Autumn Reading: Book Recommendations

Autumn Reading: Book Recommendations
BY EMILY FARAONE

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For some reason, Fall this year feels different. It is mid-October and I feel like we haven’t embraced the Fall season as much as we normally do. Maybe it is being in warmer clients (Phoenix and now Florida) and not experiencing the cooling weather of fall foliage. Or the contrast in that the past few years I had worked as a display artist for Anthropologie and crafted the seasonal displays– so I really got to experience the seasons… even though I was always a few months early.

I was recently sharing my feelings with a friend and she agreed. Well, we have some upcoming Autumn posts coming to the blog, and here is the first! I’ve compiled books that I have read and that have been recommended to me. Get cozy, enjoy this season, and get lost in these books. Let me know what books you enjoy!

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The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative
By Florence Williams

“From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas―and the answers they yield―are more urgent than ever.”

The Idiot
By Elif Batuman

“With superlative emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and pitch-perfect style, Batuman dramatizes the uncertainty of life on the cusp of adulthood. Her prose is a rare and inimitable combination of tenderness and wisdom; its logic as natural and inscrutable as that of memory itself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman’s fiction is unguarded against both life’s affronts and its beauty–and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail.”

Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter And How To Make The Most Of Them Now
By Meg Jay

“Our “thirty-is-the-new-twenty” culture tells us the twentysomething years don’t matter. Some say they are a second adolescence. Others call them an emerging adulthood. Dr. Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist, argues that twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation, much of which has trivialized what is actually the most defining decade of adulthood.”

A Taste of Sage: A Novel 
By: Yaffa S. Santos

“Lumi Santana is a chef with the gift of synesthesia—she can perceive a person’s emotions just by tasting their cooking. Despite being raised by a single mother who taught her that dreams and true love were silly fairy tales, she decides to take a chance and puts her heart and savings into opening a fusion restaurant in Inwood, Manhattan. The restaurant offers a mix of the Dominican cuisine she grew up with and other world cuisines that have been a source of culinary inspiration to her.”

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
By: Brianna Wiest

“Brianna Wiest explores pursuing purpose over passion, embracing negative thinking, seeing the wisdom in daily routine, and becoming aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. This book contains never before seen pieces as well as some of Brianna’s most popular essays, all of which just might leave you thinking: this idea changed my life.”

Little Secrets
By: Jennifer Hillier

“Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family―until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off.”

Burnout
By: Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski

“Burnout. Many women in America have experienced it. What’s expected of women and what it’s really like to be a woman in today’s world are two very different things–and women exhaust themselves trying to close the gap between them. How can you “love your body” when every magazine cover has ten diet tips for becoming “your best self”? How do you “lean in” at work when you’re already operating at 110 percent and aren’t recognized for it? How can you live happily and healthily in a sexist world that is constantly telling you you’re too fat, too needy, too noisy, and too selfish?”

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive
By: Stephanie Land

“At 28, Stephanie Land’s plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly.”

The Chain
By: Adrian McKinty

“‘You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last.‘Rachel is now part of The Chain, an unending and ingenious scheme that turns victims into criminals—and is making someone else very rich in the process. The rules are simple, the moral challenges impossible; find the money fast, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act you’d have thought yourself incapable of just twenty-four hours ago. But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning.”

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