September Reads

Here are the four books I finished in September!

The Happiness Hypothesis

Rating: 7/10

Review: I enjoyed the book, but thought it was a little too wordy. Ted recommended I read just the parts he highlighted. I couldn’t do that, but I did skim through some of the book.

The book uses ancient wisdom to discover the source of Happiness. I’m all about finding sources of happiness in 2020!!! Here are a couple points and quotes that I enjoyed most from the book:

• Activities connect us to others, objects often separate us. Work less, earn less, and “consume” more family time, vacation, and other enjoyable activities. 
• Children need plenty of failure to learn that success takes hard work and persistence. 
• Work more on your strengths than your weaknesses. 
• Something about the vastness and beauty of nature makes the self feel small and insignificant. Anything that shrinks the self, creates an opportunity for a spiritual experience. 
• Just like plants need water, sun and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger. 

Studies that have assigned people to perform a random act of kindness every week, or to count their blessings regularly for several weeks, find small but sustained increases in happiness.

Jonathan Haidt

I love the following insight from the book and plan to add it to my post on 17 reasons to serve:

Who Was Julia Child?

Rating: 8/10

Review:  I was picking up some “Who Was” books for my boys at the library and grabbed this one for me. It’s a super quick read and a good overview of Julia Child’s life.

Who Were the Wright Brothers?

Rating: 9/10

Review: I read this book with my son, Paul. We enjoyed the book and thought it was a good overview of the brothers who invented the airplane. It showed how hard work and perseverance can make a huge impact on the world. Now Paul wants his Poppy to take him flying.

God Smuggler

Rating: 10/10

Review: This book is so incredibly inspiring. I could read it over and over. The book shares stories of Andrew bringing Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. He’d find a church with a hundred people all sharing one Bible. I read this book in 2019 and loved it so much that I re-read it with Clark. He enjoyed it too!

What have you been reading? Leave me a comment!

Disclaimer: All the books are linked to Amazon, if you choose to purchase one, I will earn a small commission for the recommendation.