Book reviews

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

photo credit

This is one of those hot books that I felt like I should read because everyone I knew said I needed to read it. Then I read it, and now I'm telling you that you need to read it. Seriously good. It's like a history lesson, a sociology lecture, and an interesting writer all smashed into each other at the same time and this is what came of it. Gladwell traces patterns of success in various "successful" groups of people--hockey players, geniuses, billionaires. His conclusions are unexpected and turn how you think about success--and how people get there--on its head. I felt more informed and thoughtful after reading it, and the last chapter on education was particularly interesting to me as a teacher. Highly recommend!

The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller

photo credit

Technically, I'm not finished with this one, but I'd pretty much recommend any of this guy's books before I even opened them, and I'm almost finished. I haven't read a marriage book in years--probably since I got married nearly a decade ago--but our small group at church decided to go through this book together, and it's been challenging and encouraging all at once. A must-read for pretty much anyone--married, single, thinking about marriage. It's full of substance, light on fluff, and while Keller tends to write fairly heady books, he includes enough practical and personal examples that it's understandable and meaningful and so very rooted in the gospel. Highly recommend!

It Looked Different on the Model by Laurie Notaro

photo credit

Nothing comes close to the humor in Mindy Kaling's Everyone's Hanging Out Without Me, but I was needing a light read for our trip to Canada and came across this title while perusing a New York Times Bestseller list. And I loved it. It's hard to get me to laugh out loud when reading, but I did on several occasions in this book, much to the amusement of my plane-mates. The book is nonfiction and each chapter is a stand-alone piece about her life, which made it easy to put down and pick up as needed, but also easy to read "just one more chapter" and finish the whole thing in a few hours. (Disclaimer: total ladies book--sorry, men!) A great little read!