Here’s a collection of books to help give you a fresh start: for yourself, for work, for family and for the world. They’re perfect for a ‘fresh start’ time of the year, like New Year’s or a birthday, but they are just the book you need anytime you need to start new.
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The Switch by Beth O’Leary
The Switch by Beth O’Leary is my book club selection for Get Lit(erate) this month. I saw it on a few book lists and wanted something light-hearted and fun, but also could teach me a thing or two about fresh starts. This book certainly fits the bill. I adored it. O’Leary introduces us to Eileen and Leena, a grieving grandmother and granddaughter who decide to switch places for two months to bring a bit of adventure and a whole lot of clarity to their lives. Ultimately, each learns to push past their comfort zone, embrace who they are, find their true gifts and then believe in themselves enough to reach for them. It was a delightful book and I’m sad to see Eileen and Leena go as I turn the last page. I need a sequel.
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. 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
This book has changed the way I look at the world, especially how I look at myself. Each page is inspiring and uplifting, but also complex and challenging, as Glennon invites us to rethink the memos we have accepted as the status quo of our lives. I devoured this book quickly on the first reading and savored each word on the second, truly using Glennon’s stories to rewrite my own. I imagine I’ll continue this transformative work on the third reading as well.
Three More Months by Sarah Echavarre
Oh, what a powerful book this was. Echavarre introduces us to Chloe, a high-achieving workaholic who has let her work take over her life in multiple ways. Burdened with guilt at the lack of time she’s given her mother, she takes a day off of work to visit only to learn of her mother’s sudden death. Stricken with grief, she falls into a deep depression filled with regret over her misguided attention to work and not family (and as someone who works a bit too much, that hit me hard). But inexplicably, she wakes on the day of her mother’s funeral to find her mother in the kitchen, not a hair out of place. Questioning the reality of these turn of events, but grateful for another chance, she makes the decisions she should have made: helping her mother get healthier, spending time with family, repairing relationship rifts and getting her priorities straight. Then something happens that unravels Chloe yet again, but just might bring her peace in the end.
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.
