Autumn Reading 2022

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September 28, 2022

Reading is a great way to participate in self care. Books take us on adventures while we never leave our favorite comfy chair. Books teach us new things like knitting or watch making. Books can also teach us how to deal with those hard life lessons.

For the Autumn months I’d like to offer a list of three books. That is one per month. I know many of us are busy with life and I apply no pressure.

Many times in my life books have offered me an escape from my day to day and quite possibly got me through those times in my life when I needed that far off place to go to imagine things differently. I remember as a young woman, I would climb into the rope hammock at the edge of our lawn and curl up to read my newest library find.

I think this stack of books could be just what we need to conquer the autumn and possibly change our lives for a very long time to come. One book to expand our imagination. One book to improve how we communicate with our children. And one book to change how we can improve our lives.

Title : 1984
Author : George Orwell
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 6257120896
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-6257120890
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.73 x 9 inches

From Amazon – Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English novelist George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell’s ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modeled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated. The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a totalitarian superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Big Brother, the leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not even exist. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent and skillful rank-and-file worker and Party member who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He enters into a forbidden relationship with a colleague, Julia, and starts to remember what life was like before the Party came to power. Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. It also popularised the term “Orwellian” as an adjective, with many terms used in the novel entering common usage, including “Big Brother”, “doublethink”, “thoughtcrime”, “Newspeak”, “memory hole”, “2 + 2 = 5”, “proles”, “Two Minutes Hate”, “telescreen”, and “Room 101”

Title : Seven at Sea
Authors : Erik and Emily Orton
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Shadow Mountain (March 5, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 162972551X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1629725512
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1 x 9 inches

From Amazon – Working the night shift as a temp in a high-rise cubicle, Erik Orton knew something had to change. He felt the responsibility of providing for his wife and their five children the youngest with Down syndrome but craved a life that offered more than just surviving.

Watching the sailboats on the Hudson River during his sunset dinner breaks, Erik dared to dream. What would it be like to leave the hustle of the city and instead spend a year on a sailboat, somewhere beautiful, as a family? Despite having no sailing experience, his wife Emily s phobia of deep water, and already stretching every dollar to pay rent and buy groceries, the family of seven turned their excuses into reasons and their fears into motivation. Sure, they would miss their friends, they could go broke, they could get injured or die. Worst of all, they could humiliate themselves by trying something audacious and failing. But the little time they still had together as a family, before their oldest daughter left for college, was drifting away. The Ortons cast off the life they knew to begin an uncertain journey of 5,000 miles between New York City and the Caribbean, ultimately arriving at a new place within themselves.

A portrait of a captivating and resilient family and a celebration of the courage it takes to head for something over the horizon, this is a deeply compelling story told alternately by Erik and Emily for all those who dream of leaving routine in their wake.

Title : Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformation Power of Daily Gratitude
Authors : Nina Lesowtz and Mary Beth Sammons
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viva Editions; 1st edition (October 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1573443689
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1573443685
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.4 x 7 inches

From Amazon – Whatever is given — even a difficult and challenging moment — is a gift. Living as if each day is a thank-you can help transform fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, isolation into belonging, and another’s pain into healing. Saying thank-you every day inspires feelings of love, compassion, and hope. These ideas are the basis for this timely book. Authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons present a simple, but comprehensive program for incorporating gratitude into one’s life, and reaping the many benefits that come from doing so. The book is divided into ten chapters from “Thank You Power” and “Ways to Stay Thankful in Difficult Times” to “Gratitude as a Spiritual/Cultural Practice ” and “Putting Gratitude into Action.” Each chapter includes stories of individuals whose lives have been transformed by embracing this program, along with motivating quotes and blessings, and a suggested gratitude practice such as keeping a weekly gratitude journal and starting a gratitude circle.

One to make you think, One to entertain you, and one to grow you. I hope you love these as much if not more than I did. Let me know if you did. Do you have any book suggestions? Let me know what they are.

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