My friends who have done a PhD told me that they stopped reading for pleasure while they were studying. That freaked me out a little bit. Reading for pleasure is what I do to relax. I’m super thankful to say that even during this PhD program I’m still reading for pleasure. Maybe you’ll like these books too!
So, these are my 3 favorite non academic books lately!
The first one isn’t really a book, it’s actually a gratitude journal. The tagline for this is “Start your day with gratitude, end your way with joy.” It really works! God created our brains to not be able to be grateful and be worried at the same time. I can’t recommend this highly enough! Here’s the link to buy one for yourself
The second book is The Sparrow, which might be my all time favorite fiction book. It’s not a happy book, you have to read the sequel to get to the good ending, but I just love the portrayal of crossing cultures and doing initial language learning. One beautiful quote is “His greatest satisfaction as a priest was to grant absolution, to help people forgive themselves for not being perfect, make amends, and get on with life.”
The third book that has really blessed me this year Is Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. Can you imagine how a 21st grader like me would be feeling some burnout? One quote that has helped me is “The moral of the story is: We thrive when we have a positive goal to move toward, not just a negative state we’re trying to move away from.”
So, what are you reading these days?
Hey!
That Burnout book looks intriguing…. great quote!
I’m currently reading Deeper by Dane Ortlund – I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It’s about growing in one’s faith, which involves intimacy, which I’m not very good at… I think it’ll be an interesting dive.
My favorite fiction book is “Becoming Mrs. Lewis” by Patti Callahan, about Joy Davidman’s relationship with CS Lewis, based on the letters they wrote.
For that matter, “Loving Luther” by Alison Pittman is a pretty good read too! Just an interesting perspective on Martin Luther that I really enjoyed!
I have to say my favorite fictional journey though is a Biblically based series called “The Nephilim Chronicles” by Brian Godowa. The first book, “Noah Primeval” just BLEW my mind! And then I discovered Michael Heiser and the more I learn about the Divine Council worldview, the more these Nephilim books come to life. They’re not for everyone though. Godowa always includes notes and the research about the subjects of each of the books that shows where he drew the stories from and how they tie to the culture in which they’re set. If you like a good Bible story with a BIG twist, charge on!
I too journal. It’s not an intentional gratitude journal, but more often than not, my entries end with praise and thanksgiving. No matter the situation, gratitude and thanksgiving always bring the truth back into the story. :o)
Sherill
Hi Sherill! Those sound really good!! I will totally have to check those out!
Great recs, I’m going to check out Burnout for sure!