world book night | 365daysofmarriage

Y’all know I love to read. I HAVE to read. I will get legitimately down if I don’t read. I have made time for reading in my life. Since today is World Book Night, I wanted to share some of my top recommended books.

All of these links are Amazon Affiliate links. That means if you purchase the book or something else on Amazon after you click on the link, I will get a small percentage. If you’ve been here a while, you know I only ever share links to products, books, etc. that I have personally read, used, and believe in.

Books on Marriage

When Sinners Say “I Do”gave us some amazing advice and really helped prepare us for the journey ahead. The biggest thing that stood out to me is admitting to your spouse “I’m a big fat sinner.” Nearly nine years later and we still say this to each other, especially after a big argument. It basically means realizing that you are not a perfect person, you never will be and come into the marriage totally messed up.

Books on Life

Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths about Aging by Dick Van Dyke was a really fun book. It is read by the author, and in my opinion, the only way to experience this book. I laughed, I cried, and I appreciated my life so much more. He shares great stories about life, marriage, family, and his show business career. He sets a great example of how to live – no matter how old you are. This is a great listen for a road trip!

Books on Work

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World completely changed my life. It helped me to cut the hold of social media on my life. It helped me realize areas I needed to change and have more focus. This is a bit of a heavy read, but worth every minute.

Unmistakable by Srinivas Rao. I stumbled on this book while browsing in the library. It talks about how if we can be Unmistakable, we won’t have to worry about being the best, who can compete with us? It was a great reminder that who I am is unique, and worth being. As soon as I started reading it, I knew it would make an impact, and it did.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less totally changed my life. Even though we were already pretty simplified and minimalists, this book helped me to dig even deeper into simplicity. It helps me to say no to things that need to be said no to.

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day was a great reminder that work isn’t just about your 9-5 but “any value we create that requires us to spend our time, focus and energy is work, humans, it seems are wired to find satisfaction by adding value through toil.”

Getting There: A Book of Mentors What I loved about this book was the varied fields and methods of work shared. It felt like I sat down with each of these successful people and learned some of their secret tips.

Children’s books

Brontorina by James Howe – A brontosaurus doing ballet is reason enough to read a book, and part of the reason I grabbed this one. But what I found was a story that encouraged chasing your dream, encouraging others to chase their dream, and not putting anyone in a box.

Bad Day at Riverbend by Chris Van Allsburg – As a kid, I loved Two Bad Ants, also written by Chris. I sought out his other books and found this one. It was such a different story line than any other kid’s book I’d read before. This was a really fun read.

Mother Bruce by Ryan Higgins – I love the books that turn what you expect an animal to do and be into something completely different. I especially loved that Bruce ate organic. I am now a super big fan of this series and read each new book when it comes out.

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin – This was so delightfully fun. I laughed very very hard reading this one. I mean, how can you not enjoy a book about dragons who love tacos?

Great, Now We’ve Got Barbarians! by Jason Carter Eaton – I picked up this book for the title alone. What I found was a very comical result of a messy room. This is a great book if your kids are having trouble cleaning up.

Blue Sky White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus – I am very patriotic about my US of A. This book was such a great reflection of this great country and I loved all of the elements that came together. There were a few books in my stack of children’s recommends that moved me to tears, this was one of them.

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty – When I first picked up this book, I read the title as Reverse Engineer. Since I’m all about systems, it sounded perfect. Upon reading, I realized my mistake, but I found something better. This book was a great reminder about creating things, failure, and the drive to continue on. This is great for little inventors.