I suspect the story of buying this book is more entertaining than my review of the book will be, but that could be because I lived through both.

I bought this book in Sydney when Mom and I went last October. After I had my talk and my workshop at Web Directions, Mom and I spent a couple days exploring Sydney. We went many museums, with one of them having a cute shop. I picked up two children's books in the shop simply because the binding of the books were so good. This was one of them. I love the bindings of this book. It is a beautiful, well constructed, delightful-to-hold book.

So, I was standing in line for this book when a senior couple came into the museum. I had already been standing in line for what I considered a long bit, waiting for the clerk to deal with a register failure and a difficult customer. I was patient, I waited without comment. The senior couple, however, were entitled American asshats, and decided they didn't need to wait. It was THEIR RIGHT to cut in front of the 8 people in line, and USE THEIR MUSEUM COUPON to enter the museum.

So, I flicked them off.

The old asshat guy saw me, and said, "You're evil."

Seriously, you're an entitled asshole, with no consideration for the other people who are patiently standing in line, and you consider a well-deserved bird as evil? Dude, you have serious world-view problems.

I responded, "I'm happy to give you some, too." and gave him the bird again.

Yeah.

Mom was not happy with my reaction.

So, this and the other book sat in my to-read box of books. I pulled it last week to read it. The book was written in 1894. It's the story of a seven kid 1880s Sydney household, ages ranging from 16 to 1, with the dad being a Captain and the current mother the mother of only the youngest kid. The older six kids were from the Captain's first wife. The kids are undisciplined. The new wife only 20 and unable to really curate their education. The book is their adventures for a few months one particular year.

It was an easy, fun read. The ending is sad and satisfying. I am glad I read the book. The thing that got me, though, was the vocabulary in the book. As I look up words I don't understand (and hence, much prefer ebooks these days for the ability to click on a word to look it up), I have to say that I was stumped SO MANY TIMES with this book. I flipped through my browser history to get a list of the words (and definitions).

Behold, the words a 1890s kid was expected to know:

veneration - great respect
slatternly - dirty and untidy, typically of a woman's appearance
pelisse - woman's cloak with armholes
paperchase - action of processing forms or other paperwork, especially when excessive
paddock - small field or enclosure where horses are kept or exercised
iniquitous - grossly unfair and morally wrong
canterbury - a late 18th century low wooden stand with partitions for holding cutlery and plates
mulcted - extract money from someone by fine or taxes, deprive someone of possessions by fraudulent means
ulster - man's long overcoat of rough cloth, usually with a belt at the back
liberality - quality of giving or spending freely
tucker - piece of lace worn around the top of the bodice or as an insert at the front of a low-cut dress
repast - a meal
gowk - awkward or foolish person (often as a term of abuse)
vituperation - bitter abusive language
stolid - (of a person) calm, dependable, and showing little emotion
serge - durable twilled woolen or worsted fabric
musk - relative of the monkey flower that was formerly cultivated for its musky perfume
peccadillo - small, relativesly unimportant offense or sin
neuralgia - intense typically intermittent pain along the course of a nerve, espcially head or face
jonquil - narcissus with clusters of small fagrant yellow flowers and cylindrical leaves
wattle - material for making fences, walls, consisting of rods interlaced with branches
pall - something enveloping a situation with an air of gloom, heaviness, or fear
hack - a horse for ordinary riding
stentorian - (of a person's voice) loud and powerful
provender - animal fodder / food
pater - person's legal father
cambric - lightweight, closely woven white linen or cotton fabric
risible - such as to provoke laughter
cachinnation - to laugh loudly or immoderately
celerity - swiftness of movement
ringbark - to girdle

Yeah.

Most of those words have fallen out of use. Perhaps they were used commonly enough that kids did know those words.

I really thought I had already written this review. A little bit of a surprise to realize I hadn't, to be honest. I will likely find my original review later.

Because my stack of books these days consist of books from Mom and books I haven't finished, that this book came from my Mom stack of books should come as little surprise.

It tells the tale of Sean King, a former Secret Service agent who fell from grace when the presidential candidate he was protecting was killed, and Michelle Maxwell, a current Secret Service agent who is falling from grace when the presidential candidate she was protecting is kidnapped. Oddly enough, the two incidents, while similar, are not directly linked except by the fall from grace.

King is resistant to becoming involved in Maxwell's predicament, as he is dealing with a number of murders in his small town where he has rebuilt his life. He is a suspect in a couple of the deaths, as he knew the victims, so not really up for dealing with Maxwell's issues. She's an ex-Olympian, incredibly messy, smart, experienced agent who really needs to figure things out.

Because of the way the story unfolds, the ending wasn't one I could predict, one of those all the players aren't on the pages sort of thing. I enjoyed the book nonetheless. Enough to try the next book in the series.

After I had read The Power of Vulnerability, I knew immediately that I wanted to read this book by Brené Brown. Pretty much no way I wasn't going to read this one. And there are many overlaps between this book and the Power of Vulnerability. I knew that would be the case coming into the book. Unlike the previous book, which I listened to, I read this book, because I wanted to savor and ponder and stay with the words and thoughts, which is harder to do with audiobooks. That, and really, let's be honest, one can stand only so much El Jefé, before you want a dose of kindness.

Brown's writing is incredibly warm and welcoming. The book reads like a good friend sitting next to you, guiding you along the path to wholeheartedness. There are parts about building shame resilience. There are explanations about how we arrived here, and how we can survive a culture of scarcity.

What I liked most about the book is that while the explanations of shame, vulnerability, and wholeheartedness are great, the "here's how you get more of this into your life" parts are amazing. The book takes the research and turns it from a "that's nice" to a "here is how my world can change."

My plan is to buy a couple dozen copies of Daring Greatly to have available as gifts and help.

Highly, strongly recommend this book.