October Favorites: The Books, Podcasts, and Products You Need

My favorite books, podcasts and products you need from the month of October.

favorite books

I continued to read a lot about marriage and history during October, as I did in September, plus another fiction thrown in there for fun. Here are the 5 books I read in October:

Popes and Feminists: How the Reformation Frees Women from Feminism by Elise Crapuchettes

I really enjoyed this book because I not only learned about the Reformation, but also about the history of feminism. It’s crazy how similar some of the messaging is between the feminist movement of today and the Catholic Church during the time of the Reformation. Both groups had the belief that women were “nothing” unless they had a job outside of the home. More specifically, the Catholic Church thought that the only jobs that really mattered were pious jobs relating to the church.

Both groups also had a very low view of marriage and the family. This is why so many women became nuns during that time. They were told that that was how they would honor God the most, because sexual intimacy (even in marriage) defiled women. I encourage you to read this book to learn more. The similarities between the Catholic Church and feminists was so interesting to me.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I could not put this book down. Going into it, I was a little leery. It seemed like it was going to be very straight-forward and predictable, but boy was I wrong.

Kya, known around town as the “Marsh Girl” lives in the quiet fishing village called Barkley Cove. Her family abandoned her when she was little, and she was left to live alone in their small house in the marsh. Kya develops a few unlikely friendships with people from the town and her life is flipped upside down when one of them, Chase Andrews, is found dead.

No Mere Mortals: Marriage for People Who Will Live Forever by Toby J. Sumpter

I’m trying to work through as many of the marriage books I have on my list before I get married in May. This was the first one I read, and I highly recommend it to everyone. He goes through pretty much everything you can think of in regards to marriage, and dives in to who you both are to God, to each other, and what your relationship means and reflects. It’s definitely one of the best marriage books I’ve read.

Journal of the First Voyage of Columbus by Christopher Columbus

Back to another history book. In honor of Columbus day, I decided I would read the journal he wrote during his voyage to America. There are so many opinions surrounding Christopher Columbus, and I was really unsure about what was true and what wasn’t. After reading this book, I can definitely say that the modern liberal take on Columbus is not at all true. They basically say that he was an evil and racist man who took great joy in stealing land from and killing the Natives. Of course, this book is solely his perspective, so it only gives one side of the story. But from what I gathered, he was nothing but nice and respectful to the Natives he came across.

His main goal was to spread the news of the Gospel to them. Multiple times he said that the best way to convert them to Christianity was through friendship, not force. This is the exact opposite of what the modern teachings say about him today. He was also very friendly with the Natives, giving them things they needed and helping them even when they had little to give him in return. The Natives seemed to greatly enjoy their company and thought very highly of Columbus and his crew. There were a few times that he mentioned them saying that the Natives thought they must be from heaven because of the good they brought to their village.

It’s also important to note that a few of the tribes he met were known for attacking other tribes with little to no reason. Some were even cannibals. The current view of Native Americans is that they were pure and innocent people, never wanting to even hurt a fly. However, this is not the case. Some of the tribes were full of amazing and loving people, while others were not. That’s not racist to say, that’s simply the truth.

We can’t twist history just to fit the narrative that minority groups are always oppressed and the white man is always the oppressor. This is why it’s so important to learn about history through primary sources, not through modern commentary and opinion pieces.

Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson

If you read one marriage book, make it be this one. I knew that I would probably really enjoy this book because I love everything the Wilsons do and write. In this book, he writes about the traditional and Biblical qualities of a marriage and how a true Christian marriage should be. Doug doesn’t hold back the truth at all. There may be times throughout reading that you feel off-put or offended because his take on marriage is so contrary to what the world says marriage is. And so contrary to what our flesh desires for marriage, especially as women. However, what he writes is the truth, and I greatly appreciate how willing he is to share it without hesitation.

favorite podcasts

In last month’s favorite post, I shared the podcasts that I was loving. Since there are only a handful of podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, I figured it would be better to share individual episodes from those podcasts instead of just sharing the same five podcasts every month.

The Are You Menstrual Podcast

The Now That We’re a Family Podcast

The Freely Rooted Podcast

favorite products

Tempdrop Fertility and Ovulation Tracker

Every woman should take her temperature every morning. I think this for multiple reasons and I’ll make a more detailed post about those reasons in the future. For now, I’ll just say this: it gives you so much insight into your overall health. Your temperature changes pretty much on a daily basis throughout your menstrual cycle depending on your hormone levels. Taking your basal body temperature (the temperature of your body at rest) can tell you if you ovulated and if your metabolism and thyroid are functioning well.

Knowing that you ovulated is not only important for trying to conceive or not to conceive, but it also tells you whether or not your body is functioning as it should. Ovulation is the sign of a healthy and fertile female body. If a woman isn’t ovulating on a regular basis, then something is off and she needs to work on her health. Sadly, anovulatory cycles are very common in women today. After ovulation, your body starts producing progesterone which raises your temperature by at least three to five tenths of a degree. Having three days of raised temperatures confirms that you ovulated.

The normal and healthy range for basal body temperature is between 97.4*F and 98.6*F. If your temperature falls below those numbers on a regular basis, that likely means you have a sluggish thyroid. I won’t go into ways to help support your thyroid in this post, but look out for a post like that in the near future.

I mentioned in this post that I’ve always struggled with hormone issues. One of the ways I’m trying to heal myself and get to the root cause is by taking my temperature everyday. I started out just using a general basal body thermometer, but found that it was hard to take my temperature that way every morning. Sometimes I’d be running late and wouldn’t have time. Or I’d wake up at different times everyday, making the temperatures be inconsistent and all over the place.

I was listening to a podcast, and the woman recommended the Tempdrop thermometer. It’s a band that you wear around your arm when you sleep, and it tracks your temperature all night. Once you wake up, you can sync the Tempdrop to your phone and it will give you your average temperature throughout the night. This is a great option for people who have busy mornings, wake up at different times everyday, or for mothers who wake up with their children multiple times a night. All of those things can make it hard to get an accurate temperature reading every morning. With the Tempdrop, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s a small investment, but I highly recommend it to any woman who is wanting insight into her health, or who is using the Fertility Awareness Method to conceive or prevent pregnancy.

Perfect Supplements Hydrolyzed Collagen

Collagen is great for our body. It can help to improve the health of our hair, skin, nails, gut, liver, heart, brain, teeth, and bones. It also provides us with a little extra protein. I put it in smoothies and into my adrenal cocktails to make them a little more balanced with the added protein. I love that this one doesn’t have any flavor, however they do have a chocolate collagen powder that would be great in smoothies.

Trace Mineral Drops

Trace minerals are crucial for our body. We are not able to produce them ourselves, so we get them from our food and water. However, modern farming and water-filtration have stripped the minerals from our soil and water sources, leading to mineral-depleted food and mineral-depleted bodies. Minerals are essential for pretty much every function in the body because of their roles within the cells. It’s also very important to have balanced minerals because many minerals work together synergistically.

You can eat mineral rich foods like shrimp, oysters, bone broth, grass-fed dairy, beef liver, fruit, and starchy veggies. Many of the symptoms I have seem to be caused by mineral depletion, so I’m trying to get as many into my body as I can. That’s why I started adding these Trace Mineral Drops into my water in addition to eating mineral rich foods. I can tell a huge difference in how I’ve felt since adding these drops. It’s likely that everyone is low on minerals, so I highly recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t have symptoms.

Leave a comment if you try any of these products, or read or listen to any of these books! Thanks for reading!