The Mrs. & the Minister

Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry's Performing Under Pressure:  The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most answers an age-old question:  "How can I do my best when it matters most?"  Stress, of course, depletes our ability to do well.  And when the stresses become overwhelming, it's not new news that we perform well below our ability.  It's also not new news that our culture is under considerable (and increasing?) stresses.  So Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry wrote this book in order to share what they have learned about how almost anyone can do their best when it matters most. As we know from experience, stress can come from anywhere.  Some of it is good, others of it is bad. And it's significant to judge what stresses are important and what ones are unimportant.  But once you've made those distinctions, Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry provide a strong scientific basis on which to build strong performances under pressure.  The first section explo...

Stress isn't my problem.  My response to stress is my problem. That's the message of meQuilibrium:  14 Days to Cooler, Calmer, and Happier by Jan Bruce, Andrew Shatte, and Adam Perlman.  There's no way to get rid of stress.  To even try is simply to create more stress.  But meQuilibrium shows us how to handle the stresses we have with peace -- and how to do it peacefully without radically altering our lives in the process. And there's plenty of research to back up their claims, too.  This book brings the benefits of positive psychology to bear, while integrating medicine and healthy treatment of the whole person.  So it's not a book to miss.  Nor is it a book to fly through. Take your time.  While I had hoped for more substance early on, I'm glad I took the time to read meQuilibrium at a pace that allowed me to process what it was advising.  There's great advice here.  From self-reflection, emotional management, sleep...

Food52 's Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes that Will Change the Way You Cook is a must-have for every kitchen shelf.  This cookbook includes recipes and tricks and tools that will literally "change the way you cook".  The recipes have something new and innovative, whether it's ingredients you'd never try or changing up the cooking techniques you've already had.  The photographs themselves are incredible, and add an element of appeal to experiment with the recipes. The genius of the book, though, is that so many of these recipes have never been published, not even on the website.  The English Porridge recipe is one I'll be trying immediately. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Positive Discipline:  The First Three Years, from Infant to Toddler -- Laying the Foundation for Raising a Capable, Confident Child , revised and updated edition, is a book that is nothing short of a paradigm shift for the way most of us think about parenting.  It covers techniques that can help parents understand their child's temperament and needs, and how to use that in disciplining and teaching them.  The focus is on positive discipline, as opposed to punishing the child. In a nutshell, positive discipline involves offering alternatives when they do things or touch things they shouldn't, and also giving the child more autonomy and giving them more choices to help them become more involved in the process and feel like they're not being ordered to do something. There are any number of useable tips here.  The trick, of course, is to remember them, and practice them. If you're a new parent or you have a toddler that seems to never listen to you or obey...

With those whose lives are so complicated that frustration and anxiety name day-to-day experience, books like Sandra McCollom's I Tried Until I Almost Died:  From Anxiety & Frustration to Rest & Relaxation is a welcome guide.  This book is filled with practical wisdom in moving away from the legalism is perfectionism, and toward a life of grace that overcomes that daily frustration and anxiety. What you won't find here, though, is another program to follow.  This isn't a book that trades one anxiety for another.  Instead, it's a book filled with spiritual wisdom about how Jesus delivers us from all the "rat races" of our lives.  No, I Tried Until I Almost Died is a book about transformed life in all its facets. So this is a welcome book to so many.  Even if it's a challenging book precisely because of that transformation. In the end, this is a book for all those folks who just can't catch their breath or catch a break.  _______...

Dave and Jon Ferguson's Finding Your Way Back to God: 5 Awakenings to Your New Life is one of those books in the Christian life I so wanted to read, only to discover the tragedy it is.  This is a book that left me disappointed to say the least. Finding Your Way Back to God is based on the premise that we humans are constantly hungry for God, yet in the midst of our search, find ourselves actually drawn away from God.  The thesis is that God wants to be found, if we but utilize the appropriate tools for finding God in meaningful ways.  And when we do, the meaning, love and significance for which we crave might be found. Sadly, though, Finding Your Way Back to God embraces the individualism and privitism that is at the heart of cultural Christianity that embraces more of what our culture promises than the depth of Christian spirituality.  Because the idea here is to progress, using the right program, to getting to God.  It's a book filled wit...

Samantha Hayes' Until You're Mine is a real suspense novel.  There are two main characters, a heavily pregnant Claudia who recruits a nanny to help mind her new baby and her twin step sons.  And the other character is Zoe, the nanny who is not all she seems.  The narrative changes first person point of view between these characters.  This is something that can annoy me in books.  I normally find myself distracted.  But Until You're Mine is so well written, that this switch only added to the suspense.  We also have a third character, a detective who is investigating brutal murders of mothers-to-be. The plot is enough to keep you guessing.  It did me.  I constructed several theories as I read along, but quickly discovered that each was wrong.  But in retrospect there are enough clues to lead you undeniably to the conclusion.  And what a conclusion it is! Like I said, this is a real suspense novel, written for people who lov...