Vote on Our June Alpha Mom Parenting Book Club Pick

This month we have three completely different books up for vote. And I know I seem to say this every month, but I am excited by all three books. They all seem like books that you will think about long after you are done reading.

1) Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown

I think most are familiar with Brene Brown and the TED talk that she gave in 2010 about The Power of Vulnerability. When I just looked it up to link to it over 9 million people had watched the talk! That is incredible and truly a testament to the power of her speech.

In this book, Brene Brown forces us to look at what it means to be vulnerable and to change what we think about vulnerability. Most of us have grown up associating vulnerability with weakness, but Brown argues that it is only by being our most vulnerable that we achieve the deepest human connections. I have been wanting to read Daring Greatly since last year when it was first published. I love reading books that push me to think outside of my comfort zone, perhaps a zone I didn’t even realize I was hiding in. I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel like I could use some deep thinking and soul searching before the kids get out of school next month.

2) The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

I love books that give me concrete steps to take to reach an end result. This book is supposed to help parents nurture their children’s emotional intelligence. The Whole-Brain Child has received overwhelmingly good reviews from parents who say that it has helped them think about their child’s misbehavior in a new way, helped them teach their children to move past difficult situations and not get “stuck” in negative thought patterns. (Wish someone had taught me this as a child!)

3) Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon

We offered this book up as a choice in one of our earlier books clubs and we thought we would put it out here again. Bullying is in the news all the time. It seems so pervasive and social media has only escalated the bullying. As a mother of a child who spent one school year being bullied while the school did little to nothing, I am interested in reading this book. The author, Emily Bazelon, had a series of articles published in Slate that were the genesis of this book. The articles were both compelling and controversial and she weaves the story of Phoebe Prince, a girl who was bullied and later committed suicide, into Sticks and Stones.

 

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Here are the discussions for our previous parenting book club picks: Minimalist Parenting (April), Kids Are Worth It! (Mar), Far From The Tree (Feb), NurtureShock (Jan), How To Talk So Kids Will Listen (Dec), Five Love Languages of Children (Nov).