Books + Podcasts I Enjoyed in 2022

Books:

The Gift of a Happy Mother

This was an amazing book and quick read that I highly suggest for all moms! It’s a supportive guide that gives busy moms permission to take a step back, let go, and slow down. Right away, readers are posed with the question “would you rather have a perfect mom, or a happy one?” Throughout the book, there are journal entry areas for self-reflection based on the theme of the chapter. I enjoyed being reminded of how to let go of societies expectations, perfection, tuning into my own needs, rediscovering joy in our every day life, and creating healthy boundaries.

How Children Learn

I know I titled this post “Books I Enjoyed”, but this was one I didn’t. I did read it, however, and wanted to put it on the list because it does have quality information. This is probably a great book for those who are just delving into the concept of children’s development (like I feel like my husband would benefit from reading this one). But as someone who already knew much of the content, I was hoping for more concrete data, research, and facts. If you are someone who rather enjoys real-life events however, this would be a great book for you! For me, it was a dry and seemingly long book despite only being just over 200 pages. It was FULL of real life stories and situations during the author’s time as an educator and parent, which why I recommend it for people who need to see the specific scenarios. I did find that much of the findings led to a belief that the current school system is not set up to properly educate children, but that they have the innate ability to do it themselves. John Holt really emphasizes the benefits of homeschooling, which obviously isn’t always an option for everyone. He also states repeatedly that consistent exposure of a topic will aid in leading the child to develop a self-directed desire to explore the topic. Equally important is allowing children freedom to explore topics or concepts themselves fully, without any rules or regulations.

5 Love Languages of Children

In the 5 Love Languages of Children, Gary Chapman walks through all of the love languages we are well aware of by now, but through the minds of our children. If you didn’t already know, we may not always speak the same love languages as those in our family. Once you learn the secret love languages of those around you, it may be easier to build relationships and love them in the way they would like to be loved. Understanding your child’s love language can help assist your child in life-long learning, make discipline easier, and build a foundation of unconditional love for your child.

I really enjoyed this book because of how simple and quick it was to read. I refer back to it a lot throughout our day actually. Before a certain age, the book says you will want to make sure you are showing all the various love languages to your child for healthy development. It also lists a multitude of examples and real-life experiences to make them more relatable and easier to understand. I like being able to see what areas we are already doing well at and which areas we can improve for our children.

The Birth Space

In The Birth Space, Gabrielle Nancarrow, a birth doula and founder of Gather, goes over everything one should know about informed consent, conceiving, pregnancy, birth and postpartum in a super easy to digest manner. I was very please with the wide array of topics and things to consider throughout, but I felt like it was still pretty vague and still left me with questions by the end. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the various birth stories from many different types of birth! I feel like we (as a society) have moved so far away from hearing about birth that we just rely on what Hollywood is telling us, which is as far away from reality as can be.

Topics this book discusses: Birthplace options, questions to ask different healthcare workers, termination, pregnancy after loss, looking after your mental health, the language of pregnancy, gender disappointment, setting up the birth space, after birth, postpartum healing, stages of labor, and sex after birth.

Orgasmic Birth

This book I have heard Ellen Fisher mention many many times and finally decided to purchase and read it after The Birth Space. I was hoping it was going to answer more of my unanswered questions. This book is not about how to orgasm while birth, but how to achieve that euphoric birth of your dreams. This is a quick read and broken into 3 parts: How to Have an Orgasmic Birth, Trimester-by-trimester breakdown, and Stories. The stories throughout the book aren’t all euphoric, which is refreshing! You would think this book would be full of success stories, but it’s not and I think that is important to achieving a realistic view of birth and labor. I love how this book gives for hard statistics and facts pertaining to birth and knowing your options. It contains a realistic list of things to bring to the hospital, so many influencers will try to tell you that you need to pack 2 suitcases but the hospital actually provides many care products. I also enjoyed how thoroughly it walked the reader through labor. Hollywood makes us believe that labor is the point of pushing and instills a fear that we won’t have enough time, but labor is a long process and it will challenge us the most. I enjoyed this one much for than the birth space, though both were great books! But I will probably give this one a second read before giving birth (at the time of writing this).

The Fiery Cross

After reading my educational books, I enjoy ending my day with fiction. I’ve been consumed by the Outlander Drama and managed to finish two books this year! These are not quick reads for me and often take me months to finish, so I’m quite proud of myself for finishing two in one year. Unlike other readers, I quite enjoyed the changing in perspectives/voices throughout the book. It was a little difficult to figure out who we were reading through and I would often have to go back and reread once I figured it out, but I felt it added more dynamic and perspective to the stories. The drama in this book kept me enticed and made it super difficult to put the book down! Often times I would have to force myself to so I could get some rest.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Again, another book from the Outlander Series. If you are basing your ideas of the books based on the show, I feel like I need to add here that I was absolutely furious with the way they filmed season 9. I HAD to read The Fiery Cross and A Breath of Snow and Ashes to see if the books really went that way (news flash: they didn’t). There are concepts in the show that stay true to the stories, but everything is so jumbled and moves way too quickly. The book slows it all down and puts it at a normal pace of events. The drama is still fierce and I think that’s why I was able to finish these two so quickly. A lot happens in this book to make Claire and Jamie up and leave where they thought they’d be spending the rest of their life, which is wild because I also thought we’d be ending the series in the Americas. I feel like this book is a final blow to Jamie and Claire full of karma for thinking living their lives normally wouldn’t come to bite Claire in the bud as someone from the future. I loved how the karma played out in the books SO much more than the show though.

The Four Agreements

This was an amazing and quick read! I happened to read it at the exact time I needed to hear everything in the book too, and I’m so thankful I did. I don’t normally reread books, but this is one I would constantly refresh myself on. This is a self-help book that utilizes ancient wisdoms. The four guiding principles are: Be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, always do your best. It leads you through so many important questions and our societal domestication. Although this book is for everyone and I would highly suggest it to anyone, it really helped me in the stage of motherhood and self-development I am currently in. I now say ‘always do your best’ to my daughter too. Breaking old habits is not an easy task, but this book discusses how to do just that and gives you realistic expectations to set.

Podcasts:

Heart & Hustle Podcast

Evie & Lindsey bring so much information to this podcast! It is top on my list to preparing to photograph a wedding day, and to learn how to better my business and myself for my clients. My business notebook is FULL of notes from their episodes and I need to go back to listen to a few again and write those down too! They release two episodes a week full of actionable tips to improve our businesses and life, all while having amazing conversations and laughs, and encourage their listeners to chase after their dreams.

Ellen Fisher Podcast

I’ve LOVED Ellen Fisher’s content on YouTube for years, so it was so surprise to me that I would jump right into and enjoy her podcast. I can’t keep up with her podcast now and I’m way behind, but each episode is so thought provoking and chock full of knowledge. She uses this space to get into the difficult conversations of motherhood, plant-based nutrition, finances, relationships, even political concepts occasionally. BUT, these are all normal conversations with people who are here to give us both sides of the story, not forcing us to believe one way or the other. She provides a neutral space for the really difficult conversations and includes us in the nuance. Being able to have a comfortable space to listen to real people (not politicians) discuss both sides of topics has been my favorite part.

1000 Hours Outside

This is a podcast I’ve been pushing off for a while. I am in a stage of life where listening is easier than sitting down and reading, so I wanted to start listening to this one more to better my parenting knowledge. But I’m also SUPER picky with podcasts. They have to be really engaging for me and this one isn’t always that. But, I have learned a lot from it already! I love the 1000 Hours Outside project and everything they stand for: breaking kids from the screens and getting them back in nature. This podcast is chock full of research that confirms time and time again what children are naturally and unabashedly drown to - unrestricted outside play and how important it is for development.

Creative Business - Make Your Break Podcast

I found Jai Long through the Heart & Hustle podcast and his episode on marketing was FIRE. I had so many pages of notes after listening to it for a second time. If his episode was that great, I had to check out his own podcast. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it too! He shares step-by-step guidance on building a business and taking it to the next level. My favorite part is he has a giving mindset, not a fear-based mindset. So he is constantly saying the best way to grow your business is to serve and to just give.