Subtitled: A bizarre bookstore, a delightful parenting book, a wild-wonderful book about poetry, and me falling in love with Books (again).
For the past couple years my relationship with Books has been in a lull.
I've read articles and blog posts more than books, and the books I have read I've read on Kindle or Blio - not in-your-hand books. Until these books.
All of a sudden I'm remembering how much I love holding an actual book, how good they smell, how I can love them so much that I get antsy and wrapped in anticipatory grief as I get close to the end of a good one. I think Books and I will be hanging out more frequently in the near future.
I'm going to tell you about the books that I'm loving (it'll take a few blog posts), starting with the delightful parenting book, Parenting with Presence.
Maybe I've misled you by calling this parenting book "delightful", what it closer to fact is: I was full of delight as I read it.
I'm rarely a fan of parenting books because I've seen too many that speak with the voice of Authority (that ugly, bossy, above-you, shame-on-you-dipshit, voice).
This one is different (which is why I was full of delight while reading it). It's gentle and deep, very practical, full of stories and activities/practices. And the author, Susan Stiffelman, MFT, speaks with the voice of Real (not mean, old Authority). Also, (the best part) you can hear love in her voice!
Obviously, with the title Parenting with Presence, this book is for parents (young 'uns, not adult children). My children are adults (the youngest turns 25 in about a minute), but still I found this book interesting (and delight-full, as I mentioned) because it's about relationships and presence.
Stiffelman writes about children being our best teachers, which sounds cliche - but isn't in this book (you've got to read it to see how she does this). She writes about things you don't often see written about in non-shaming ways, like anger (parents' and child's) and disappointment in parenting (there's a whole chapter, called Throw away the Snapshot, that delves into that subject - with a crap-ton of wisdom).
At the end of book the author predicts that "the world will be populated with more and more people who grew up feeling seen, appreciated, and enjoyed" as many people begin "parenting with greater presence, attunement, and engagement" That sounds good, right?
If you're a fan of Eckhart Tolle (can't say I'm a fan because I've only read one of his books, The Power of Now - but there was a page in that book that I read over and over and over - and will tell you that if it didn't literally save my life during a terribly hard time - it certainly saved my sanity) you might be interested to know that the publisher of Parenting with Presence says: "The book is an inaugural title in Eckhart Tolle’s new publishing imprint with New World Library, which features books hand selected by the bestselling author of The Power of Now for publication".
Upcoming books I'll be sharing the love about in future posts:
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Full Disclosure: The publisher of this book, New World Library, sent me a copy of the Parenting with Presence to consider for review; I did not receive money for the review. Also, Square-Peg People is affiliated with Amazon.com, which means that when you buy from the link above you don't pay a penny more, but you help support Square-Peg People. Thanks!
great information.
Posted by: maryjane | Tuesday, 09 May 2017 at 08:32 AM