The most challenging posts I write are the reflective ones that pop up between the sewing and book posts every so often. Sewing and book posts follow a kind of formula – I just tell you what I did or read.

Translating thoughts and feelings into something readable isn’t easy. I didn’t start this blog because it’s easy to write, though, and I’m trying to use this year to challenge myself to do things that I’m afraid to do, like write, possibly badly, to express ideas and truths I’ve discovered.

In that spirit, I am rounding up three books into one post – three books that are so unlike one another that they usually would have each have garnered their own post. I’m combining them so I can spend more time writing those other, more difficult posts that force me to work harder and hopefully challenge you, the reader, to do some mental exercise as well, at least once in a while.