What I’m Reading

Reading used to be such a major part of my life. Hello, my son’s name is Atticus after all. But that has been the thing that has been the hardest to hold on to once I entered motherhood. (Well, that and my sanity! Ba Dump Bum! Somebody pass the chocolate! Ack! My name is Cathy!)

I have managed to remain pretty dang productive in my motherhood, managing my time and multi-tasking my way through millions of tasks in 15 minute chunks and set to the music of Yo Gabba Gabba. But reading a book is something that actually requires full attention, more than a few minutes at a time, at least one hand, and can’t really be done on the move. So I’ve bought a lot of books over the last four years, but haven’t done too great at getting through them.

To change that I’ve been reading a little at night, a little in the morning, and a little at 3pm when I hit the wall and need a rest. The only hard part is not falling asleep. I have lots of great books to read, but I started with all the books I got for Christmas.

Is it possible to say more great things about this book than have already been said? I am floored by Tina Fey’s genius and humor and her ability to cut right to the heart of a point with a joke. The best parts of this book were the essays “Every woman must be every thing” and “A Mother’s Prayer for her daughter” but everything is just too awesome for words. I want Tina Fey to be my spirit animal.

My Brother-in-Law picked this out for me, and I read half the book on Christmas Day. As much as I love this show, my fandom doesn’t take the “obsessively collecting” shape, so I wasn’t actually planning on picking this up. It would have been a loss I can’t even imagine. This is not a collectible book for superfans. This is an episode of Parks and Recreations in book form. Leslie Knope is one of my most favorite fictional characters ever. She’s like the hyper achieving Type A girl from high school, mixed with as much love and sincerity as Buddy the Elf. That character comes through every sentence of this book and is the most delightful thing I’ve come across in ages.

This has been languishing on my Amazon wish list for years and my friend Stacey bought it for me for my birthday. I’ve listened to enough interviews and things that I knew I would love it, and I totally did. In my activism work I am often trying to help people get the concept of “privilege.” That nobody who is successful has completely earned it all by themselves, that through no fault of our own we have it easier or harder based on where/when/to whom we’re born. This book is the best primer on that subject I’ve ever read. There’s no guilt or blame involved, which is what people often feel when they examine their privilege, it’s just facts that need to be examined to allow opportunities for success for more people, and hopefully a dose of humility for the privileged. And it’s totally riveting in the process.

This is the only book I read recently that I didn’t love. I actually got a little angry at it because I can’t NOT finish a book and this felt like work to get through after a while. I’ve loved everything else I’ve read by Jonathan Letham, there’s a scene from Motherless Brooklyn that I still think about, but this one was not for me. Maybe it was because so much of the book revolved around pot and, while I’m not a total pearl-clutcher, I’m not terribly interested and certainly not experienced in that world. But I also think the book could have done with another edit. In his pontifications about truth and reality he would write some observations and descriptions that were transcendent, and then he would spend three pages chasing his tail. Maybe he smoked a little to much ‘research’ as he was writing it.