Let me tell you – putting down my phone and opening up a book has been such a good change for me. I also have been reading physical books because they are so much easier to pick up and put down than the kindle. Highly recommend if you have kids around and want to be low tech.
Also, as you’ll notice below, I don’t really read fiction. I don’t think I’ve read any fiction in the last two years! I just love nonfiction and the real world is so much more interesting than anything fake we could create. I strongly dislike historical fiction because you never know what’s real and what’s fake. So if you want some beach reads or fluffy romance, this probably won’t be the list for you. I look at the New York Times Bestseller lists, library recommendations, or just authors I like to find new nonfiction books.
Anyways, here are the books I’ve read so far in 2024. I’ll do a quick summary of each and indicate my favorites so far!
Vanderbilt – Anderson Cooper’s history of his extended family. Very interesting and an easy read.
Astor – Anderson Cooper’s history of the Astor family. I loved this a lot more than Vanderbilt – the characters seemed more interesting and it was a more enjoyable read. So if you’re wondering between the two, I liked Astor better.
The Good Life – This book shares insights from the world’s longest study on happiness. There are so many good points I can’t share them all! But truly it all comes down to relationships and time with the people who matter most. Combine that with the insights in Happier Hour and I feel like I started the year with a new attitude on spending my time.
Counting the Cost – If you don’t know the Duggar family you won’t really care about this book, but if you do, I definitely recommend it. Jill Duggar shares her life growing up in the Duggar family, filming their reality show, and all the details about the religious organization that her family is a part of. As someone who occasionally watched the show and is familiar with the premise, it was a sad and eye opening read into their life. Talk about a controlling family! Also she has done a lot of publicity for the book so I had heard some of the more interesting parts, but I still found it worthwhile to read to learn it all.
**The Canceling of the American Mind – this is a MUST read if you are concerned about the lack of discourse today. Why can’t we have discussions when we disagree? Why do so many people choose to live in echo chambers on both ends of the political spectrum? This book addresses both left and right and it was so interesting to see all these issues presented in one book. I also really recommend The Coddling of the American Mind if you want more to consider.
Fragile Neighborhoods – We all know intellectually that where we live matters to our overall health and wellbeing. This book focused on how neighborhoods can make our lives better or worse and how we can improve them. It’s basically discussing societal improvement at a zip code level – from the bottom up instead of top down. It’s more policy focused than I expected but it was a good and quick read.
**Happier Hour – We all have the same amount of time everyday, and how can we use it to make us happy and fulfilled? I didn’t think I would get a lot out of this book because I generally feel happy and content, but it did help my mindset with some aspects of parenthood and house chores. It also *finally* changed my thinking around my phone and social media. Why would I want to waste 4 hours a day on my phone when my kids are aging everyday in front of me? I would rather exercise, hang out as a family, or read! So if you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do what you want, or you just feel like your days are dragged down, I highly highly recommend this book!
The Wager – About a shipwreck off the coast of South America, this book is intense (maybe don’t read some parts right before bed) but thrilling. Thank GOD I’m not a sailor in the 18th century, or living in that time in general LOL. What a wild experience this crew had.
**Endurance – This was SUCH a great account of Ernest Shackelton’s adventure to the South Pole. A must read!!!! It almost feels like you’re there. The writing is so fantastic and I read the whole thing in 2 days. I could barely put it down. WAY better than The Wager, so if you want a book about shipwrecks, pick this one.
**Empire of Pain – This was SO much more interesting than I expected. Empire of Pain chronicles the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma and everything before and after the creation of Oxycontin. Wow wow wow. This was a long book but I just wanted to keep reading all the time! Highly recommend and this book is a great example of how the crazy things (and bad things) real people do are more interesting to me than fiction.
