[This month I’ve read three books.  Well, to be more accurate– I’ve been browsing through, glancing at, skimming across three books.  Because these books are not my usual fare of novels, histories, memoirs, I didn’t feel like I needed to read them in a linear way.  Kind of fun to read like this, btw.]

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•  For Christmas I received a copy of Giada’s Feel Good Food by Giada De Laurentiis.  The book is mostly a cookbook with a few pages of personal details every so often.  Over the weekend I sat down to read the personal parts of the book and found this quote on page 198: “I have curly hair, so I always brush it in the shower.”

This makes no sense to me.  I’ve always been told to never brush my curly hair when it is wet.  Yet here is Little Miss Accomplished & Gorgeous telling me to do this.

I’m confused.  More than normal, that is.  Why is she doing this?

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•  A business acquaintance gave me a signed copy of Bring Your Superpowers To Work by Darcy Eikenberg, ACC.  As some of you know, I have a love/hate relationship with self-help books.  A few of them I’ve found to be useful, but most of them I find to be stating the obvious, poorly written and ultimately defeatist.

That being said, I love this book.  Darcy is a life coach who knows how to write and provides practical ideas about how to become a better version of yourself.  My favorite witticism of hers is on page 51: “affirm the squirm.”  Meaning that if you’re intellectually uncomfortable with a new healthy behavior, then you’re growing a superpower & going in the right direction for you.

I’m still working on my Superpowers List;  but when I complete it, I’ll be epic.

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  •  I’d forgotten all about Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg until I found a copy of it when I was reorganizing our home office after the new desk arrived.  I decided that reading bits & pieces of this book, in no particular order, would be a great way for me to jumpstart my writing career.

To wit, the piece that I’m currently enamored of is on page 119 where she talks about making writing sweet:  “… always associate learning with sweetness.  It should be the same with writing.  Right from the beginning, know that it is good and pleasant.  Don’t battle with it.  Make it your friend. “

Isn’t this a lovely thought?  Who doesn’t need more friends?

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