I’ve gotten the chance to read these books this summer:

1. The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley- I figured since I have some free time now, I should start reading up on how to get babies to sleep through the night.  I figured when I am actually starting to have this issue, I will have the least time to read this book!  It definitely had some good tips, but I will probably need to re-read through the book again once baby arrives!

2. The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp- Once again, I read this one to be proactive for baby’s arrival.  This book goes over the 5 s’s to soothe an infant…swaddle, swing, side/stomach, shoosh and sucking.  Husband M and I took a Newborn Essentials class at Isis Parenting the other night.  After reading this book, I felt I did not really learn much from this class as I had already learned it in the book.  Fortunately, it was not a total bust going to class because Husband M said he actually did learn a great deal.  We’ll see how we do with the tips from the book in a couple months once baby is here!

3. The Happiness Project, Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin- This book is not necessarily for people who are unhappy, just people looking to add more happiness to their life (and who wouldn’t want that?)  The author spends an entire year with different resolutions for each month to try to bring more happiness into each day.  It’s a nice thing to think about doing on a daily basis and she has lots of different ideas on things you can try.  She admits that not all things she does is for everyone…it’s more important to decide for yourself what are some things you can add to your life that  actually make you happy.

4. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson- Thanks to cousin K, she rescued me from being 400th in my library queue for this book and brought her copy out to Nantucket for me.  It was a great book to read on the beach all week.  You definitely need to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo first to understand a lot of the background.

5. Twelve Rooms with a View by Theresa Rebeck- The premise of this book is that 3 sisters find out that they have inherited a multi-million dollar property on Central Park after their reclusive, alcoholic mother passes away.  However, the estate gets challenged by their mother’s step sons and the building co-op board.  The sisters battle it out with their new enemies, and also learn a great deal about their mother’s secret life she lead.

-m