Books finished: 10
M is For Mama: A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood by Abbie Halberstadt, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré, Anxious For Nothing by John MacArthur, This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (re-read), Aggressively Happy by Joy Marie Clarkson, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, For the Love of Discipline by Sara Wallace (re-read), A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry.

Audiobooks: 8
In this phase of life, with littles and new-ish-born I clearly would not be reading anything without audiobooks. One of my, non-audiobook was Mere Christianity, which I started reading in January 2022 – over a year ago! My other non-audiobook was For the Love of Discipline, which was a re-read. The first time I read it was via an audiobook, and I liked it so much that I bought a copy so I could read it again and make notes in it. I also started it early last year. So, yes, I’m a big fan of audiobooks.

Most enjoyed: M is For Mama hands down. I’m even ordering a hard copy of it for myself. So good. Highly recommend!

Least enjoyed: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I knew from the tone at the beginning of this book just how it would end and how much I was not looking forward to it. I powered through this audiobook in I think two days. I just wanted to get it over with. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the book, it’s just depressing and sad and ends on a “it was all for naught” kind of note. Not my jam.

Commonplace Quotes:

To be a homemaker is a defiant act because it is work entirely opposed to the forces of evil

This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson

For it is a truth universally acknowledged that a child in possession of a sinful nature must be in want of a mama who loves and seeks the Lord (sorry Jane Austen, I had to).

M is for Mama by Abbie Halberstadt

… a Christian must not be either a Totalitarian or an Individualist. I feel a strong desire to tell you – and I expect you to feel a strong desire to tell me – which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse. You see why, of course? He replies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis