a lifestyle blog for book lovers

Links I love and what’s on my nightstand.

My favorite finds from around the web:

20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions. “From what you’ll eat throughout the day to whether you should make a big career move, research suggests that there are a number of cognitive stumbling blocks that affect your behavior, and they can prevent you from acting in your own best interests.”

9 strategies to lure your daughter into loving Anne of Green Gables. “I had to maneuver carefully as I endeavored to drag my daughter into life as an Anne Freak. I knew it had to seem like it was all her idea.”

Americans over 65 shared their greatest regret in life — and the most common one may surprise you. The researcher “had expected “big-ticket items” like affairs, bad business deals, or addiction as his experts’ biggest regrets. But over and over again he heard versions of “I would have spent less time worrying” and “I regret that I worried so much about everything.””

When your faith is not a Christian romance novel. “If I’m honest, here’s what I wanted when I opened the Christy Miller books again: I wanted to come across Christy as a tired, thirty-something Mama with a tattoo on the inside of her wrist and a fractured friendship or two and a thing for cabernet. It’s not that I wanted to give up her faith. Quite the opposite. I wanted her to get a little battered around by life, a little banged up by her own doubts, a little scarred by sharp words and broken relationships and broken dreams.”

SIBA books

What I’m reading this week:

My already heavy TBR list exploded at SIBA and Triangle Reads. That picture is of the 26 pounds of books I shipped home from North Carolina. (These are the books that didn’t fit in the box.)

This week I started two of my new books from the event.

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this one.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn. Bumped to the top of my list because I loved hearing the author talk about her work.

On the blog:

One year ago: There are four possible levels of relationship. History forges intimacy, and other relationship myths.

Two years ago: A mentoring cheat sheet (for both sides of the relationship).

Three years ago: Every marriage has a “How” person and a “Wow” person. Discuss.

Have a great weekend!

16 comments

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    • Anne says:

      Yes (although they’re definitely in the minority): Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, A Time to Celebrate by James Farmer, I Am a Town by Shari Smith, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, and The Matthews Men by William Geroux. I’m especially excited about that last one—I rode the airport shuttle with the author and aside from learning we share an alma mater, the backstory on how the book came to me was fascinating.

  1. Jackie M. says:

    I just finished A Curious Beginning this week — I really like Deanna Raybourn’s writing, so I can’t wait to read what you think of it.

  2. B J Apsley says:

    I just finished reading A Curious Beginning and loved it! I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but this was a really good one.

  3. Marie says:

    The worrying article was very helpful. My mother has OCD and is a worrier in the extreme–sad to say, when she travels, she will spend literally the entire last day of her stay worrying about getting to the airport on time the next day. I think she missed a flight exactly once due to traffic–and since she’s retired, there was no rational reason for her to be so distraught in the first place. Every time I go down the rabbit hole of worrying, I remember what a waste of time it tends to be.

  4. Maggie says:

    I think I may need to read that Anne of Green Gables link for myself. I never read it while I was young and now I feel like I missed the boat. It’s harder to focus on it and because my daughter is rather lukewarm to the book, I didn’t read it right alongside her.

  5. The article on The Christy Miller Series was dead on! Although, I still may choose to read “The Married Years”, that’s one I haven’t gotten to yet. It’s still nice to hear a different perspective, even through fiction.

  6. Kelli says:

    I’m jealous of all your new books! I just finished “Still LIfe” because you’d recommended it so highly (it’s my “book recommended by someone with great taste” for the challenge) and I LOVED it. It has such a cozy feeling to it, particularly for a murder mystery. And the plot intricacies. I didn’t see any of it coming. I can’t wait to read everything she has written now. Now I have a thing for mystery books and shows (have been bingeing on Elementary for a few weeks) to try to sharpen my mind.

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