Books To Read In January

It’s A Brand New Year!

Happy New Year! It’s time to get a fresh start on everything- life, work, reading challenges…

My recommendations for January 2020 reading:

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - This is the book you need if you want to understand how to meet your New Years resolutions. Buy this book - you’ll want to return to it again and again.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman - A book about hockey, but also so much more. This took me about 100 pages to get into, but after that I couldn’t stop.
Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean - A trip back in time to the last days of the Space Shuttle program. It’s a great reminder of why we love space travel, and a reminder to embrace whatever makes us geek out.
Good Cheap Eats by Jessica Fisher - If you want to cook more and/or save money this year this is the book for you. This is good, inexpensive, family pleasing food.
Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay - If you get snowed in this is the perfect book to spend the day on the couch with. It’s a remake of the classic Dear Daddy Long Legs, which in itself is worthy of spending a day on the couch with.

And a few new releases I’m looking forward to reading soon:

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REVIEW: 10% Happier by Dan Harris

It was no surprise that I really liked the audiobook version of Dan Harris's 10% Happier. It focused on some of my favorite themes: mindfulness, habit formation, and not being an a-hole. Plus it was read by the author who is a newscaster, and naturally has a great speaking voice. I recommend it to anyone who wants to do the hard work of not expecting to solve all of your problems, but learning how to handle them better.

Here's a part I loved that's not on the dust jacket. The title 10% Happier seems to be Dan Harris's way of explaining how he uses meditation in two words. Picture yourself at a family reunion telling an opinionated relative that you've started meditation. "What do you want to do that for? Are you going to grow your armpit hair? Why do you want to be weird?" your relative might ask. "I do it because it makes me 10% happier." you could reply. It's is complete brilliance to come up with a two word explanation of something that is important to you that others may judge, and I am going to brainstorm ways to copy it right away.

If you want more books on habits and not being an a-hole I suggest:

(Note: links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.)