14 BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ IN 2019

I haven’t always been an avid reader but in the last year or so I’ve learned so much from books. I never realized how much I was missing out on by deciding I wasn’t a reader! Glad I changed my perspective on that and have been slowly teaching myself to enjoy reading more! The majority of personal growth I’ve experienced over the last year has stemmed from books so I made it a goal to read 30 books in 2019. I’ll keep you guys posted on how that goes!

If you aren’t someone who loves to read I would encourage you to start small. Choose books you really enjoy reading. Not sure where to start? I got you! Here’s fourteen books that I really enjoyed reading and think you should take time to read in 2019.

#1: Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler

I already shared my experiences doing the best year yet as an end of year reflection and goal setting activity in this post. Since then, I brought the process to my work team and we used it to set our company goals for this year as well. I cannot praise this book enough! It will bring you so much clarity around your limiting beliefs, aspirations, and how to breakdown and track your goals so you look back on the year proud of what you’ve accomplished. So far its May, and I’m on track with my goals for the first year ever!

#2: Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

I love books that I can pick up and finish in a matter of a day or two because they suck me in. Rachel Hollis is an incredible writer and I love how she shares even the most embarrassing details from her personal experiences to help you stop making excuses and take control of the life you want to live. Ever since reading her book, I follow her work and also just recently finished her second book, Girl, Stop Apologizing. 

#3: Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

On that note, we mine as well just talk about her second book too lol 
I’ll be sharing a full blog post with my favorite quotes from Girl Stop Apologizing soon, so that should give you an idea of how much I like this book. Once again, Rachel shares unfiltered wisdom from her own experiences and I really love how actionable this book is. It builds on her first book and will help you to stop apologizing and making excuses for the person you want to be. “If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”

#4: Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

Before I read the Bullet Journal Method, I’d been searching for a way to keep track of my personal goals and life’s to dos. I’m definitely a digital person but something in me loves writing things down so no matter how many apps and notebooks I tried, I just couldn’t seem to keep things organized. I love Ryder Carroll’s bullet journal method and now use it everyday to track my gratitude, devotional notes, life goals, trip ideas, and even the books I want to read next. I finally feel like there is an organized way to keep track of all of the thoughts that flow through my brain everyday.

#5: Girl Code by Cara Alwill Leyba

This is another great book to give you a wake up call. For so many of us women, we spend our time comparing ourselves to other women and competing with them. I love how Cara encourages women to genuinely show up for the other women in their lives and stop trying to pretend like everything is perfect and put together. We all have similar stories and something powerful happens when we learn to embrace them and share them with the women around us. Note: she does use some profanity in the book but I tried to look past it and focus on the content.

#6: The Four by Scott Galloway

Where do I even start with this one! This book blows my mind and I haven’t even gotten to the last page yet. Scott Galloway shares his thoughts on Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook and how these giant companies are affecting the world we live in. I’m not a history type person, but I absolutely love this book and can’t believe how much I didn’t know about these four companies. Especially how their current business plans set them up to choke out their competitors and put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of business while they do it. Scott is another author with some foul language so try to skip through those portions and prepare to be in shock!

#7: The Now Habit by Neil Fiore

Are you a procrastinator? Gosh, aren’t we all? This book will help to break down the reasons why you procrastinate and how to move past those habits with easy to implement tools. When reading this book I learned I have a fear of failure and a fear of success that keeps me from doing things I really want to. Instead of focusing on where I want to go and what that looks like, I’ve learned that I need to focus on just “starting” for 30 minutes at a time. Eventually all of those times of starting will add up to finishing instead of me getting paralyzed by the end result.

#8: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala

This book is the testimony of Pastor Jim Cymbala and his church, the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Many people are familiar with the Brooklyn Tabernacle church and more so the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. This book is an encouraging look at the starting days of their ministry and even more so, how the Holy Spirit equipped and grew the church and ministry in ways no one could have imagined as they simply spent time in prayer. It’s been such an encouragement to me as I lead the worship ministry at our church and want to make sure we are being led by His Spirit and not our own preferences.

#9: Dying for a Paycheck by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Let me be really honest and tell you this is not an easy book to get through. If you’re someone who doesn’t like heavy statistics books, I would recommend starting on chapter 3. Despite how dense the book is, it’s filled with some shocking truths about the excuses we make in our workplaces.

Jeffrey’s research encourages us to find jobs where our well-being is cared for instead of allowing work to cause our body’s physical harm as we are “dying” for a paycheck. It may be difficult to read but its a much needed reminder to find a company that treats you well. I read this with my work team at the beginning of the year and I’m so thankful to work for a company that puts my well-being first. For all of us, it was a reminder to ensure our company stays that way.

#10: Body Love by Kelly Leveque

I finished Body Love about a month ago and OH MY GOSH. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am. Now, let me backup and admit that I totally zoned out in high-school during any science class. I’ve always been an extremely creative person and decided science and the arts just don’t mix.

This is probably my first step back into the science world, and Kelly does an amazing job of explaining the complexities of nutrition and how our body processes food. Things finally clicked for me and I understand why I haven’t seen any weight changes even after I’ve been working out consistently for the last 3 months. I have started implementing her Fab Four (Protein, Fiber, Fat, and Greens) into my daily food choices and already n notice a difference. I no longer feel like I’m on a hormonal roller coaster every day! I will definitely update you guys as I continue using her advice.

#11: Thirst by Scott Harrison

Thirst is one of my most recent reads and I really enjoyed it! I grabbed the audiobook from my local library and listened to it throughout the last week or so. In it, Scott shares his life story from club promoter in NYC to founding his non-profit, Charity Water. The book is definitely a long one, but worth every minute you will spend on it, in my opinion. Just be prepared to cry a few times while reading the stories of families around the world. Its a big wakeup call to the things we take for granted each and everyday!

#12: Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow

As you can probably tell from the list of books so far, I enjoy self-growth and improvement books. But its no surprise, if you read too much of one thing you get sick of it! I decided to switch it up and downloaded Through My Eyes to my kindle before we left for Morocco. As a University of Florida alum, I enjoyed learning more about Tim Tebow and his story. The book will definitely open your eyes to the behind the scenes of sports and the mental game involved. I really respect Tim Tebow for his work ethic and it shows even more in his book.

#13: Influencer by Brittany Hennessy

For any fellow bloggers out there, this book is for you! I heard about it on Julie Solomon’s podcast (The Influencer Podcast) and decided to grab the kindle book. During our long flights to Morocco a few weeks ago, I read through every page. I’m not kidding, I highlighted almost every page! It was so good, I plan to go back through to take more detailed notes. Brittany provides a lot of insight into the industry of content creation from her experience working in the PR world. I found it to be a really insightful read and highly recommend it.

#14: This is the Day by Tim Tebow

I enjoyed the first of Tim Tebow’s books so much that I wanted to read another. I accidentally skipped the middle book and jumped to This is the Day. He shares about his experiences in baseball and encourages us to not let the days pass us by. Each day is a gift from God! This was one of my favorite quotes: “This is the day to make moments matter; with your loved ones or with strangers you may never meet again and whose day you can make brighter. More importantly, this is the day to make you life count with Jesus.”

So there you have it! Those are the books that have really stood out to me over the past months. So far I’m on book 10/30 this year, so if you liked this post let me know. I’ll be sure to share more roundups of my favorite reads.

Here are some books currently in my next up list…

• Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray
• Mindset by Carol Dweck
• 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell
• Hug Your Customer by Jack Mitchell
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
• High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

Do you love to read? Share some of your favorite books in the comments below! I would love to check them out for myself 🙂