I’ve said this a few times throughout the pandemic: Where are the years going? It seems like they should be crawling given the dreary state of our world, but instead, they are moving quite quickly, at least for me. And here we are at the start of a new year. Welcome to 2022!

Last year, I departed from the traditional new-year’s-resolution-goal-setting routine and instead, opted to choose one word to guide my intentions each month instead. And it was a raving success. I gave myself permission to change, to pivot and to switch gears whenever I needed to and it worked for me. 

This year, I’m continuing my one-month-at-a-time focus, but with a twist: I’m going to read, write and learn my way through the month so I can cultivate a life I love one book and one page at a time. That’s right. I’m going all in. 

To kick off my new project in 2022, I’m going with a fairly traditional theme, but one I think I very much need: fresh starts. A fresh start for myself, for my work, for my family and for the world. I mean, who can’t use a bit of freshening up right now? I know I can. 

So this month, I’m infusing my reading life with books that are focused on fresh starts so that I can gain some inspiration and learn a thing or two along the way. And if you’re looking for a fresh start too, then I highly recommend you take a peek at the list below. Some I’ve already read, some are on my January TBR and others are those recommended from bookish friends and booksellers. As always, there’s a mixture of adult fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature to learn from. Here they are with a blend of my own reviews and the descriptions from Goodreads.

Just click on the image or title to see the book on my Amazon link or browse my collection on Bookshop instead. 

Adult Literature:

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

The Late Bloomers Club by Louise Miller

Nora, the owner of the Miss Guthrie Diner, is perfectly happy serving up apple cider donuts, coffee, and eggs-any-way-you-like-em to her regulars, and she takes great pleasure in knowing exactly what’s “the usual.” But her life is soon shaken when she discovers she and her free-spirited, younger sister Kit stand to inherit the home and land of the town’s beloved cake lady, Peggy Johnson.

When a disaster strikes, the community of Guthrie bands together to help her, and Nora discovers that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean giving up your dreams.

What Alice Forgot by Laine Moriarty

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty was mesmerizing from the first page to the last. And it completely changed the way I look at my current circumstances in life. Really. Moriarty tells Alice’s story, an almost-forty-year-old woman who has a serious fall at the gym, a fall that robs her of her last ten years of memories. As she tries to piece her completely-unexpected life back together filled with grief, family strife and even an impending divorce, she gains a new clarity amidst the confusion. This book will stop you in your tracks, make you think about what your own ten-years-younger-version-of-you would say about your current life and maybe even prompt you to reconsider what your next ten years should look like, too.

The Happy Home for Broken Hearts by Rowan Coleman

Ellie Woods spends her days immersed in the escapist pages of the romantic novels she lovingly edits. But her reality is somewhat less rose-tinted. Once upon a time, Ellie had her ‘happily ever after’ moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband’s tragic death leaves her alone with their soon-to-become-a-teenager son, faced with a mountain of debt, and on the verge of losing the family home.

On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie finally succumbs to her sister’s well-meant bullying and decides to rent out some rooms. And Ellie finds herself forced to step out of the pages of the romantic novels she hides behind, and learn to live – and love – again.

Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley

In her twenties, Alexandra Heminsley spent more time at the bar than she did in pursuit of athletic excellence. When she decided to take up running in her thirties, she had grand hopes for a blissful runner’s high and immediate physical transformation. After eating three slices of toast with honey and spending ninety minutes on iTunes creating the perfect playlist, she hit the streets—and failed miserably. The stories of her first runs turn the common notion that we are all “born to run” on its head—and expose the truth about starting to run: it can be brutal.

For any woman who has ever run, wanted to run, tried to run, or failed to run (even if just around the block), Heminsley’s funny, warm, and motivational personal journey from nonathlete extraordinaire to someone who has completed five marathons is inspiring, entertaining, prac­tical, and fun.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international best seller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home – and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is. 

Three More Months by Sarah Echavarre

Chloe Howard’s devotion to her job has come at a cost: spending time with the most important person in her life—her mother. Vowing to change, she plans a trip home. Sadly, hours before she arrives, her mother passes away, leaving Chloe without a goodbye and riddled with grief and regret. But maybe…maybe it’s not too late.

Just days before the funeral, Chloe finds her mother unaccountably alive and well. And it’s no longer May; she’s been transported back in time to March. No one—not Chloe’s brother, friends, or colleagues—understands why Chloe is so confused. How can she make sense of this? It’s impossible. But Chloe is going to make the most of it. She’s going to do everything differently: repair family rifts, forge new bonds, tell her mother every day how much she loves her, and possibly prevent the inevitable.

Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

This was exactly the book I needed at the exact time that I needed it. Book serendipity at its best. Emerging from a few weeks of not feeling well, I needed a jolt, a kick-in-the-pants to get back at it. This book did exactly that. I read it quickly, devouring each page full of wisdom. I learned that indeed, everything is figureoutable and we have the power to change our beliefs, make our own choices and control our future moving forward. With just a few concrete, within-our-reach mindset shifts and actions, we can transform the way we think and the possibilities we can offer to the world. Forleo includes Insight to Action Challenges and Figureoutable Field Notes that inspire dreaming, but demand practical action. But the best part? This book isn’t just for those of us with grand or epic dreams, it’s for anyone who simply wants to be the best version of themselves. Please read this book.

Young Adult & Middle Grade:

Girl on the Line by Faith Gardener

Life’s tough when you didn’t expect to be living it. But now that Journey has a future, she apparently also has to figure out what that future’s supposed to look like.

Some days the pain feels as fresh as that day. The one with the pills, the hospital, and the end that didn’t come. Her parents don’t know how to speak to her. Her best friend cracks all the wrong jokes. Her bipolar II disorder feels like it swallows her completely.

But other days—they feel like revelations. Like meeting the beautiful Etta, a community college student who is a world unto herself. Or walking into the office of the volunteer hotline and discovering a community as simultaneously strong and broken as she is.

Or uncovering the light within herself that she didn’t know existed.

Opposite of Always by Justin Reynolds

When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.

But then Kate dies. And their story should end there. Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.

Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.

By Any Other Name by Laura Jarratt

Nobody can know the truth—her life depends on it. A tale of family, identity, and trust, about a girl struggling with life in the witness protection program.

Holly is 15 years old, but she’s only been “Holly” for a matter of months. Because of something that happened, she and her family have had to enter witness protection and have all assumed new identities. All, that is, except her sister Katie, who is autistic. Starting at a new school mid-year is hard enough at the best of times, and Holly has no clue who she is anymore. Lonely and angry, she reaches out to friends—new and old. But one wrong move will put all their lives in danger.

The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcarcel

12-year-old Quijana likes to say that she used to be Pangaea. Unsplit. Not half white or half Latina. But that was before her Guatemalan cousins moved to town and before her dad asked her to speak some Spanish. Now her continents are splitting apart. Let’s face it, when you’re named after Spain’s most famous loser, Don Quixote, you might make a secret escape plan. Join Quijana as she earns to make a tortilla, comes of age in the Guatemalan-American hyphen, and discovers her missing half.

All the Impossible Things by Lindsay Lackey

Red’s inexplicable power over the wind comes from her mother. Whenever Ruby “Red” Byrd is scared or angry, the wind picks up. And being placed in foster care, moving from family to family, tends to keep her skies stormy. Red knows she has to learn to control it, but can’t figure out how.

Just when Red starts to settle into her new life, a fresh storm rolls in, one she knows all too well: her mother. For so long, Red has longed to have her mom back in her life, and she’s quickly swept up in the vortex of her mother’s chaos. Now Red must discover the possible in the impossible if she wants to overcome her own tornadoes and find the family she needs.

When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten

Twelve-year-old Clara lives on an island that visitors call exotic. But there’s nothing exotic about it to Clara. 

The only thing out of the ordinary for Clara is that something happened to her memory that made her forget everything that happened last summer after a hurricane hit. Sometimes things come back to her in drips like a tap that hasn’t been turned off properly. Other times her Mama fills in the blanks…only she knows those aren’t her memories and it is hard feeling like she is not like everybody else.

But this summer is going to be different for Clara. Everyone is buzzing with excitement over a new girl in the village who is not like other visitors. She is about to make big waves on the island–and give Clara a summer she won’t forget. 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn’t stick out more if she tried.

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book—he thinks he’s made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor… never to Eleanor.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you’re young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose. 

Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz

To Molly Nathans, perfect is the number four, the tip of a newly sharpened number two pencil, a crisp, white pad of paper & her neatly aligned glass animal figurines

What’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are often broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Slam Poetry Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with table cloths. Molly’s sure her mother would never miss that. Right…?

But as time goes on, writing and reciting slam poetry become harder. Actually, everything becomes harder as new habits appear, and counting, cleaning, and organizing are not enough to keep Molly’s world from spinning out of control.

Rule of Threes by Marcy Campbell

How do you share a parent with a stranger?

Maggie’s accustomed to leading her life perfectly according to her own well-designed plans. But when Maggie learns that she has a half-brother her own age who needs a place to stay, any semblance of a plan is shattered. Tony’s mom struggles with an addiction to opioids, and now she’s called upon Maggie’s dad—who’s also Tony’s dad—to take him in.

As Maggie struggles to reconcile her mom and dad’s almost-divorce, accept the Alzheimer’s afflicting her grandmother, and understand Tony’s own issues—ignorance is no longer an option. While Maggie can strive for—and even succeed in—a perfect design, when it comes to family, nothing is perfect, and tackling its complexities is only possible with an open heart.

The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

When Pacy’s mom tells her that this is a good year for friends, family, and “finding herself,” Pacy begins searching right away. As the year goes on, she struggles to find her talent, deals with disappointment, makes a new best friend, and discovers just why the Year of the Dog is a lucky one for her after all.

This funny and profound book is a wonderful debut novel by award-winning and bestselling author and illustrator Grace Lin, and young readers will be sure to love and treasure it for years to come.

Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Julia is very short for her age, but by the end of the summer run of The Wizard of Oz, she’ll realize how big she is inside, where it counts. She hasn’t ever thought of herself as a performer, but when the wonderful director of Oz casts her as a Munchkin, she begins to see herself in a new way. As Julia becomes friendly with the poised and wise Olive – one of the adults with dwarfism who’ve joined the production’s motley crew of Munchkins – and with her deeply artistic neighbor, Mrs. Chang, Julia’s own sense of self as an artist grows. Soon, she doesn’t want to fade into the background and it’s a good thing, because her director has more big plans for Julia!

Picture Books for All Ages:

There by Marie-Loiuse Fitzpatrick

When will I get There? How will I know?

A little girl ponders what the future holds, steadfast in her determination to find out for herself. Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick’s gorgeous landscapes and the briefest of text speak to the power of imagination. Readers of all ages will find reassurance in this simple, beautiful book of ruminations about a lifelong journey toward tomorrow. 

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes

The barbershop is where the magic happens. Boys go in as lumps of clay and, with princely robes draped around their shoulders, a dab of cool shaving cream on their foreheads, and a slow, steady cut, they become royalty. That crisp yet subtle line makes boys sharper, more visible, more aware of every great thing that could happen to them when they look good: lesser grades turn into As; girls take notice; even a mother’s hug gets a little tighter. Everyone notices. This rhythmic, read-aloud title is a celebration of the way boys feel when they leave the barber’s chair. 

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

There will be times when you walk into a room
and no one there is quite like you.

There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from; maybe it’s what you eat, or something just as random. It’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

Little Tree by Loren Long

In the middle of a little forest, there lives a Little Tree who loves his life and the splendid leaves that keep him cool in the heat of long summer days. Life is perfect just the way it is.

Autumn arrives, and with it the cool winds that ruffle Little Tree’s leaves. One by one the other trees drop their leaves, facing the cold of winter head on. But not Little Tree—he hugs his leaves as tightly as he can. Year after year Little Tree remains unchanged, despite words of encouragement from a squirrel, a fawn, and a fox, his leaves having long since turned brown and withered. As Little Tree sits in the shadow of the other trees, now grown sturdy and tall as though to touch the sun, he remembers when they were all the same size. And he knows he has an important decision to make. 

Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell

What good can a splash of color do in a community of gray? As Mira and her neighbors discover, more than you might ever imagine! Based on the true story of the Urban Art Trail in San Diego, California, Maybe Something Beautiful reveals how art can inspire transformation and how even the smallest artists can accomplish something big. Pick up a paintbrush and join the celebration!

There you have it! A bibliotherapy book list full of titles sure to help you create a fresh start in your own life. Tell me: What are your favorite books for making a fresh start? Share them in the comments below!