Hello everyone. It is good to be back. I missed discussing books on my lil’ blog.
Is my house done? No. Is it close to done? Also no. But I have recently had the realization that this building of a house is a long, long project. I can’t stop the rest of my life until it is done. So here I am, slowly getting back to the things I enjoy. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy building a house. It is satisfying to watch walls go up, to plan out exactly where the oven will go and how the bathroom will look. But one can only do all of that for so long. I need other kinds of things in my life to balance everything out.
Hence, back to blogging. I thought I would come back with a list of books I read in March. For I did read, and they all happen to have a theme…
‘Real Life Organizing’ by Cassandra Aarssen. 5 out of 5 stars.
This was the first book I read after a month long desert of no books. It was sad. I finally broke myself out of this trend by picking up this quick read about keeping a clean and tidy house. I love reading about this stuff (weird I know), and it was fun to dream about how I will organize my new house when it finally appears out of a cloud of drywall dust. The author is quite funny, and I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who is interested in reading about this sort of thing.
‘House Lessons’ by Erica BauerMeister. 5 out of 5 stars.
This was I think my favorite book of the month. The book is one woman’s journey of renovating a house and what she learns about life and herself along the way. I really enjoyed this thoughtful view of renovating, and it helped me gain some perspective on my own house build. I thought the author was very thoughtful, and seemed to think deeply about things even before she committed them to paper. Her ideas and thoughts were well presented and fully explained. She knew what she thought, and she knew how she wanted to present it. A trait I appreciated both as a reader and as a writer.
‘The Magnolia Story’ by Chip and Joanna Gaines. 5 out of 5 stars.
See the trend yet?
I knew some about this couple, and have seen a little bit of their show ‘Fixer Upper’. It was fun to learn more about them and their backstory before the show. I enjoyed this read quite a bit. Chip and Joanna go back and forth as they tell the story, and some of their comments to each other were pretty funny. I appreciated Joanna’s perspective on choosing to thrive in tough situations and choosing to see the positive even when things are hard.
‘Happier at Home’ by Gretchen Rubin. 5 out of 5 stars.
I really should write an entire blog post about Gretchen Rubin one of these days. This was the third time I read this book. I love how she writes and how she thinks through things. These books are almost like comfort reads. I pick them up when I need a little motivation, a little bit of happiness to get me through the next little while. Basically, she does experiments with her own life to find out what will make her happier and more satisfied in life. This book was concentrated mostly on her own home. She tries multiple things to make her home a more joyful and comforting place for her and for her whole family. I loved it, as I always do.
‘Shut the Front Door’ by Chelsey Brown. 3 out of 5 stars.
I read this book in my ongoing attempt to learn how to decorate my house. I can keep my house clean and organized (when not under construction), but decorated? Not so much. I have been slowly reading books on the topic, and I try not to overtly take notes when I walk into a beautifully decorated friends house. This book was not one of my favorites. Most of her advice felt more like personal opinion on what looks good than what will still look classy in ten years. I also didn’t particularly care for the writing style, and after all of the stellar books I read this one kind of fell flat. Not a horrible book, but not a great one either.
***
There you go, my month in books.
Next month I am hoping to read a little bit more fiction… Or maybe just some books on a different topic…
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 