Here to encourage you on your own bold pursuit of intentional living as I live out my own. I’m passionate about running, spending time doing what I love and cheering others on to approach running with joy.
This was the best reading month I have had in awhile! I have been in a reading funk for quite some time and a bright side of my injury has been getting back into reading. I’ve always been an avid reader, so it feels great to get back into a reading routine. I read seven books this month and thoroughly enjoyed almost all of them!
4/5 stars
For anyone interested in the health + wellness world, you should strongly consider reading this book. I’ve always known advertising and strategic marketing plays a big role, but wow – this book made me think a lot more about the overall industry. Journalist Rina Raphael dives into the world of wellness, conducting interviews, testing things out for herself and taking a hard look at the data. She dives into the psychology of a lot of popular self-care practices and did a really wonderful job linking why women are so obsessed with wellness.
4.5/5 stars
I love a good thriller, but oftentimes they all start to feel the same. This one, however, was not like that! The ending really threw me for a loop and I was sucked in the entire time. The book follows a family who reunites for their grandmother’s 80th birthday on a remote island. They all come bearing secrets, which are slowly revealed as they find out there is a murderer amongst them. One by one, they all start to die…
3.5/5 stars
I’ll be honest – I would’ve rated this book higher had it not had so many graphic sex scenes. Nothing wrong with those, they’re just not something I personally enjoy reading and they lasted a long time in my opinion haha. Overall, it was a really enjoyable and fun book. Predictable, sure, but still fun to read. It follows the life of one woman who quit her job to pursue writing, but suddenly has writer’s block with her due date for a book right around the corner. She decides to go on experimental dates with her best friends' cousin, who she happens to be rooming with temporarily.
5/5 stars
This was one of the cutest books I’ve read in awhile. I loved every second of it. The book is about a doctor who feels as if she is flatlining - her brother needs to find a kidney donor asap, her divorce just finalized and it doesn’t seem like she will get the promotion at work she was expecting to get because of the new doctor on the team. She starts to hate the new doctor, but things change when he writes her a letter that shows he’s actually not a jerk, and maybe he is really funny, too. If you enjoy Emily Henry’s books, you would definitely like this book!
4/5 stars
I have been really intrigued by Elliot’s story and have been excited to read his memoir since I first saw him post about it. I personally think his story is a really important perspective and he shares a lot about struggles he faced in Hollywood, both as a queer person and then as transgender. I found it really heartbreaking, but also really eye-opening, too. My only feedback is that it was told out of order and at times, it was a bit hard to follow the timeline of everything.
3/5 stars
I really wanted to love this one…and just did not. I hate giving it a less-than stellar review because I genuinely learned so much about deaf culture and it helps me to better understand the deaf community, however, there were some things that didn’t sit well with me. The story takes place at the River Valley School for the Deaf and shares perspectives of high school students who attend it. I found all the illustrations and history at the end of every chapter to be so helpful, but I felt like the characters were painted in a light that made them seem to only care about sex, drinking/drugs and acts of violence. I was excited to read a book from a perspective different than I typically do, and while there was much to be enjoyed, there was also much to feel only so-so about with this one.
5/5 stars
This was my favorite book I read all month and I cannot recommend it enough! I devoured every single page, I thought it was so fun to read and I felt connected to so many of the characters, too. Hollis Shaw is a popular food blogger and her life is seemingly perfect. But one day, she and her husband get into a fight and he dies in a car accident shortly after. Hollis struggles to put pieces back together and decides to host a “five star weekend” with best friends from all different time periods of her life. It turns into a weekend like no other.