Your Next Read is Here: My Mid-2025 Book Reviews

Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Payne and Ross

This book was right up my alley as a self declared minimalist since I was a teenager. The author argues that children thrive when their environments are simple, their schedules have free time, and their parents speak of family appropriate topics when together. Much of the book was confirmation that we are on the right track for our goals of cultivating a calm home and it gave me inspiration as our child continues to grow.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

Erik Larson’s books are consistently excellent, and this was no exception. He selects interesting topics, finds the most compelling people and stories to tell, and makes you feel like you are right there in the middle of the action. Winston Churchill is a remarkable person for many reasons, but I’ll highlight just two anecdotes that stood out to me.

First, Churchill was adamant about clear and concise communication. He gave specific guidance to his team to remove cumbersome prose and said ” “Most of these woolly phrases are mere padding, which can be left out altogether, or replaced by a single word. Let us not shrink from using the short expressive phrase, even if it is conversational.” The resulting prose, he wrote, “may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officialese jargon. But the saving of time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking.” “

Second, he is another leader who uses the “secret” power of making direct eye contact. This habit is often pointed out in influential individuals and was another reminder to me to focus on it!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I have always loved The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn since I first read the novel as a child, and rereading it was a joy! Not only is the prose perfection, which is a given for a Mark Twain novel, but the insights and messages throughout made me feel contemplative in the best way.

One of my favorite quotes is about the fickle nature of our conscience “But that’s always the way; it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway. If I had a yaller dog that didn’t know no more than a person’s conscience does I would pison him. It takes up more room than all the rest of a person’s insides, and yet ain’t no good, nohow. Tom Sawyer he says the same.”

Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It by Jenny Wood

I firmly believed that you can learn everything from books. Yes, there are life experiences that can resonate in a unique way to teach you a lesson, but in all likelihood someone has already had a similar experience and written about it somewhere. That’s why I love reading books about things that are important to me, like career development, personal growth, and history.

I’ve read a lot of career and productivity focused books and feel like I have a strong foundation, no need to consume more. When I got a copy of “Wild Courage” by Jenny Wood I took one look at the cover and thought “yeah, I already know all about this.” Not to mention Jenny is a former Googler and I’ve read her career advice that’s been shared internally.

However, when Jenny came to speak at a team event, her presentation was compelling enough to make me open the book. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

I took away so many practical tips and mindset shifts that are helping me to be more impactful and effective in my work, while focusing on my big, important goals. I feel inspired to be unafraid to make changes, to make sure my work is visible on a weekly basis, to be clear and confident in my priorities.

I highly recommend Jenny’s book. And remember not to judge a book by its cover.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

I’m writing this review many months after reading this book. I gave it a four star rating at the time, but am now struggling to remember details of what I liked. That could either be because of my poor memory or because it wasn’t really as good as I thought it was…either way, this is a solid contemporary fiction novel that I got through quickly.

I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Memoir of Motherhood, Science, and Art by Emily C. Bloom

I was highly interested in the premise of this book – a new mother reflects on the reality of her experience compared to expectations and shares how raising a deaf and diabetic child it a whole other level of parenting. I was especially interested to learn about the experience of raising a deaf child as my best friend is a teacher of the deaf. The emphasis on corrective aids and the reality of how helpful and high maintenance they are gave me a new perspective on the challenge of any medical issue, even those I previously thought had a “quick fix” (like a cochlear implant).

The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

I loved reading this book. It was wholesome and inspiring and light, while still acknowledging and analyzing hardship. I have a new appreciation for Fixer Upper, which I only sort of knew about before reading the book, and have been going back to old episodes and appreciating the people behind the homes.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I’ve seen this novel recommended for quite some time and finally got it from the library. It chronicles two young girls through adolescents in a poor town in Italy in the 1950s. One of the characters gets the opportunity to continue studying and attending school while the other does not. Their life stages diverge from there and you get to see the impact on how they view the world and the choices they make.

The writing was very strong (which is always a great sign for a translated work) and I enjoyed the observances about life throughout, including this quote “Life was like that, that’s all, we grew up with the duty to make it difficult for others before they made it difficult for us.”

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This is a short, parable-type story about going after your dreams and having faith. It’s good to read when you want to feel inspired to make decisions and to feel encouraged. One of my favorite quotes was “And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”

Forbidden Notebook by Alba De Cespedes

I really loved this book, likely because I saw myself in the protagonist who was desperate to have a notebook of her own to record her thoughts. The protagonist is a wife and mother who starts to reflect and analyze her life when she makes the spur of the moment decision to buy a journal. She realizes that she has molded her life to fit her family and starts to make choices to reclaim her sense of self. The writing was so strong and I was heavily invested in reading about domestic and inner life.

My favorite quote is “Besides, I don’t know what feelings could stand up to a ruthless, continuous analysis; or who among us, reflected in every action, could be satisfied with ourselves. It seems to me that in life you have to choose a line of conduct, confirm it with yourself and others, and then forget those gestures, those actions, that contradict it. You have to forget them. My mother always says that people with short memories are lucky.”

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

This novel didn’t quite do it for me, but there were a number of scenes and lines that stood out. If you like books with a focus on relationship dynamic, you might enjoy it more. The one quote I saved was “Maybe fame is what confers importance, and not, as my essays for college would suggest, the other way around.”

Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do by Eve Rodsky

I read this book after watching the author speak at a Google event (this was five years ago, I was late to the game). The principles of the book are straightforward and important, particularly that when someone is owning a task, they own it in its entirety from conception to completion. Luckily I found that our household already has a lot of the principles in practice and there were some slight tweaks to make. This book would be a helpful tool if you feel that there is not enough balance in the contributions of you and your family.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I read this book while on a trip to Japan after seeing a geisha performance in Kyoto. I was hoping for more insight into the culture and lifestyle, which I got, but I had also heard so many good things about this novel that I was expecting a great story and writing too. Unfortunately, you can’t have it all.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

This novel was part thriller, part emotional/psychological analysis, part love letter to reading and art. I enjoyed it, but was also somewhat disturbed by it. One of my favorite quotes that resonates with a topic I’ve been thinking about recently was ” “Best education you can get,” he said. “See through someone else’s eyes and you understand more of everything.” “

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

The writing was ok, the story was ok, the book was ok. The main reason I was interested in this book is because it’s centered around my favorite place in the world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This falls into the category of historical fiction that is more like a romance novel then historical fiction that is more like literary fiction.