Christine's Book Club

I just got done reading Tuesdays With Morrie tonight.  It is such a beautiful, simple book that came to me at just the right time.  I love how books somehow have the power to do that.  It is heart warming and heart breaking at the same time.  I hope it is able to find its way into everybody's hands- maybe when they need it the most.  It made me realize how valuable friends and mentors are in our lives.  It made me do some introspection and call myself out at being terrible at initiating and maintaining these important relationships.  It taught me that being open and emotion-full is the best and only way to be.  It reminds me of the things I know to be true but insist on fighting anyway- that money, power, and recognition mean nothing in our short stay on earth.  And that love, compassion, and relationships mean everything.  Now, I just need to apply these principles... always.  

I would put Tuesdays With Morrie at the top of my book favorite book list.  Others I would like to add are At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life, The Velveteen Principles, and A Whole New Mind.  

At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life by Susan Sokol Blosser

I initially was interested in reading this book once my boyfriend brought up the idea of him attending wine making school.  I wanted to find out more about an industry that I find so fascinating and so close to us that live in Oregon.  It is a book about entrepreneurship, passion, and life.  It is written by the winery owner herself and shares with us in a story-like setting what it is like to pioneer as a woman and as a business owner.  

The Velveteen Principles: A Guide to Becoming Real by Toni Raiten D'Antonio

This book was given to me as a gift by the wonderful Mr. and Mrs. Lucas.  I postponed reading this book for close to a year.  I was unsure why, but then I realized why when I picked it up and found it was just the message I needed at the time.  It is a book stemming from the principles of the children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit.  Precious book about how to be REAL in your life. 

A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink

I am unsure if I am a right brainer, although I would like to be.  Maybe I am only 60% right brained, who knows.  But, this book was a great, eye opening lesson for me to teach me how to value my abstract talents in such a concrete world.  It also talks about how that concrete world is shifting and that creativity is the way of the future.  We are out of the computer age and into the innovation age.  This book gave me a lot of inspiration and belonging when my life seemed so molded to the traditional view that wasn't fulfilling me.

I am definitely the type that likes a few different types of books as you may or may have not of noticed.  I always gravitate towards nonfiction (which I think is a fault most of the time) and also leach on to books that will improve me.  I don't use the title self-help, because I am not self-helping, the books are.  Please give me your recommendations as I am always looking for new books to read (remember this post).  I am becoming quite the little book worm, which I never saw coming, but I am throughly enjoying.  Stay tuned for more book reviews.