Sunday Reads
What has my attention + Joes 2022 reading list.
As always, for a better reader experience, go directly to the Feel Good Studio substack website thesoberglow.substack.com, or open up the browser from the button on the top right of this email, or download the app. xx Mia
I would never refer to myself as a voracious reader. However, I do love books. I love buying them. I love holding them. I love smelling them. I love talking about them. I love getting recommendations. I love the time spent leisurely walking around a bookstore, touching all of them. Flipping pages forever. I would never read a book on a kindle or a phone. I rarely ever let anyone take a book from my home. And I will only read books that I purchase myself. If someone offers to give me their copy, I will politely turn them down.
I also have zero problems putting a book down if it’s not completely consuming me. I am not someone who has to finish every single thing she starts. I am more of a person who likes to try things on, and if it doesn’t work, I accept it and move on. Life is too short to waste time. Even if every single person known to man loved the book….. The Untethered Soul by Michael Alan Singer. I will never get the hype.
The last book I forced myself to finish was One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It was 2006, and I was finishing up my 4 months of traveling through India. I spent a couple of weeks in Kerala and was spending my time reading and getting ayurvedic treatments before I was to make my way to Mumbai to meet my then boyfriend (now known as my husband).
I don’t even remember what the book was about. I just remember the resistance I had and the feeling of failure that overwhelmed me at the idea of not finishing it. I think back to it and can’t even imagine why or how I thought forcing myself to read a book was a good idea.
I hope this book isn’t your all-time favorite. If it is, please don’t try to convince me to give it another chance. After that experience, I felt like I was living One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was spitting bullets the whole way through it. But I digress.
So dear reader, I understand that maybe I am not the best person to be handing out book recommendations, but that’s never stopped me from doing so :) I’m not into bestsellers. I don’t generally read top tens, and if I do, it’s probably years and years since it was on any top ten list. I don’t read much fiction, and I am not the first one to buy a book from an Instagram influencer. I do, however, have an eclectic taste in books, so maybe I might share something you will find some unexpected gold in.
I am also someone who always has multiple books going at the same time. I like to pile my books around the house into stacks according to the subject matter. I also like those piles in every room possible. I wish I could focus on just one book at a time. But that’s just not me.
Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar by Jessie Inchauspe.
At some point, we will have a big conversation about sugar and how common it is to replace all the alcohol we were once consuming with massive sweet tooths. I developed a sweet tooth in my early 20s, and it really became prevalent when I became a nurse. So one of my priorities this year is to learn better ways to curb the cravings as well as how to enjoy having sweets without having ALL the sweets.
I recognize that this book is a best seller by an influencer……so maybe I do read that shit.
I came across Jessica of House in Habit last Spring, 2022. She was the first citizen journalist I started following on IG. Yes, I know I was late to that party. I was captivated by how she covered the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. Now, I don’t agree with everything she talks/writes about, but I LOVE the out-of-the-box thinking. She questions everything, even if it’s not popular to do so. I love what a strong voice she has, and I love her vulnerability as well.
Currently, I am reading everything there is on the Idaho case, and a lot of this information is coming from HIH. I find it a bit odd that I actually had not heard of the Moscow, Idaho murders until I saw that they had arrested a man who they suspect committed the horrifying crimes. I know, I know. I just somehow missed hearing about this case late last year, but I’m here now.
Whether you are into learning/reading about true crime or not, there is a lot to learn from HIH.
And of course, I am a murderino…..and if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry about it.
Drinking Games: A Memoir by Sarah Levy
Add this to the Quit-Lit list, ladies!
I haven’t had any interest in quit lit for a couple of years now. I imagine this happened because I only read quit-lit for many years. This is the first one that has piqued my interest in over 3 years.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the Ultimate Quit Lit List:
101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
Stunning. I love essays. Probably because it plays into the part of me that loves to pick books up here and there. You can take your time with essays. And you don’t even have to start at the front of the book. I love being able to randomly walk by and grab the book and flip to any page. It hits just right every damn time.
The Modern Herbal Dispensatory: A Medicine-Making Guide by Thomas Easley
Another book for the collection, as I like to refer to it as. These types of books are for a loungy Sunday afternoon. As you may already know, my interest and attention are all over the place. I love studying topics here and there. And one of those core topics is Herbal Medicine.
This one came highly recommended by a respected herbalist in my life who studied under the author.
Cook Beautiful by Athena Calderone
I love to believe that I am a beautiful cook. I am not. I do, however, love to look at beautifully cooked food. This book is beyond beautiful, and I love how it’s broken up into seasons.
Damn, I miss living in the NE and experiencing true season changes.
Of course, it seems everything Athena touches turns to gold….so here’s hoping a little of her magic rubs off on me and my kitchen skills.
Now Joe, my husband, is a voracious reader. But he wasn’t always. In early 2020, instead of checking out with endless scrolling and tv watching like most of the world, he decided to start reading. And not just here and there. He set a goal to read one book a week. In that first year, 2020, he read 52 books (in 9 months, actually). Then again in 2021, 52 more books. In 2022 he split his free time between reading and writing and so the number of books he read dropped down to 40.
He went from reading here and there to creating a habit of carving out time during the day to pick up his book. He read one book at a time (unlike his wife). He read every genre. Self-improvement, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, best-sellers, classics, as well as Pulitzer Prize winners, 26 of them in total. He read in the morning, at night, and whenever he had a break during the day.
At the end of 2020 and again in 2021, he shared this massive book list with a review of all his favorites, along with why they moved him. IG loved it. But sadly, he didn’t do it this year.
That’s when you know something truly is engrained in you - when you stop talking about it and you just do it.
So I put in a small request for him to put together a list for The Feel Good Studio since I know you all love a good book list. Here is what he shared: