Earlier this year, I finished an audiobook of Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff.

Overall, I loved this book. Doucleff details how various ancient cultures parent their children and how we in the western world can implement some of these ideas to raise well-behaved, helpful children. It was fascinating to dive into these cultures and their bents toward the “it takes a village” model of parenting. A lot of it is extremely helpful, especially the concept of including children in the family as productive, important members, even as babies. 

Hi Friends! I’m back with another virtual bookshelf review, as well as a general 2023 year in review!

This book list overview is very late - I got engaged in October of 2021 and in a lot of ways, life stilled as much as it picked up. In the chaos of the planning, I confess I lost my love of reading and writing there for a minute.

Not having to read for school is wonderful.

I always forget this feeling until I have it again, and now that I’m finished with school for good (well, at least for the next few years...I’ve been floating the idea of seminary but I’m not fully sold just yet), the possibility of reading whatever I want, whenever I want, is both intoxicating and overwhelming. So. Much. To. Read.

As my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia, A Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis provides more insight into writing from the perspective of a child without losing profundity and power that I hadn’t realized until reading it for the nth time late last year. Lewis is a master at this endeavor in general, writing for all audiences in a way that neither panders nor overreaches.

I read 30 books in 2020, a large part in thanks to being quarantined for most of it, and here’s my list! Now I get to make a new one… :-)

A special thanks to all who helped me achieve this goal:

I’ve read a lot of books in the last few months – most amazing, some just eh, and I figured I’d write reviews on a few of my favorites. I read My Name is Asher Lev last fall and it remains pretty far up on my list of “highly recommended” books.