My blog is about the books I'm reading, the independent bookstores I visit, the author and book events I attend, and any bookish related things I come across in the months and years to come!
I remember first learning about Loretta Lynn when I watched the movie, 'A Coal Miner's Daughter', starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones with my parents when the movie first came out in 1980. I'm not a huge country western music fan, but I did enjoy the songs from this movie.
Later in life, I became quite a Patsy Cline fan. I love her songs/singing to this day. What a beautiful voice Patsy Cline had. She died way too young. When Loretta Lynn wrote a memoir about their friendship, I couldn't resist reading Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship With Patsy Cline.
Below is the publisher's summary for Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship With Patsy Cline by Loretta Lynn I discovered on the Goodreads website:
Loretta Lynn and the late Patsy Cline are legends--country icons and sisters of the heart. For the first time ever Loretta tells their story: a celebration of their music and their relationship up until Patsy's tragic and untimely death.
Full of laughter and tears, this eye-opening, heartwarming memoir paints a picture of two stubborn, spirited country gals who'd be damned if they'd let men or convention tell them how to be. Set in the heady streets of the 1960s South, this nostalgia ride shows how Nashville blossomed into the city of music it is today. Tender and fierce, Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust is an up-close-and-personal portrait of a friendship that defined a generation and changed country music indelibly--and a meditation on love, loss and legacy.
I am giving Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship With Patsy Cline by Loretta Lynn a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.
Currently, I am going through the perimenopause/menopause transition. Ugh, MENOPAUSE is not my favorite word! Some people don't like turning a certain age, but quite frankly, facing menopause is more scary than when I turned 50 years old.
Needless to say, I've stuck my head in the sand when it comes to reading up on menopause, until now that is. I've very recently started doing research online, attending virtual webinars/seminars, and watching YouTube videos about menopause. After I continue doing a bit more research, I'll be setting up an appointment(s), on how to treat symptoms of perimenopause/menopause with a specialist.
I wish women would talk more about perimenopause/menopause with each other and share their experiences going through this life changing event. Honestly, it's like the previous generations were completely mum about the topic of menopause as if it was a dirty word/secret. Thank goodness, more women are opening up and talking about menopause and their own personal experiences with menopause.
Normally, I wouldn't make a nonfiction book written by a celebrity my first choice as a book to read about menopause. I'd rather read books or articles about menopause written by medical experts. That aside, I decided to listen to Naomi Watts's book about menopause as it was on sale for a fraction of the cost via one of Chirp's limited time deals. Another factor for reading Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause is that it was recently published on January 21, 2025, and it also has received good reviews and high ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads.
As far as Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause goes, I was impressed on several levels with this book. It's well written and well organized with very specific topics for each chapter. Each chapter ends with the key take away points discussed earlier in the chapter. I like the diverse range of topics about menopause discussed in this book. Naomi Watts also talks about her personal journey with menopause and how she has handled it. Ms. Watts appears to have done her research and cites medical experts and literature throughout her book. Even though Namoi Watts is a celebrity and not a medical expert, I think as a celebrity, she can attract an audience that might otherwise not read a book about menopause.
As much as I really enjoyed listening to Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause, it wasn't perfect. I wish more was discussed about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) vs. the little that was discussed about it under the umbrella topic of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I'm personally not a big proponent of HRT as a method of choice for managing hormonal changes during perimenopause/menopause. I'm leaning more towards BHRT instead, which is why I wish there was more discussed specifically on this topic. I'm not a medical expert/doctor/researcher and still need to do more to learn more about HRT vs. BHRT.
Two factoids I learned while reading Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause, the word perimenopause didn't appear in our lexicon until the 1930s and the word menopause was coined in 1821 by French physician Charles-Pierre-Louis de Gardanne.
Above is an NPR interview featuring Naomi Watts discussing her book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause. The interview itself is about 9 minutes in length, that's if you're interested in hearing a snippet of what Ms. Watts's menopause book has to offer.
Below is the publisher's summary for Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause by Naomi Watts from Chirp's website:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A frank, funny and informative guide to menopause and aging by beloved actress Naomi Watts, one of the leading voices in menopause awareness—with a foreword by Mary Claire Haver, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The New Menopause
At thirty-six, Naomi Watts had just completed filming King Kong and was trying to start a family when she was told that she was on the brink of menopause. It is estimated that seventy-five million women in the United States are currently dealing with menopause symptoms (dry itchy skin, raging hormones, night sweats), and yet the very word “menopause” continues to be associated with stigma and confusion. With so little information, many women feel unprepared, ashamed, and deeply alone when the time comes.
This is the book Naomi Watts wishes she had when she first started experiencing symptoms. Like sitting down over coffee and having an intimate chat with your girlfriend, Dare I Say It blends funny and poignant stories from Naomi and her friends with advice from doctors, hormone experts, and nutritionists to take the secrecy and shame out of menopause and aging. Answering questions such as: What’s hormone therapy and should I be on it? Will I ever sleep again? Will I get myself back? What happened to my libido? Do I need eighteen serums for my aging skin? Whose body is this anyway? Who am I now? Naomi Watts shares the most up-to-date research on how to manage menopause symptoms and tackle the physical and emotional challenges we encounter as we age.
Irreverent, bold, and reassuring, Dare I Say It is the companion every woman needs to embrace the best version of herself as she moves into what can be the most powerful and satisfying period of her life.
I am giving Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause by Naomi Watts a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.
P. S. I always find it difficult rating and reviewing nonfiction books about diet, health, and exercise as I'm not a medical doctor or a medical researcher. I only base my book reviews and ratings on how well I feel the information is presented and whether I feel what has been written contains useful information for myself.
Hey. So I know that we have our "girlboss" hashtags and our Wonder Woman movie now. I know that we're all supposed to love our bodies and lean in and have perfect skin (but in a self-care way!) and wake up every morning filled with righteous anger but also be mindful and relaxed all the time. But existing in the physical world as a woman (or pretty much anyone who's not a man) is still pretty exhausting. Our current administration is careening towards a real life Handmaid's Tale and we still have to pay a tax on tampons. It's rough. We are, however, far from the first generation to have to deal with a ceaseless onslaught of woman-hating garbage. So here are a few biographies of badass women who will inspire you to be your best self, even when it's tempting to let the bastards grind you down.
These women run the gamut from activists to scientists, poets to literal queens. Some of them have helped shape the world as we know it today. Some of them just said "screw it" and ran off to be pirates. All of them were (or are) stone cold badasses. So the next time you want to scream, or lie face down on the floor, or chuck all of your skincare products into the sea, pick up one of these biographies and take a cue from some of history's best bad girls
Click on the very top link to discover which 11 women made the list!
I received an advanced uncorrected paperback proof copy of WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson through the Goodreads Giveaway program. Below is my honest, unbiased review of WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson. WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson is geared towards millennial women who want to start their own business. This book is part memoir and part entrepreneurial guide for woman who want to be their own boss. I love Jaclyn Johnson's no nonsense writing style. She writes a straight forward business book using lingo millennial women will understand and gravitate towards. There's no stuffy, dated, boring, information in this book. It's chalk full of savvy and much needed information from someone who has been there and done that. There isn't anything cutesy about WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson - except for it's cover!! So, if you're looking for somewhere to start on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur, then start by reading WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson. WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson will be released in August 2018. Below is the publisher's summary for WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson found on Amazon's website:
First, we leaned in. Now we stand up.
Jaclyn Johnson—the founder and CEO behind Create & Cultivate, the fastest growing online platform and conference for millennial women in business— offers a rallying cry for a new generation of women who are redefining the meaning of work on their own terms: WorkParty. Women who want it all and more, and guess what? They can have it.
Jaclyn suffered a massive blow in her early twenties. She was on an upward career climb and confidently moved across the country for a job—and then, was abruptly let go. Attempting to turn that closed door into an open window, she launched a company with a trusted business partner. Soon after, she discovered said business partner had made detrimental decisions to the company without her knowledge. Before she knew it, she was in the throes of a brutal business partner break up. She was only twenty-four.
Determined to bounce back, Jaclyn overhauled the mess that was her life and by the time she was in her early thirties, she had sold a company and launched the much-buzzed about Create & Cultivate platform—and advised and invested in multiple million-dollar projects at the same time. So, how did she do it?
In WorkParty, Jaclyn shows how she turned distrust into determination, frustration into fuel, and heartache into hard work—and how you can, too. With stories from leading female entrepreneurs including Christene Barberich (co-founder of Refinery29), Alli Webb, (creator of Drybar), Morgan Debaun (founder of Blavity), Jen Gotch of Ban.do, Rebecca Minkoff, and Kendra Scott, you will learn the tips and tricks from the best in the business while cultivating the passion and happiness you need to succeed. By embracing failure and reconciling your femininity with being a boss, you’ll join the movement that is WorkParty—and have fun along the way.
I am giving WorkParty: How to Create & Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams by Jaclyn Johnson a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars. Until my next post, happy reading!!
It’s rare to see senior women on TV at all, let alone dating, doing drugs, running a business, and having fun with their friends. If you’re hungry for more content like Grace and Frankie, you may be out of luck on the small screen—but we’ve rounded up seven novels whose over-70 protagonists do more than just reminisce and wait to die. If you are, know, or just want to become a fierce old lady, start here.
I found myself loving the title of the above article and also curious as to which 7 books listed in the article. I will be adding a few of them to my ever growing reading wishlist. I am a middle aged woman myself. Although, I rarely define myself as having reached middle age.... However, I digress. I mainly wanted to write that I feel like women, especially elderly woman, are not portrayed very often in leading roles in novels. I think it's important to see more older women featured more prominently in novels in a positive light. I say this because woman in the baby boomer generation (ages 51-69) and older, make up a large sector of the population. So it would make sense to see more novels with positive, elderly women role models as leading characters. I think it is important to celebrate the wisdom older women have to offer.
I love reading memoirs, biographies, and other works of nonfiction about women trailblazers. So, when I noticed on Bustle's website a fabulous article titled, 13 Illustrated Books About Women Who Changed The World by Susanna Princivalle, I looked forward to discovering which books made the list.
Several of the book titles mentioned in Susanna Princivalle's article are ones I've heard of before (but have yet to read), while other book titles mentioned were new to me.
Click on the above link to discover which 13 illustrated books about women have made the list!
