Podcasts, Books & Looks of September

September was kind of a blur for me as my schedule was pretty busy. It was a pretty good month, aside from the painful flare I got mid-month! Fingers crossed that is my last one of this pregnancy!

Podcasts:

Dating (in Marriage) on The Simple Show - As I've mentioned before, I am really loving this season of The Simple Show as they are taking a 'yes and no' approach to a range of topics. The episode on dating in marriage was really interesting. Phil and I aren't super intentional about going on 'dates' but it's something we'll need to be more intentional about after the baby comes as making time to connect one-on-one is really important.

Books:

September was a really strong month of reading for me, which is good as August was kind of a dud. It's tough to pick a favorite as I really like so many of these books, but my top 2 were Beartown and Refugee.

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips - 3 stars - This is a thriller about a mom and her son that are at the zoo when a shooters take over the zoo. It was a page turner but I didn't LOVE it.

Marlena by Julie Buntin - 4 stars - This was a really great debut novel that I got from my Book of the Month Club subscription. It's about the friendship of Cat and Marlena - two girls that might seem similiar on the surface, but are actually quite different as Marlena is sadly the victim of a broken home, poverty, and drug abuse. It's the kind of book where the characters stay with you finish reading it.

Beartown by Fredrick Backman - 5 stars - I liked this book even more than his previous novel, A Man Called Ove. He does a great job of telling the story of a hockey-obsessed town that is divided when a crime occurs that involves a player on the hockey team. 

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - 2 stars - I struggled to finish this book. It was a Man Booker prize winner so I should have known that it might be a miss for me as award-winning books are often my least favorite. 

Expecting Better by Emily Oster - 5 stars - This is an excellent book about pregnancy that I will recommend to anyone I know who gets pregnant in the future. It's written by an economist. She takes all of recommendations about what you should or shouldn't do and looks at the research behind those decisions. It was really interesting and a very engaging read. 

Refugee by Alan Gratz - 5 stars - This is a middle-grade book about 3 different refugee families who are seeking assylum. The stories cover 3 different periods as we meet a Jewish family during WWII, a Cuban family in the mid-90s, and a Syrian family in 2016. Even though this is a middle-grade novel, the author does not shy away from exposing the terrible realities that refugees face. People die and terrible things happen to each family as they pursue safety for their families.

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny - 4 stars - This book was quirky and delightful. It's a character-driven story about a man who is on his 2nd marriage and has a son on the Asperger spectrum. His 2nd wife couldn't be more different than his first wife, but she decides that they should befriend his first wife and develop a friendship with her. The story unfolds from there and is told from the husband's perspective.

Looks:

After several look-less months I have a few looks to share!



Look #1:  Unbeknownst to me, this was my last day in my regular clothes (I was 16 weeks, 2 days). The pants are from Nordstrom, the top is from Ann Taylor, and the seer-sucker blazer is from Loft. When I got home from work that day, some maternity clothes had arrived and when I tried on the maternity pants I realized just how uncomfortable my pre-pregnancy pants had gotten! Maternity pants are kind of amazing!
 

Look #2:  This was my first day of wearing a maternity shirt + a belly band with my pre-pregnancy pants. I was excited to finally have a little baby bump to show off!

16 weeks + 3 days

Looks #3: This is a 100% maternity outfit. The top is from Target, the pants are from The Gap. This top makes me look like my bump is bigger than it actually is, but I'm beyond trying to look 'slim' or hiding the bump. If you compare this picture to the 2 above you can see how much hair I chopped off! I'm loving my new haircut!

17 weeks + 3 days