I would guess most of you have a never-ending and never completed book pile just like I do. I thought it would be fun to share what’s in my book pile from time to time.
My book budget right now is zero so these are all from the library. I love it when I want a book, I ask them to buy it, and then I get it brand new. Three of these are like that. So here’s what I’m reading at the moment.
The Simple Home and Down To Earth
The Simple Home and Down to Earth are both by Rhonda Hetzel. If you worked your way through my list of Cozy Blogs I’m Reading, you might recognize the name from her blog Down to Earth.
Down to Earth is a guide to simple living.
Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living
It covers all the big areas:
- living simply
- ages and stages (I liked this feature – something not usually found in simple living books)
- saving and spending
- home
- housework
- organizing your life
- home-grown self-reliance
- the sustainable backyard
- nourishment
- recipes
I’m especially enjoying this book because Rhonda is retired and living what she is writing about. It’s a different perspective from someone who is in her thirties who hasn’t lived as much life writing about simple living. Maybe because I’m getting older, but I appreciate Rhonda’s perspective even more.
It’s also beautifully designed.
The Simple Home is a month-by-month guide to self-reliance, productivity, and contentment. It picks up where Down to Earth left off.
The Simple Home: A Month-by-Month Guide to Self-Reliance, Productivity and Contentment
It’s organized by month and each month has a theme.
- January – Organize the Year Ahead
- February – Your Money and Your Life
- March – A Food Revolution
- April – Food Gardening in Containers
- May – Laundry Love
- June – Food Preserving and Storing
- July – Simple Home Bakers
- August – Domestic Crafts, Sewing, and Household Linens
- September – The Home Diary
- October – Spring Cleaning
- November – Health and Wellbeing
- December – A Time for Celebration
It’s a lovely book with lots of recipes, ideas, and inspiration.
I think both of these will eventually end up in my personal library.
Homeward Bound – Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity
Next up is Homeward Bound – Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity. I don’t even remember how I learned about this book, but wanted to look at it.
Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity
The bound in the title works both ways as in women are heading home and the fear that women may be trapped at home. It’s a secular book and it approaches the subject from the standpoint of whether or not this movement is good for feminism, etc.
The easiest way to explain it is simply to copy the description from both the dust jacket flap and the Amazon description.
What happens to our society as a whole when smart, high-achieving young women are honing their traditional homemaking skills? Emily Matchar offers a smart investigation into this return to domesticity.
Amid today’s rising anxieties—the economy, the scary state of the environment, the growing sense that the American Dream hasn’t turned out to be so dreamy after all—a groundswell of women (and more than a few men) are choosing to embrace an unusual rebellion: domesticity. A generation of smart, highly educated young people are spending their time knitting, canning jam, baking cupcakes, gardening, and more (and blogging about it, of course), embracing the labor-intensive domestic tasks their mothers and grandmothers eagerly shrugged off. Some are even turning away from traditional careers and corporate culture for slower, more home-centric lifestyles that involve “urban homesteading,” homeschooling their kids, or starting Etsy businesses. They’re questioning whether regular jobs are truly fulfilling and whether it’s okay to turn away from the ambitions of their parents’ generation.
How did this happen? And what does it all mean? What happens to American culture as a whole when our best and brightest put home and hearth above other concerns? Does this sudden fascination with traditional homemaking bode ill for gender equality? What role have the media and blog culture played in making domesticity look so darn appealing?
In Homeward Bound, acclaimed journalist Emily Matchar takes a long, hard look at both the inspiring appeal and the potential dangers of this trend she calls the New Domesticity, exploring how it could be reshaping the role of women in society and what the consequences may be for all of us. In riveting interviews with all kinds of people from coast to coast, Matchar examines the motivations of those who have embraced this movement, from Southern food bloggers to chicken-keeping “radical homemakers” on the East Coast to Etsy entrepreneurs in Provo, Utah, to attachment parenting devotees in Chicago, and many more. This groundbreaking reporting on the New Domesticity is guaranteed to transform our notions of women in today’s society and add a new layer to the ongoing discussion of whether women can—or should—have it all.
I’m just getting started, but it’s interesting to read so far. My guess is the author is going to end up not being a fan of this new movement. The Amazon reviews are very mixed and all over the place. So I think it will be interesting reading. This one may end up in my personal library as a reference book.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
Last up is a brand new book that was just released – Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Most of the people reading this post will know that I quit Facebook (update: and then Twitter) so this topic has been on my mind a lot over the past year.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
It’s different, but it’s very thought-provoking. (It also has language so just a disclaimer on that account.) Some of the arguments I find especially compelling as a Christian include:
- You Are Losing Your Free Will
- Social Media is Undermining Truth
- Social Media is Destroying Your Capacity for Empathy
- Social Media Hates Your Soul
The other six arguments I didn’t share are also excellent, but I don’t want to give too much away. I can’t comment fully on the content. I’ve only skimmed parts since it arrived, but I have found what I’ve glanced at very interesting. I’m looking forward to getting into it.
So there you are! Four books from my book pile that I think are all well worth a look!
Enjoy!