January 2022 Reading List

This was my only Christmas related read and I didn’t even finish it before Christmas. I do love a good Christmas read to get me in the spirit, but this one didn’t do it for me.

It’s the story of three friends that live in different parts of the world and decide to swap locations to experience a different Christmas. I couldn’t quite follow their reasoning on why they would do this, all I could think was why don’t you all go to the one place to spend some time together.

As I read the book I couldn’t keep up with who was who and where they came from and where they went. I should have hand-drawn a mind map to keep track of everyone.

Each character did challenge themself and grow while they spent time in another location, which shows that a change of environment can do wonders for the direction of our life.

I have read a few books by Fiona McIntosh so I knew I’d be in for an epic story and it didn’t disappoint. I listened to it as an audiobook from my library. My library history shows I borrowed it 4 times, that’s because it’s a whopper of a book with a listening time of nearly 14.5 hours. But I do have fond memories of pulling summer weeds, planting vegetables and walking the dog while listening to it.

It’s set during World War I and tells the story of Sophie, the owner of a vineyard that produces champagne. Soon after getting married, her husband is sent to war and goes missing, but Sophie continues to keep the vineyard going with struggles of war and interfering family.

It has some beautiful imagery, such as how champagne is made. You can just about taste it. Highly recommend!

I thought I’d been bullet journaling these last few years but since reading this book I can see the only factor I took from it was to customise a notebook to my own needs.

The book is split into 3 sections – The Preparation, The System, and The Practice. It slowly introduces you to the reasoning behind bullet journaling, the actual way you do it and then how you incorporate it into your life.

It is quite simple when compared to what you see on the internet. No pretty handwriting, colours and pictures. Just handwritten text with a few symbols and a systematic way of keeping track of everything you want to remember.

Inspired by the book I started a new notebook and will use the system outlined in the book for a few months to see how it goes. So far so good. I’ve ditched printing my custom templates and using washi tape. I’m enjoying the simplicity and finding it much more useful than my “pretty” notebook.

I’m reading all of Wayne Dyer’s books in chronological order and this one I did skip a few to read as it was mentioned in an episode of the Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Podcast.

A Promise is A Promise shares the inspirational story of Kaye O’Bara who cared for her comatose daughter Edwarda, for over 30 years. Kaye coped with financial strain and the physical needs of never getting a good night sleep as her daughter needed feeding every 2 hours. 

Wayne Dyer draws important lessons from this relationship and what Edwarda can teach us all.

Marcelene Dyer, Wayne’s wife, writes one of the chapters to give her perspective as a mother. It’s a quick read, about an hour or two, and is very inspiring. 

I have only recently discovered Anne Bogel and her podcast What Should I Read Next? and I love listening to her (although I’m intimidated by all the books mentioned and how many she has read). To get to know Anne more I’ve been reading her books. I read I’d Rather Be Reading at the end of last year and loved it, so I picked up Reading People which wasn’t what I expected at all. 

Reading People is not about people who read, but about how to “read people”, ie know their personality type, and yours, so that you know yourself and other people better. It covers a number of personality tests, including some I know about – Myers Briggs, 5 Love Languages – as well as some that I didn’t. When I did the Myer Briggs one in my thirties and found out I was an INFJ it really made me understand myself better. Yes, I’m quiet, but that’s OK I have a rich inner world that is enough for me.

It’s a great introduction to personality types, but if you have already travelled that path or are on it, I’d give it a miss.

This is Wayne Dyer’s ninth book that was published in 1992. It’s all about creating your own miracles. Listen to your inner knowings, trust them and surrender.

There are a lot of life lessons in this book, like in all of Wayne’s books. One of my favourite quotes, and what I need to work on is “Trusting yourself means that you are trusting the wisdom that designed and created you in the first place, and knowing that you are on purpose, you know that the universe is also on purpose”.

This is a book I will need to read a few times to fully understand it’s message.

This was a book I came across by accident. I was looking for Wayne Dyer’s book called “Manifest Your Destiny”, the subtitle of this book (a great marketing trick but I’ll put it down to coincidence).

It is a series of fictional letters between the author and a male teenager over the course of the year that offers valuable life lessons. As a mid-forty year old female I’m not in the demographic for this book so I skipped some sections, but I did learn a thing or two. For example, get school to work for you, not the other way round. I can definitely use this as a parent.

I didn’t like how Hill kept mentioning where he was and what he was doing when writing the letter. It just sounded boastful and didn’t add any value. – Eg. “Man, I gotta get to the set and shoot a scene for CSI: NY, so we’ll talk soon.”