Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

I've been looking for a book about starting a business, and I came across this one on The Simple Dollar blog.

In very short chapters, this book challenges some of the traditional ways of thinking about starting a business. Inspiring, encouraging, and very practical!

Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth

This book is comprised of Jennifer Worth's stories as she bikes around 1950s London as a midwife. She meets some really interesting families, especially the mother expecting her 24th child! There are also some pretty gross descriptions in this book, so if you don't like reading about blood or bodily functions, you should probably stay away.

There is a PBS series based on Call the Midwife, and although my mom likes the show, I am not planning on watching it because I cannot stand watching shows that have squalor, and I'm pretty sure there would be scenes with squalor.

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Milo is the adopted son of the owners of Greenglass House, a hotel for smugglers. Milo is looking forward to a quiet Christmas break with his parents, but as he's settling in, unexpected guests start arriving. Boy, are these some mysterious guests!

I thought that Greenglass House started out really well, but I found myself skimming starting in the middle through the end. The mystery story line just didn't really seem to hold together that well for me.

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

The story of a couple's marriage and the ups and the downs. I didn't like the narrator, so I ended up not liking this book even though I read it in a couple of hours.

Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

The author (her name is pronounced Bit) escaped with her family (minus her mother) from Vietnam in 1975. They ended up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Nguyen yearns after the lifestyle and food of the white Americans around her, and yet she finds comfort in the Vietnamese food that her grandmother cooks at home every afternoon. And that is just a small picture of the 1.5 generation immigrant experience and the search for identity as a Vietnamese (or fill-in-the-blank)-American.

I thought that Stealing Buddha's Dinner was beautifully written, funny, and tenderhearted. I've actually visited Grand Rapids, Michigan because one of my good friends lives there (and second-generation Asian-American, Boomer, received some compliments on how well he spoke English while we were there), so it was interesting to read about an Asian-American's experience growing up there.

If you're interested in expanding your knowledge about the immigrant experience with a very accessible book, I would recommend Stealing Buddha's Dinner.

Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Anna Whiston-Donaldson

I was with a friend of mine, a new mother of a ten-month old baby, and as we watched him crawling around on the carpet, I was struck that a year ago, the baby was still inside of my friend and now he's outside and mobile. Amazing.

It continues to amaze me when a healthy baby is born because there are so many things that need to go right to form a healthy baby.

I wish that I only had happy stories to tell of friends with healthy babies, but alas, there is always loss mixed in with life and unfortunately, babies do die, and it's tragic and devastating. Sigh.

We come to this book, Rare Bird, about Anna Whiston-Donaldson's 12-year-old son, Jack, who dies after drowning in a river during a freak rainstorm. She writes about Jack, his quirks and his personality, and her grief after his death.

Sad, heartbreaking, but so full of love. A really beautiful book. But here's a warning: it's a sad and heart wrenching book to read.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

 This book is like Downton Abbey but with murder.

The second Mrs. de Winter comes to live at the Manderley estate where her husband's first wife's beloved presence and legacy fills every corner. But was the late first wife, Rebecca, really as perfect as the staff and townspeople seem to think?

Even though this book was published in 1938, it does not read like it. It is a spooky and suspenseful mystery. I would recommend this to you if you're looking for a dense and satisfying mystery to curl up with during the next storm.