Books for Expecting Parents

This is very off-brand for us but I've been reading a lot of baby books lately and felt it was only fair to get some credit for them in the form of a post since I haven't been reading a lot otherwise. Scott and I are expecting our first baby ~any day now~ which is so fucked, and both of us are the type to be really comforted by research and learning. Here are the books we've been reading / listening to and our thoughts on them in case you're staring at a shelf of baby books in Indigo wondering where to start.

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Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

My obsession with Everest is pretty singular, but every so often I read about other mountaineering disasters. About two years ago Ben (with help from his father who shares a lot of similar reading interests as me) got me Joe Simpson's book Touching the Void for Christmas. The climb was on the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985 and Simpson's personal account came a few years later.

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We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

I'm very much a Gabrielle Union fan but I don't know that I'd have been interested in this without a big Twitter recommendation from my girl Sophia Bush. These celebrity memoirs are so easy to get through that even if you don't know a lot about her (like me), you don't have much to lose in trying it out.

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Normal People by Sally Rooney

I have been waiting to post this review because I wanted to finish watching the BBC/Hulu TV adaptation first. I spent three weeks refreshing the iTunes store so I could purchase it since Canadian's don't have access to Hulu. And then, finally, the series started streaming two episodes at a time on CBC Gem. I started reading Sally Rooney's acclaimed Normal People before the pandemic hit, and finished it on the heels of quarantine. Both the book and the TV series ripped my heart into pieces.

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And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O'Connell

Scott and I are expecting our first babe at the end of next month and despite how this review may come across, we're so fucking excited. Unlike some people I know, I was never someone who spent my whole life fantasizing about being a mom. It was an idea I needed to get used to and to really process, and there aren't a ton of books for that. Cheryl Strayed recommended this on Twitter years ago and I knew when/if we got pregnant I'd need to read it.

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The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

I had heard many different authors reference Mary Karr's work (David Foster Wallace, Lena Dunham, Stephen King, Chuck Klosterman) and they all made me so excited to read one of the great modern memoirists. A few Christmases ago I got The Liar's Club (reviewed in full here) and I couldn't believe how talented she is. I've been really into reading author's work on the craft of writing and after finishing Stephen King's go at it I knew I had to read Karr's.

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The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Every year I look forward to end-of-the-year lists and checking out as many as I possibly can. I usually always go through the New York Times's list fairly slowly, making notes of what I think I will and will not like. Meg and I both have a ton of books on our shelves that we haven't gotten to yet - which is evident from our "What We Got For Christmas" list every year... so when I  talk about The Great Believers being on the NYT's best-of list, I am actually referring to their list from January 2018 - which I'm just getting to now in 2020. Regardless, I'm glad I wrote this one down years ago!

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Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

I have really been enjoying Michael Lewis' nonfiction writing (Moneyball, The Blind Side) and decided to give this a try since my husband and I started buying stocks this past year. When I was working for Ivey Business School I had the chance to go to the RBC trading floor and was entranced by it. I have since started trying to understand the market better but it is SO confusing. Anyways, I thought this would be a fun combination of my love of Lewis' writing and my new obsession with the stock market.

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X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman

I got this book as a gift a few years ago and finally decided to pick it up when I realized it included an interview with Jonathan Franzen. X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century felt like the perfect quarantine read because of how broken up it is. I usually don't run towards anthologies, and I was pretty open in my dislike for Klosterman's latest book, but he continues to be my favourite essay writer and this one definitely didn't disappoint.

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2020 BB Summer Reading List

Who doesn't love a good summer reading list??? Especially this summer when most of us are still left with nothing to do - unless you like golf or tennis, you'll be cracking a book poolside. Here are 40 recommendations that are sure to please...

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When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

I haven't read Ishiguro since a lit course in second year university where I fell in love with his novel The Remains of the Day. I found this book I hadn't even heard of randomly at Value Village (thrift stores are such great places to find books) and was really excited to finally read more of his fiction.

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Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

I feel like since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic people have been dividing themselves into two categories: those who want to spend their time focused on anything but, and those who want to lean into it hard. This can be determined by whether you rewatched Steven Soderbergh's 2011 film Contagion. I would group myself in another category... I am someone who wants to lean into it hard even though I absolutely should not. My boyfriend won't let me rewatch Contagion but I can sneakily read pandemic / apocalyptic literature.

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