Welcome to Pretend Book Club!
Is there anything better than being cuddled up with a good book, some fuzzy socks, and a cup of tea?
For many of you the answer is absolutely not.
Reading is one of the ways I reset my nervous system after a full day. It helps calm my mind and focus my attention. It’s quiet, centering, a rest from the dishes and deadlines and noise of the everyday blessings. Reading can be a tool to boost health and wellbeing. In fact, reading therapy is such a real thing that it has a science-y name: “bibliotherapy.”
According to PsychCentral, bibliotherapy was introduced in the 1960s as “the process of using literature to encourage cognitive change.”
As a woman who has managed anxiety and ADHD for a lifetime and who works with sensitive, stressed women, I believe that reading therapy sounds like a lovely way to promote positive emotion.
So several clients and I got inspired to low-key launch a virtual community for people like us… Pretend Book Club.
We don’t meet, or ever plan to meet.
We just share books that make us feel good in some way and enjoy our shared appreciation of books. Some cozy fiction, some uplifting non-fiction. All designed to elevate, inspire and soothe us. So today, I’m passing along some of these recommendations to you.
In January we loved Calm Christmas and Happy New Year by Beth Kempton. The last section is lovely soul food for starting a new year (it’s never too late!).
In February, we nestled in with Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. It is as soothing and reflective as it sounds. (You may also want check out May’s new book, Enchantment, Awakening Wonder in An Anxious Age).
This month we switched to fiction with JoJo Moye’s Someone Else’s Shoes. It’s a frothy celebration of female friendships and second chances, but it’s also layered and thought-provoking.
Read, skim, listen, even just think about reading. Preferably in a bath or in your jammies. No meetings, no membership fees. All are welcome at Pretend Book Club.
“Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”
Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
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