What Moved Me and a GIVEAWAY!: September 2024
Catching up on the books, music, podcasts, and other things that I've loved lately
I’m back for another round up of the books I’ve read, the music I’ve listened to, the podcasts I’ve binged, and a few other things I’m loving.
As always, this monthly offering is free. I love sharing the things I love, especially books. However, if you value what I share here on What Move You, please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Your support means so much to me.
For those who are already paid subscribers: thank you so much. I am so grateful for you.
Let’s start with the books:
I read 4 books in September. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, A Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh, and Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer.
I wanted to LOVE Ariadne but honestly, I only liked it. I am a huge fan of feminist retellings of Greek myths and stories. Circe, by Madeline Miller, is one of my all-time favorite books. And I loved Silence of the Girls, by Pat Barker. But Ariadne didn’t quite have the same magic of Circe or the gritty, brutal truth of Girls.
Instead, we get Theseus as a villain (which I loved). And Ariadne as a lovesick, betrayed woman — who is then rescued by the love of another man.
I think some of the best parts of the book are Phaedra (her sister), speaking honestly about not really loving her children and wanting more from life than being a wife/mother. Also not really feeling the pulsation of motherhood within her blood, which stands in profound contrast to her sister, who is fully absorbed by it. Motherhood gives Ariadne’s life meaning again.
There are powerful moments, particularly at the climax, and this book is absolutely worth the read if, like me, you love feminist reimaginings of classic stories. But it wasn’t my favorite this month.
I did not expect to love A Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon but it was an absolute delight. Was it predictable? 100% yes. Were the romcom tropes on full display? Yes and more yes. Was there also a huge, important secondary storyline about environmental justice? Also yes. Were the sex scenes deliciously spicy? Definitely yes. Would I read the whole thing again? Yes.
If you’re not a fan of romances, this definitely isn’t the book for you. But if you like romances that have great subplots and aren’t skimping on the sex scenes, put this on your TBR.
I did not know that As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow was a YA book when I grabbed it from my local library. It was in the staff picks section and the cover totally pulled me in, along with the first page.
It’s a brutal book, set during the Syrian Revolution. Our narrator is Salama, an 18 year old former pharmacy student turned doctor, whose life is fully upended when the revolution begins. This book deals with the impacts of living in a war zone and severe trauma, including a manifestation of her fear that takes physical form in a character named Khawf, who only she can see but who haunts her daily, in an attempt to help motivate her to flee Syria and survive.
It took me a long time to get through this book. It was a painful read. I still think about it. I wanted to stop reading several times. But knowing that people who lived there did not have the option to stop experiencing daily sniper attacks, bombing, starvation, and constant fear, kept me reading. I owe it to them to know their stories, even if through a fictional retelling.
What pulls the reader through the book is hope. It’s thin, but it’s there. As many other reviewers have said, this book is a love letter to the Syria that once was and the Syria that could exist again, if it is free.
Magical Meet Cute was not your typical romance. For starters, the romance element is almost the secondary plotline. There’s a lot of hot and heavy flirting, innuendo, and one brief, almost-but not quite sex scene. But the main character of this book is antisemitism.
The story starts with a Jewitch (yes, that is intentional — she is Jewish and identifies as a witch) woman who accidentally hits a guy with her bike and knocks him unconscious. As a result, he loses his memory and speech. Feeling guilty, she tries to help rehabilitate him. Here’s where hijinks woulds ensue and they sort of do, but the other thing that happens are a series of antisemitic attacks. Doxxing, property destruction, physical threats.
So while the 2 main characters are falling in love, they’re also navigating all of that.
As a Jewish woman, I loved this book because I saw so much of myself and my culture in it, which is a rare thing — especially in conventional romance.
I love that Jean Meltzer always writes heroines with disabilities — sometimes visible, sometimes not, but always impacting their work, lives, and relationships.
It’s not your typical romance or a typical witchy book, but it incorporates magic from a Jewish perspective, which I love. And at it’s core, this story is more about finding your spiritual center and personal truth, which is powerful.
Movies and Things to Watch:
In case you haven’t seen the Enola Holmes movies on Netflix, go watch them. Millie Bobby Brown is charming, Helena Bonham Carter is fantastic (as always), and Henry Cavill is surprisingly good as Sherlock Holmes.
Also, enjoy this wonderful rendition of Pink Pony Club by 2 married tenors.
And loved watching/listening to this, too:
Music and Things to Listen to:
One day after school, my oldest daughter came home and asked me to look up a set of lyrics. Those lyrics were to a song called Pierre by Ryn Weaver. I have listened to that song nearly every day since. It’s delightful.
Thanks to a suggestion from
who writes the fantastic newsletter I’ve been re-listening to 4 by Beyonce, usually when I’m lifting heavy weights because Beyonce inspires me to get strong and fierce. I’d also forgotten how good that entire album is and how many songs on it are ones I really love. Thanks for the inspiration, L’Oreal.🎵 One more music related thing 🎵: I’m thinking about putting together a fall playlist because I’ve been listening to a lot of good music lately that has major autumn vibes. Leave me a comment to let me know if you’re interested in that.
A few things to read or listen to on your phone:
I listened to so many great podcasts this month.
The Jane Collective by You’re Wrong About, which is about an underground feminist collective that took matters into their own hands in the years before Roe was passed by the Supreme Court. I also just finished a double episode about Lawrence v Texas, which is also incredible.
You’re Getting Dexa Scammed on the Movement Logic podcast, which gives so much essential information about why Dexa scans are not necessarily helpful when it comes to diagnosing osteoprosis.
People Read My Sex Scenes on the Burnt Toast podcast, which is a reminder of why it is so important to feature characters with a wide variety of body diversity in romance.
Who Gets to Write History on the Under the Influence podcast which is an interview between
and Sharon McMahon (aka SharonSaysSo and America’s government teacher), which was just utterly brilliant and powerful.I’ve read some great substacks, too.
I loved
’s beautiful piece called Who Has Cared For Your Children on her substack . It’s inspiring me to finally write a piece about childcare that’s been on my mind ever since JD Vance made those absurdly uninformed comments about childcare. So that might show up in the next month. Stay tuned.As the mom of children who use “curse words” liberally and with enthusiasm, I loved
’s piece called My Kid is Sweary AF.And I really appreciated reading
’s essay called The Diapers Won’t Save Us, in part because it flows along the same lines as essays I’ve written or essays I want to write. But it’s also an important criticism of the utterly unhelpful ways that the government tries to pretend they care about moms and families, but never truly does anything meaningfully helpful.A BIG GIVEAWAY!
I’ve got a big giveaway this month.
First up is the 1000 piece puzzle I completed with my family this month. This puzzle was really tricky. Look at all of those raccoons, the similarity in color variation, and multiple items showing up in different places. It took the better part of September, with 4 of us working on it to finally finish. On a more tender note, the artist who created this puzzle is Ivy Dolamore, who is based in Asheville, NC. I hope they are safe in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
The next thing I am giving away is a copy of Magical Meet Cute, which I reviewed this month. So if you love romance with a heavy dash of social justice, definitely enter this giveaway.
And the last part of the giveaway are 2 tickets to the Mental Health and Motherhood Conference, which happens in 2 weeks (October 11th). These tickets are valued at $25 each. I am enormously proud to be sharing the microphone with so many incredible women and moms for this conference. I am speaking about mental health and movement, but the topics are wide ranging and you can take a peek at the link above to see what everyone else is speaking about. If you cannot attend live, no biggie. The conference will be recorded and available to you after the event ends.
TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY, you must be subscribed to my substack and you need to write “giveaway” in the comments below!
Giveaway will be open through Friday, October 4th. Good luck to all those who enter!
Lastly, here’s my latest video on YouTube.
This past month in my online studio, MOVE with Naomi, I taught a lot of twisting because our pose of the month was a deep twist (Parivritta Parsvakonasana, if you know the sanskrit for the pose). So on my YouTube channel, I shared 2 different videos that offer insights into twisting. The first gives options for deep twisting when your body doesn’t easily do what the teacher is instructing.
You can find that one here.
The second practice is direct from my online studio, one of the 8 minute flows I filmed this month. As someone who is both a movement professional, a mom of 3, and has 2 jobs on top of that, I don’t typically have time for lengthy workouts. 8-15 minutes is really my sweet spot.
That’s why I built an entire library of 8 minute flows in my online studio. I can’t possibly be the only person who wants to move my body, doesn’t want to sacrifice fun, and is willing to make the most of the brief time I have to do it.
You can watch the video here:
That’s it for September from me, but I want to know, what are you loving lately? Hit me with your book recs, music, podcasts, and anything else moving you right now!
Let me know in the comments!
Yayyy so happy to hear you're rocking out to 4!
Thank you so much for the shout out Naomi! The political commentary certainly pushed me to write it. Look forward to your future writing on the topic.