Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

It's safe to assume that any link you see in my review pages is an Amazon Associates affiliate link. This allows me to collect a few cents if you use the link to do your shopping. Thanks! I've done a lot of reading this year, and I won't list all the books I've read here, but I wanted to list a handful of favorites in both fiction and non-fiction. I've also shared some other titles I've read on Goodreads, so if you have an account there, please add and follow me there:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29732821.Franklin_Taggart Fiction Raves: Top of my fiction list:  Remarkably Bright Creatures , by Shelby Van Pelt, Narrators - Marin Ireland and Michael Urie I've recommended this book to almost everyone I know. It's a bittersweet family drama with an octopus as the real protagonist. Marin Ireland and Michael Urie give an enchanting voice performance.  The White Lady , by Jacqueline Winspear, Narrator - Orlagh Cassidy Child spies bringing down Nazis ...

While I made the commitment to consume less content in 2022, I managed to read more books this year than I've read any other year of my life. A couple of reasons for that are that a friend of mine and I started off the year with a discussion of It's Not Your Money, by Tosha Silver and then decided to keep the discussions and books going after we'd finished. Additionally, I've become an Audible true believer. I've read more fiction this year than ever and it's mostly because I can listen while driving, walking the dog, washing dishes, and in quiet moments with earbuds. The list is long this year. I'm sharing Amazon Associate links if you think you'd like to read any of these. Your clicks result in my commissions, so thanks! From Book Discussions It's Not Your Money, by Tosha Silver  This one was on my list last year, but I have a feeling I'll revisit it yearly. Great spiritual perspective on money and some simple practices to positively shift our ...

Getting ready for my weekly book discussion with a friend Monday morning. We've been reading a couple of good ones. Most recently, we've been reading Originals by Adam Grant and The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. Both are beautifully written. Originals is more in line with my interests, and I enjoy following Adam Grant on social media. His posts are consistently worth reading. The Art of Gathering seems to have timeliness since we're only now more fully coming back together for face-to-face connection. How we learned to gather almost seems like it doesn't quite fit. I'm going to share some affiliate links for the titles mentioned here. Originals: How Non-Conformists Rule the World by Adam Grant https://amzn.to/3SLXRr7 The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker https://amzn.to/3SwEQZv Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose https://amzn.to/3C5pbsT The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie https://amz...

A few years ago, I was introduced to Susan Cain's first book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking , and was deeply affected by what she had written. She was describing my repeated experience in such accurate detail that I wondered if she'd been able to do a Google search of my thought banks. Turns out I'm just not as unique as I thought I was. My book group of two that I have enjoyed participating in for the past year has been reading Susan Cain's latest book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, and I'm having a stark sense of deja vu. She is putting my internal world on paper for the whole world to see. I've had a streak of melancholy as a feature of my existence since I was very young. I don't remember a time in my life when it wasn't nearby. It was never based on my circumstances; it was almost as if it was central to my worldview. And longing too has been a companion. I think this book will be an affir...