I’m sharing a summary of some of the books I’ve read lately and I recommend adding them to your collection!
Hello friends! I hope you are having a beautiful week. It’s been good so far but today is full of events and I forgot the kids have a half day. Does this happen to anyone else? Luckily, the pilot swoops in to help with the kids’ backup!
For today’s post, I wanted to share some of the books I’ve read lately. TBH, I haven’t read that much since the kids started school. Their homework load has been slowly killing me (they each have hours of homework each night, plus extracurricular events), so when I get to bed, I read a few pages before quickly collapsing. I really want to make more time to read, and it’s one of the things I’m really looking forward to during winter break!
I’m also working through my High Performance Health Certification when I’m not working with clients and blogs, and I hope to finish it by the end of December. I love the content so far!!
These are the books I have read lately:
(the jeans are here// the top is here)
Books I’ve read lately
The secret life of sunflowers
The secret life of sunflowers by Marta Molnar is a double timeline novel with a mix of art history, mystery and self-discovery. It follows Emsley Wilson, a young woman who inherits her late aunt’s house and, with her, a hidden diary that belonged to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law.
Through the diary, Emsley discovers Johanna’s life, her struggles, and her dedication to preserving Van Gogh’s legacy. The story intertwines Emsley’s own journey of healing and self-acceptance with Johanna’s brave fight for her family name, and is a beautiful reminder of how we can connect the past and the present. This was beautifully written, captivating and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like historical fiction and are looking for something different, I highly recommend it. 9/10
Of Amazon:
When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother’s diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is that the diary is not her grandmother’s. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh.
Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. They were all I had and they were worthless. She was a 28-year-old widow with a baby in the 19th century, with no means of subsistence, living in Paris, where she barely spoke the language. However, he managed to present Vincent’s legacy to the world.
Inspiration couldn’t come at a better time for Emsley. With his business failing, an unexpected love appearing in his life and family secrets being revealed, can he find answers in the past?
The end of mental illness
The end of mental illness by Dr. Daniel Amen offers a fresh and hopeful approach to mental health, challenging the idea that we are simply “stuck” in mental illness. Dr. Amen reframes mental health issues as brain health Issues that can be addressed and improved with the right strategies.
It shares science-backed tools such as diet, exercise, supplements and brain scans, and shows how these can help optimize the brain and, in turn, improve mental health outcomes for children and adults. This book is a guide to healing from the inside out, encouraging us to take care of our brains so we can feel better and live life more fully.
His work is inspiring to me, especially because it serves an entire demographic that has felt hopeless or needs to rely on medication for the rest of their lives. Psychiatry is one of the only medical professions that does not scan the organ it treats; They often GUESS and diagnose based on symptoms alone.
Through Dr. Amen’s SPECT scans, he has been able to see how blood flow, trauma, head injuries, and nutrient deficiencies have affected his clients’ brains and made tangible changes to improve their mental health. He believes in medication AND lifestyle changes, and I love his speaking and writing style. I have learned a lot from him and recommend this book. 10/10
Of Amazon:
Although the incidence of these conditions is skyrocketing, over the past four decades standard treatment has not changed much and treatment success rates have barely improved. Meanwhile, the stigma of the “mental illness” label, harmful and devastating in itself, can often prevent sufferers from getting the help and healing they need.
Neuropsychiatrist and best-selling author Dr. Daniel Amen is at the forefront of a new wellness movement within medicine and related disciplines that aims to change all that. In The End of Mental Illness, Dr. Amen draws on the latest discoveries in neuroscience to challenge an outdated psychiatric paradigm and help readers take control and improve the health of their own brain, minimizing or reversing conditions. that may be preventing them from living a full life. and an emotionally healthy life.
Packed with information about hormones, diet, toxins, and more, The End of Mental Illness will help you discover:
Why labeling someone as having a “mental illness” is not only inaccurate but harmful
Why standard treatment may not have helped you or a loved one, and why diagnosing and treating you based solely on your symptoms so often misses the true cause of those symptoms and produces poor outcomes.
At least 100 simple things you can do yourself to heal your brain and prevent or reverse the problems that make you feel sad, angry or bad.
How to identify your “brain type” and what you can do to optimize your particular type
Where to find the kind of healthcare provider who understands and uses the new paradigm of brain health
The end of mental illness will allow you to strengthen your brain and improve your mind. Get started today!
There is no plan B for your A game
There is no plan B for your A game by Bo Eason is energetic, inspiring, and includes advice on how to take your personal and professional life to the next level. Bo is a former NFL player and actor, and I’ve always liked his speaking style, so this book made no difference. It’s casual and REAL: if you want to be the best, you have to fully commit.
He shares his personal journey and the steps that took him from small-town kid to professional athlete, emphasizing intense focus, resilience, and how he embraced discomfort to unlock his potential. 9/10
Of Amazon:
Can you become the best in the world at what you do? This book shows you how.
At nine years old, Bo Eason set a goal: to become the best free safety in the NFL. A skinny kid from a small town, he was initially rejected by both his high school team and his college. But he tried his best, was drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1984 and became an All-Pro. He then set a new goal: to become a great theater actor, although he had no experience in theater. But he rehearsed constantly, sought out Al Pacino for guidance, and then wrote and performed in a one-man play that The New York Times called “one of the most powerful works of the last decade.”
Then he set another goal: to use his experience to teach others how to achieve their dreams. Bo Eason is now one of the most sought-after motivational speakers in the world, with numerous clients from Fortune 500 companies. In his first book, Bo Eason shows anyone how to be the best at what they do: the best leader, the best athlete, the best. best partner, best father. There is no plan B to your best game; it focuses on a four-step winning process:
Declaration: what do you want to achieve?;
Preparation: how can you achieve it?;
Acceleration: how will you find the motivation to achieve your goal?;
Domination: How do you take others with you?
Anyone has the capacity to be great; we are born with it. Using practical and inspiring guidance along with absolute accountability, Bo Eason teaches how to do it.
Survive
Surviving: the science and art of longevity by Dr. Peter Attia These are proactive and personalized strategies to prevent chronic diseases and extend not only life expectancy but also the “span of health”, that is, the period of life in good health. Dr. Attia covers topics such as exercise, nutrition, mental resilience, and sleep. It includes a combination of research and practical guidance, and encourages readers to cultivate long-term lifestyle practices that promote a longer, healthier life.
To be honest, this book was hard work for me. It was a lot of information, but it seemed like it could have been more concise and also more engaging to read. Normally I love reading health books, but this one seemed worse than a textbook. I also didn’t love how it put so much emphasis on genetic factors but little emphasis on environmental factors, such as exposure to toxins, air, and food quality. I would give it a 6/10.
Of Amazon:
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operational manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to offer innovative nutritional interventions, techniques to optimize exercise and sleep, and tools to address emotional and mental health.
For all its successes, conventional medicine has made little progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments that are too late to help, prolonging life expectancy at the expense of health or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we need to replace this outdated framework with a proactive, personalized strategy for longevity, where we act now, rather than waiting.
This isn’t biohacking, it’s science: a well-informed strategic and tactical approach to extending life expectancy while improving our physical, cognitive and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s goal is not so much to tell you what to do but rather to help you learn how to think about long-term health, so he can create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:
• Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your real risk of dying from a heart attack.
• That you may already suffer from an extremely common but underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
• Why exercise is the most powerful “drug” to prolong longevity and how to start training for the “Centennial Decathlon”.
• Why you should forget about diets and focus on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
• Why fighting for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the worst of curses.
Aging and longevity are much more malleable than we think; Our destiny is not written in stone. With the right roadmap, you can chart a different path for your life, one that allows you to outlive your genes so that each decade is better than the last.
So tell me friends: what are you reading right now? What’s on your list?
xoxo
gina
