhaps a scaled-down living situation like a condo or an "active adult community." Most of us don't expect that we'll be doing backbreaking work in an Amazon warehouse while living in a van. But that's what many retirement-age people in the US are doing, and Jessica Bruder reports on this little-known subculture in her new book.

The author meets lots of people but mostly follows one - Linda May is in her sixties and moved into a small camper she called the Squeeze Inn once she could no longer afford to stay in the mobile home where she had been living. Her dream was to buy a piece of land and build an Earthship, an off-the-grid house made of natural and recycled materials. In the meantime, she needed to earn some money while living very cheaply. So she traveled from place to place following seasonal work at Amazon and at campgrounds while living in her tiny mobile space.

Although Linda and the other "workampers" are mostly forced into the lifestyle by their financial situations, many of them embrace this new way of living. It's an escape from what they see as a consumerist rat race. Although Linda May ultimately does buy her land so she can build a permanent dwelling, it's because she knows the lifestyle will be harder as she ages. In the meantime, she has made very close friends of others like her. Although they travel, they see each other at jobs and at annual get-togethers. In the winter, many gather in Quartzsite Arizona, and attend an organized get-together called the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. Their subculture even has favorite books, such as Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, Walden by Thoreau, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Most of us wouldn't happen to come across these van dwellers in our daily lives, or recognize them if we did. After spending time in this community and even living in a van herself, the author recognizes some lived-in vehicles back home in Brooklyn, now that she knows what to look for. Of course this makes me wonder if I've ever come across any "workampers" myself. I love learning about hidden cultures or communities I didn't know anything about, especially ones that exist right here in the U.S. It's just neat to know how very many different kinds of people there are who have such different experiences from each other.

Of course, some elements were pretty depressing. I mean, none of this would even exist if there wasn't such a huge and unjust income disparity in this country. And the fact that people who have worked hard for decades are being forced into such hardship is appalling. Amazon complete exploits these workers, which is confirmed again and again in this book and I can't believe they're getting away with it (except of course I can because that's totally America.) And it's noticeable that the members of this community are almost entirely white, which the author attributes to the dangers of traveling while black. Throughout my reading, I was so aware of the fact that many of these people had stable professional careers until one thing went wrong, and I kept wondering "Could I live in an RV if I had to?" because it seems like it could happen to any of us.

Bruder seemed to focus on the positive, but perhaps the people she encountered really did remain positive about their situations. I really admired the resilience of everyone I met in this book, and I can see a sort of freedom in their lives on the road with few possessions and a new appreciation for non-material things like friendship and community. My only criticism was that it didn't really address what happens when they simply become too old for the lifestyle, or became too ill, and I wondered about that a lot. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this glimpse into a world I didn't even know existed.

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris (2017)

The author of 10% Happier is back with his second book, which is part-memoir and part advice. After his first book, he set out on a bus trip around the country with his friend and fellow meditation guru Jeff Warren, meeting people and spreading the word about meditation. The advice part of the book is organized by various reasons for not meditating. In each chapter that reason is examined and advice is given on how to get around it. They range from not having time to "people might thing I'm weird." It's filled with stories of people Harris and Warren met, their concerns about meditation, and the practical suggestions about how to make it work.

I liked the stories about everyone he met along his tour and how they were using meditation in their lives. From prisoners to police, it seems like many people are turning to meditation to quiet their minds, strengthen their focus, and help them be a little bit better at whatever they do.

The book also contains lots of wisdom that I'm going to try to remember. For instance: "Getting lost and starting over is not failing at meditation, it is succeeding." I also really like the concept of the "second arrow": when someone hurts us, that is the first arrow, but we often compound the wound by our self-pitying secondary stories of how we didn't deserve it, how this stuff always happens to us, how this injury will ruin everything, etc. We'd be less hurt if we didn't add insult to our own injury. And of course there are helpful tips about making meditation part of your life. I especially like the encouragement to do it regardless of how little time you can spare: if you only have a minute, then meditate for a minute.

Harris is a bit judgy about traditional meditation. It's nice to point out that you don't have to sit on a special cushion listening to pan flute - and I think it's super important to let people know this - but there's also nothing wrong with it. (I'll admit I like the pan flute.) I like how practical their advice is, and how Jeff uses regular language in his meditations, with no mystical flourishes. I think this guide is very accessible to the general population in a way that most meditation books aren't.

Another way in which it stands out is that Dan Harris is pretty damn funny. There's a bit where he talks about making meditation relatable by pointing out those who are definitely not New Age-y who meditate, like the Chicago Cubs and Target employees. He says, "It's not entirely dissimilar to the way I've long defended myself against people who accuse me of being soft for liking cats. I point to icons of machismo such as Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, and Dr. Evil." And in the epilogue when he is giving examples of the thoughts that run through his head while he's trying to meditate, he lists "From a pamphlet spotted in the Colby College health center in 1993: 'Chlamydia Is Not a Flower.'" Let me tell you, I was also at Colby College in 1993 and I REMEMBER THAT PAMPHLET. (Well played, pamphlet writer. Well played.)

Personally I wished the ratio was a little more story and less advice. As much as I want and appreciate meditation advice, I find it a little boring to read about. I could also have easily skipped reading the meditations, but I'm too curious. This isn't a criticism of the book so much as a commentary on what I personally like to read. Ok, I'll criticize one thing (in addition to his being judgy) and that's how he brings up his wife so much as a critic of his behavior and habits. I mean, I think he's actually very grateful to her support and appreciates her feedback but it came off a little stereotypically male in that my-wife-is-always-nagging-me kind of way (though to be clear he definitely never said that.) But that was very minor.

So how does it differ from Dan Harris's first book? That one was definitely heavier on the memoir aspect as it really delved into his personal journey with meditation. Though he explained how to meditate and did a little myth-busting, this book is where he really gets into the thick of it. As I mentioned, there are several guided meditations included, and the the bulk of the book was focused on addressing many common reasons why people resist meditating even if they know it will be beneficial. So he spends a good amount of time talking about how to fit it into a busy schedule and make it a habit, which is pretty valuable. All in all, I think the two books complement each other quite well.