We’re spending more time at home and now that the days are shorter I tend to read more. So I wanted to share a few of my favorite books (old and recent) with you to provide you with some ideas for gifts or for yourself.
Happy reading.
Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. So each time I impatiently wait for a new one to come out. I just started reading it and the plot sounds so interesting. Jodi always researches her topics well, is a master at crafting her characters and showing the reader different points of view of the story.
Let’s say your job is to help people die. Then you find yourself on a plane that plummets and you find yourself thinking about what your life could have been. The eternal ‘What if…’ question. What if I had followed the man I loved but couldn’t be with? What if I had not closed or opened that door?
During my summer vacation, a friend of mine was completely immersed in this book and highly recommended it. She even lent it to me and I recently finished it and can only join in the rave about it and have even ordered the author’s first book Les Oubliés du Dimanche.
The main character, Violette, is the responsible guardian of a cemetery in a small village. This is the story of her life but also of all the people that surrounded her. It’s about the simple every day things and the big bangs that happen in your life. It’s a story about life and death, about laughter and tears, about love and sorrow, about wanting to give up but continuing anyway, about people and how encounters happen when they need to. It’s a gem!
I have read quite a few ‘life purpose’ books in my life. And every now and again I feel the need to read another one. Because purpose is not ONE thing you find and then it stays with you forever, it’s not linear. So over time, when I feel off kilter, the Universe sends me a sign. And that sign came through yet another dear friend who had just read this one and called it ‘eye-opening’. Since that friend and I are very alike and seem to go through the same motions at the same times in our lives, I grabbed this one of course! The author basis his book on a two-thousand-year-old spiritual classic called the Bhagavad Gita—an ancient allegory about the path to dharma, told through a timeless dialogue between the fabled archer, Arjuna, and his divine mentor, Krishna. Now this might sound boring, but Cope manages to keep you going by telling you stories about well-known figures such as Jane Goodall, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony and John Keats, but also about people who are not famous at all, to show you that we all are on the same path.
So if you’re lost right now for whatever reason, this book may offer the guide that you are looking for.
This book is my first coach‘s first book. She is the reason I do vision boards, organised retreats and do the workshops that I do. She gets me. Well, me and thousands of other women by now. I first met her in 2009 at her retreat in Asheville, North Carolina when I was a young mother searching for myself. And although I have had other coaches since and she also grew into her path, I keep following her for all the wisdom she continues to provide. Her book is not out yet, so I haven’t read it yet. But I know for sure that it is written like her blog, podcast and workshops: useful, authentic, to the point, fun, practical and very very valuable. So grab your copy now.
I first heard about this book at work. Because it’s written by the wife of our canteen chef. She is Italian, and her Italian grandmother and family were the inspiration for this book. So if you like Italian life, people who speak loudly with their hands and want to know in how much childhood impacts adult life, this is your book. Serena has in the meantime written a second book called Mamma Maria.
I kept a journal when I was a kid. I also loved collaging. Whether it’s on a vision board to plan my life, or to create art. I haven’t combined both yet, but I am always endlessly inspired by artist’s journal. I have been following Orly Avineri for a while as I am fascinated by her unconventional way of creating books, processing life, destruction and creation.
Like she says: “It’s okay to change. It’s okay to retreat, then join back in. It’s okay to leave and never come back. It’s okay to leave and come back differently.”
I’ve read all of Lucinda Riley’s books. So you could say I’m a fan. She started the Sun Sisters series some years ago and this is book 6. Although it’s a series, you an read each sister book individually as they are standalone stories only linked by a few paragraphs to the other sisters. But of course, once you are hooked you want to read all of them. Lucinda’s writing style is enchanting. She always combines present and past in her books with parallel stories that connect in the end. It is always well researched, detailed and intensely satisfying. This one is about Electra and takes you from glamorous present day to Kenya in the past.