April: What I read this month

Hey friends! So I’ve started reading a lot more this year and it has slowly become the highlight of my day. I’ve always loved reading but always told myself I didn’t have time to read but this year I was determined to make time. Each month, I plan to give an update on what I’ve been reading that month and give a super short blurb about what I thought of each book. I love getting book recommendations from friends so thought this might be a helpful way for you to get some new ideas of books to read.

Eat, Pray, Love ‘One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia’ by Elizabeth Gilbert. Over the years I have had more people than I can count ask me if I have read this book and when I told them “no” they always replied with the same shocking “You haven’t? It reminds me so much of you!!” So a client actually gave me this book and I finally made time to read it. Can I just say I loved this book and I think Elizabeth Gilbert and I have way more in common than our first name. After reading this book, I felt like if we were to meet we would be best of friends. It was beautiful, inspiring and such a delightful read. It’s a wildly fantastic story of her adventures to explore pleasure, devotion and balance as she travels over the course of a year. This is one I would want to own vs. borrow simply because I did a lot of underlining in this book of sentences that I just found to be delightful plus I will read this book again just for fun.

The Gift Of Being Yourself ‘The Sacred Call to Self Discovery” by David G. Benner. I have been going through this book with some friends of mine and it has been so good. I definitely wouldn’t say it’s an easy read, it’s dense in that it’s packed with a lot of deep content but it opened my mind so much and revealed so much about my self. At the end of each chapter, the author lists several application points or exercises you can do that include journaling prompts, practicing presence and scripture meditations, and many other deep exploration suggestions. I would definitely want to own this book vs. borrow it because I feel like this book is best if read slow, to allow yourself time to digest everything. I also feel like this is a book that would be helpful to revisit over the years. It also touches on finding your vocation and calling in a way that I found more helpful than most things I have read on this topic.

This Is Where You Belong  ‘Finding home wherever you are’ by Melody Warnick. This book is all about how to love the community in which you live and get involved. It’s practical and lists plenty of things you could start doing as soon as today to improve your connection to the area you live. Each point she brings up is backed by incredible scientific research and studies that I found fascinating to read. I found my mind growing as I thought to myself over and over again “how cool that people are actually doing studies on these type things!” It’s an incredible read and one I would highly recommend to anyone who lives somewhere (which is everyone!!). It also has discussions questions and would be a perfect book to start a neighborhood book club around – which I’m hoping to start this summer.

If you have a book that you have recently read that you loved I would love to hear about it. Thanks for reading today and ’till next time, stay fabulous.