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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast. It's the podcast for the.

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Speaker 2: Time poor parent who just once answers now.

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Speaker 1: Once every month on the Happy Families Podcast, we let

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Speaker 1: go of the parenting agenda and we just talk about

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Speaker 1: stuff that adults like to talk about, well, stuff that

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Speaker 1: Kylie and I really love, and that's books. Once every

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Speaker 1: month we talk about the books we've been reading. We

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Speaker 1: call a book club. Today is our book club episode. Kylie,

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Speaker 1: Have you been doing much reading this year?

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Speaker 2: You are so funny. I have a total of two

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Speaker 2: books to talk about today.

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Speaker 1: What are you going to blame for your lack of

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Speaker 1: reading this year? Is it too much time scrolling Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram trying to get laundry renovation ideas pulled together.

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Speaker 1: We do really want to redo our laundry.

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Speaker 2: I would love to say that that's what it is,

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Speaker 2: but no, it is not. Being homeschooling is taking up

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Speaker 2: most of my spare time these days.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking forward tomorrow's conversation because that's the one where

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Speaker 1: we kind of give you an update. I guess what's

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Speaker 1: happening with homeschooling as we've kicked it off in ernest

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Speaker 1: for the year, my book reading has been a little

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Speaker 1: bit more successful than yours. I've also been very busy,

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Speaker 1: but I've really prioritized books. So when I got on aeroplanes,

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Speaker 1: I'm not watching any movies. I'm either working or when

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Speaker 1: my laptop has to be away, i'm reading a book.

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Speaker 1: When I go to bed, I'm not watching movies. I'm

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Speaker 1: sitting there with a book in my hand, waiting for

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Speaker 1: you to say light's out. I'm just reading and reading

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Speaker 1: and reading. I'm up to book number thirteen or book

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Speaker 1: number fourteen for the year. I've got my spreadsheet going.

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Speaker 1: I've had so much fun in books this year.

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Speaker 2: Meantime, my head hits the pillow and I'm gone, All.

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Speaker 1: Right, let's hear your two books, and then I'm going

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Speaker 1: to dive through as many of mine as I can

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Speaker 1: in a reasonable amount of time without blasting people's heads

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Speaker 1: with far too much information. Your two books? What were they?

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Speaker 1: And how are you rating them?

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Speaker 2: My first book this year was a novel by Jojo Moyes.

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Speaker 2: It's called The Giver of Stars. Our daughter, who is

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Speaker 2: currently living in England, suggested that this was one of

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Speaker 2: her favorite readsons, so I thought I'd pick it up

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Speaker 2: while she's away.

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Speaker 1: Can I just check the novels count.

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Speaker 2: Of course they that's fine.

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Speaker 1: That's fine.

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Speaker 2: MIC count might be a little bit higher if that's

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Speaker 2: all I read, right, It definitely helps to boost my numbers.

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Speaker 2: But this book was based on a true story. There

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Speaker 2: was actually a story based on the pack Horse Librarians

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Speaker 2: of Eastern Kentucky. It's a true story.

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Speaker 1: I've always wanted to know about the pack Horse Libraries

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Speaker 1: of Eastern Kentucky.

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Speaker 2: It was actually a really intriguing read, and it depicts

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Speaker 2: American history during the Depression with vivid clarity, an era

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Speaker 2: where women knew their place and didn't question it. It

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Speaker 2: deals with some pretty heavy duty topics, with domestic violence, prejudice,

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Speaker 2: and expected gender roles of the time. But I just

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Speaker 2: loved how Moy's artistically weaves a story of exquisite sweetness

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Speaker 2: contrasted against the harsh conditions of the time and the

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Speaker 2: environment they were living in.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I'm reading a genuine book review in

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Speaker 1: the paper.

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Speaker 2: The way you describe it, I'm getting better. You asked

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Speaker 2: for concise, I did.

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Speaker 1: You've actually prepped this is great.

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Speaker 2: But the thing that I loved the most about the

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Speaker 2: story was how a misfit group of women have come

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Speaker 2: together with a common cause to share the gift of reading,

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Speaker 2: the gift of books to a community that would otherwise

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Speaker 2: not have had access to it, and that has forged

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Speaker 2: friendships that have just been solidified in some of the

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Speaker 2: most challenging times. It was just it was a really

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Speaker 2: beautiful read. I'm going to give it a four.

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Speaker 1: Four five for Jojo Moyes. What was it called again,

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Speaker 1: The Giver of Stars? The Giver of Stars? You know what?

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Speaker 1: I love any book that celebrates the importance of reading.

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Speaker 1: Like I say this all the time, readers of leaders

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Speaker 1: and leaders of readers. The more you read, the more

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Speaker 1: you understand, The more you understand, the more you can contribute.

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Speaker 1: There's so much value in it. It sounds sounds really

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Speaker 1: really lovely. I love the way you describe that.

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Speaker 2: What was your second book, My second book, not a novel,

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Speaker 2: is called The House That Built by Holly Ringland. Okay,

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Speaker 2: I haven't hit in the fact that I do like

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Speaker 2: a good cover, right, and so.

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Speaker 1: You brought this one for its cover. I haven't even

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Speaker 1: seen you reading this one. Maybe I've been too engrossed

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Speaker 1: in my own books. What is the House that Joy Built?

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Speaker 1: Is Joy a person? Or no?

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Speaker 2: Joy is an emotion.

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Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so that's the emotion. So there's a

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Speaker 1: house that you can build on joys? That what it's about?

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Speaker 1: How to have more joy in your life?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and no. From Holly's perspective, she's talking about

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Speaker 2: the house that lives within us and the emotions that

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Speaker 2: are housed within that house.

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Speaker 1: I'm pulling a strange face right now that nobody can see,

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Speaker 1: but I'm trying to understand how there is a house

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Speaker 1: within me?

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Speaker 2: Well, there was a house inside me, and I grew

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Speaker 2: lots of babies.

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Speaker 1: You had a kitchen, bathroom, the whole lot was all

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Speaker 1: in that.

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Speaker 2: One of our favorite children's books.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is.

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Speaker 2: Part memoir, part self help book, and it was. It's

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Speaker 2: really aimed at creatives. It's aimed at people who really

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Speaker 2: have lost touch with their creative side and have a

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Speaker 2: desire to tap back into it and really give themselves

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Speaker 2: permission to create.

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Speaker 1: So is the author Holly you said her name was

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Speaker 1: Holly somebody Holly Ringland? Was she doing a renovation and

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Speaker 1: it brought her happiness? Is that where we're going with this.

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Speaker 1: I'm not being cheeky. I'm genuinely saying, how's the joy built? No, no, okay, but.

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Speaker 2: It's an artistic expression okay, okay, and acknowledging that we

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Speaker 2: find ourselves so lost in life when we let go

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Speaker 2: of our creative being and creative self.

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Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this a lot. I really truly believe,

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Speaker 1: and I know that we say quite openly that we

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Speaker 1: have a faith background. But I think that I can

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Speaker 1: say this without bias, even though that is my bias.

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Speaker 1: I feel like there is a spiritual drought in our society,

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Speaker 1: like people are bereath of not everybody obviously, but when

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Speaker 1: I look at the challenges that we're facing in terms

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Speaker 1: of well being and the absence of joy, I feel

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Speaker 1: like there's a drought of purpose, a drought of meaning,

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Speaker 1: a drought of belonging to and giving to something larger

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Speaker 1: than self. And as I listen to what you're describing,

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Speaker 1: what I'm hearing is this idea that when we can

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Speaker 1: tap into the creative outlets that we have, we're actually

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Speaker 1: tapping into some kind of inspiration, maybe some kind of spirituality,

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Speaker 1: some kind of creative center or core that is bigger

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Speaker 1: than us, that grounds us and helps us to feel

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Speaker 1: small and look at things with awe and wonder.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really beautiful way that you've said that.

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Speaker 2: I think the other acknowledgment is that we've lost the

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Speaker 2: ability to create for the sake of creating, right where

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Speaker 2: we've kind of got caught up in this notion that

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Speaker 2: we have to create.

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Speaker 1: Everything has to be a purpose. It's about optimization and

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Speaker 1: maximization and potentiality.

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Speaker 2: And this is really about recognizing that for so many

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Speaker 2: of us, we've kind of lived into the fear and

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Speaker 2: the doubt that comes from creating just because we can.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Right, with social media, we've got all of these feeds,

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Speaker 2: a highlight reels of people's lives, and we think that

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Speaker 2: everything has to be at a certain standard for it

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Speaker 2: to be considered art or creative or beautiful. And yet

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Speaker 2: her acknowledgment is that to just create for the sake

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Speaker 2: of creating is where the beauty lies and where the

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Speaker 2: joy can be found. And so I just it wasn't

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Speaker 2: the best read. But what I did love about it

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Speaker 2: is at the end of each chapter she just had

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Speaker 2: all of these really really great thoughts starters for me

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Speaker 2: as a person who often lets fair get in the

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Speaker 2: way of my ability to create, and just gave me

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Speaker 2: an opportunity to do some really deep introspective thinking. While

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Speaker 2: the writing didn't necessarily stand out, her ability to make

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Speaker 2: me think did that.

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Speaker 1: U's the Joy Built by Holly.

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Speaker 2: Ringland scores a three and a half.

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Speaker 1: Three and a half out of five. But it sounds

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Speaker 1: like it helped you to tap into something that was meaningful,

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Speaker 1: Like there's plenty to redeem it for you.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. One last thing of all the questions

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Speaker 2: she asked me, the one that jumps out and just

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Speaker 2: has really kind of resonated with me, is but what

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Speaker 2: if I can?

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Speaker 1: Oh love that?

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Speaker 2: This acknowledgment that's so often we're like, I can't do that?

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Speaker 1: We should use that without kids.

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Speaker 2: But the question is, but what if I can?

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Speaker 1: That's a great question.

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Speaker 2: What does life look like? So that was my two reads.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive into mine. I have a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a problem. You're not going to let me talk

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Speaker 1: about the twelve or thirteen books that I had read already.

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Speaker 2: What two are you going to share with us?

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Speaker 1: If even if I was to try to, it's going

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Speaker 1: to do people's heads in. So here's what I'm going

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Speaker 1: to do. I'm going to give you a couple of

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Speaker 1: books to avoid and a couple of books that I loved.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a couple of two star reads.

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Speaker 2: I wonder if there's anyone out there that reads the

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Speaker 2: books that you tell them to avoid and just loves them.

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Speaker 1: It's possible, it's absolutely. In fact, I.

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Speaker 2: Maybe they actually wait for your list of read I

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Speaker 2: you're not in truce.

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Speaker 1: I am one hundred percent certain that my first two

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Speaker 1: star read is going to be disagreed with by a

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Speaker 1: lot of people. So I was in a books over Christmas

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Speaker 1: and a lady told me that I should definitely get

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Speaker 1: this one book. It's just been turned into an Apple

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Speaker 1: mini series, and I thought, well, I'm going to watch

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Speaker 1: it on Apple TV, I might as well read the

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Speaker 1: book first. The book is called Lessons in Chemistry. It's

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Speaker 1: by Bonnie Garmis. Here's what I'll say. I gave it

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Speaker 1: a two star out of five. This lady said it

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Speaker 1: was five out of five. She just loved it. So

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Speaker 1: there's an answer to your question. I enjoyed the book

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Speaker 1: for the mindless reading, but for what's supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a comedy, for something that's supposed to be light. And

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Speaker 1: I just want to quickly highlight if you've got kids listening,

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Speaker 1: you might want to fast forward the next thirty seconds.

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Speaker 1: It kicks off with two sea words in the first

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Speaker 1: couple of pages, a sexual assault and a suicide. Not

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Speaker 1: very funny at all. It completely belittled anyone who has

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Speaker 1: a religious faith, made all men, all men into monsters

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Speaker 1: except for one, the hero of the story. It totally

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Speaker 1: lectured the reader on every social issue that's out there,

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Speaker 1: and it was completely anacrit I can never say this

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Speaker 1: word properly anachronistic.

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Speaker 2: What does that mean?

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Speaker 1: It means so an acronym is basically when you reading

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Speaker 1: a book about let's say be eighteen hundreds or in

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Speaker 1: this case, the nineteen fifties, but they're talking about things

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Speaker 1: that we have today. Like if somebody wrote a book

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Speaker 1: about the nineteen fifties but people were using mobile telephones,

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Speaker 1: that would be anachronistic. It would be an anachronism that

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Speaker 1: something like it just it couldn't have existed, which means

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Speaker 1: that they haven't gotten it right. So in terms of

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Speaker 1: the values, it was like a twenty twenty three woman

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Speaker 1: was transported back to the nineteen fifties and just nailed

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Speaker 1: everybody with a brilliant, advanced liberal thinking overall, the message

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Speaker 1: in the book I actually think was a reasonably worthy one,

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Speaker 1: but the book, as easy as it was to read,

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Speaker 1: really failed to deliver for me. I actually hated it

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Speaker 1: and wished that I hadn't read it at the end

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Speaker 1: of it A tough yeah, two out of five. The

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Speaker 1: other one that I would say to avoid is a

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Speaker 1: book that has rave reviews all over the place from

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Speaker 1: some really big names, which is why I bought it.

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Speaker 1: The book is called Same as Ever by Morgan Hausel.

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Speaker 1: So Morgan Housel has written some finance books previously and

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Speaker 1: is extremely well regarded for what he's written about finance.

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Speaker 1: This is a book where he's basically saying, we're saying

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Speaker 1: the world is changing like crazy, but there's a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of principles that are the same as ever. They

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Speaker 1: never changed their fundamental and people will keep on being people,

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Speaker 1: and people will keep on doing the same things that

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Speaker 1: they've always done because they're people. So here's what I

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Speaker 1: loved about it. Great stories, really well researched and a

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Speaker 1: really fabulous concept. But it just didn't click for me.

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Speaker 1: I didn't like his writing style, and while I really

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Speaker 1: love the idea of emphasizing how things stayed the same

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Speaker 1: despite progress and change, and also how psychology human psychology

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Speaker 1: is not evolving nearly as fast as technology. I just

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Speaker 1: felt like the ideas were really simplified from their original authors,

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Speaker 1: Like he stole a lot from a guy called Ray Dahlio,

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Speaker 1: he picked up a whole lot from Nasim Taylor, who

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Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of, but I really love

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Speaker 1: a lot of what he writes, if that makes sense.

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Speaker 1: And ultimately it was a light read, very digestible content,

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Speaker 1: completely forgettable. The arguments felt lightweight, they felt idiosyncratic, didn't

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Speaker 1: feel like they had really good evidence underpinning them. And

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Speaker 1: I don't know how context is everything, Kylie, and this

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Speaker 1: book just presented these principles as absolutes, which they're not.

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Speaker 1: And every chapter oh so frustrating. You know, when you're

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Speaker 1: reading a chapter and as you get into the end,

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Speaker 1: you're thinking, Okay, I can take a breather at the

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Speaker 1: end of the chapter, and then they do this linking

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Speaker 1: sentence or paragraph saying and in the next chapter, we're

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Speaker 1: going to show you how blah blah blah blah blah.

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Speaker 1: And it was so frustrating and made me want to

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Speaker 1: throw the book. As he kind of tried to segue

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Speaker 1: seamlessly into the next chapter. It was so cheesy. Not

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Speaker 1: a high recommendation. As much as I enjoyed the stories,

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Speaker 1: Morgan Housel, same as ever, stay away from it.

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Speaker 2: So for the books you weren't going to talk about,

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Speaker 2: they got a lot of airtime. I'm wondering, I'm wondering

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Speaker 2: what books you did?

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Speaker 1: I love? Okay, so three books that I'm going to

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Speaker 1: give a five star rating. Two. Just the other day

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Speaker 1: on the podcast, I spoke with doctor amanthe Imber. We

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Speaker 1: talked about her new book, The Health Habit. I would

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Speaker 1: just read meen that you go back and listen to

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Speaker 1: that podcast. It's a brilliant book. If you want to

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Speaker 1: change the way you eat, the way you sleep, the

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Speaker 1: way that you move your body, if you want to

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Speaker 1: be healthier and you just keep on hitting obstacles, this

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Speaker 1: book has got so many great ideas. I absolutely loved it.

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Speaker 1: I love the way that Amantha presented this view to

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Speaker 1: making shifts that will stick. I'm a big fan of

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Speaker 1: doctor Amantha Imber. I think that it's a must read

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Speaker 1: for anyone who's trying to self improve. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: buy copies for a few people that I know who

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Speaker 1: really would appreciate it. Five out of five for Amantha

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Speaker 1: Imber The health Habit My next one. I read a novel.

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Speaker 2: You read a novel.

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Speaker 1: I read a novel. But it's a really old one.

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Speaker 1: It's called The Odyssey by Homer.

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Speaker 2: This was that big, fat book you had on your bedside.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is one of the ultimate classics. This

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Speaker 1: book is thousands of years old. The translation from the

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Speaker 1: ancient Greek into English has been done by somebody whose

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Speaker 1: name I can't quite remember right now, and I didn't

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Speaker 1: write it down. I'm not going to lie. I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure that I fully understand everything that was going on,

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Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of cultural stuff that I just

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Speaker 1: didn't get. But there was a one hundred page introduction

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Speaker 1: before I even started the book by the author, and

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of important information in there that helped. Ultimately.

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Speaker 1: The Odyssey is a classic for a reason. It's really

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Speaker 1: tough going, and with a book that's this old, it's

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Speaker 1: just never going to read like a modern book, especially

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Speaker 1: if you're trying to stay true to the translation. I'd

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Speaker 1: love to see a modern adaptation of it. But it's

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Speaker 1: a powerful story. It's stood the test of time, and

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Speaker 1: I really enjoyed reading The Odyssey by Homer. Great fun,

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Speaker 1: fantastic complexity in the storytelling, genuinely cool. Homer also wrote

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Speaker 1: The Iliad, and new translation of that has recently come out.

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Speaker 1: I'm giving The Odyssey five but I'm not sure that

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Speaker 1: I want to put myself through another one of these books.

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Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if I'm going to get The

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Speaker 1: Iliad and read it or not. I mean, there are

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Speaker 1: all these classics, and we talk about them, we seem

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Speaker 1: to know of them, but we don't really. And I

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Speaker 1: loved being in the book and having the experience of

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Speaker 1: reading it. I probably will buy the early out eventually.

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Speaker 1: Last one that I'm going to share five stars for

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Speaker 1: is Richard Reeves of Boys and Men. This one might

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Speaker 1: be might be my book of the year already. I

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Speaker 1: know it's a big call. It's only February. But it

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Speaker 1: was powerful, incredibly clear, direct, argumentative in an evidence backed way,

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Speaker 1: and full of ideas that were challenging. And actually I

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Speaker 1: think some of his ideas are wrong, straight up, straight

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Speaker 1: out wrong, but still really thoughtful and incredibly valuable. I

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Speaker 1: just loved it. I loved wrestling with his ideas, especially

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Speaker 1: in relation to fatherhood and keeping dads involved without preserving marriage,

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Speaker 1: which I disagree with, but it was so provocative because

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Speaker 1: marriage is on the decline and dads are not involved

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Speaker 1: with their kids, and he's saying, so, let marriage be

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, but let's keep dads involved. It was

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Speaker 1: just fascinating the way he put his arguments together. I

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Speaker 1: wish that the book was longer. The conversation was fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I think there was a whole lot more than he

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Speaker 1: could have given. And it's a policy book, Kylie. It's

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Speaker 1: literally a book about how government policy can improve the

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Speaker 1: lives of boys and men. Never have I read a

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Speaker 1: policy book where I've been begging for more. But this

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Speaker 1: was like a great roast dinner. It was so tasty

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Speaker 1: that you just want to keep eating, even when you're

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Speaker 1: stuffed of boys and men. Richard Reeves can't write it

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Speaker 1: highly enough.

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Speaker 2: Well. I know. One of the things that parents often

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Speaker 2: say is how do I get my kids to read books.

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Speaker 2: We have had a lot of success over the years.

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Speaker 2: We've had children who've almost been run over by buses

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Speaker 2: because they just scare at their books while they're walking

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Speaker 2: to school, and we have found them underneath the covers

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Speaker 2: with their torch when there should be asleep. But I

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Speaker 2: found this parenting hat the other day on Facebook and

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Speaker 2: I thought I have to share it. A mum who

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Speaker 2: struggled with just the chaos in her house, she came

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Speaker 2: up with this grand plan, so she gets her kids

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Speaker 2: to read books to her while she cleans their room.

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Speaker 1: That's the deal. You read to me and I'll clean

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Speaker 1: your room.

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Speaker 2: And it works great. Kids love reading and she gets

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Speaker 2: to clean the room. Know that it's done all properly

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Speaker 2: the way she wants it. Everything's put away in its place.

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Speaker 2: I thought it's brilliant.

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Speaker 1: We'd love your feedback. Did you love our book reviews?

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Speaker 1: Do you completely disagree with us? And I completely wrong

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Speaker 1: about Lessons in Chemistry? Same as ever or The Odyssey?

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, let me know what you think.

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Speaker 1: Podcasts at Happy Families dot com dot you. The Happy

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Speaker 1: Families podcast is produced by Justin Rowland from Bridge Media.

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Speaker 1: Craig Bruce is our executive producer. If you would like

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Speaker 1: more information about how to make your family happier, we

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Speaker 1: would love for you to join us on the quest.

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Speaker 1: The waiting list is now open. This is a handholding

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Speaker 1: program where we take you, one step at a time,

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Speaker 1: through the steps necessary to help your family to flourish,

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Speaker 1: help your kids to thrive, and help you to feel

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Speaker 1: good in your parenting. The quest all the details now

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Speaker 1: at happy families dot com dot a you