Happy New Year! What are you reading? This is what I am reading:

January 9, 2023 Patricia Jehle

Happy 2023!!! What are you doing?

I am reading today.

Reading books brings me joy, especially during the holiday season.

What is really fun for me is that I receive books from the university where I am a lecturer. This is a perfect gift for me!

What have you been reading in 2022 and what are you reading now?

I read quite a few books in 2022. What about you?

I read Violetta by Isabel Allende and am always thinking of other fiction books to read. If you have suggestion, just write me

Two books I read for my upcoming talk for the Stronger Network Conference THIS WEEK: (https://www.strongernetwork.com/strongerconference ) are Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin and Rework by Freid and Hansson.

I am reading a few books on connection and human relationships for a talk later on in 2023, too: Belonging by Geoffrey Cohen, Connections (again) by Larry Crabb, and The Love Prescription by John and Julie Gottman. There may be other books I read, if I have time.

In 2022 I read The Extended Mind by Annie Paul and I am still reading Radical Leadership by Sprenger (with a client)

Last fall I focused on a lot of business and education related books, but now I will take a short break and read more fiction.

In between things I read a couple of books on pastoral searches: When the Word Leads your Pastoral Searchby Chris Brauns, A Spiritual Discernment to the Pastoral Search by P. F. Soderquist , Search by Vanderbloemen, and I reread The Anxious Congregation by Ken Thiessen. These are very helpful books for me at the moment, as I have lead our church’s search for a new pastor.

I read or finished quite a few books when we were on holiday in Tenerife last summer, and I want to share some highlights in case you need or wish for something new to read.

Two memoirs by people who know each other:

Take the Long way Home by Gail Caldwell and Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich.

A book that is in the “self-help” sort of category have been finished, although started before holidays are: The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Three novels that I have read during that holiday time are: The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - I loved this book; A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson; and Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

I also read a memoir called Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan next, but I cannot say much about the book, yet as I have not yet begun it.

Finally, in Tenerife I finished one book in German called Anders Aufgewaschen by Seraina Sattler and Anna Six, which is about eleven people who grew up in Switzerland in a non-traditional way. Since the stories were told in the first-person narrative, they were essentially not too difficult for me to read. Another book in German I am struggling through is Life Kinetik: Bewegun macht Hirn by Horst Lutz. This is all about how movement helps us to life more fully and to keep our brains alive with bodily movement.

This leads to the final book I finished last summer: Embracing the Body: Finding God in our Flesh and Bone by Tara Owens.