July Commonplace
BOOK REPORTS
BOOK: The Wedding People by Alison Espach
The story takes place over a week at a luxury, beachfront hotel, filled with guests there for a wedding. The main character gets a room by mistake, but gets sucked into all of the wedding drama and activities.
This book has been on the TBR for a while now, and many of the Book Clubbers had already read it. Despite being rated as one of the top “summer reads” over the last few years, I didn’t care for it. It just seemed a bit ridiculous at times. But most of the ladies enjoyed it.
TV: Scamanda on Hulu (Limited Series)
This limited series featured on Hulu tells the story of a woman who faked a cancer diagnosis, chronicled her pretend medical journey on a blog and received over $100,000 in donations from her friends, family and church community. This story is (almost) unbelievable, but the 4-episode series demonstrates how it was possible. I found it sickening and fascinating at the same time.
BOOK: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
I first read this book in 2015, and it inspired me to finally edit and publish my book “Hey Kid: Letters to my Grandchildren.” I have thought of it often over the years as I continued to increase and improve my writing.
It came back to me as inspiration for a Book Club selection. After I announced it, I started to second-guess the choice, thinking the book was too old to be relevant anymore, but I was wrong. This book is filled with timeless wisdom, making it an annual read for anyone seeking to live a creative life. (And we should all be living a creative life.)
COMMONPLACE
"When I notice myself worrying about 'what other people will think,' I find I'm usually not worried about any single person's opinion. If I pick a specific person, I'm rarely concerned about what they will think. What I fear is the collective opinion in my head. It's imaginary." — James Clear
"Deal with the difficult while it is yet easy; Deal with the great while it is yet small." - Laozi
"Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy. Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder. Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder. Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder. Easy has a cost." - James Clear
"Change is only possible through movement." - Aldous Huxley
