Non-Fiction

FEBRUARY TBR

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I can’t believe it’s February! Very excited to share my tbr for this month, I have some good ones picked out.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, & YA

Deliah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, LGBT

Don’t Overthink It by Anne Bogel
Genre: Mental Health, Non-Fiction, Self-Help

Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Group Therapy by BB Easton
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

House of Earth & Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

House of Sky & Breath by Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

How To Fail At Flirting by Denise Williams
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

John & Hazel’s Guide To Not Dating by Christina Lauren
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Make It Sweet by Kristen Callihan
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Not The Witch You Met by April Asher
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

The One Night by Meghan Quinn
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Novella

Opposites Attract by Camilla Isley
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake by Alexis Hall
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, LGBT

Sincerely Confusingly, Yours by Hailey Gonzales
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, YA

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

When You Get The Chance by Emma Lord
Genre: Adult,Contemporary, Romance

Yes & I Love You by Roni Loren
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Non-Fiction Wrap up

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I’m trying out something new with my book reviews so we’ll see how this works out!

For many of us, navigating the stress that comes with the pressure of our daily lives can force us to take on patterns that aren’t healthy which can impact our lives in the future. While it can be difficult to develop healthy patterns or strategies, they are crucial for our own well-being. The Age of Overwhelm provides readers with techniques, skills, and strategies to help improve our well-being while still being present in our every day lives.

I don’t normally read self-help that much those kind of books are hit and miss with me but I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I found it relevant for the times especially with learning to be more present, learning to say no without feeling guilty, and cutting people out your life who drain your energy. All of the issues that were discussed in this book struck a cord with me especially being more present. I think these are all things that most people struggle with in their daily lives as many of us come from home environments where we learned unhealthy strategies and coping skills. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to better themselves as I found this very helpful.

Have you ever wondered why you can’t control some of your emotions at times or why people do the things that they do? If so, you’re not alone and it’s nothing that has anything to do you as a person but the events that occurred in your life that altered your ability to deal with them in a healthy way.

This book has been on my tbr for a long time so I was glad to finally have a chance to read it. I have read a lot of books having to do with trauma and this was the first one I read where I got clarity on the experiences I went through as a child. Before reading this book, I had watched a few interviews with Oprah and Dr. Bruce Perry and I was hoping that I would enjoy the book and I did. It’s very difficult to navigate through life when you have a messed up childhood and when you can finally make sense of the events that happened to you and that last part is so important. It’s not what’s wrong with you but what happened to you? It’s such a simple yet profound statement. I would highly recommend this book to anyone!

ACE

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“The label of asexual should be value neutral. It should indicate little more than sexual orientation. Instead, asexual implies a slew of other, negative associations: passionless, uptight, boring, robotic, cold, prude, frigid, lacking, broken. These, especially broken, are the words aces use again and again to describe how we are perceived and made to feel.”

This book was not only en-lighting but made me feel seen, heard, and validated in ways that I can’t even begin to explain. I had herd about this book from other people who had found touching and informative. I went into this book not expecting much but just wanting to learn more about asexuality and I ended up leaving with not only being more informed but being more empowered. From the time that I entered high school to a few years ago, I felt confused with my sexuality as I wasn’t sure if I liked both sexes or just one, or if I wasn’t interested in sex at all. I can always remember my friends talking about relationships and sex and it made me a bit uncomfortable because I just didn’t feel very interested in it. Because of that, I always felt misunderstood and bullied and it wasn’t until a few years ago when I started finding out more about asexuality that I finally felt like I found what I was looking for as a teenager.

This book really made me feel understood and I can only hope the same for others who are dealing with similar feelings like I had and not being sure if they are asexual. I think asexuality is very misunderstood and even though more information is being introduced, there is still a very long way to go. But, I felt the way it was written in the book was well done and not over the top in anyway. In addition to how it was written, I did enjoy the feminism aspect of it because as someone who is white, I’ve never considered or even thought about the unique struggles if you’re a POC or trans. I think that’s very important to include when talking about issues like sexuality as you can lack privilege in one area and make up for it another. It’s important to know and understand the issues that others face as it helps bring more awareness to certain issues. Overall, this was a very informative, empowering, validating, and excellent book so I highly recommend checking it out.

Set Boundaries, Find Peace

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“People who use guilt trips are trying to get their needs met, but their needs may violate the requirements you have for yourself.”

Boundaries? They so simple and easy, all you have to do set and implement one and you’re good to go. Except that’s not how boundaries work and it is easier said than done as being able to assert your own needs and being able to feel confident with setting the boundary can be tricky as not everyone is going to respectful that the boundary the other person setting. Whether it be family, coworkers, friends, loved ones, toxic people etc., setting boundaries can be a challenge because many people don’t fully understand what healthy boundaries are until much later than in life. The focus on this book talks about a variety of different obstacles that can impact boundaries and how to set them with others in your life.

As someone who struggles with boundaries, I found this book incredibly helpful and enlightening as it helps things make sense for why I struggle with boundaries so much. I’ve been following Tawwab on Instagram for the last year or so and I have enjoyed her posts and find her words encouraging so I decided to start reading her books. Boundaries are something that many people struggle with and that struggle begins in their environment and how they raised and that follows people in adulthood and comes out in behaviors such as having hard time say no, ignoring your own needs for others, people pleasing among others. Many of of us including myself have grown up in dysfunctional environments and aren’t aware of how the dysfunction impacted the environment and only become aware of it when other issues are brought to light. I found her words, examples, stories that she used throughout the book very relatable and real and I did learn more about myself and how I can do this without feeling guilty. That is something that I’ve been trying to work on my my whole life and all we can do is take one day at a time and embrace growth.

Burnout: The Secret To Unlocking The Stress Cycle by Emily Nagorski

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Rating: 2/5

“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.”

I have mixed feelings about self-help books as I find that some of them can be a little preachy and while I did like the material covered in book, it did feel that way at times. I am finishing up my master’s degree and will be going into counseling field shortly after so I have been reading up on burnout quite a bit and I found this book while searching for self-help books. Since Emily Nagorski’s is well known in the counseling field, I thought that this book would be focused in that area and I was wrong. Seeing the title, I was anticipating that this book would be about burnout and how we can handle stress in our daily lives and what we can to combat it but I was wrong. While the book does provide information that can be useful and other parts were about feminism and patriarchy that I felt had no relevance. in the book. Look, I love reading about feminism and patriarchy but if the title of the book is about stress and burnout then that’s what I want. With that being said, I felt like this book was a little all over the place and I would’ve loved more of a focus on burnout and how we can as women fix that and do better with helping others do the same.

So, aside from that I probably wouldn’t recommend this unless you want to check it out on your own and see for yourself. I wish it was different because I was actually looking forward to it.

Tomorrow Will Be Better by Sarah McBride

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Rating: 5/5

“Hope can be limitless. Inspiration can always be found. Ideas are endless. But time, t“Each of us has a deep and profound desire to be seen, to be acknowledged, and to be respected in our totality. There is a unique kind of pain in being unseen. It’s a pain that cuts deep by diminishing and disempowering, and whether done intentionally or unintentionally, it’s an experience that leaves real scars.” 

Tomorrow Will Be Different tells the story of Sarah McBride and their journey of loss, heartbreak, love, acceptance with their identity and their fight for the trans community. In 2016, McBride made history with being the first transgender to speak at the Democratic National Convention. McBride’s mission of being an advocate for the community has launched them into the spotlight as a relentless fighter who just wants equality for the transgender community.

“Hope can be limitless. Inspiration can always be found. Ideas are endless. But time, that is the one resource that none of us can afford to waste.” 

But, before all this, McBride was a teenager struggling with her identity. McBride’s raw honesty and emotional depth share her personal struggles of how they came to fully accept herself and found her way as a woman. Her story has inspired millions and she not only found her calling but created a platform for herself and others to speak their truth.

“None of us know how long we have, but we do have a choice in whether we love or hate. And every day that we rob people of the ability to live their lives to the fullest, we are undermining the most precious gift we are given as humans. 

Memoirs aren’t usually my thing but I wanted to find a book for the Goodreads Bingo that happens every month and I stumbled upon McBride’s memoir. Safe to say that I was absolutely blown away by her story and the ups and downs that had occurred in her life. The way she writes is simple but has a rawness to it that keeps you hooked to the page. Not only was this a painful yet beautiful memoir but it really shows how much work there is still to do regarding the transgender community ensuring that they have the same rights as others. There were a lot of emotions felt throughout the book and I couldn’t put it down.

“Having certain privileges does not mean that your life is easy or that you do not face challenges. It just means that you don’t experience specific kinds of obstacles or barriers faced by someone with a different identity or background. And our empathy should require us to acknowledge the plight of others in both its similarities to ours and in its differences.” 

One of the things that I loved about the book and how McBride emphasizes her own privileges while discussing intersectionality. She is able to be honest and open with readers with those issues and I found that incredibly well done and powerful. This book moved me and I would definitely recommend it others especially if they are wanting to understand the struggles and issues that the transgender community faces with their fight to equality.