Autumn Reading List

There's nothing like getting lost in a book on a dark autumn night.  I love to snuggle on the sofa with a hot drink and take adventures into the unknown.

We went to Orewa a few weeks ago and it was a perfect spot for a reading retreat. 

Autumn Reading List
Me engrossed in Americanah
I started to read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie while we were there.  It is such a well written book with great characters that draw you in.  Chimamanda is a wonderful speaker and I'd recommend her inspirational TED talks - We should all be feminists (also available in print) and The danger of a single story.

Autumn Reading List
Americanah

 I've just finished the Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat Pray Love fame).  It's been a while since I read such a long piece of literature.  I was fascinated by it as it documents the history of botany from Kew Gardens in London to Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam.  It was a great read if you're in for the long haul!
Photo credit - Pixabay

 I've been interested in learning more about Ikigai so I borrowed a short book of the same name by Héctor García from the Auckland library.  The authors visit Ogini in the Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, a village boasting the highest population of octogenarians in the world and interview the fiesty villagers to find out their secrets to longevity.  They talk about having purpose and being in a state of flow, something I learnt about at a Resilience Training course in March.  When we focus on one task and are challenged slightly by it then we reach flow and are all consumed by the task.  This is our ikigai.

 I also read When by Daniel Pink, a book all about timing.  When to go to bed, when to start a new habit.  The topics covered also crossed over with material in my Resilience Training, particularly around sleep.  I've been trying to get to bed by 10pm every night to make the most of the deep sleep cycle.

 This month I've joined in with the Poppy Loves Book Club's book of the month which is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer.  It's just been released as a movie but I always like reading the book version first.

 What do you have on your shelf this autumn?

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