April Book Picks

It’s time for my April book picks! If you read my March review, you know that I haven’t finished Fates & Furies yet, so I am not going to start another fiction book right now. Instead I am going to suggest a few books that I have really enjoyed in the past, so if you are looking for something good to read I’ve still got you covered. (this post contains affiliate links)

My pick for the month:

Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
Summary from Amazon:
The author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, tackles the critical question: How do we change? Gretchen Rubin’s answer: through habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.

Why I Selected It:
I loved Rubin’s book, “The Happiness Project” so I have been wanting to read this one for awhile. I am always looking for ways to improve myself and this seems like a good read to help me figure out how to drop my bad habits and create new ones. (that I will actually stick with)

Since I am not selecting a fiction book this month, I decided to share a few that I have read and really loved:
Defending Jacob: If you loved Gone Girl you will love this book. Just try to put it down. Seriously. I dare you. I still think about this book often, it was that crazy!
The Night Circus: I enjoyed this magical book so much… it is about a circus that appears at night (duh) and the battle between two master magicians.
The Paris Wife: You will get lost in this historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

I want to really quickly mention the bonus books I read last month, since now I am
obsessed with books about food and what we eat. It started when I read
the Negative Calorie Diet and decided to do a 5-day cleanse which has
seriously been life-changing. I have drastically cut out the amount of
sugar in my diet and I have never felt better. I am not really going to
go into that too much, since for some reason when you mention that you are trying to cut down on sugar, people get really mad at you. I have no idea why, but it sends people on a rant on how sugar is natural or they need sugar for whatever reason. Which is totally fine. However, for ME, once I actually looked at how much sugar I ate each day I was really shocked. From my coffee creamer, to yogurts, breads, salad dressings and even pasta sauce… it REALLY added up. (& I thought I was eating super healthy) Since cutting back my lower back pain is GONE and I feel better than I have in years. (& I’ve lost 8 pounds)

Here’s the other books I read:
Sugar Crush: Awesome book that is super scientific in explaining what sugar does to your body. I loved it until the end where he goes into a crazy strict paleo diet. But it is definitely worth the read.
Whole30: This books was great, however since I don’t eat meat I don’t think I would be able to actually do a Whole30 myself (no beans are allowed) and that was the reason I read the book. I do want to go back and read their 1st book, It All Starts with Food.
I Quit Sugar: This book gave me lots of good recipe ideas. However, she has cut sugar out of her life all together.. which is something I am not ready to consider. I love fruit and while I do understand that “sugar is sugar” I think fruit is healthy and as long as I keep my sugar intake in check, I personally see nothing wrong with 1 or 2 servings a day.
Grain Brain: I just started this one, since I figured if I am reading all about sugar I should include this as well.

So there you go my super duper book wrap from last month and my April pick. My reading challenge is chugging along!!! Have you read any good books lately?