The Savvy Five: Summer Reads

So many books, so little time…

We’re sure you know what we mean—since becoming moms, our reading time (and we don’t mean Good Night Moon) has been significantly reduced. But summer means summer reading time so now that it’s officially here, we hope you can carve out a small window to read on a deck or a dock somewhere and enjoy one or two of our top five easy-to-read books for summer.

Tales from the Crib
Good for: expectant and new moms who are worried about losing their pre-kid lives
Why It Made the List: This fun new mommy read gives us the real, ‘laugh out loud’ scoop on new motherhood (including losing the baby weight, nursing, diaper explosions, sleep deprivation, guilt, mommy & me class and more). You’ll definitely recognize your own mom experiences in this book and everything about them that is ridiculously funny (that is, funny a few years later when you get your sense of humour back). This book introduced us to the term Mommunists and for that alone, it made the list. But it also sheds some light onto the struggles we have adapting to our mom role and the fact that there is more than one right way to be a nurturing mom. (Risa Green, Penguin Books, 2008)

Love the One You’re With
Good for: anyone who ever wondered ‘what if’
Why It Made the List: We’ve read all the best-selling Emily Giffin books (and enjoyed peeking into the lives of heroines with much more exciting personal lives than ours), so of course we had to check out her fourth novel as soon as it was released. It’s the story of recently-married Andy and Ellen, who seem to have the perfect marriage, until Ellen runs into Leo, her intense and artistic first love who broke her heart, and begins to ponder whether her seemingly perfect life is really what she wants or just what she was supposed to want. A move from New York City to Atlanta further complicates matters and the reader is taken on a tumultuous ride of lost loves and found fortunes. (Emily Giffin, St. Martin’s Press, 2008)

The Other Mother
Good for: observers of the ‘Mommy Wars’ 
Why It Made the List: this fictional account of two mothers living next door to each other documents the divide between the SAHMs and the WOTHMs and all its fascinating nuances through the story of Amanda, a successful book editor and dedicated New Yorker who moves, eight months pregnant, to suburban New Jersey where her new neighbour is a fulltime mother of three living in her childhood home and possessing effortless domestic skills of a higher order. We loved the style of using alternating points of view of each of these complex women and the insights into today’s world of ‘have it all’ motherhood. (Gwendolen Gross, Shaye Areheart Books, 2007)

Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children
Good for: the Attachment Parenting/Positive Discipline/How to Talk So Kids Will Listen drop-outs
Why It Made the List: Have a huge pile of dry parenting books on your bedside table that you think if you could only get through you might be a better parent (and your kids better-behaved as well)? This book offers 76 easy-to-remember lessons on how to be a great parent (who doesn’t want to be that?) but unlike many other parenting books, it’s an easy read. With rules for everything from communicating with your children (“When You Get Upset, Whisper”), to handwashing (“the Four Best Times to Wash Hands”—you’ll be surprised at the last one!), to avoiding lost children (the “Caboose Rule” and the “Stay Where You Are and Fly Like an Angel Rule”), this book is full of practical advice that you can implement right away and get immediate results for raising healthy, happy, safe and cherished children. (Tom Sturges, Ballantine Books, 2008)

Chasing Harry Winston
Good for: The Devil Wears Prada fans
Why It Made the List: See above! The latest novel by Lauren Weisberger (who brought us The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing has just been released in time for summer reading and it’s definitely a great one, telling the tale of three best friends (in Manhattan of course) who are approaching thirty and not very happy about it. One night, two of them pledge to change their lives in the most personal and dramatic way possible within the year, while the other watches from the sidelines, at least at the beginning. (Lauren Weisberger, Simon & Schuster, 2008)

Happy reading.

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