MissBassmaster Book Club | nov 2019
One of my favorite conversation topics as of recently is: BOOKS! I’m trying not to let myself slow down at the risk of losing the hobby completely.
Reading is such a trip. A side effect has been a decrease in my anxiety. Or should I say, a coping mechanism – kick it in the butt as soon as the anxious feelings start creeping in. Up until recently I didn’t realize picking up a book could soothe your nerves. But it makes sense when you slow down & think about it. The large amount of actual feces you see when you turn on the television? Or open your phone. An abundant amount of pressure, comparisons, stupid goals, hustle, poison, unwarranted guidance, opinions, brainwashing is lurking everywhere.
A BOOK is your escape. A gift like that is rare, so we need to take advantage.
Without further rambling, here are the books I’ve been reading!
MissBassmaster Book Club | nov 2019
Thank you For My Service by Mat Best:
Why not start with a bang. This book is a front-row seat into the mind of a MAN. I’m 100% not the target audience & I wouldn’t be surprised if he wished I wouldn’t read it. I have all the secrets now. I know everything. Having said all that, I finished this book in ONE day. ONE FREAKING DAY. Front to back, this book kept me going to the point I had to make time for it & push other things out of the schedule. Mat Best, the author, is an army ranger & shares war stories. But unlike other war stories, his are full of comedy & storytelling magic in a ruthless i-dont-give-a-fuck manner. Anyone who writes or speaks without worrying about a vocabulary filter holds my interest. Thank You for My Service is pretty gruesome, but overall a funny & a quick read. I recommend it, but not if you’re shy.
Recovery by Russell Brand:
I was dreading this book because it literally takes you through the 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous – which I didn’t realize upon purchasing. Russell Brand shares his story & interpretation of the 12 Steps. I don’t even drink alcohol. Obviously I was a little lost figuring out how to interpret the info & deciding if it was worth the read. HOWEVER, one major thing I learned when I went on a strict diet for a few months & cut out alcohol completely is that our entire society is addicted, to something. Maybe it’s not alcohol or heroin, but it might be shopping or food. When you have a chance to step away from one of these addictions for a long period of time, you can see it – trust me. Even the prestigious Brene Brown references our addictions in her book The Gifts of Imperfection as “numbing behaviors”. It’s an absolutely incredible chapter, you should go read it. She says ” The question is, does our _______ (eating, drinking, spending, gambling, saving the world, incessant gossiping, perfectionism, sixty-hour workweek) get in in the way of our authenticity?” Having known addiction means way more than drugs & alcohol, I carried on with the book & was hooked when Russell Brand immediately addressed that same concept saying “If you’re addicted to a bad relationship, bad food, abusive bosses, conflict or pornography, it can take a lifetime to spot the problem, and apparently a lifetime is all we have. This book is not just about extremists like me. No, this is a book about you.” From there, I cruised through the book & I took an exceptional amount of information back in return.
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert:
This sweet fiction story left me with a heartache, missing characters at the end. You know those books that you close the last page & you suddenly feel a little sad, like your best friend is gone, wanting so desperately to find another page? If you haven’t had that feeling, you haven’t read enough fiction! That’s this book. Any girl would easily be able to connect & happily live through the characters in an intimate way. Elizabeth Gilbert takes the main character through an entire life journey in the storyline so I truly believe the story can connect perfectly with any age demographic. I wish I hadn’t read it yet so I could start again. Very good & highly recommend for all the girls.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
If you like EARTH, you’ll like this fiction read. The storyline is about a family, & the father of the family struggles with PTSD & alcoholism. They end up moving to Alaska where a majority of the book is located & it takes you through life in the wilderness. The amount of detail about life in Alaska was shocking, I kept thinking the author must have lived there to understand the depths & detail of the Alaskan woods. I can say it makes you love & appreciate earth even more & that’s a refreshing feeling to have in our modern world. I fell in love with this character & felt like her big sister when the book finished.
Red Notice by Bill Browder:
I thought I received this in the mail by mistake but it turns out I’m just smart. To my surprise, this is a true story & this book is Bill Browder’s insurance to stay alive. If you have any interest in politics, Russia, or murder mystery – this book is for you. If you’re front row to the Friday night 20/20 murder-mystery episodes, you’ll live for this story. I was a little anxious reading it as I’m not a super fan of murder mystery stories or politics or Russia – but I’m happy I got through the book & feel smarter because of it. An insane true story that makes you realize you can be doing more & get further than you expect if you try. Not only did the entire story wrap up a murder mystery, it also had a strange way of putting a fire under me & making me want to dig a little deeper into both my work & purpose. I highly recommend you smarties read this bad boy so we can talk about it next time I see you.
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray:
What happened was, I ordered Recovery by Russell Brand on Amazon & then I kept getting addiction book recommendations & this ended up in my cart. I thought it would be more of a comedy about being sober around people that are drinking & felt I would relate, but that was a very incorrect assumption. Catherine Gray is very addicted to alcohol & this story is a comedy version of how she eventually stopped drinking. Even though I don’t drink often, I read it anyway. I felt so fucking grateful I don’t have any sort of dependence on alcohol anymore. No urge to have a drink & the confidence to pass when offered one. This book was a stark reminder of the illness that accompanies the few minutes of fun that drinking provides. If you feel like you drink a lot & have considered stopping, this might be a good book to read if you’re trying to skip real interventions.
Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho:
Paulo Coelho is the same author that wrote the highly recognized The Alchemist. I enjoyed the large meaning behind the short & easy read of that story. Each sentence seemed to have a purpose, so I wanted to dig into Paulo’s other books & landed on Eleven Minutes. Since getting older & developing my own thoughts, I started analyzing SEX. And how it’s portrayed in all cultures. The stereotypes, the conversation around it, the meaning. These ideas of mine were strung together by a series of thoughts that started with my period. (Weird starting place I know, that’s a whole journey of conversation for another time.) Eleven Minutes explores sex, desire, lust, & LOVE. The book is a quick read & I think a fantastic intro into a conversation a lot of people are shy to talk about: Sex, but most importantly the meaning of LOVE in a relationship. I would go back & read this again. I actually might do that tomorrow.
Honestly, We Meant Well by Grant Ginder:
Honestly, We Meant Well is an easy fiction read about an American family that you’ll easily be able to relate to. The family goes on a trip to Greece. A lot of the storyline is placed while vacationing & references a lot of Greek landmarks & islands. I would consider this a super easy read that takes very little thought on your own. You can breeze through the words & get a story out of it. Like a television sitcom on Thursday night.
Liver Rescue by Anthony William:
I almost forgot I read this book! I had to put it away because I literally started thinking I had every single illness mentioned throughout the chapters. (I’m dead serious in a very literal way.) It’s shoved somewhere far far away & hopefully, I don’t make eye contact anytime soon. I found this book to be educational & if you have any health-related issues or concerns it might be a good starting point to explore a healthy lifestyle – if you’re looking to explore the non-conventional route. Anthony claims to be a Medical Medium, meaning a spirit tells him all this information, having said that you definitely need an open mind to find any benefit from the book. I didn’t take it as seriously as the author likely intended, but I do think there’s a lot of information in there to consider. Ultimately, he supports a healthy lifestyle & I can get on board with that.
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum:
If you like crying when you read, this book is for you. I painstakingly turned the pages, tearing up in a lot of them. What a freaking devastating fiction story about a woman from the Middle East that married into an arranged marriage & moved to the United States. I read this book because it was one of Jenna Bush’s monthly reading recommendations & felt she could do no wrong. Although it was excellent writing, it was truly heart-wrenching to read. I ended up being a little irritated with rules & religion at the end. With all that said, this is another book I managed to read in ONE DAY. (YES, I cried a lot that day & I’m still debating if it was worth it.) If you end up reading this book, PLEASE know Wafiq’s family doesn’t function the same way, but I’m 100% open to the conversation if you ever want to have it. If you’re someone who likes deep stories that’ll keep the pages turning, this book is for you.
I need to start doing these book reviews a little more often, I feel like laying 10 books on you at one time is way too much, especially because there are so many good ones you guys!. Next time I’ll try to keep it to 4 or 5. My goal is to get you guys reading with me, let’s motivate each other so we can keep this empire style hobby in our lives. If there’s one thing all the motivational books keep repeating it’s: READ.
Let me know if you have any good book recommendations for my list, as you can see I’m open to literally all genres. I hear Where the Crawdads Sing is really good so I have that on my list, but tell me more!
If you’ve read any of the above, share! So I can gossip about them 🙂
Enjoy the weekend, love u.
be thoughtful
Thanks for this post, it’s really nice to see more digital creators include books in their content. It’s been forever since I’ve read anything from Paolo Coelho but I follow him on Instagram if that counts:) Besides, that, maybe I’ll have a nose around this new book of his. Currently plodding my way through a book about Churchill so there’s that but I’ll certainly try to have a closer look at your suggestions xx