At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Traveling the Globe by Tsh Oxenreider
Finishing this book felt like the end of an adventure. I lived vicariously through Tsh Oxenreider, a fellow journalist-mom who traveled the world for a year with her husband and three kids. I felt like I was visiting Australia, New Zealand, and England again and discovering Africa, Italy and Thailand with her. I swear Tsh was inside my mind when she wrote these lines: “I know, in my soul, that a love for travel is a gift and not a hindrance. It feels like a burden when the bucket list is bigger than the bank account, but a thirst for more of the world is not something to apologize for. Denying its presence feels like denying something good in me, something God put there. Wanderlust and my longing for home are born from the same place: A desire to find the ultimate spot this side of heaven.” This book takes a deeper look at traveling than just something to do if you’re privileged or need to get away. It opens your mind and breaks you out of your own little world, your routine, and your set of beliefs and can help you become more compassionate and open-minded. But she talks about the importance of having a place to come home to as well, and not letting constant wanderlust keep you from living your day to day life. Last quote, I promise:
“The way to reconcile my wanderlust with life at home is to lean in to the tension, to extol life’s haunting inability to ever fully satisfy. Travel has taught me the blessing of ordinariness, of rootedness and stability. It can be found anywhere on the globe. It’s courageous to walk out the front door and embrace earth’s great adventures, but the real act of courage is to return to that door, turn the knob, walk through, unpack the bags, and start the kettle for a cup of tea.”
Better Than Before: What I learned about making and breaking habits –to sleep more, quit sugar, procrastinate less and build a happier life by Gretchen Rubin
I scored this book at my book swap. (I’ll give you all the details in my next post!) I think Gretchen’s mind works in a similar way to mine because what she writes always resonates with me. She’s not as sentimental as a lot of self-improvement authors are. Her tone feels more grounded and practical. She’s an excellent researcher, and her books are peppered with statistics and studies behind why we do what we do. I also love her podcast, Happier.
Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame free plan for embracing and achieving our goals by Rachel Hollis
When we have a dream, we are the only ones stopping ourselves from getting after it. As a mom, it’s so easy to let guilt stop you from doing things in addition to motherhood that you feel called to do. This book helps you identify and leave behind the excuses and pitfalls that stop you from taking your life to the next level. Rachel has an engaging writing voice and I felt like the takeaways were delivered in a fun-to-read, applicable way.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This book has a dual timeline, so part of it is set in 1939, and the other part in the present day. A 12-year-old girl and her four siblings live on a boat on the Mississippi River, and one night, their parents rush to the hospital. Strangers arrive and send them to an orphanage, and they have to fight to stay together. In the modern day, a privileged young women starts uncovering some dark secrets about her family’s past. It’s based on the true scandal of a woman who ran an adoption agency in Memphis and kidnapped poor kids and sold them to wealthy families across the country. I hear it’ll make you cry, but it’s a fantastic read.
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
This book is about an American girl who isn’t inherently romantic. She moves to England to go to Oxford and accidentally falls in love with the prince of England, as you do. The story of her being thrown into the royal spotlight and learning the secrets of Prince Nicholas’s family sounds captivating.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
This is the story of a perfect family that lives in a cookie-cutter suburb where everyone plays by the rules. Then, a mother and daughter who play by their own rules move in and shake everything up. This one pulls you in from the start. Bonus: It’s being made into a series on Hulu starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
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