I love going to baseball games. I'm a Pirates fan, though, which means I can sit back and have fun but don't really expect too much. Not like the people watching the Red Sox and Yankees in 1949. Summer of ‘49 is in theory about the 1949 pennant race between the Yankees and the Red Sox. We know the Yankees ended up beating the Red Sox and going on to bee the Dodgers in the World Series, but really the book is about the people - the players, managers, press. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of numbers - hits, games back, percentages, salaries, it's what baseball boils down to after all, but the fun part is hearing about the people - who they are, where they came from. We get stories of how they interact with each other and how they view the game. Some are people I've heard of, but most weren't.
This is definitely a nostalgic...
How to Piss Off Men is not a book I would usually pick up, but I was looking for a How To book for one of the challenges I'm doing. "Funny" books don't usually work for me, but maybe I was just in the right mood, or it was short enough that I actually found it amusing. The author/narrator is funny and sincere. Not all of the "insults" are particularly original and some I didn't quite get, but it's not just ways to insult men. Although it is that, it's also an invitation to men to look at why those comments/questions make them angry. I think the author also sees it as a call to continue to tear down the patriarchy.
I listened to the audio which the author narrated himself. I think it made the jokes funnier than if I read them in print and the musing more heartfelt. It also included a conversation between Prue and his mom at...
Brooks Shields has been a well-known actor/model my entire life. She's 9 years older than me and this book about growing older resonated with me in several ways.
Yes, Brooke Shields is famous and beautiful and can afford fancy clothes, but she's also funny and down to earth and relatable. She shares personal anecdotes and mixes in observation on society and statistics that back up her points. She discusses gaining confidence as she gets older, about worrying less about others' opinions and finding joy in middle age. But also about being overlooked and undervalued as a "woman of a certain age."
Shields discusses her recent interactions with the healthcare system and how we need to advocate for ourselves, even if we're sometimes (often) seen as difficult. She points out, from personal experience and research studies, that there is a definite lack of knowledge surrounding perimenopause and menopause and considering how many women are in those life stages, that's ridiculous.
Shields narrates the...
