Once again, I had a newsletter drafted and then hell breaks loose. Roe v Wade. I’m not sure what I have to add to this conversation except FUUUUUUUUUU*****KKKKKK.
After that scream into the void, let’s move on to something more life-affirming, like giving HUGE SHOUTOUTS to two friends, Chris and Zibby, who are releasing new books into the world. They each gave me and my book so much support: Chris by inviting my friends to partake in one of his amazing gratitude experiences, Zibby by having me on her podcast and into her author community. You don’t know how much that generosity means until you’re there, calling up indie bookstores to ask if they can please stock your book, begging friends pathetically to write a review on Amazon (it helps!). If you are reading this, you supported me, too, and I thank you! Chris and Zibby went that extra mile for this first-time author, and I’ll never forget it.
Gratitude Through Hard Times is such a lovely, personal book about an important topic at the perfect time. Chris travels the world (literally and virtually), conducting gratitude experiences for groups, and he shares some of the most impactful anecdotes from those here, as well as research and his own story. I’m about halfway through and loving it.
Zibby is a book lover’s book lover, and Bookends is her memoir that I’ve been so excited to read. It comes out tomorrow and it already has 612 ratings on Amazon—go, Zibby, go!
Now, onto my list of 10 perfect beach reads!
I mean “beach read” in the literal sense, as in, they take place on a beach. About half of these came out this year. (PS What do romcom beach reads have to do with gratitude, you ask? They both make you feel GREAT. Instant mood boost. Try it.) (PPS the 🔥 indicates steam level, not how much I liked it; I loved all of these.)
The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han
The beach: The fictional “Cousins Beach.” The new Prime show, however, was filmed in Wilmington, NC.
The gist: It’s YA, not my general romcom go-to, but this one delivers on longing and slow-burn and love triangle — at least it does so far. I’m reading it now.
First line: We’d been driving for about seven thousand years.
🔥
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Gratitude Practice to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.