Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done by Laura Vanderkam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book just yesterday, and already I think I'll read it again in a few months (if not sooner). Like Greg McKeown's Essentialism, Off the Clock boils things down to a very basic level. We all have 168 hours in a week - what we do with those hours is up to us. We walk around often feeling the victims of circumstance; too many responsibilities and to do's. Vanderkam challenges those assumptions we have about time in tangible, practical ways that can be acted upon immediately. In my professional life as a teacher and private life, I lived and died by my to do list and schedule - I purposefully put in things I love to do alongside the things I had to do. However, as a new mom and now stay-at-home-parent, my rhythm is dramatically different. I seemingly have less to do, but find myself much more at the mercy of things outside of my control. This book was timely in that regard. Vanderkam's commentary that we are wasting more time than we think through our overall media/social media consumption was also a key takeaway. We need to be intentional about how all time is spent. That's how we find the time to do the things we love with the people who matter most. I'm a work in progress, but every minute found means a lot.

Happy reading--

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Elsewhere

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gabrielle Zevin won me over years ago with her book "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac" - the title alone and cover alone were enough to compel me to buy it. Fast forward to now, and I still gladly pick up any of her work. This book has a unique premise in its take on the afterlife, but the twists are a bit predictable and the teenage angst too keyed up. I do like Zevin's ability to try different types of stories - no two of her books read the same. That, in and of itself, is impressive.

Happy reading and happy living--

A Place for Us

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's hard to define the intangible qualities that sometimes help a book resonate with their readers, and "A Place for Us" had so many intangibles for me. It's too simplistic to say that this book is a multi-generational book on faith, family, culture, and expectations, but to get more specific about the plot would do this story a disservice. The prose is beautiful and purposeful while the depth of human emotion and characterization so nuanced that thoughts shared by the characters felt like mini-revelations.

In the days since I finished "A Place for Us", I've tried to decide if the storylines were too well matched with my life experiences, and if that's why I loved the book so much. After all, I was raised to be very devout in my faith and at times felt torn between what my faith and familial expectations were as compared to what overarching questions I had. I am also a very driven, goal-oriented oldest daughter who desperately wanted to please her father with a brother whose choices have complicated things time and time again. I am a new mother who wants her son to feel safe and loved amid the chaos of this world. But this story is bigger than my own personal ties to it. We all have parents, beliefs, siblings, hopes, failed dreams, and questions. This book seems to explore what it means to be human, to love, and to be loved. It doesn't necessarily even tell us a concrete answers in those explorations, and yet, isn't that also so profoundly true to life?

In short, this debut novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza is worth the investment and time. Her narrative style requires focus as she moves between characters and years. She is also less focused on events rather than reflections on those events, but her details are not superfluous or tedious. Instead, Mirza adds texture and voice to already vivid characters. Read it please because we really need more books like this and more courage to face what these characters are grappling with themselves.

Happy reading and happy November--

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