Before Breakfast (Laura Vanderkam)

 

This is a quick one hour audio book read by the author. She says: 

• The hopeful hours before breakfast are far to precious to waste.
• Small rituals can accomplish great things.
• A habit has the force of the water drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the laborers of a spasmatic Hercules. 
• When you make over your mornings, you can make over your life.
• Self-discipline is a muscle and it depletes over time - this is why you should do the most. important things in the morning. It is usually the time when you have fewer interruptions. 
• evenings are when diets are broken, crimes are committed, commitments are broken.
• the best things for mornings rituals are the things that result in long term benefits.
• Pick one new habit and work on it until you have made it part of your life. As you go, track your progress.
• The reason we stay in bed in the morning is we think of all the things we need to do instead of the things you look forward to. Plan to do things you look forward to.
• Tune up as necessary. Life changes and routines should change along with life's changes.

What most successful people use morning time for:

• nurturing their careers: strategizing and focused work
• nurturing their relationships: giving their families and friends their best
• nurturing themselves: exercise and spiritual and creative practices
• choose things you actually enjoy (no self-flagging!)

Other interesting facts she shares:

People more likely to achieve tenure, working on writing on a daily business.

The networking breakfast concept is incredibly underrated.

If you want to get more out of your time, track your time.

Goodreads summary:

Mornings are a madcap time for many of us. We wake up in a haze--often after hitting snooze a few times. Then we rush around to get ready and out the door so we can officially start the day. Before we know it, hours have slipped by without us accomplishing anything beyond downing a cup of coffee, dashing off a few emails, and dishing with our coworkers around the water cooler. By the time the workday wraps up, we're so exhausted and defeated that any motivation to accomplish something in the evening has vanished.

But according to time management expert Laura Vanderkam, mornings hold the key to taking control of our schedules. If we use them wisely, we can build habits that will allow us to lead happier, more productive lives.

Drawing on real-life anecdotes and scientific research that shows why the early hours of the day are so important, Vanderkam reveals how successful people use mornings to help them accomplish things that are often impossible to take care of later in the day. While many of us are still in bed, these folks are scoring daily victories to improve their health, careers, and personal lives without sacrificing their sanity. For instance, former PepsiCo chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund would rise at 5:00 a.m., run four miles, pray, and eat breakfast with his family before heading to work to run a Fortune 500 company.

"What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast" is a fun, practical guide that will inspire you to rethink your morning routine and jump-start your life before the day has even begun.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Laura Vanderkam)

 

I really enjoyed this book and I buy into her theories. Some of the reviews I read were quite critical and not complimentary. When I read a book like this, I tend to take what might work for me and don't worry about the rest - and I think she means that as she writes it. It has a ton of ideas. Take what works for you and leave the rest. You can fit in what really matters to you. For example, I want to be an exerciser - but even in summer break I can't seem to fit it in. Clearly, that's a matter of priorities. She says that if the average person started exercising every time he was tempted to turn on the tube, he could be doing triathlons competitively within a few years (chapter 8: A Full Life).

What works for me:

• She says that most of us are not as busy as we think. I believe that is true. There is always room to assess how we're spending out time. She really advocates for tracking your time. I would like to do that - but I would like an easy system - preferably on my phone. Is there an app?
• After you have tracked your time, start totaling the categories and do a personal self-evaluation about how you're spending your time
• She encourages you to make a list of 1000 dreams (chapter 2). Pick the activities that really matter to you and schedule them in first. 
• 100 things you'd like to do during your life time (pick your categories and list 10 things)
• 10 places you want to visit
• 10 books you want to rest
• 10 restaurants you want to try
• 10 skills you want to learn
• 10 financial goals you have for yourself
• 10 books (articles) you want to publish
• etc!
• Figure out what your core competencies are (what matters most and what you are actually good at doing) and outsource the rest, if you can
• Create a block schedule where you plan to fit in the things that are most important to you (in other words, the big rocks first theory)
• Give yourself time to do the things you love. You'll be happier.

I read this on my kobo. When I was finished, it told me how long I took to read it that I spent an average of 11 minutes per reading session - which surprised me. My goal is to spend 30 minutes reading every morning....and frankly, I thought I was doing that - but apparently I read this more in smaller spurts than that.

Goodreads says:

There are 168 hours in a week. This is your guide to getting the most out of them.

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. We tell ourselves we'd like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of goals. But then we give up because there just aren't enough hours to do it all. Or if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.

There has to be a better way...and Laura Vanderkam has found one. After interviewing dozens of successful, happy people, she realized that they allocate their time differently than most of us. Instead of letting the daily grind crowd out the important stuff, they start by making sure there's time for the important stuff. When plans go wrong and they run out of time, only their lesser priorities suffer.

Vanderkam shows that with a little examination and prioritizing, you'll find it is possible to sleep eight hours a night, exercise five days a week, take piano lessons, and write a novel without giving up quality time for work, family, and other things that really matter.

The Secret Library (Kekla Magoon)

There was a lot going on in this book. The family history aspect was interesting....go back in time to learn about your family. She'd run into the same people again and again and it was confusing to keep straight who the person was and how old they were or what year it was. Time travel is not my favorite genre. It felt like maybe there should be a second book because many of the issues between Dally and her mother are not resolved - but Dailly has time traveled to the future and skipped a bunch of years (broke all the time travel rules!) so a resolution won't be possible. I thought the ending was rushed and rather incomplete.

The idea of a secret library is interesting. This is the key in the time travel - pick a book from your shelves and a cloud starts to form. Off you go! Sometimes the writing seemed quite didactic and sometimes it just wasn't conceivable at all that this is how a child would converse with people.

The main character says she's biracial but as the story ends, you discover that her mother, who is presented as a white woman, actually had a black father - something he kept hidden.  Even Dally's mother didn't know. No one knew. Oh the complexities of family history!

There was a lot of commentary on historic events. In chapter 29, she arrives at a Juneteenth celebration where her parents are, but they aren't married yet. I read this on Juneteenth....so that was a weird twist of fate. There is talk of LGBTQ issues and it's interesting to compare how the issues are viewed in the past to today, however, it was weird addition to the story and seemed like it was thrown in to make sure the author hit on all sorts of current issues: family secrets, LGBTQ lessons, weird explanations about scientific realities today, sex education (a baby is born, mother's water breaks...the whole lots of details kids don't need), segregation and racism issues as well. For an audience of 8-12 year olds, this would open a lot of questions unless they were REALLY well versed in history, which is quite unlikely. I would recommend it for readers over 12, for sure. The book banners would have a heyday with this one. Luckily, most kids didn't finish it and for those who said they did (that's questionable), clearly it was over their head.

This book was a lesson in why it's important to read the book before I suggest it for book club. This one was not a great choice. During our book club meeting we learned about resources online to research your genealogy. I logged into my Family Search account and showed them famous people I was related to. They really enjoyed that.

Goodreads says:
Since Grandpa died, Dally’s days are dull and restricted. She’s eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already grooming her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother’s clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time.

As Dally “checks out” adventure after adventure—including an exhilarating outing with pirates—she begins to dive deep into her family’s hidden history. Soon she’s visiting every day to escape the demands of the present. But the library has secrets of its own, intentions that would shape her life as surely as her mother’s meticulous plans. What will Dally choose?

Equal parts mystery and adventure—with a biracial child puzzling out her identity alongside the legacy of the past—this masterful middle-grade fantasy rivets with crackling prose, playful plot twists, and timeless themes. A satisfying choice for fans of Kindred and When You Reach Me.

Hearing the Voice of the Lord (Gerald N. Lund)

 

Our ward RS started a library and this was the first book I borrowed. I think this would make a great book to study as a group. It could lead to some great discussions. I think it's a good book to have on your shelf and go back to again and again when questions about hearing God come up. Luckily, as I was reading it, my husband reminded me that we do own a copy. LOL  There are a lot of great stories to help cement his points. I really liked that he takes a lot of time to address false revelations. We don't always hear a lot about that.

I'm not sure I have a resolution to why God seems to answers people's seemingly unimportant prayers (finding keys, remembering an important ingredient before you put something in the oven) versus the big ones like being prompted to check on your baby before they drown or choke or are lost to crib death or die in utero. The best answer I seemed to find is that sometimes people just aren't listening...which doesn't help with the guilt when bad things happen.

I didn't like the formatting of quotes scattered here and there through the text. It requires a break in following the thought to go to the side-bar and read a related quote. I would have preferred the quotes to be part of the text. They seemed quite random.

Quotes/sections I marked:

He has a little story of eaves dropping on his daughter playing with a group of friends. She had just finished kindergarten and was playing school. He says she said, "I'm going to teach you everything I know." and then starting teaching kids he letters of the alphabet to her rapt audience. He compares that to teaching religion classes. "As I stand before my religion classes and 'teach them everything I know' about the gospel, is that what Heavenly Father Does? Does He stand back and watch, smiling gently at my naive innocence" He said a few days later, he wrote this poem in his journal:

I know that next to God and His great wisdom,
My mind is "child", and there's much more to get.
Like children playing school in summer sunshine,
I barely know the basic alphabet.

I also loved his bit in chapter 28 about reducing the noise in our life. He ways when we can't hear someone we're speaking to we have four possibilities, and these are things we can consider with person revelation:

• I could have asked her to speak more loudly. obviously that option wouldn't apply if we were talking about revelation. It isn't our privilege to request louder - most distinct and more recognizable - forms of revelation from the Lord.
• I could have turned down or eliminated some of the other noise by turning off the movie, sending the kids outside, and so forth.
• I could have moved closer to her.
• I could have concentrated and focused on her and what she was saying, trying to  screen out some of the other noice.

Later in the book, he also talks about how important it is to filter out what is unnecessary - even in our church callings.

Occasionally, we fine some who become so energetic in their Church service that their lives become unbalanced. They start believing that the programs they administer are more important than the people they serve. They complicate their service with needless frills and embellishments that occupy too much time, cost too much money, and sap too much energy. They refuse to delegate or allow others to grow in their respective responsibilities. (From O Be Wise by M. Russell Ballard, p. 18)

Learning to hear:

He tells a story of playing some music for a group of people and then asks them to tell him everything they could about it. Some of the comments were:

• It's got some scratches in the record.
• It's classical music.
• I think it's a piece by Beethoven.
• Yes, it's the second movement from the Eroica Symphony (from a music major)

The principal is that the more we know and understand about revelation, the more we will be able to recognize it when it comes.

Goodreads says:

How can we navigate safely through our turbulent times? Personal revelation is one key! Elder Gerald N. Lund, million-selling author of The Work and the Glory, offers profound insights about how personal revelation 'works.' Learn how we can increase our ability to receive and recognize personal revelation, what we can do to avoid being misled, and many other ideas relevant to this tremendously important spiritual gift.

Feeling Good (David Burns)

 

This was good. I especially liked the ideas for strategies to work on cognitive distortions.

Goodreads says:

The good news is that anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, low self-esteem, and other "black holes" of depression can be cured without drugs. In Feeling Good, eminent psychiatrist, David D. Burns, M.D., outlines the remarkable, scientifically proven techniques that will immediately lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life. Now, in this updated edition, Dr. Burns adds an All-New Consumer′s Guide To Anti-depressant Drugs as well as a new introduction to help answer your questions about the many options available for treating depression.

- Recognise what causes your mood swings
- Nip negative feelings in the bud
- Deal with guilt
- Handle hostility and criticism
- Overcome addiction to love and approval
- Build self-esteem
- Feel good everyday

The Swifts - A Dictionary of Scoundrels (Beth Lincoln)

 

I'm always happy when I'm compelled to read a mystery. This was a choice for my Children's Lit book club. It wasn't a hit with anyone and our discussion about it was quite short. I hadn't finished it when we had our meeting but decided to continue, despite the poor reviews. I had seen so many good reviews for it on BookTok and Instagram. I kind of mid-way about this one. Some of it was so silly...like she's aspiring to Roald Dahl or David Walliams....and truthfully, I tire of that humor. There were a few things I did enjoy though! 

At the family reunion they play games. One of my favorite was the insults game they called Mock Up. 

p. 208 A Mock-Up is, in it simplest terms, an insult contest. The players put their names into a hat, bucket or other receptacle, and stand in a circle. The referee (in this case, Fauna) pulls out two names, and the players begin a battle of words, a one-on-one match of wits. The first person to run out of ideas or start laughing is the loser. Anyone can play - it is, after all, a remarkably simple game - but there are a few rules.

"No swearing, no foul language, nothing person," said Fauna. "Remember, you don't try to actually stab someone in a fencing match, and you don't try to really hurt anyone here My word is final. If I say you're out, you're out."

The insults made me giggle:

p. 209 "You're a puttock," said Tintinnabula, sraight out of the gate. "A seizing, grasping, witch-fingered harridan!"
"And you're a screaming kettle. A braying trumpet of gibberish! The world's most boring banshee!"

...."You're a waste," said aunt Jilt. "A wizened, stunted, windblown shrub."

"That's fine, because you're a pestilent, meat-breathed plague taxi."

"You're a desperate circumstance. an idling fopdoodle with nothing to recommend her."
"And you're a bitter, dried-up lemon rind, A purse-mouthed gnashgab."

There's a LGBTQ addition to the story. One of the characters, Erf, rejects their name (something that is a fundamental premise to the family) and becomes Erf. We are never told what their previous name was but some of his family has a hard time remembering to use their new name. They try to shake the mold and just be themself. Erf is told:

p. 217 "Your gran doesn'nt get a say in who you are. No one in the world makes that decision but you."

The intro goes into a long diatribe about etymology and the evolution of the English language - exactly my thing! LOL 

"I would say that if a person is ride about the way you speak, write or spell, they are showing a distinct lack of understanding, and it's perfectly reasonable to make up a creative word to describe them."

The vocabulary in this story was great. There were too many characters to keep track of though and that made it hard to follow the story. There was a good twist in the end. I'm not so sure I'll continue on to read book 2 or 3 though. 

Goodreads says:

On the day they are born, each Swift is brought before the Family Dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, and it is assumed they will grow up to match. Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift has other ideas.

So what if her relatives all think she's destined to turn out as a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can be whatever she wants - pirate, explorer or even detective.

Which is lucky, really, because when one of the Family tries to murder Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, someone has to work out whodunit.

With the help of her sisters and cousin, Shenanigan grudgingly takes on the case, but more murders, a hidden treasure and an awful lot of suspects make things seriously complicated.

Can Shenanigan catch the killer before the whole household is picked off? And in a Family where definitions are so important, can she learn to define herself?

Winner of the Barnes & Noble Children's Book Award, shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards and nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Joyful Anyway (Kate Bowler)

 

When I heard about this book, I had to go buy it right away. It was just what I was looking for. My word of the year for 2026 is shine, as in, "...this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!" I have felt like there is so much that is hard. Education right now is a hard place. There is frustration with the government and teacher's rights, funding and growing misunderstandings with teachers and the government. My school is a hard place. We have had tragedy occur and despite many professing that we are one happy family, there is pettiness and cliques and heartache as fall out and I'm not sure how it'll get fixed. And then there are all the regular life struggles....but I'm supposed to feel joy, right? This book felt like a manual to finding that joy and showing it. 

Kate Bowler is a wise woman. This is a book I will read again and again until I really get it. I will read it again and again until I can really live it. I felt like a lot of this book was written like parables. They need pondering and time. There were a lot of great tidbits to grab and hold on to. I bet every story would speak differently to every person.

Goodreads says:

The bestselling author and Duke University professor discovers the true magic of it appears when we least expect it—and even if we don’t feel happy, we can be joyful, anyway.

Life aches. Joy is the cure.

After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. Alive. Blessed. But she still ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day.

So she went looking for joy. Not the toxic positivity kind. Not a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. A lemur sunbathing. A belly laugh at a funeral. A dive into the Atlantic with a shark wrangler.

In Joyful, Anyway, Bowler takes us on a hilarious and tender journey through big questions and small delights. With wry wit and deep honesty, she explores how joy can surprise us even in the middle of pain, boredom, and longing.

This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small extraordinary moments. 

For anyone who has ever felt stuck, who is achy for meaning, who feels undone by loss, who feels that joy is just out of reach, who wants, simply, to have more fun, Joyful Anyway is a delicious, insightful tour through the questions that sit in the deepest part of our souls. It proves that for every time we Is this it? Joy will there is more.