Reading has always been one way to relax me and my senses from the busy and demanding days of everyday life. I love reading novels and inspirational books since I was in elementary which resulted to my Sweet Valley books collection, Goosebumps books collection, and other books like Harry Potter and so much more. Eventually, Dan Brown’s books and Mitch Albom’s books made its way to my book collection. It’s always a way to feed your brain and creativity. It’s also a way to educate and travel miles away without leaving your home. Reading takes me places- makes me feel part of a new adventure.
I still love flipping and smelling the pages of a physical book so I never really enjoyed reading e-books. It makes me sad to see bookstores now become smaller with fewer people than when I was younger. I see fewer newspaper delivery men too. Just so sad but with the proliferation of the internet and a ready, updated information, I can’t blame the people for choosing news online than traditional print. Nevertheless, a physical library is just so precious.
One of my best dreams (aside from being a preschool teacher) is to have my own bookstore or a kid’s bookstore with books I published plus all other wonderful educational books. Someday it might just materialize đ
With 2 kids under 2 years old as my focus now, I try my best to squeeze in a little reading time everyday – a chapter or 2 of a good book. For now, while I’m with my 3-week old son and my 1 year & almost 4 month old daughter (who is now our talkative, curious ball of energy), reading is my sort of my alone time (we have to be creative as mothers you know..).
Sharing some of my good reads lately which you might be interested in:
BRINGING UP BĂBĂ by Pam Druckerman
It’s one of the hottest books on parenting today. The author observed and investigated how French parenting differs from American parenting when she lived in Paris with 3 kids. She narrates in this book her experiences and observations. It is an entertaining how-to book for moms and even for dads and anyone who loves babies, kids, and into child care. I can even relate on most of the anecdotes in the book.
I ended up saying – “that’s why!”, “oh no, my interpretations of the baby are wrong”, “I’ll start doing that!”, “I’ll stop doing this!” Everything is easier said than done but it takes so much patience to correct the wrong things you’re used to doing. This book will help make moms and new moms feel better on some things they experience- that they’re not alone đ
GOD AND CHILDREN by Jesus Urteaga
I got this booklet from in the retreat house during my retreat earlier this year. (Thank God I found time to go on a 4-day retreat despite a busy household. It was indeed a wonderful time with God in silence).
This book combined doctrine, humor, and common sense as it tackled parenting as a vocation- that it is not an easy job at all but everything will be worthwhile and victory will come for all parents. It also shows how the home and relationships should be guided by all the teachings and virtues.
Some topics here are not commonly discussed in other parenting books and how all our actions may fueled and directed to our faith. It also tackles parents’ fears on letting their kids go when the time is right.
More inspiring books here
GOOD STRATEGY BAD STRATEGY by Richard Rumelt
The author gives a new approach to what a good strategy and a bad strategy is for a company. He provides the signs of bad strategies: fluff, that is “gibberish masquerading as strategic concepts” that uses keywords to restate the obvious; failure to face the challenge; mistaking goals for strategies; and bad strategic objectives that fail to address critical issues in the company.
Good strategies have these basic underlying structure called the”kernel” with 3 elements – diagnosis, a guiding policy and a set of coherent actions. The book has a lot of case studies to clarify the author’s theories and concepts. It’s quite heavy on analytical reading and concepts – new and old. Make sure you concentrate on this book to fully grasp the what the author means.
THE ART OF THINKING CLEARLY by Rolf Dobelli
This book is a self-help book which will make you realize a lot of things as you read through the simple, clear, and surprising concept the author presents. We tend to over think sometimes but some things are just simply complicated but some are not.
The author lists some errors in the way we think of things like cognitive biases- when we think a certain way which is a distortion from the standards of rationality. Each chapter’s topic, examples, and divisions make each cognitive bias or idea clear to the reader before jumping to other ideas and biases.
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHILDREN by Gerard Castillo
I got this booklet from my past retreat too. It’s a 51-page booklet written by a professor from Spain who is married with 6 kids. He gives tips to understand our children more from 4 years old to 17 years old. I learned so much despite this booklet being a short one. It’s straight to the point.
JESUS AT HOME by Pio Español
It’s a locally printed book by a Filipino. It is an easy-to-read book and is handy to bring anywhere. This book was given as a gift to us but it took me quite a while to read it not knowing it’s a really good book for couples to make their home a sweeter place to live in with or without kids.
Just by looking at the table of contents, it got me wanting to know more about each chapter’s title.
It’s definitely one enlightening book which made me feel like I came from a couple’s retreat after reading it. You can even finish this book in one sitting.
You may purchase it here
tinatanjuatco.com 