March Reading Update

This year I’m sharing the experiences I have reading. This month I reached my #read16in16 goal, but there are plenty more books on my to-be-read list!

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert -This book was on so many people’s end-of-2015 list of books they read and loved that I had to add it to my must read list. I’m so glad I did because I enjoyed reading it! It was an easy read with multiple reminders to enjoy your creativity every day. For me, that is writing and I am inspired to do that more, thanks to this book! I expanded on my thoughts in this post Find Your Big Magic specifically about the inspiration from this book.
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini – I loved listening to this audio book. My friend and I have always been fascinated by the secrets behind Scientology, and this book spills the beans on that and more! I appreciated Remini’s honesty about how she loved her time in Scientology and the struggles to leave it and then accept her life without it. Her life is nothing like I would have imagined, which reminds me not to judge a book by its cover, nor a celebrity by their tabloid persona.
Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz -This was an audio book I downloaded a long time ago, and just got around to listening to it this week. I knew nothing about the story, so it was a pleasant surprise to listen, truly not knowing anything about the plot. I enjoyed getting to know the flawed characters and the way the author connected to real-life events (from the 80’s). This is a sweet YA story!
Eat – Taste – Heal by Thomas Yarema, Daniel Rhoda, Chef Johnny Brannigan – This was recommended by my acupuncturist, as we continue to work with what my body needs to heal, to rejuvenate. The information resonated with me, so reading this made a lot of sense to me at this point in my time. I’m making an effort to focus on food to be the most healing for my body type as described in the book.
Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris – I have always loved NPH, from his days as Doogie Howser, M.D., to Barney on “How I Met Your Mother” to everything in between. I truly believe he and I could be good friends if we ever met IRL. 😉 I listened to his book, which was adapted from the written version. The written version is truly written as a choose-your-own adventure style. Obviously that is harder to capture in an audio book, but the adaptations were cute. I LOVE listening the real celebrities reading their own books- it truly brings the story to live for me. This was no exception. It was a quick, fun read about my future BFF!
City of Beasts by Isabel Allende – I read books by Allende in Spanish while in college. I never knew she wrote YA books and recently discovered this in a used book store. I actually held a physical book in my hands to read this (rare these days!). This was not a quick-paced adventure, but a long, slow-moving story told in many details. I liked, but did not love the experience of reading this. What I did enjoy was the location (the Amazon), especially after hearing all about the Amazon from Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic.
Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other To Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected by Jim Knight – I began reading this book as part of a monthly book study on the #educoach chat. While I was familiar with Jim Knight’s work around coaching, I hadn’t read one of his books in entirety. I really enjoyed this book at this point in my life. He provides concrete steps to help us all become better conversationalists by enhancing our listening and communicating skills. He also encourages us to videotape ourselves and analyze our conversation through a variety of lenses; that is next on my to-do list!