Reading Archives - Crazybananas

Currently Reading : Unexpected Joy, Not Feeling Like Shit and the Mother of Black Hollywood

February 6, 2018/0 Comments/in Reading /by Megan

I kicked off this year with a few great, new books on my nightstand (and in my earbuds) that I wanted to share! Last year, one of my big goals was to read more often, and I was so happy to have kept it up all year. This year, I’m hoping to share a few of my favorites here on the blog, and do a few quick reviews over on social media (Instagram stories, maybe?) as well. Today I wanted to share about the three books I inhaled in January.

The first is called The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober and it was written by my friend Catherine Gray. Now, can I just tell you a little something about being in a community of women in recovery? One of the best parts of the entire experience is watching people you have seen crawl out from the bottom of despair change the world with their talent and grace. Getting to be a very small part of Catherine’s journey is such a gift, and viewing her rise has been incredible! This memoir shares Catherine’s struggle with alcohol, but even better is learning about the incredible life she found was waiting for her in sobriety. So many people believe being sober means you become a boring lump with no life, and that has been far from the truth for me! Catherine shows her readers what an exciting, fun, JOYFUL life is waiting for them in sobriety. She also weaves in some amazing science about alcohol (do you know it’s not good for you AT ALL…despite what that report you saw on the benefits of wine on your heart heath says?) and gently builds the argument that being alcohol-free is not a punishment, but an awesome way to live! You can get The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober here.

The second book I read this month is by another online recovery friend (and podcast host) Andrea Owen. Andrea is an author and life coach who helps women live the kick ass lives they deserve. She works with a ton of high-achieving women to assist them in finding balance, joy and letting go of shitty behaviors. Hence the title of her newest book, How to Stop Feeling Like Shit! I was a guest on Andrea’s podcast last year, and I love her style of not taking any crap while being incredibly empathetic and understanding. This book lays out several behaviors many women cling to (people pleasing, saying yes too often, saying no too often…) and helps the reader find ways to battle these issues in their own lives. This is a great read for women who are “doing it all,” but still find themselves feeling shitty far too often (raises hand). You can get How to Stop Feeling Like Shit here.

The last book on my list for January was actually an audiobook, and OMG GET THIS AUDIOBOOK! I have been a fan of Jenifer Lewis for years, but listening to her tell the story of her own life in her book, The Mother of Black Hollywood, was a total joy. She shares intimate details of her life growing up as an abused child in Missouri, her early days on Broadway in the 1970s and 1980s, the AIDS crisis that rocked her world, her battle with bipolar and anxiety and her time as a black actress in Hollywood. I’m sure this is a great read on it’s own, but hearing Ms. Lewis’ incredible voice telling her own story was well worth the audiobook. She sings, tells jokes, laughs…the whole time I felt like I was listening to her in person. I highly recommend this for a long drive in the car or to listen to when you’re working out…just beware if you’re at the gym you’ll probably end up snort-laughing on the elliptical. You can buy the audiobook for The Mother of Black Hollywood here or the print version here. And if you want a Jenifer Lewis fix, may I suggest adding Black-ish to your TV rotation. She plays Grandma Ruby and it is the BEST!

CB Reads : Swing Time & When Breath Becomes Air

April 25, 2017/0 Comments/in Reading /by Megan

This year I’m doing my best to turn off the screen and bury myself in pages as often as possible. I spend so much of my time in front of a computer or a phone screen, and lately sleep has become an issue for me (again, ugh), so reading has become the antidote. I’m attempting to read two or three books a month, and maintaining a mix of fiction and non-fiction.

This past month I read the novel Swing Time by Zadie Smith and the memoir When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Swing Time is the story of two young mixed-race girls who live in a low income project in London. The story is told from the perspective of one of the girls, who remains unnamed throughout the story. It follows them as they grow from young girls in dance class to adult women living very different lives. The story explores race, class, pop-culture, advocacy and “hero” culture and so much more. It’s such a rich, wonderful read.

When Breath Becomes Air was written by 36-year-old neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, after he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. As he transforms from a doctor into a patient, he shares his deepest thoughts about life, death, love and fatherhood. I found myself in tears for much of this short, beautiful book, as it hit very close to home for me. While the loss of Mr. Kalanithi is a tragedy, the words he left behind were extremely comforting to me, and I’m so grateful to him and his family for sharing them with the world.

In addition, my 6-year-old and I have been reading the new, illustrated versions of the Harry Potter books before bed each night. We just finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and we found the illustrated editions to be such a treat! He loves listening to the Harry Potter stories (his sister is obsessed and talks about them all the time, so he likes being in on the fun), but they are quite long, so the addition of the fantastic illustrations by Jim Kay help him enjoy the story and kept his interest throughout the entire book. It took us about a month to read it, but the next one doesn’t come out for a year, so we took our time!

I’m always looking for new book ideas, so if you’ve read something amazing lately, send me a note at megan@crazybananas.com or on Instagram and let me know!

CB Reads : 2017
1. Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner
2. Millers Valley by Anna Quindlan
3. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
4. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
5. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
6. Swing Time by Zadie Smith
7. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
8. I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi
Up next…Sober Stick Figure and The Hate U Give

Snow Days and Chasing Slow

January 17, 2017/1 Comment/in Family, Grumples, Parenting, Reading, Recovery, Work /by Megan

The last few weeks have been short ones around here. We got back to a somewhat normal schedule after the holidays, just to be slammed with more days off of school for the kids than I can count.

Just kidding, I’ve counted. Twice.

Basically with the combination of national holidays and inservice/teacher learning days, we have four-day school weeks from now until mid-February. Which, let’s face it, isn’t ideal. Not only does this make my work schedule difficult, it is hard on the kids as well! It’s almost impossible for any of us to get into a groove when our schedule is all over the place.

When I’m faced with these types of working mom problems, I tend to get extremely over-stressed and anxious. I find myself making lists in my head of everything I won’t be able to do because I won’t have the time. I torture myself by looking at the social media feeds of my competitors and colleagues, seeing all their perfectly lit images and the work they have been doing, and instead of cheering them on, I feel resentful. I worry that I’m falling behind, yet again, and that I’ll never get ahead of the game. I decide that I’m destined to fail, resign myself to my bed with some fuzzy socks, ratty PJs and Netflix. Why bother even trying, right?

WRONG. Because I don’t have to live fast in order to find success, and the whole idea of hustle equating happiness just doesn’t resonate for me anymore. When my kids have a day off school, I enjoy being with them. I like stepping away from the computer and being present as we throw snowballs at each others heads or read books. I don’t feel lazy when I’m in my PJs with them until 11 a.m. I feel happy. Joyful, even!

So why I am I torturing myself? When they were babies and I worked out of the home full time, I felt guilty for missing all these moments. When I started my own business and they were in preschool, I felt guilty because I couldn’t work as much as I wanted to. Now I’m feeling guilty when they have days off elementary school. I keep waiting for the next phase of life, when things slow down, but I’m starting to think that’s NEVER gonna happen. There will always be something pulling me in one direction while another is pushing me the opposite way.

This year I am planning to focus more on being present, but also on listening to my inner self when it comes to my schedule and work. I am finding doubling down on hustle when it comes to work isn’t always resulting in success. Instead, when I focus on doing what feels right in all facets of my life (working, creating, mothering, reading, meditating, eating chocolate, whatever) the success seems to follow. Recently I was fortunate enough to be asked to read the new, beautiful book Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner, which really speaks to this topic. Erin chronicles her journey from a fast life, to a slow life and back again…and her conclusions aren’t what I expected. Instead of being a book about slowing down your life, this book was more about the question of why do we believe we have to have any particular sort of life for it to be a happy one? I related so much to her journey, and it made me think twice about my goals. Do I want a fast life? Do I want to be a minimalist? Do I want to disconnect from the internet and live in a yurt? Do I want to move to New York City and take my kids to school on the subway? Do I want neither? Both?

Do I have to decide?

Maybe we can just be balancing along the middle…sometimes wanting to throw out everything we own because the clutter is strangling us and other times buying a shirt on sale just because it looked cute online. Who knows? But for now, I can only be where I am. And I am a mom of two kids who are growing into grown-ups faster than I can fathom, so if they have a day off school, I’m probably needed on the front lines of the snowball fight. Afterward, when they are sipping on hot cocoa and fighting over marshmallows, I’ll likely sneak away for a little editing session or to answer a few emails. I’m not perfect, but luckily, no one is.

If you’re looking for more info on this topic, the podcast “The Lively Show” is an amazing listen. I recommend starting with this episode!

CB Reads : Love Warrior

September 13, 2016/0 Comments/in Reading, Recovery /by Megan

A few weeks ago I posted about some things in my life that were making me happy, and included in the list was the incredible new book by Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior. I finished the book a few days ago, and I wanted to share a few of my thoughts.

Now, first of all, yes, this is a book about marriage. Except it’s SO MUCH MORE than just that. I think this book applies to anyone, anywhere who has ever loved or been loved. And in turn, anyone who has ever been hurt. Which, let’s get real, is everyone, everywhere! One of the biggest takeaways of this book for me was the idea that a love lost is not wasted. Grief is not just a sadness…instead, Glennon shares her idea that grief itself is PROOF that we have loved, and loved well.

For those of you who are fans of Glennon’s website Momastery and her first book, Carry On, Warrior, this book might be a bit more intense than what you’ve seen before from Glennon. Which is saying something, because she’s usually very open! But this book goes even deeper, and really explores the anger that we experience as women when our trust is broken. It also investigates and puts a spotlight how the world receives a woman’s anger. In the end, it’s the anger that really forces Glennon to look further into herself than ever before, and helps her not only heal her newer wounds, but years of trauma, which started when she was a little girl.

But here’s the thing…Love Warrior is FUNNY! Like, I was laughing out loud reading certain passages. How can a book about infidelity, faith, love, anger and healing be funny? Well, that’s the gift you guys. Because if this book was too heavy, I don’t know if I could have made it through. Humor is how I work through the really difficult questions in my own life, and I’m so grateful that Glennon did the same, because it made her story even more familiar to me.

After reading Love Warrior, I feel more empowered to continue to heal myself and work toward closer relationships with all of my life’s loves…my husband, my children, my family and my friends. This book is truly a gift.

If you are looking for more Glennon in your life, I love this podcast interview with her…and also this one (although there is definitely some saucy language here, so make sure you’ve got your headphones plugged in at work before you hit play!).

A Few Happy Things

September 2, 2016/0 Comments/in Blond, Gimme, Happiness, Heath + Wellness, Reading /by Megan

Okay, friends…it’s been a hard, long, exhausting few weeks around here. When things get hard, that’s when I used to reach for unhealthy solutions to make all the bad feelings go away, but in the last few years I’ve made it my MISSION to find better ways to cope. Some of these things have been ongoing (exercise, eating better, watching dumb TV, therapy, recovery meetings, etc.), but since the last few months have provided new and unique challenges, I’ve found myself more mindful of things that are making me happy. It’s just how things work, isn’t it? When life is all happy frappy, you don’t necessarily notice the little things that make you smile. But when life is a bit darker, the things that light up your day, even if it’s just a little bit, make all the difference.

So here are a few things that have been making me happy lately:

1. Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton – I have shared my love of Glennon, the brilliant mind behind the Momastery blog, before (remember when I met her and cried and she hugged me?!), so I was more than excited when I heard about her upcoming book Love Warrior. I preordered a signed copy last Spring, and while the official release date is September 6th, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my mailbox yesterday! I’ve only read a few pages so far, but I’m already engrossed in this memoir. You should absolutely order yours so you can get it next week when it comes out everywhere!

2. My Fake Candy – You guys, I’m a bit of a sweet tooth. I may or may not have bought an entire cherry pie the other day because I was feeling low. And while I definitely think it’s okay to treat yourself and ice cream can help when you’re sad (and it’s a much better choice than alcohol or drugs!), I know myself, and treating feelings with food isn’t usually a good choice (note: USUALLY…there are always ice cream exceptions). So I’ve been looking for a few healthier options for when my sweet tooth is raging, but I know I don’t want to eat a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. These chocolate chip cookie dough Larabars legitimately taste like candy to me, and are my favorite substitute when I am craving sugar. I’m also a huge fan of these wolfberry crisp bars from Young Living, which curb my chocolate craving.

3. LUSH Dream Time Temple Balm – My sweet husband LOVES giving gifts, so he always finds the kids and I little presents when he goes on work trips. When he returned from Las Vegas a few weeks ago, he brought me back a kit of fun bath products and beauty items from the brand LUSH, and this Dream Time Balm is my favorite. You rub a little on your temples right before bed, and all of a sudden your bedroom feels like spa!

4. Mai Tai Spritzer from Drybar – Okay, I’m not gonna lie…the other day I was feeling depressed and decided to go wander the mall. Is this healthy? Probably not, but I am not much of a shopper, so I figured it would be alright to do it once. Anyway, I found myself in Sephora with the goal of “finding something that makes me happy.” This sea salt spray for my hair was the winner! It smells like summer and heaven, and every time I put it on my mood elevates. #worthit

What’s making you happy right now? I need a few more things to add to my arsenal! All suggestions are welcome! If you need me, I’ll be over here eating ~~ice cream~~ Larabars…

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