- Hey everyone, it's your girl Jenn.

And I thought that we would do a little midyear checkup

on the books that I've read.

And also books I'm about to read.

Reading has become my favorite way to pass the time,

unwind, to go to new worlds.

One of my big reading goals this year

was to diversify the books that I read,

because I tend to stay in my comfort zone.

This is why I am so stoked to be partnering with

Book of the Month.

They are a book service that is rapidly growing

and it's super popular and they want to unify

new and emerging authors with readers like us.

So the service gives out five banging book options

that were already sifted by a team

who go through 100s of books.

They give the best choices from a curated selection

of new and early release titles.

So that way, you can spend more time reading

and less time researching.

They also have the best price for new release fiction books,

which is awesome because

who doesn't love a great deal.

So out of the five books that they recommended,

I chose Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close.

I chose this book because

I have always loved and valued my friends.

They can be complex,

but they are so nourishing and so rewarding.

So I'm always trying to find ways

on how I can be a better friend.

Now, this book is about two friends

and it chronicles their 10 year friendship

and they share their pitfalls and their joys.

And I love reading about other people's relationships

because it makes me really reflect on mine.

I am so excited to read this

and I never would have heard about this,

unless I was a part of Book of the Month.

If you guys would like to start today,

you can get your first book for 9.99

with my July code JENNIM.

You can skip a month anytime

and you won't be charged.

So it's completely risk-free.

I will also leave all the info in the description box.

So make sure you check that out.

So my first book is The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz.

He is one of my favorite authors.

If you guys haven't read The Four Agreements,

you gotta read it right now.

It should be like mandatory reading for everybody in life.

And honestly, Mastery of Love is now

on that mandatory to read list.

So Mastery of Love talks about

how we can heal our emotional wounds.

I really love how clear he writes.

Like it's not just fluffy words

about like endless descriptions.

It's just straight to the point.

Anyone can read it and understand.

A chapter that really resonated with me,

was the one about our relationship with our bodies.

So my job is to film and make videos

and I'm always on camera.

And so this is categorized as a display profession.

So I find myself nitpicking a lot

about the way I look, about different changes in my body.

And during this quarantine, I have been extra.

There was a phase where I was just extra harsh on my body.

And he explains that once we have a kind and loving

and compassionate relationship with our bodies,

we can have fulfilling and nourished relationships

with the people around us.

And it makes complete sense.

The way we treat ourselves,

is how we treat the closest people in our lives.

If we are treating ourselves with patience and kindness,

then we're probably gonna treat everyone else the same way.

It really starts from within.

And this book has given me some extra clarity

on how I can be more kind to myself.

And it's making me closer to being the more reassured

and confident person that I want to become.

So my second book is Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Now as a double Virgo, this book is music to my ears.

It is the manifesto for motivation and productivity.

This is actually my second time reading this,

because I really needed something to light a fire of my ass.

And this book did just the trick.

So this book explains how

small incremental changes every day

can build into something great and remarkable.

So he explains that a habit is a routine

that just happens automatically.

And we spend 50 to 60% of our lives just through habits.

So if we're able to habit stack

and just build up good habits,

then you can live your life on autopilot

and still be so productive.

So one practice that I immediately implemented in my life

is called priming your environment.

Which is basically like a fancy way to say,

keep your space clean.

When you are doing something that you don't want to do.

Having an environment that is clean and tidy

is so motivating, it makes it attractive.

So now before I leave a room,

I make sure I prime it a little bit.

So I'll like fold up the clothes,

I'll push the chairs in, I'll wipe down the tables.

It literally just takes a couple of minutes.

So that way when I come back into the room,

it releases a feel good chemical out of my brain

and it makes me feel more motivated.

So my third book is called

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

I picked up this book because

I am deeply disturbed about the amount of people

that are addicted to their phones.

Now this is actually an addiction because

the tycoons of tech have purposely,

have intentionally made it addicting.

Cal Newport calls our phones, slot machines.

And it makes complete sense.

When we check our phone,

we're all secretly thinking the same thing.

We're thinking like oh my gosh, like, what did my post get?

Did I get likes?

Did I get comments?

Did I get a text back?

There's always something that we are hoping for.

And most of the time that number,

isn't the number that we were hoping for.

However, when it does, and you do get those likes,

you do get those comments.

It releases this huge rush of dopamine to your brain.

And when rewards like that are unpredictable,

it's more dopamine in your brain.

It makes it more addicting.

So it creates this cycle and this toxic relationship

that we have with our phones.

I've learned from this book that we are actually

in a solitude deprivation.

Solitude doesn't mean like being alone by yourself.

Like you can technically be in a room full of people,

but still find solitude.

Solitude is a subjective state of mind

where you don't let anything external input your mind.

It's like basically feeling your own frequency.

So, meditation is a form of solitude.

Writing is a form of solitude.

Even like walking outside.

This is something that so many people aren't aware of.

Like when was the last time you didn't have a podcast on,

or the TV on or a YouTube video?

Like when was the last time you just like sat

in your own stillness.

There is a direct correlation on why anxiety

and depression are at an all time high,

and how it parallels with the rise of

social media and technology.

It's just crazy.

Now I do realize that it may come off a little hypocritical

that someone who makes their living off social media

is telling you like that it's toxic.

But I find it quite opposite.

I feel like it's my duty to let you know

that you should probably have some limitations with it.

So now I wanna talk about Circe,

which was by far my favorite summer fiction book I've read.

I did not want it to end

because I have always been a freak for Greek mythology.

When I was growing up,

I loved learning about the gods

and I loved how they all had

their own little thing going on.

Now, this book is about Circe.

And Circe is the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun.

And within the gods and deities

there's like a huge hierarchy.

And Circe is at the bottom of the totem pole.

She's just the nymph, diamond doesn't.

She's truly an underdog like her mom doesn't like her,

her brothers and sisters don't like her.

Like, you're just rooting for her the entire time.

And she's just like always in the background at the feasts.

Like she's just, like she's very lonely.

I found myself identifying to Circe a lot because

I feel like a lot of us have felt like an outcast

or like you didn't fit in.

And that was pretty much Circe's life.

And this book is just,

it's very long because god's don't die.

And it's just so crazy to see the life

of an immortal creature.

This is also the book of the month

for my book club, curlupclub.

So if you'd like to read it,

there's going to be a discussion about it in July.

So make sure you check it out if you're interested.

For my thriller selection,

I have Woman in the Window.

Now, if you like Girl on the Train,

you're gonna love Woman in the Window.

It's definitely similar vibes in the sense that,

the main character is an alcoholic woman.

So she makes for an unreliable narrator.

Like you don't know if she's telling the truth or not.

It makes the plot thicken.

So the story follows a woman named Anna Fox

who has agoraphobia.

Which means that she is terrified to leave her own house.

Which I find it very fitting with the times again.

But she is also an online therapist.

So she spends all of her time

just chatting with her clients.

She also slams back bottles of Merlot,

and she also loves to spy on her neighbors.

So this just makes this book a recipe for drama.

And one night she sees something super sus

and I'll just leave it at that.

If you love thrillers,

you're gonna love this book.

I feel like thrillers are what made me hooked onto reading,

especially as an adult.

Because thrillers have the ability to make you just

wanna turn one more page.

And this book definitely does that.

So my next book is called

Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates.

I talked about this book in a previous vlog,

but I just wanted to talk about it again because

I finished it and I found it very, very poignant.

I think with the whole resurgence of

the black lives matter movement,

I wanted to make sure that I had more black perspectives

that could give me a better understanding

of how I can support and how I can be a better ally.

So Between the World and Me is,

in the form of a letter to his 15 year old son.

Coates describes his perspective on growing up

as a black man in America.

And how fear and violence were ingrained in him

at such a young age.

And these two aspects have been passed down