Stuff I Love- Audiobooks

Once upon a time, I was a reader.  An avid reader, in fact.  When I was a little kid, I would regularly take out the maximum amount of books from the library (20), and anytime we were in a book store, my dad would remind me that he would pay for ANY book I wanted to read.  In high school, English was my favorite class, and in college I read a LOT of Russian Literature.  And then I went to law school.  I continued to read, but aside from the occasional Harry Potter (I mean I HAD to finish the series), reading for pleasure fell by the wayside.  I got slightly better at leisure reading as a working adult, but most of the reading I did was on vacation and was not what you would call "literature". I assumed this trend of non-reading would continue once I had a child, but then I discovered audiobooks.  Until recently, my little Chewbacca baby refused to nap during the day unless I was walking with him in a carrier.  Which meant, if I didn't want a monster meltdown at the end of the day, I would walk with him for up to 6 hours a day.  And, since I wanted him to sleep, I wouldn't talk on the phone, so I wouldn't wake him up.  There are only so many songs and podcasts you can listen to before you get bored.  Thanks to a giltgroup special, I signed up for audible.com and got two free audio books.  It wasn't an hour into the first book that I was completely hooked.  In the past four months I've finished more books than I have in probably the last 5 years.  I wish someone would have told me about this sooner!  Experts believe reading increasings empathy and keeps your mind sharp and it's believed this can be experienced whether you are reading or listening to a book.  Additionally, as long as you're not multi-tasking, experts believe in the stress-relieving benefits of "deep reading" can be felt by listening to an audiobook.  So, grab some headphones and listen while you're working out, commuting, or even cooking dinner (so maybe that last one counts as multi-tasking).  Audible.com has all the new releases, but using the Overdrive app (find it in the app store), you can get a lot of great titles for FREE at your local library.  If you need some suggestions to get you started, here are some of my most recent favorites:Rules of Civility by Amor TowlesThe Golem and the Jinni by Helene WeckerAmerican Gods by Neil Gaiman Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy KalingA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Emma by Jane Austen The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 
And here's what's next up on my list:Ready, Player One by Ernest ClineThe Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

One More Thing by Mindy Kaling, Lenna Dunham, BJ Novack and Others

B+ Me

My husband have a long-standing joke that in college, although we were perfectly smart enough to be A+ students, we realized decided that the extra work to get an A+ wasn't worth it.  So we consciously decided to get a B+ average.  We rationalized that the extra time spent getting an A+ was better spent on things like having friends and partying, making us much more well rounded individuals. While much of this theory is to ease our bruised egos of not being the “smartest” kids on our classes, there is some truth to it.

In a world where you can see on Pinterest just how inadequate of a crafter/homemaker/cook/baker/mother you are, I’ve embraced B+ motherhood, freeing up a lot more of my time to spend it with my family.  

Radhika Nagpal, a computer science professor at Harvard, wrote a fascinating piece about surviving the tenure track at Harvard and spoke (more articulately than myself) about this very topic. In her article, she gave one piece of advice which I’ve tried to embrace, which is to be “the best whole person I can be”. She states: At work we hail the person for whom science and teaching is above all else, who forgets to eat and drink while working feverously on getting the right answer, who is always there to have dinner and discussion with eager undergrads. At home we admire the parent who sacrificed everything for the sake of a better life for their children, even at great personal expense. The best scientists. The best parents. Anything less is not giving it your best… in such a world I was destined to suck at both. . . I’m pretty sure that the best scientists by the above definition are not in the running for most dedicated parent or most supportive spouse, and vice versa. And I’m not interested in either of those one-sided lives. I am obsessively dedicated to being the best whole person I can be.”

Instead of comparing myself to those wholly-dedicated parents/attorneys/friends/daughter-in-laws/volunteers/etc., I’ve decided instead that if I can get a B+ at any of those roles, I’m more than an A+ whole person.  Which is why I created this blog.  It's all the tips and advice I could compile about Boston--a city I love dearly-- and being a parent.   It doesn't take a village anymore to raise a child, it takes a city, complete with seamlessweb, peapod grocery delivery, and great babysitters.  This website is a guide to what I've discovered in Boston as a parent, and some tips on how to be a B+ parent, and an A+ whole person.