March 2017
It’s clearly self help time again. I’m determined to get myself a good life…
How to live a good life – by Jonathan Fields
Read on kindle. Loved. Bought in paperback. Cannot wait to start making notes in the margins! This book sung to me…
Quiet – the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking – by Susan Cain
I felt like I had finally been understood…
Emotional Agility – by Susan David
Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life. Yes please… I’ve only just started out on this one, but it’s making sense and making me want to try harder…
I have a bit of a (huge) girl / life crush on Liz G… and this book is next up on my reading list. She’s honest, vulnerable and hugely brave – and she sounds just like that wise nagging voice in my head that I ought to listen to more…
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Dare I say it?
Pussy – by Regina Thomashauer.
It’s a bold, and certainly feminist, read and one that I had been hiding from since I first heard of it (seriously, I felt scared of the book somehow) but do you know what? I think maybe, just maybe, us women might just need to be a little more proud of exactly who and what we are, and the power that we can choose to claim for ourselves.
If you fancy a brave and enlightening read, I’d say this is it. I think every woman should read it – and the earlier, the better.
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Present Over Perfect – by Shauna Niequist: I’m on round 2 of it already, and there are bits of it that just bring me to tears. I’m not a religious person at all, but there are lessons in there for anyone who wants more peace, more calm, and less of… pretty much everything else.
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The Culture Map – by Erin Meyer: There is so much I want and need to learn about being out here…
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The Lonely Planet Guide to Shanghai – and as much else about Shanghai as I can in my spare time… of which right now, there isn’t much…
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Brené Brown – I’m reading lots and lots of Brené Brown
Pen in hand at all times, and all books read at least twice, I am loving this woman, her writing and her research… she makes me want to study again…
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I’ve run out of book ideas – which is always a sign of no time…
Help – based on all of the below, and the fact that I’m re-reading the Night Circus – what should i go and read now? I want to be transported to another, inspirational world – help…
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If I could read all the time, I would.
I’m a compulsive reader and have been for as long as I can remember (to the exclusion of most other things – ask my poor friends and hubby.) However with work and the kids, this long-loved hobby has suffered, and it does make me a little sad. I want to read ‘everything’ as I’m sure it will make me smarter, entertain me, and help me find ‘the answer’ (to what, I’m not quite sure.)
So, what I’m reading
Right now, I have the following books on the go…
Judy Blume – In the Unlikely Event: I loved Judy Blume growing up, and so when I saw her name pop up on my GoodReads newsletter, I had to give it a go. It’s good, but I’ll be honest and say that at the moment, with limited time to actually sit and read a novel, I’m not getting along as well as I’d like with this one. Maybe next week, when hubby is away, I might try and dedicate an evening to sitting and reading this to see if I can actually get in to it…
Elin Hilderbrand – The Rumour: Nantucket based trash, that is a super easy airplane scan through (which is exactly where I started devouring this yesterday). I dream of Nantucket as a little piece of heaven, and her books make me feel like I’m a part of it. One day I’ll actually go there, and it best be as wonderful as I’ve hyped it up to be. (This all stems from my 30th birthday present: which was the choice of a trip to Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard – I chose Martha’s and LOVED it. We just never quite managed to fit the Nantucket trip in while we lived over there, and so it hangs… a lingering desire… Maybe I’ll get to retire to the New England coast?)
Laura Vanderkam – What the most successful people do on the weekend / before breakfast / I know how she does it: Official life hack (self help) books that make me believe that ‘more’ is possible from my life, not less. I’m not always sure that I like her tone, and she definitely comes across an slightly irritating in her books, but…I love them. How can I make my hours / days / weeks more productive? How can I stop wasting my time on things that really don’t matter, and devote more time to the things that will have a real impact on me and my family? These books make me want to take notes and improve myself… I read them with pen in hand, underlining key phrases that resonate with me, and a desperate urge to put everything into practice all at once.
Gretchen Rubin – Better than Before: for all the same reasons as above, I love Gretchen Rubin’s books, but have not yet been able to transform my most irritating of habits… But I will, one day. Super accessible writing, I think I want to be Gretchen… The podcast though, not digging it…
And my digital reading diet?
The Times app: For an online news hunt, I’ll always head to The Guardian, but their newspaper app is just nowhere near as intuitive / enjoyable as The Times. It’s an expense that I question regularly (whenever they hike up the subscription price) but… it reads like a newspaper, I love the daily sections, and it’s easy on the commute each morning. However, I’m actually just not that interested in the news. I don’t consume it properly, if you asked me about what I had read, I probably wouldn’t be able to answer, I just feel that I really ‘ought’ to read the news. I think I seriously need to reconsider this expense / time spent. I’d get more enjoyment from a book…
The Guardian, Women in Leadership weekly newsletter: always an interesting read, with articles that I end up tweeting links for… I feel inspired, and then slightly ashamed that I’m not doing something ‘better’ with my working life…
The Huffington Post, Lifestyle, Parents, Third Metric sections etc: an easy app to flick through, with the ability to choose the sections that interest you the most. This always inspires me and is full of the sorts of lists I love (20 ways to build a better day type things…) A great quick read for the train journey home – found after becoming addicted to Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive: I long for this ‘better’ kind of life, where it’s not all about money and power… (see a theme developing here???)
I spend far to much time in my life checking what’s going on on Facebook (why? it’s just voyeurism / one-upmanship… I MUST stop this), not enough time reading interesting things on Twitter, and no time at all reading classics…