self-help – Sarah Ames-Foley

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis
Published by Simon Element on April 26, 2022 (originally 2020)
my rating: 5 stars
Goodreads avg: 4.43 (as of 2022-12-21)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

In a way, this is a very ‘basic’ book. This isn’t full of ideas about how to keep your home sparkling clean or aesthetically pleasing. This is a book that people like me need. I struggle a lot with executive dysfunction and doing basic tasks around the house can feel physically painful at times. KC Davis was absolutely right to call this “a gentle approach.” This book understands you, assuages your guilt, and reframes how we look at chores. Davis emphasizes how cleanliness is not linked to worthiness, points out that our home should be there for us and not vice-versa, and shares the things she uses to make her own life easier. For example: she doesn’t fold her laundry! Everything that doesn’t wrinkle gets thrown into a basket and everything that does wrinkle gets hung up. Changing her mindset and letting go of the assumption that laundry needs to be folded made it a much more manageable task. I’ll definitely be recommending this book to friends in the future and am glad I bought a physical copy because I know I’ll be coming back to it a lot.

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Would You Rather?

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Would You Rather? is a lovely memoir about a woman who grew up in a sheltered, moderately conservative area coming to terms with her sexuality. The reason this is so revolutionary is because, as Katie herself says, there are so few widespread stories about adults realizing they’re gay. So many people say that they always knew, it leaves little room in the narrative for people like Katie, who didn’t always know. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that I’m glad I picked up! My only complaint was that it does meander at times and that the end kind of trails off for me instead of ending strongly.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐.5

The Body Is Not an Apology

Systems [of oppression] do not maintain themselves; even our lack of intervention is an act of maintenance.

This was a nice read that focused on what Sonya has dubbed “radical self-love.” The messages embedded in it are deeply important and focus on breaking down “the belief that there is a hierarchy of bodies.” It was quite inspiring to read and made me want to work harder on changing the belief systems cemented within our culture. At times, the book felt a little too structured and, well, self-help-y, but it wasn’t really much of an issue. It’s also an extremely fast read. All-in-all, I’d definitely recommend this book as a jumping off point for leaning more into body positivity.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Children of Blood and Bone

This pretty much lived up to the hype for me and I’m really glad I picked it up! I don’t remember the last time I lost myself in a book like this, I ended up reading for 3 hours straight to finish it and I literally couldn’t put it down. The half star loss was because it took me a bit to get invested in the characters. But once I did, ooooh boy, I was INVESTED. Highly recommend.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

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(All covers courtesy of Goodreads.)

Tag: self-help

How to Keep House While Drowning [review]

Mini-Review Compilation #5