I’ll give you a rundown of the books I’ve read recently and whether they’re worth adding to your collection.
Hello friends! How are you doing? I hope you have a nice morning. We’ve had a ton of rain here in Tucson and it’s been nothing short of a dream. I’m looking forward to a walk in the cooler weather this afternoon!
For today’s post, I wanted to share a summary of the books I’ve read recently. Honestly, reading is still at the bottom of my priority list right now. I haven’t taken as much time to read this year because we’re still trying to find our rhythm of homeschooling, working, and hanging in there while the pilot is underway. I too am on my way IHP3 And Peptides for practitioners couse. When I’m single parenting, I usually pretty much collapse into bed once I’ve put the kids to bed and folded the laundry.
It goes without saying that the reading has been a little slower, but I’ve still managed to read some great books lately!
Here’s a summary of what I’ve been reading lately and whether I recommend you add these to your list!
Books I’ve read recently
From here to the great unknown
I have always been a big fan of Elvis and had the biggest crush on him when I was in school. (Elvis in his heyday, ok? haha) I’ve always been fascinated by his life and family, and when I heard about this book written by his daughter Lisa Marie Presley, I knew I wanted to listen to the audio version. It features recorded clips from Lisa Marie and is also narrated by Julia Roberts (soooo good) and Elvis’ granddaughter Riley Keogh.
The book traces Lisa Marie’s extraordinary but turbulent life as Elvis Presley’s only child. It’s about fame, identity, addiction, heartbreak and the deep sadness of losing her son. Through Riley’s reflections and the discovery of her mother’s tapes, the memoir is an example of resilience and a love letter between mother and daughter. I highly recommend the audio version – 9/10
Out of Amazon:
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, complicated woman who loved Riley and was now grieving.
Riley got the tapes her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened to Lisa Marie tell story after story about crashing golf carts in the yards at Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About how she was dragged out of the bathroom screaming as she ran towards his body on the floor. She lives with her mother in Los Angeles, is sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her unique, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, about what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About omnipresent sadness. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these bright and painful memories to the world.
To make her mother known.
This extraordinary book is written in the voices of Lisa Marie and Riley, a mother and daughter who communicate with each other – from this world to the world beyond – while trying to heal each other. Deeply moving and deeply insightful, From here to the great unknown is a book like no other – the last words of the only child of an American icon.
The Parisian architect
The Paris Architect is a beautifully written, exciting story set in Nazi-occupied Paris. It follows Lucien Bernard, a talented architect who is tasked with designing secret hideouts for Jewish families – a job that could cost him his life if discovered. What starts as a job for extra money quickly turns into something much deeper as Lucien’s courage and conscience grows with each risky project. It’s a story about bravery, redemption, and how ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they choose compassion over fear. This was an amazing story – I also liked the architectural details throughout – and I loved the ending. 9/10
Out of Amazon:
1942, Paris. Architect Lucien Bernard accepts a commission that will bring him great wealth – and possibly a death sentence. He must design a secret hideout for a wealthy Jewish man, a place so invisible that even the most determined Nazi soldiers cannot discover it. When one of Lucien’s plans fails horribly, the problem of hiding a Jew becomes personal and he can no longer deny the enormity of his project. What does he owe to those around him and how far will he go to make things right?
When breath becomes air
When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi is a deeply moving memoir about a gifted neurosurgeon who, in the midst of building his life and career, is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He grapples with what it means to live and die – from doctor to patient – and explores how to give meaning to life in the face of mortality. This book gave me so much to think about and somehow remained entertaining and light-hearted despite the heavy subject matter. 10/10
Out of Amazon:
At the age of 36, shortly before completing ten years of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient fighting for survival. And suddenly the future he and his wife had imagined disappeared. “When Breath Becomes Air” chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naive medical student “obsessed,” as he wrote, “with the question of what constitutes a virtuous and meaningful life in the face of the death of all organisms,” to a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical site for human identity, and finally to a patient and newly minted Father grappling with his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future is no longer a ladder to your life goals but becomes an eternal present? What does it mean to have a child and live a new life while another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi grapples with in this deeply moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015 while working on this book, but his words live on as a guide and gift to us all. “I realized that, in some ways, facing my own mortality had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I cannot go on. I will go on.'” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and the relationship between doctor and patient, by a brilliant writer who became both.
Ok friends: what are you reading lately? Is there anything you would recommend?
I just started two new books… my goal is to finish them before the holidays 😉
xo
Gina
