BIG READS, little reads

For Friday Faves today, I’m bringing you my latest favorite reads both for big people and little people. I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to this summer and have a couple that I’m volleying between right now, but I had no problem choosing four that I loved and am excited to pass on. All four of these books had parts that made me uncomfortable–the good kind of uncomfortable that stretches you and pushes you and pulls the flames of your creative fire higher. If I ever feel that fire fizzling, I know books will always bring it back.

Big Reads

1. It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War. It took me a little while to finish this book, but I’m glad I read it. It gives incredible insight to the story behind the photographs we see in the news, and I will never look at war photographs the same.

2. What To Do When It’s Your Turn. I’ll probably talk more about this book later, but it made me cry and I know Seth Godin was thinking of me and me alone when he wrote it. He was up in my brain examining all of the messed up areas, and actually now that I think if it, I wasn’t mentioned as a case study in the acknowledgments and that disappoints me. Remember that game you played as a kid where you close your eyes and spin a globe and then stop it with your finger, and wherever your finger lands is where you’re going to go? This book is the globe. Flip open to a page, any page, and point. Read what it says. That was written for you. Now go there. An easy read with lots of captions and pictures and stories and quotes–about diving in, about not listening to the stories in our head, about being thirsty enough to cut the crap and do what we were meant to do.

3. The Chronology of Water. This was my introduction to Lidia Yuknavich, and now I am obsessed with her. Her new Small Backs of Children is on my list now. Sister. Can. Write. A story of redemption beautifully written with brilliant metaphor. Not for the faint of heart–she’s unfiltered and writes very openly on matters of sexuality.  This is now in my small stack of books to reread and reread and reread–saved for the very best books.

4. Letters to a Young Poet. After being introduced to a few Rilke quotes I loved, I picked this up and finished it in a day–super short read. There are treasures on writing, faith, identity and art, and you might as well also buy a new highlighter if you’re going to buy this book. So many yellow pages.

A sample appetizer for you: “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke  You’re Welcome.

And now for the littles–books that raise the flames of my creative fire just as much as the big ones do. Bonus: the kids love them too.

 

Little Reads

1. Good Night Yoga. We took this book to Michigan with us with big plans to wake up and do yoga by the lake every morning. We didn’t exactly hit that goal, but we did hold a tree pose or two on a chilly morning while we chanted some of the darling mediation poems. We’ve since pulled it out several times, now memorizing the words with poses. This is an excellent way to introduce basic yoga moves and accompanying child-friendly affirmations to the littlest of littles–and a fun exercise for parent and child to practice together.

2. Sonya’s Chickens. I don’t know what I love more about this brand new book by Phoebe Wahl–the story and thoughtful approach to explaining a chicken death to a child or the warm details in the gorgeous illustrations. My favorite page in the book (a fun game, by the way):

3. Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt. A beautiful explanation of what happens both above and below the ground of a garden over the course of a year, this book perfectly marries education, story, poetry and art. You can FEEL the words and pictures.

My favorite page:

How’s that for fall freak flag? I want soup and hay bales and chunky cable knit socks RIGHT NOW. And how about that Nana’s style?

Gimme that hat, Nana.

4. Knowledge Encyclopedia. Everything a kid ever wanted to know about anything. This book will entertain even the most reluctant of readers, and it’s so full of information, you could read a different subject every night and take months to finish. DK knows how to make a non-fiction book–the photos, the colors, the diagrams, the captions. From dinosaurs and the ocean floor to a baby’s life in the womb, this book presents child-friendly information, photos and illustrations and magically spins it into SO INTERESTING. We keep this on our coffee table for bored moments.