📗 Book Report Q2 2024
I read some things. One book stood out.
For everything there is a season, and April, May and June were slow reading months for me. I read 6 books in that stretch of time (about half my usual pace).
What did I do with the extra hours I normally spend reading? I’m not exactly sure, but I know I did not channel them into organizing that one closet in my house that’s been driving me crazy for a full year, with its indiscriminate piles of travel-size toiletries, expired contact lenses, and (probably) that tube of magenta lipstick I’ve been looking everywhere for. It’s still shelves of chaos in there, so I dunno, maybe I slept?
Today, I’ll give a quick rundown of what I read, then most of this post will be focused on the book I was most enthused about in Q2. I can’t wait to tell you all about it, and perhaps persuade you give it a read.
Books I read in Q2
Slow Productivity (Cal Newport) – Loved it, talked about it here.
The Liar’s Club (Mary Karr) - Memoir is my favorite genre, and The Liar’s Club has been hailed as one of the GOATs. I was excited for this one! My take: liked it, didn’t love it. I thought it was masterfully written. I just wasn’t as magnetically drawn to the story or the characters as I’d hoped.
When Women Were Birds (Terry Tempest Williams) - This memoir was exquisite. (Throwback: this is the book I referenced in my Q1 Book Report that made me teary-eyed when the bookstore employee described it to me.) The premise: The author’s mother bequeathed her two shelves of her life’s journals and said, “Don’t open them until after I die.” Her mom died, she cracked open the journals, and….they were blank. Every last page. When Women Were Birds is a collection of poetic essays exploring the possible meanings of this mysterious gift.
Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver) – shoutout to Diving Board reader Rachel who nudged me to read this one! This is one of those novels that everyone is raving about, and while I totally understand why, I have to put it in the category of “I respect it, but it wasn’t my fave.” The narrative revolves around the opioid crisis, and that’s a gritty world to be immersed in for several hundred pages. These stories need to be told, but the despair and the drugs and the darkness are hard for me to stomach. (This is why I was never able to watch Breaking Bad.) Demon Copperhead is a major literary contribution of the decade, so I’m glad to have read it. (FWIW, my favorite Barbara Kingsolver novels are The Poisonwood Bible – first book that made me question my faith – and Prodigal Summer.)
The Dutch House (Ann Patchett) – Ann is, for me, the most reliable novelist alive today. I’ve absolutely LOVED most everything she’s written. (A lump is presently forming in my throat just recalling State of Wonder – that book took my breath away.) I really liked The Dutch House! The human characters were good, but the best character of all was the Dutch House itself. Patchett’s ability to turn a setting into a character is what makes her one of the greatest fiction writers of our time. P.S. A life goal is to visit to her cute lil’ bookshop in Nashville, TN.
The remaining book from Q2, Part of Me, is the subject of the rest of this post! Read on.
All of me thinks you should read Part of Me
I mentioned Part of Me in a prior post, even before I read it, because I was so excited to see it finally alive and breathing in the world! This book was written by my coach Paul Wyman, so I knew it would be good. The reality of it absolutely blew me away.
Paul did an incredible job of taking what could be an esoteric, theoretical framework – his signature Inner Team Dialogue system - and making it engaging, easy to understand, and actionable for everyday folks. I’m trained in Inner Team Dialogue, and it’s one of the best tools in my coaching toolkit. Now, I can refer my clients and YOU to this book so you can experience the power of this system, no coach required.
I say this without exaggeration: Part of Me is now one of the absolute best books I can recommend for anyone interested in personal growth.
Here’s the TLDR, which I hope will convince you that the whole book is TGTS (Too Good To Skip):
Who you are is not a singular, set identity. Instead, you contain many parts, or Characters, which come in pairs of opposites (a Feeling part and a Rational part, a Responsible part and a Playful part, etc.)
These Characters make up your Inner Team.
Every single Character on your Inner Team is trying to protect you.
Some of your Inner Team’s Characters are more dominant than others (for example, “Responsible” might be loud and influential, and its opposite, “Playful”, might be quiet and passive). If your dominant Characters are overused, you might be missing out on the gifts of the quieter Team Members.
“Your Inner Team needs a Leader, and that Leader is you.” (p.XI)
You can develop your Inner Leader, a conscious presence that can appreciate and coordinate the actions of all Team Members. As your dominant Characters develop trust that the Inner Leader can be counted on to protect you, they will be less likely to over-function, and your Inner Team can work together in a more balanced and effective way.
Intrigued? Part of Me teaches you how the Inner Team functions, introduces you to 24 common pairs of Characters (I had a blast finding myself and recognizing people I love in these descriptions!), then gives you everyday practices for cultivating your Inner Leader.
I’ve got three great options if you want to learn more:
Take the brand new Inner Team Assessment here, and get a 23-page report covering 12 common Characters and how they show up in you. Here’s a snapshot from my own report:
If you’re a Coach: consider getting certified to use Inner Team Dialogue in your practice. The n ext free Live Demo is coming up on August 23rd.
Cultivating your Inner Leader is an invitation into self-compassion. As you observe the parts of you that sometimes show up in unhelpful, even harmful ways, rather than spiraling into shame and self-loathing…
“What if you trusted that who you are at your core, underneath the layers of self-protection and armor your characters have provided, is essentially loving?
This assumption changes everything.”
Paul Wyman
Amen, and amen.
What titles are you bookworms into lately? I take your recommendations to heart, so don’t hold back! Tell me what you’re loving, what’s sitting on your TBR (To Be Read) shelf making you giddy with anticipation, and what you think I should read next.
Stay bookish! Until next time….
Thanks for reading The Diving Board!
I loved reading through this post! This was the push I needed to request Demon Copperhead after hearing about it from basically everyone.
And a book recommendation for you - "How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told" by Harrison Scott Key. It's a true story that is heartbreaking, deeply meaningful, and also somehow extremely funny. It's one of my top books of the year, I think!
Update after reading your spirituality post: I'm giving this book a second thumbs up for you because of how Harrison Scott Key very frankly wrestles with the mess of Christianity and spirituality and how that plays into what's happened in his life.
Love your summary of Paul’s book! I too loved The Poisonwood Bible too, and my favorite of Patchett’s is Bel Canto. I’ve actually been on a trend of books that I’ve loved, which is unusual. Time’s Mouth, You Are Here, The Latecomer, The Ministry of Time, and most recently The God of the Woods. Only two time-travel books in there. No nonfiction (slinks away shamefully…)