Saturday, March 6, 2010

Book review, again!

I just read (I know, I am on a good streak!) another excellent book. It's full of interesting points and ideas and it's a bit controversial-which is why I picked it up of course. The book is called Marry Him; The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb.

I first heard of this book because my boyfriend sent me a review on it and it looked super intriguing! The premise of the book is that most women are too picky. See? It's controversial already!!! Her point though is that she knows a number of single women in their 30's and 40's that want a family and marriage but are breaking up with wonderful and seemingly perfect men for ridiculous reasons. And she's one of the women doing this. Her book follows her through meetings with match makers to talk about this problem (of women not finding their perfect mates) and to see if she can work on her own dating dilemmas. Lori also meets with a dating coach, goes through speed dating events, online dating, and talks with Rabbis and counselors. By the end the book can be boiled down to the point of: don't look for Mr. Perfect (at the beginning of the relationship) because you are not Mrs. Perfect. And being good enough can truly be Good Enough. It can even turn into Perfect.

I liked reading this book and highly recommend it to any woman. (I also recommend He's Just Not That Into You which is a completely different issue!) I think that Lori has some excellent points and while it may not be the answer or solution for everyone it's good to understand them.
It's a great way to re-evaluate how you view relationships, how your girlfriends view relationships and even in many ways how to change that a little bit!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I finally read a book!

I actually read 2 of them! I last wrote on the bookstore's blog (oldfirehousebooks.com) about how I didn't have any time to read and consequently hadn't actually read a book in forever. It was mostly full of whining and ridiculousness... Well let me tell you, blogging about it inspired me and I went out and read like crazy over the weekend. I somehow found the time once I had committed to reading to read! And it was wonderful. I read while brushing my teeth, while getting dressed (although the process did take a little longer than usual), as I walked around my house. I read while eating breakfast, cooking (tricky cause I tended to make more of a mess than normal), and cleaning! It was glorious.

Now to tell you about the books I read: Left To Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust and The Art Of Eating In.

Left to Tell is about Immaculee Ilibagiza and her escape from the Rwandan genocide. She is one of 7 women that hid in a small bathroom when the killing started. The Tutsi women hid for 3 months in a neighboring pastor's house(he was a Hutu). One thing that amazed me was how through the whole ordeal they could hear everything that was happening in the outside world. Immaculee heard people she had grown up with calling her name, looking for her to kill her. She heard so many people die and when they finally escaped the bathroom and made it to a French base she found out that every member of her family had been murdered. What struck me about her story and what she does now is the forgiveness and peace she has found. She speaks about Rwanda and how true peace will be found when they can love and forgive the people who committed the genocide.

The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway is Cathy's account of her two year stint of not eating out while living in New York City. She realizes as she goes about her daily life how often she eats out and how much she is spending on it so she takes an eating out vacation. She decides to learn to cook and shop for no decided period of time while committing to not eating food from restaurants (she does have a few stipulations that allow for breaking the rules). The book is mostly just a story of how her life shaped up, the sharing of her struggles and joys throughout the project and at the end of each chapter she shares the recipes talked about. It's a light and easy read I thought, full of interesting facts and recipes.

I am so excited to have made it through both books! (granted, I had very little homework over the weekend and I kinda neglected everything else in my life...) I hope this inspires or encourages you to pick up a book you have meant to read for a while and just haven't found the time.