October Reading List

I’m still working to catch up on my typical October posts, and I know I can’t skip my reading list!

At the end of September, I realized that I had better start preparing my mind for childbirth, so I started reading a lot of birth books. Obviously, this continued through the beginning of October, until Kiah was born, and then birth was the LAST thing I wanted to think about. Ha! Been there, done that…I’d rather not think about it again for a few months. Haha!

First up is Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

I read this one in preparation for Tera’s birth, and I thought the birth stories included in it were so bizarre. When I read it through again this time around after having gone through an unmedicated labor and delivery, I found them a lot less strange. If you are planning an unmedicated childbirth, you must read this book. The first half of the book is all birth stories from women who delivered at The Farm, which is a natural birthing “farm” in Tennessee. Then the second half of the book is some amazing tips and so.much.information about birth. I found everything so helpful and I really used a lot of the tricks I learned in this book to get through labor- especially transition and the pushing stage. I’m sure I will read this book over and over again! So helpful!

I then picked up A Midwife’s Story

This is a memoir of a midwife who worked with the Amish people to deliver their babies. Half the book details the births that she attends, but the rest of it tells the story of Amish life from the outside looking in, and includes her entire life story as well. It was such a great book, and such an easy and fascinating read. It read more like a novel than a self-help book, but it was still great in preparing for birth. I really enjoyed it! In fact, I was reading this until late into the night the night before Kiah was born!

After those two books, Kiah was born and I started reading non-birth related books!

I picked up My Notorious Life next, and I enjoyed it… although I also have many critiques and don’t know if I would recommend it. This story is about a woman in the 1800’s who is an orphan. She ends up on the orphan train heading out west, but no one wants her and she is taken back to New York City. After the death of her mother from birth complications, she is taken in by a doctor and his midwife wife. Under their “care”, she learns the tricks of the midwifery trade. In that day and age, sex and childbirth were never mentioned or discussed and there was NO education on the prevention or care of pregnancy. Because of that, many women died as a result of simple complications. Many women had too many children to care for and they were the ones responsible for getting pregnant over and over again. As a result of her training, the main character opens a clinic that provides education and medicines as well as birth control to the general public. She also performs early term abortions, which she believed is not harmful because the baby was not moving yet. (TRIGGER WARNING: the author details several abortions in the story…sickening.). Her and her husband go from the poorest of the poor to some of the wealthiest in the city due to this lucrative business. Eventually, she is jailed for the work that she is doing. I really enjoyed the story and was fascinated by how much I learned about history and how things were done back then. However, this book was LONG. I didn’t think that it needed SO MANY DETAILS recorded. There were plots and subplots and I thought a lot of it could just be cut out and the story would have been just fine. It did get super boring at parts, but overall I really wanted to keep reading to find out what happens.

P.S. That cover was not the cover that was on the copy I read! Haha!

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

I found this book at my brothers house when we were there last month, and was intrigued. I am a total extrovert, but my Mom, my brother, my husband and my daughter are all introverts and I was interested in reading this book. It was pretty detailed and therefore a bit boring, but the main points were really interesting to me! I feel like the title says it all…it was about how our culture seems to elevate extroverts and make that the ultimate goal, but in reality introverts have so many things to add to the workplace, to the home and to the conversation. I do recommend this book to anyone who has an extrovert in their life, but I also will warn you that it’s pretty boring. If you are a good skim reader, and can garnish main points by skimming the paragraphs, then this book will be perfect for you. I do not recommend trying to read this one at 2 am when you are nursing a baby. You will fall asleep, I can guarantee it!

Heaven is Here

This book was SO GOOD! Stephanie and her husband had the perfect life….until they were involved in a horrific plane crash. Stephanie was burned on 80% of her body and wasn’t expected to live. But she did. And she chronicles the whole story in this memoir. I was bawling my eyes out multiple times through this story as she writes of the pain and the emotions and the recovery process. She is so honest and open about all the struggles, and it was almost a breath of fresh air to read this story. She has a strong Mormon faith and although she never felt like an overcomer, she did overcome so much. She is also a well-known blogger, which I didn’t know until reading this book. You can find her blog here: NieNie Dialogues. However, you also must get your hands on a copy of this book! SO inspiring, encouraging and beautiful.

You can find my other reading recaps here:

January//February//March//April//May//June//July//August//September

Save