PaleOMG Winter Book Club

It’s that time again!! Time for my favorite winter fall reads! But this time it’s not just MY favorites (as you may have noticed fro  the photo). Since many of the books I’ve been reading and enjoying these days have to do with pregnancy, and not everyone is in that phase of life or wants to be, I thought I would link Brian’s favorite reads, as well! He’s been reading all.the.time lately and has some good ones to share! Hopefully this winter book recap gives you some new reading material, new ideas to ponder on, and new stories to take with you!

My Winter Favorites

You Can Heal Your Life – This book has many of the same ideas that different books and podcasts talk about, but it’s a great reminder that YOU are in control of your own life. YOU get to decide how you talk to yourself, YOU get to decide how you see your life, YOU get to decide what your future will look like…and the universe is always listening to that. If you have struggle losing weight or being in a healthy relationship or being successful, but it feels like you do everything right…maybe it’s time to look inward and take responsibility. This book will help with that. I loved it! And it’s a super quick read or listen!

Deep Nutrition – This nutrition book taught me soooooo much. And it really helped me pay more attention to my own diet. Not only did it get me eating liver and other organ meats on a regular basis, but it made me look at pregnancy and nutrition in a completely different way. This book goes into epigenetics and it’s another book that helps you take responsibility for your own health and body. Plus it gets you pretty riled up about how you can change the genetics of your own children simply by paying attention to your own nutrition. It’s wild and so enlightening!

How To Change Your Mind – I love books about drugs and how they could change our society for the better with the right tools in place. Michael Pollan not only digs into the history of hallucinogens like psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD, but he actually tries them himself and shares his experiences. For people who fear drugs and think they are ruining our society, I highly recommend checking out this book to see the good that could be done specific drugs. I loved every second of this book, it’s just super cool and intriguing.

Real Food For Pregnancy – This is another nutrition book that I think every pregnant woman should be required to read. It teaches you proper nutrition while going into the depths of vitamins and minerals, and the importance they play in growing a child. This book showed me why I needed to include liver weekly, raw dairy on a daily basis, plenty of fish (yes, even raw fish), and leafy greens, all while including the mineral profile so I could understand why selenium or zinc or b-vitamins were crucial for growing a healthy child. Plus, she debunks some of the old ideas out there about listeria so women don’t have to feel guilty about eating soft cheeses or deli meats.

Expecting Better – If you want hard facts about pregnancy, that are based around scientific data instead of just old wives’ tales, this book is for you. Emily goes into facts about everything, from exercise, to miscarriages, to labor and delivery. She’s an economic professor so she wants the facts, not the bullshit that is spouted at most doctor’s offices without any updated literature or studies backing those claims. So she did the research so we didn’t have to!

Atlas of the Heart – In a world that feels more and more disconnected because of the separation between screens, this book is all about getting back to what makes us human – our emotions. This book is pretty big and I haven’t finished it yet, but I truly love Brené Brown’s message in every outlet she shares her research. Her book is simply about sharing – sharing our hardest moments to help us connect. The more people see their hard experiences as triumphs instead of failures and feel open enough to share those with others, the more connected we will all begin to feel.

The First Forty Days – Before I started reading this book, I was definitely in the mindset of getting back to things quickly after baby…and now I see things COMPLETELY different. This book talks about how to care for your body postpartum, how to feed your body the right foods so it can heal from the inside out, and helps remind you that women aren’t supposed to just “bounce back” – they are supposed to heal so their bodies can work optimally moving forward and they can nourish their child, both physically and emotionally.

Ina May’s Guide To Childbirth – Since my plan is to give birth at a birth center with midwives (if everything goes according to plan), I’ve been doing A TON of research on unmedicated births and what to expect during birth and after. Ina May is considered the “mother of midwifery” and helps women not only find confidence that their body knows exactly what to do in childbirth, but her book shares hundreds of birth stories, in hospitals or homes or birth centers, so you can be reminded that every birth and experience is completely unique. If you’re scared of birth, I found this book very comforting and helped me lose the fear that is normally paired with birth in our westernized society.

Go Diaper Free – This is a completely new idea for me and I was so excited to read more. I’ve never heard of potty training a child from as early as day one, but it’s possible. Elimination communication is all about supporting your child’s natural instincts to not soil themselves and teaching them to learn their own physical cues from a young age while you communicate with them to help them learn along the way. I love this idea and had to learn more, and this book is so helpful!

Brian’s Winter Favorites

Brian has been reading waaaaaay more books than me lately. Since the start of the year, he’s read 12 books. It’s been so cool to see him get into reading, learning, and enjoying it so much. He wakes up every morning and reads for hours before breakfast then whenever he has time during the day. Hopefully some of his books connect with you as much as he’s loved them!

Talking To Strangers – Brian really loved this book because it goes into why it’s so hard for us to connect with strangers. Brian is super analytical and it gives a deep breakdown of important moments in history paired with scandalous stories with case studies of what may have gone wrong through our history. It’s filled with stories that feel like a brief history class…with the details they don’t teach you in school. He said it’s a fun, educational read.

What The Dog Saw – This book is very similar to Talking to Strangers, but it gives you a different perspective on some pretty major topics and adventures through history. It also shows how two people can have totally different reactions to the same event. This book helped him become a more open person and see the other person’s perspective. It also helped him understand that just because he sees something a certain way, doesn’t mean other people will….and that’s ok! We are all experiencing life in our own unique way.

Never Split The Difference – Brian loved this book because it’s a great business lesson in negotiations with real life examples from a head hostage negotiator. For this author, his negotiations truly meant life or death, but for Brian, he was able to take away an understanding of the psychology of what people are thinking. Whether you are asking for a raise or buying a car, it gives you examples and even links to dive deeper into different negotiation tactics so you feel fully prepared. Brian said that this book helped him become more aware of what the other person may be thinking and how to negotiate without the other person feeling like you’re thinking only about yourself.

Stillness is the Key – This book describes how some of the biggest thinkers and philosophers found stillness, even in their incredibly busy schedules filled with many obligations. It talks about how these people slowed things down so they could think clearly. Brian said it was a good reminder that even the busiest of people such as Tiger Woods, Winston Churchill, and Michael Jordan need that outlet to calm their minds. Because of this book, he’s made it a priority to wake up earlier, start reading first thing to learn more about the world, he doesn’t look at his phone until later in the day, and he’s turned off all email and social media alerts, all so he can become more present in the moment.

Legacy – This book is about the All Blacks rugby team in New Zealand, one of the best sports franchises in the world. It walks you through how they created an amazing culture with simple philosophies. Brian said he loved it because it combines sports, business, and leadership. And it presents ways to take both leadership and business off the field and how to put it in your every day life. Their moto is “don’t be a dickhead” and I think it’s safe to say Brian is living that moto day in and day out, especially in our marriage.

Deep – This is a book I recommended in my Fall Book Club. I told Brian about it and he decided to read it, and LOVED it. All Brian really said about this book is it made him want to free dive. He read through it so fast and was looking up places to free dive as soon as possible. Even though I think that strong urge to free dive has dwindled, he still highly recommends this book if you want to hear the back story on the history of free diving, what people will do to break records, and how far they will go.

Hope you enjoy this list! If you’ve loved any books lately that have helped you learn and understand more about the world around you, I’d love for you to share it in the comments sections below!!