Thursday Tips-- Reading Edition
I've covered a lot of "not so happy" but very important things about mental health, trauma, self-care and burnout over the last few posts. So I thought today we could take a break for what will (hopefully) become a weekly segment-- Thursday Tips.
Today, I would like to introduce something that helps me personally reduce stress and relax-- READING. I would love to hear other simple tasks people use to recharge. If you are interested please share your own tips to blanketfortresistance@gmail.com and I will share some for upcoming Thursday Tips!
Camille's Reading List (TM)-- Like Oprah's Book Club but less sad!
1) Harry Freakin Potter. Since the election I have been reading a lot of Harry Potter. It's nice to escape to another world, where evil is more cut and dry (even thought the world "isn't divided into good guys and death eaters"). If you have never read them before. . . seriously? They are popular for a reason, give them a try. If you've read them a million times, try reading them aloud with people who have never read them before. I used it for guided reading when I was teaching at a middle school and it was one of the highlights of my year. We each chose a character for the dialogue parts. I was always Hagrid because it is super difficult to read with all the apostrophes.
2) Read a funny memoir! Funny memoir/life advice is my second favorite genre of book (behind Harry Potter-- it's its own genre). Most recently, I finished reading "Who thought this was a good idea?" by Alyssa Mastromonaco, who was Obama's deputy chief of staff, but more importantly a hilarious, hardworking, butt kicking woman with tons of great stories. (she also talks a lot about burnout)
3 and 4) both of Mindy Kaling's books-- "Why Not Me?" and "Is everyone hanging out without me?". Kaling is the creator and star of the Mindy Project and wrote for the Office. And she is on my dream brunch attendees list.
5) Tina Fey, of SNL, 30 Rock, and Mean Girls fame wrote the book, "Bossypants", that literally makes me laugh out loud, even on the third read.
6) "Yes Please" by the beautiful land mermaid who played Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler).
7) "Girl walks into a bar" by Rachel Dratch. Clearly I like books written by hilarious women. Someday, I hope to write a book like this with all my awkward stories, but for now this blog will have to do. Rachel's book was funny, but also so real.
J