Welcome to the Book of the Month! Let's get into it. One important thing you need to know about the book of this month is that it is about time travel. Yes. I will be honest that I didn't know that before going in; I knew nothing about the book before going in. If I knew it was about time travel, I am not sure I would have gone ahead with it. There are also some other things that made me a little uncomfortable but I'm getting ahead of myself.
On Friday, May 19, 2023, I was writing about something else and was about ready to hit publish when I heard that beloved pastor, mentor, preacher, and teacher, Timothy Keller had passed away. He was 72.
Tim Keller, as he was often called, is the kind of man you write about. So here we are.
Welcome to Book of the Month. The book of this month is Verity by Colleen Hoover. I cannot possibly continue with this post without acknowledging the HOLD Colleen Hoover has on the reading community. If this woman was Nigerian I would legit accuse her of using some sort of spiritual power to captivate people, because people LOVE her. She has a large cult following and you literally cannot walk any airport, train station, bookstore without seeing the array of her books. They are everywhere. This is only the second book of hers that I'm reading. I read It Ends With Us and I HAD thoughts but it was so emotionally intense that I decided against making it book of the month despite my feelings.
Anyway, Verity is about a writer, Lowen, on the verge of financial ruin when she accepts the opportunity of a lifetime. She has been hired by the husband of a much more famous writer, Verity Crawford, to complete the series Verity started before she became unable to continue due to an injury. The said husband, Jeremy Crawford, invites Lowen to their home to sort through Verity's notes and outlines and such, which is opportune, because Lowen has just been kicked out of her apartment. What Lowen did not expect to find in all the chaos was an unfinished autobiography by Verity. And that's where crap hits the fan. Somewhere along the line, Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify. And as I said, crap hits the fan.
1.) Adam Sandler accepted his award for the Mark Twain prize in comedy and the speech was very humble, grounded, and reflective of everything that contributed to his success.
2.) With another mass shooting this week, a gentle reminder that the thoughts and prayers of political leaders wont do.
I have been reading a lot about shame, courage, vulnerability and the intersection of those three emotions. This, of course, means tackling Brene Brown’s work, which I absolutely LOVE (check out her special on Netflix; powerful stuff). That said, I’ve been struggling with some aspects of her work as it pertains to shame. She mostly argues that shame is a useless emotion, that shaming people never works, and feeling shame almost never leads to better behavior. I disagree with this a little (or maybe a lot?). What I seem to struggle with is she doesn’t quite account for accountability (excuse the pun) nor does she account for transitional justice.
This post is coming about three weeks late but better late than never! We have a serious IWD series on this blog and we are not about to let it go this year. So on the very last day of Women's History Month, let's talk about it.
One fear I've had in recent times is that our generation has taken to underestimating gender inequality. After all, we have had female leaders, athletes, corporate executives. Women can now vote, work, drive, yay feminism, right? To add salt to the injury of this perspective is the sudden glamorization of everything generations before us fought against. With the rise of younger women on TikTok ostentatiously broadcasting their dependence on ultra-wealthy boyfriends, glossing over clear imbalance of gender dynamics as they feature their latest designer purses in yet another get-ready-with-me video, or as they deliver yet another aesthetically pleasing smoothie to their boyfriends. What is not as apparent to the impressionable [even] younger viewer is how wide this path is to abuse and powerlessness, and perhaps even sadder, how much those who came before us fought against this very phenomenon.
But the gag is (as the cool kids say), we need advocates for women more than ever. In a world where people falsely believe the differences between men and women are nonexistent, where people believe our work is done, we need louder voices for women. One thing is clear, there are still myriad of biases and barriers that prevent women from pursuing and/or achieving their potential. And I have receipts.
I bet you thought we were going to end March without a book of the month, huh? Think again! Haha.
When I got midway through the book of this month, I remember thinking finally! I deserve to read such a great book. True story. I haven't had that wow factor with most of the books I've been reading this year, and when I say this book made up for all that, I am not kidding. Let's get into it.
I have accepted that life comes with a good deal of the good and the bad. It’s very healthy to wade through life with that mindset. Yet some...