Small Talk~ Learning From My Children What Matters Most {a Flyby Review)

Friends are made in many ways. Some friendships evolve because of the amount of time we spend together, like a co-worker. Other friends, real friends, come about when we realize, "It's not just me!" "You do that too??" Suddenly we find ourselves spilling our beans about every “bad mommy” moment and each time you skipped lunch so you could grab some rare McDonald’s by yourself on your way to the grocery store to this would-be stranger.

Reading Small Talk is like chatting with a girlfriend over a cup of coffee. She spills her beans, I laugh out loud and mentally recount my own similar memories.

Author Amy Julia Becker isn’t just witty and comical, she’s honest. She dares to say what some of us will only think.

Her book is divided into three parts: holding on, letting go and growing up. Each part is composed of several small chapters, roughly 7-8 pages each.  The short chapters make it easy to read the book in bite-sized time frames. As a mother of five children, with three of them under 4 years old, I only have sporadic moments to read. J

Part One

Birth, Failure, Heaven, Christmas, Rest, Disability, Jesus, Beauty, Prayer

 

Part Two

Gratitude, Sin, Waiting, Easter, Listening, God, Spirit, Happiness, Laughter

 

Part Three

Love, Miracles, Tragedy, Kindness, Forgiveness, Church, Money, Friendship, Baptism, Marriage, Grace

As you can see, Amy Julia covers a vast array of subjects.

With Christmas right around the corner (!) the Christmas chapter was especially timely for me. She talks about her internal battle with Christian Christmas vs. American Christmas. Baby Jesus vs. Santa. Oh Holy Night vs. Jingle Bell Rock.

This is one book you don’t want to miss!! I am excited to say that I get to give one of you a copy! Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win!!
 

About the Book

Every day, one of Amy Julie Becker’s children says something that prompts her to think about life in a new way. “Mom, does Santa love me?” William asks, after his mother explains the meaning of Christmas…In a chat with her dad about the children who died in the Sandy Hook shootings, Penny asks, “Did they go to heaven?” …”You was a jerk, Mommy?” asks Marilee one morning in the car.

These conversations deepen Amy Julia’s relationships with her children, but they also refine her understanding of what she believes and what God is doing in her own life.

In Small Talk, Amy Julia draws from the wisdom and curiosity of those young voices to reflect on beauty and kindness, tragedy and disability, prayer and miracles. As she moves through the basic questions her kids posed when they were very young to the more intellectual questions of later childhood, she invites us to learn from our own day-to-day conversations with the children in our lives.

This eloquent parenting memoir is about the big questions little hearts ask, the thoughts their words provoke, and the laughter and soul-searching their honesty brings—to adult and child alike.

 

Small Talk is a soft cover, 230 page gem that retails for $15.99.
 

Listen to Author Amy Julia Becker talk about her book, Small Talk

 

About the Author
Amy Julia Becker writes about faith, family, and disability for Parents.com, the New York Times Motherlode blog, TheAtlantic.com, The Huffington Post parents page, Christianity Today, The Christian century, and numerous other publications. Her first book, A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny, was named one of the Top Ten Religion Books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly. Amy Julia lives in western Connecticut with her husband and three children.

Connect with Amy on her website, Twitter and Facebook

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Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.