This month, I thought more about my reading goals and how I might plan to meet them. I’m really enjoying reading books representing various countries of the world and I’ve finished a few more this month.
I managed to finish one nonfiction book this month — the excellent The Body Keeps the Score. I’m interested in reading more about brain science and I wonder if I might make that a focus this year. Do you have any titles to recommend?
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Reviews
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a beautiful but devastating read that deserves its classic status.
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was another long-unread classic that provoked some interesting questions about our hidden tendencies to evil.
Other Books Read
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – Around the World- The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey – Around the World
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – Review to come
- Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming – Around the World
Other Features and Events
- In trying to plan my own reading year, I asked, Do you have a reading plan?
On my other blog, enterenchanted.com
- I posted an essay on marriage in fairy tales, Beyond the happy ending.
- I shared a poem I wrote on the theme, simple titled Marriage.
Shared in the Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and the Monthly Wrap-up Round-up hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
I enjoy reading books that represent different parts of the world. It’s the best way of travelling through the world. 🙂 I read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide for my MAs thesis about human identity and monsters.
Happy March!
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Since I like to stay at home most of the time, it is an excellent way to do some virtual traveling. 😀
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I’ve heard so much about The Body Keeps the Score and see it referenced often elsewhere (including in Quit Like a Woman that we were discussing) and I’m curious about whether it’s something I want to read myself. So looking forward to your review!
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It’s a must-read. Really important information about the brain, trauma, and body-based treatments. I’m so glad someone is doing this work.
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I just finished The Brain That Changes Itself, and found it fascinating. Occasionally I felt the author drew some conclusions I didn’t agree with, but the idea of brain plasticity is so interesting, and I find myself mentioning it frequently.
I’ve also been thinking about reading planning, though I’m trying NOT to plan so much, and finding it a little difficult.
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That one is definitely on my list.
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Hallo, Hallo Lory,
You were asking about Brain Science? What about Conigtive Science? Which I suppose in one respect is nearly the same thing! lol The reason I’m asking is because there are several of these on my backlogue – I meant to get round to reading them early-on when I first requested them as they were inspired by my father and his stroke; except for the first one which is “The New Science of Consciousness” by Paul L. Nunez.
I have a healthy curiousity when it comes to select topics in Non-Fiction and I was truly getting into a groove round 2016 finding these to request for review. However, post-Nov 2016 as my father moved into his year of recovery (2017) I started to falter in focus; by 2018/19 my own health afflictions made it impossible for me to concentrate due to the higher frequencies of migraines – which is why this year I’m reinvesting my time into the NF titles I’ve fallen behind on and desire to still be read!!
The other titles in this scope I selected are as follows:
“What Makes Your Brain Happy & Why You Should Do the Opposite” by David DiSalvo
“A Stroke of Faith” by Mark Moore
Whilst I also requested these narratives as they parlay into medical NF and have to do with either the will to survive and overcome personal trauma or say something about the humanity of reaching past our own limitations where medical science cannot always explain everything.
“The Impossible” by Joyce Smith
“From Medicine to Manuscript” by Seymour L. Schwartz
“Your Heart, My Hands” by Arun K. Singh, M.D.
I’m trying to get into these starting this March (as I faltered in February with a severe cold and migraine) whilst I am unsure if I can finish them before May but I want to strive towards that goal. If you find one or more you’d like to read – would you like to do a buddy read?! It might prove encouraging for me and I enjoy the discussion it might broach as well between us.
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I’ve never read “Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde” but Spencer Tracy I felt portrayed the role with a heightened sense of awarness. He truly dove into the role and produced a revelationi about how Jekyll/Hyde were constantly in a battle of will between the good & the evilness which lurked in his mind. His facical expressions were brill! Did you see this version after your first reading?
“Burial Rites” & “The Widows of Malabar Hill” are on my own TBR,.. the latter of which I own on audiobook.
If you want to see what I was up to the final fortnight of February, kindly visit my Sunday Post.
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Thank you so much for the recommendations! Yes, I’m interested in cognitive science as well, sure. I would be happy to do a buddy read at some point but I can’t commit to anything before the end of May as I’m doing an intensive training. Check in with me after that!
I have not seen a movie version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde though I’ve read some descriptions. It could be a terrific role for a good actor.
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Do you know which of the titles you’re leaning towards for a buddy read? I could start reading a few of the other ones and leave the one(s) you’re most keen on to read with me for after #WyrdAndWonder (ie. May). I don’t mind starting in June – in fact, I have a lovely stack of NF I’m attempting to read which I already disclosed via a #TopTenTuesday post from January – so ideally I don’t want to overwhelm myself either! lol I’ll definitely re-check in with you after I help co-host Wyrd And Wonder,…
I felt Spencer was the right actor for the role – his layers of emotional depth and conviction truly hit a chord with me. Let me know if you ever explore this in film.
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It would depend on what I can get as an e-book from the library at that time. But “What Makes Your Brain Happy” looks interesting to me. Pencil it in?
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Definitely! 🙂
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Burial Rites is one of my five ‘must read this year’ books. I’m not familiar with The Body Keeps the Score, I’ll have to look it up.
Wishing you a great reading week
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Thanks Shelleyrae! I saw so many raves for Burial Rites and they were merited. Hope you enjoy it too. The Body Keeps the Score is an important book for anyone dealing with trauma (which increasingly seems to be nearly everybody). Do check it out if that’s a subject you would want to read about.
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Love Maya Angelou! Her works never get old! Happy March!
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Always nice to hear from another fan.
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Ooh, yes, have you heard of Robert Sapolsky’s Behave? It’s an excellent book of brain science. Likewise very much Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine, which is about the neuroscience of gendered brains and is very enlightening. Daniel Kahnemann’s Thinking Fast and Slow may not be quite what you’re looking for, but I love it, and it’s a very fascinating look at the unconscious biases in our minds that shape our choices. Those are all my recs!
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Thinking Fast and Slow is on my list. The other two sound great, thanks!
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The only reading plan I have is based on what review tours I sign up for, and what ARCs I have. One book I know I should read some day is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Looks like you had a good month!
Check out my February Wrap-Up at Lisa Loves Literature.
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Reviewing current releases can require a lot of careful planning. I’m impressed by people who can keep track of it all.
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Ooooh! I *just* read I Choose Elena by Lucia Osborne-Crowley, which draws heavily on The Body Keeps The Score. That might be one worth looking into – it’s a literary essay (so not full book length), and it’s incredibly interesting and moving all at once.
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I’m definitely interested in follow-up pieces like that.
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Lory, I am pleased to hear you have been enjoying your reading around the world. I’m afraid I can’t help with your further brain science reading, as it is not a topic I have ever tried reading! Happy reading in March! 🙂
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Thanks Jessica, I have some super recommendations on the topic and will hope to get to them and have something to post. Then maybe you’ll find something to interest you as well!
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