Winter Reads

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Are you ready for another round of what I’ve read lately? I hope so!

 

This is a bit of a revamped version of my book reviews if you’ve been with me for my previous ones. I think I even mentioned this in my Fall Reads 2022 post, but I just feel like I want to add some more info to these recurring blog posts and see if we can make them a little more fun and helpful!

 

Ever since I chose a hefty goal (at least for me!) of twenty-three books to read for this year, I started reading like crazy. I know I likely won’t keep this kind of momentum throughout the entire year, but it’s nice to know I’m already ahead of schedule and it’s just February!

 

I am still adding some books to meet my twenty-three book goal, so if you have any recommendations, please let me know and I’ll update that post. Thanks so much to all of you who’ve sent me book recs!!

 

I’m excited to share with you what books I’ve read already this year!

 

 

Now onto my reviews!

 

Things That Matter by Joshua Becker

Life is full of distractions, which can in turn lead to each of us having regrets for the way that we lived – or the way that we didn’t. This personal development book does a great job at exploring common distractions and regrets of those who feel it’s ‘too late.’ This book also comes from a Christian perspective, which I loved, but I think you would enjoy it even if you don’t consider yourself to be religious. It’s just a solid book that delivers on how to keep things in perspective and make time for what you really want in life, and for those that you love. Big picture stuff!

 

It reminded me of how important intentional living is!

 

I know that this isn’t something on the forefront of everyone’s brain, but I’ve really leaned into it more over the recent years. If what I’m doing is contrary to my goals or the type of person that I want to be, I’ll never reach them those goals or be who I want to be. I chose the word consistent for my word of the year because I want to be intentional with my daily activities and make sure that they’re getting me to the place I’d like to be later this year. Even if they aren’t, this is a good way to find out what’s working and what isn’t, so I can pivot and find the best way for me.

 

I would definitely recommend this personal development book. Especially if you’re interested in more intentional living, not getting so caught up in things that won’t really matter later, as well as learning to let go of things that you’ve held against yourself in the past.

 

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Nora is a hard-working literary agent who has made quite the name for herself in New York. She fights hard for her clients and often wins. But when a new editor hops on board of a neighboring company, she meets the resistance! He’s straight forward (maybe a little rude!) and rubs Nora the wrong way from the very beginning. She moves on to another publisher for her client yet still finds herself entangled with him during a vacation of all things with her sister! Lots of surprises ensue from there and I’ll let you find out what happens because you NEED to read this book!

 

This book is definitely one of those opposites attract situations, and for those of you who’ve read The Hating Game, it reminded me a lot of that one! I really fell in love with not just the main character, but her sister’s personality is so cheery and cheesy (contrary to the main character, though she is awesome!), and honestly there’s just a lot to love about almost all of the characters.

 

One of my favorite books that I’ve ever read – it was SO good! I’d highly recommend it!

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I really think this book should come with a few trigger warnings, and I don’t believe these will be considered spoilers: suicide, depression, mother passes away from cancer.

 

Nora finds herself in The Midnight Library, a place in-between life and death, a middle ground that approaches her with some decisions to be made. Which books will she open up to see how her life could have gone differently? Would she be happier? Would she not want to die anymore if she made a single different decision? The book takes you through the many different lives of Nora, different versions of herself that she didn’t even know existed until she ended up in this library.

 

I finished this book in under 24 hours! I heard so many good things about this book back when it first came out and even bought it for my best friend last year. I do have to say, I did not expect the heaviness that some of the book carried. Just from reading the summary of it online, I didn’t gather it would be a bit depressing. I think that’s really why I pushed through reading it because I didn’t like that heavy feeling as I was reading it. I knew it was on my list and I wanted to stick it out.

 

I’m glad I did! It does get a little more light-hearted and I felt good about how it ended. From what I gathered after reading this one, it is more so about the big picture in life. We often get caught up in things that don’t really matter. We worry too much about what others think (and assume too often what they’re thinking). Also, we tend to regret so quickly that we just don’t realize it’s for the best that it didn’t work out the way we had thought.

 

I don’t like the idea of having regrets, but of course there are things in my life that I’ve thought about if they happened differently. If I made one decision differently, what would it have been like? I think the meaning of this book is that even if we could go back and choose something differently, it doesn’t mean that it would have ended as wonderfully as we thought it would have at the time. It may have altered so many relationships that we couldn’t even imagined.

 

If you can get through the heaviness, more so in the beginning of the book, I think you’ll find this to be a deep book. It’s very thought-provoking. I gave this a three-star review not because the book isn’t well written or that I didn’t find it interesting, but because it just pushed the edge a bit for me on the depressing notes. That’s just a personal thing for me!

 

 

Okay friends, that’s all that I’ve read so far this winter! I’d love to hear if you’ve read any of these too or if you’re adding any of them onto your TBR list! If you want to follow along with me in real time, you can follow me on Goodreads and over on my IG stories!

 

P.S. Does anyone else find it funny that I read two different books by two different authors that both had a main character named Nora?! It made me giggle!