The person with the fastest growing book collection in my house is definitely my 3-year-old. These are some of our favorite picture books, by which I mean they are as enjoyable for me to read as they are for him to hear. You can see some of my favorite books for 2-year-olds here, all of which we are still also reading. The FortThis is one of our newest additions and immediately became a favorite. A …
Category: Reading
How I Read More Books in 2021
I shared at the end of last year how 2020 was not a good reading year for me. At the start of 2021, I was determined to get back into the habit of reading, and came up with a plan to do so. What’s important to know about me is that although I didn’t read much in 2020, that doesn’t mean I didn’t buy any books. I have an Amazon wishlist that I check pretty …
My Favorite Books for 2-Year-Olds
As I mentioned in a previous post, 2020 has not been a great reading year for me. But while I didn’t read very much for myself, I did read a ton to my toddler. I’ve rounded up our favorite finds of the year. My toddler likes us to read mostly picture books at this point. We still sometimes read board books, but his interest is more with picture books now, so you’ll see that reflected …
My Favorite Books of 2020
2020 was a hard reading year for me. I know that for some people the global pandemic and stay-at-home orders led to a boom in reading, but I experienced quite the opposite. When COVID-19 shutdowns began, I found myself totally disinterested in reading and much more interested in building a happy little world of animal friends in Animal Crossing. We each cope in our own way. That said, I did manage to read a few …
My Favorite Books of 2019
It’s been a good year for reading. Several of my favorite authors had new releases, and I happened on a pretty high quota of new voices I enjoyed. Here are my favorites, in the order that I read them. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde Oh Jasper, how I have missed you. I have been a lover of Mr. Fforde’s books for years. It doesn’t hurt that he seems to have chosen to write about …
My Favorite Books of 2018
Hi, it’s May of 2019 and I’m just now sharing my favorite books from 2018…whoops! Look, I’ve been busy. I had a baby. That’s my excuse for everything now. But here are the books I loved last year. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee Pachinko begins in a small fishing village in Korea in the early 1900s, where Sunja in seduced by a Japanese business man and finds herself pregnant. A traveling minister saves her family from …
My Favorite Book on Pregnancy and Motherhood: “Like a Mother”
I didn’t consider myself a person who would like reading parenting and pregnancy books. But the concept of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy caught my attention. Author Angela Garbes is a journalist who found herself questioning much of the conventional—and often contradictory—wisdom doled out about pregnancy and postpartum care, so she decided to investigate the latest studies and speak to both researchers and mothers around the world on the …
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What I’m Clicking: May
A few of my favorite articles from over the past few months: Looking for your next read? Did you catch all these in 2017? 100 Notable Books of 2017 NPR’s 2017 Book Concierge (300+ titles with easily searchable tabs) Visiting Antarctica at 21 Weeks Pregnant – This woman is my role model. 101 Dishes That Changed America – A sweeping history of iconic American foods. From Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs to Chicago deep dish pizza, …
My Favorite Books of 2017
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi The best book I read this year and the one I have recommended the most to others. This powerful book should be required reading, as it taught me so much about the black experience, both here in America and in Africa, over the past two centuries. Homegoing follows two branches of a family tree, starting in eighteenth-century Ghana. One branch of the family stays in Africa, while the other is sold into slavery …
What I’m Clicking: November
More and more I’m interested in good long-form writing. And by long form, I mean more than a two-paragraph news blurb. The market for this kind of writing has been decimated in the past decade—to write an article of any length is complete anathema to the digital reader. But part of me wants these stories now. They are interesting. They explore topics I hadn’t known I wanted to learn more about. They tell me more …
Caitlin Kenney Smith 