Petite Texas Mama: Books I've liked recently

One of my favorites for sure, and definitely one of the most eye-opening books I have ever read, is Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.

It's written by a Texas professor who did a TON of research on people and what makes them vulnerable, and how that affects everything. And it's amazing. Even if you didn't study psychology, sociology, or social work in school, it's understandable. It has opened up some amazing dialogue between my boyfriend and myself, my son and myself, and even the way I think about certain things. I have only gotten halfway through it because sometimes I need to process things, or write down something I loved in it. I started it last fall. Seriously, read it! If you really want to delve in to it, she has a work through written up and even podcasts available to go through parts of the book with. I know earlier this year she did a couple of shows with Oprah.

Another eye-opening but fairly easy read, The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo.

I've read a few of his books, (Brida was interesting as well) and while they are fairly simple to get through, they almost remind me of unintentional modern day Aesop's Fables. I enjoy them and I'm about to start on his newest book, Manuscript Found in Accra.

If you liked the movie Silver Linings Playbook, and you like reading the books of movies, definitely read it. I just finished it last night and it was great. The movie missed one key element that the book focuses a lot on (God/religion) but it's not so in your face that it screams Christian book. It's great though and I must say, even though I saw the movie first, the book is my favorite.

One of my favorites that I read a while back but recently popped back up was The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

If you have ever been through a tough personal loss, and just wish for someone to understand, this is it. It reads (and maybe it is) a diary from the year after her husband died. It's beautiful, and heartbreaking and real. I just read her newest book a few days ago dealing with the death of her daughter, but it just didn't compare to this one.

Jeffrey Eugenides is another personal favorite specifically The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex. As well as Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Khaled Hosseini, who wrote The Kite Runner, also wrote an amazing book called A Thousand Splendid Suns. Neil Gaiman can be grittier, but he also wrote Coraline and Stardust, which were semi-popular movies as well.

I'm also about to start reading Kara Goucher's Running for Women. Most of the running books I have come across have been written by men for women, so I was definitely curious about this one.