My Fall 2020 Reading List
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I am a voracious reader. I have been known to have 3-4 books sitting on my nightstand at any given time. And I love to have multiple going at once because I am not the type of person who will struggle through a book that I am not in the mood for. So here is what I’m planning to be my fall 2020 reading list.
How long will this list take for you to read?
This list could take me anywhere from two months to get through, to a year (I’m mostly kidding). But in all seriousness, I try to read through books in two weeks because I honestly start to get bored if I let it go any longer.
How to make more time to read
One of the most common comments I get from friends and blog readers is: “I don’t have time to read, how the heck do you find the time to read with three little kids?! Well, the answer is: anytime I can. But to break that down for you a bit more:
Listen to audiobooks
We live in a world where we are all tethered to our phones at all times. So why not be more productive with our time than scrolling through social media and listen to a book?
Pack a book in your bag
I don’t do this enough, but I love it when I happen to have a book in my bag. I can pull out my book before grabbing my phone and read while I wait. You could find me reading in line at the post office, while I wait for an appointment, or even a few minutes I have to wait for someone in my car. It feels better than scrolling through my phone.
Read before bed
Even if it’s only a few minutes that you get to read before you fall asleep, all of those minutes add up.
Nursing my baby
Okay, this won’t apply to everyone. But maybe there is something you have in your life that forces you to be still for a bit. Ditch the phone, read a book. Or at least start with your book 🙂
Make the most of your commute
If you are lucky enough to ride on public transit for your commute (I miss my commute so much!), you can read an actual book on the bus or train. Or if you are driving or walking, listen to the audiobook version.
Get up early
Even if you can only sit quietly for 15 minutes before the house wakes up, those 15 minutes will give you a sweeter start to the day.
Read a book instead of watching a show or movie
I’m not saying to do this every single day, but if you did this once a week to start, you would get a whole lot of reading in.
All of this to say, you do have time to read. Set goals, make it a priority, choose a book that excites you to read.
My Fall 2020 Reading List
- One Thousand Gifts by Ann
Voscamp - Never Say No: Raising Big-Picture Kids by Mark and Jan Foreman
- The Call of the Wild + Freeby Ainsley Arment
- The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe
- Home Management: Plain and
Simple by Kim Brenneman - 1984 by George Orwell
- How to Break Up With Your
Phone by Catherine Price
One Thousand Gifts
Ann Voscamps writing style is so beautiful and truly poetic. I love to revisit this book every few years to recenter myself in contentment and gratitude.
We have been going through a harder than usual season of life, and I have felt my level of gratitude slip, so I know it’s time for another read through.
“How,” Voskamp wondered, “do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does a life of gratitude look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes dark? What is God providing here and now?”
That sounds like something I could use right about now!
Never Say No: Raising Big-Picture Kids
When I was pregnant with my oldest, Bennett, I was working at my husband’s chiropractic clinic. I got to have so many wonderful conversations with our patients every single day; they became like family.
When we had announced we were pregnant with Bennett, one of our clients handed me this book.
I’ll be honest with you, I took one look at the title and it has sat on our shelf for 6 years.
Never Say No? I have zero idea how that is humanly possible. But something has pulled at me this season to reach for this book and actually read it.
“Never Say No takes you on a personal journey to learn first-hand how they raised Jon and Tim of Switchfoot. They share practical advice for instilling wonder in a media-saturated culture, cultivating specific gifts, and balancing structure with individual choice. Our purpose as parents is the same as our child’s: to live creatively beyond ourselves, bringing the love, beauty and nature of God to this world. Let the adventure begin.”
The Call of the Wild + Free
I’ve been listening to this one on audiobook since I made the decision to homeschool Bennett this year.
“The homeschool approach of past generations is gone – including the stigma of socially awkward kids, conservative clothes, and a classroom setting replicated in the home. The Wild + Free movement is focused on a love of nature, reading great books, pursuing interests and hobbies, making the entire world a classroom, and prolonging the wonder of childhood, an appealing philosophy that is unpacked during this audiobook.”
I have teared up and gotten goosebumps on more than one occasion so far while listening to this book. I am so grateful that I have the option to stay home and teach Ben, but this book is absolutely giving me more confidence and certainty around those thoughts.
The Fourth Turning
We are in crazy times right now. And one of my friends started reading this book recently and recommended it to me, to be followed by an emphatic second to that recommendation by another great friend just days later. I will absolutely be adding this to my fall 2020 reading list and I’ll be listening to this one on audiobook.
“With blazing originality, The Fourth Turning illuminates the past, explains the present, and reimagines the future. Most remarkably, it offers an utterly persuasive prophecy about how America’s past will predict its future. Strauss and Howe base this vision on a provocative theory of American history. The authors look back 500 years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four eras – or “turnings” – that last about 20 years and that always arrive in the same order.”
Home Management: Plain and Simple
Kim Brenneman’s first book “Large Family Logistics” is one of my favorite books ever. I have reread that book each and every year (usually in the fall, as this is a time I feel the pull to get my systems cleaned up).
Recently I found out that Large Family Logistics went out of print and she reprinted a new version of the book. Obviously, I needed to get the new version.
First of all, let me just say that this book is not only for people who have large families. I bought this book when I had one tiny baby. I figured if I could get a grasp on how to manage a home with a ton of kids, that I could survive with one.
I’m not going to say I have a handle on the home management game. But this book inspires the hell out of me (this woman is a beast in the home management department), and gives me so many practical systems and routines to get it done.
And to be fair, my home management game has greatly improved over the years, and I truly attribute that to Kim’s book. I will absolutely be rereading this book starting…now.
1984
Because…why not? Did you ever read this in
“George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police – a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities’ will and people live tepid lives by rote. Winston Smith, a hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him.”
How to Break Up With Your Phone
I appreciate and respect technology for all the gifts that it has brought to this world. If it weren’t for technology, my parents wouldn’t get to see my kids more than twice a year. And I just got off a three way facetime call with two of my girlfriends from college who live on the opposite coast as me. So I do appreciate technology.
However, I also hate technology. I tend to have more of an
Read also: What is your phone addiction to your kids brain?
“Award-winning journalist Catherine Price presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up – and then
What is on your fall 2020 reading list? I am going to need some books to read after I’m done with these, so I want to know, what is on your fall 2020 reading list?
