5 Books to send your on a journey or to come along with you

Shooters – Julia Boggio 

What a fun book! The majority of industries have an incestuous undertone at the best of times and photography certainly is no different, well apart from the intimate nature of the work, romantic settings and celebrity lifestyle. But other than that… 

Sometime we need to break patterns in our behaviour to get different results, to break away from what is not working for us. But then again, it isn’t always down to our behaviour and we need to explore the possibility of something new not going the same way as past relationships. 

Stella is a deliciously feisty, sexy, warm and driven, yet totally clumsy character who is determined to become a successful wedding photographer. So long as she doesn’t become distracted by old patterns of behaviour that has not served her well. 

The whole book is full of strong characters, especially the women and yet they all have their fallible quirks that makes them human, relatable. 

 

Holiday Read - Taylor Cole

What I loved about this book is it’s heart-warming propensity to help us see that we can choose our family. That we can curate what works for us. That best friends and family can show up for us in many different ways and help us to see our worth. Anything less and we should and can choose our boundaries, people who don’t respect that, likely have an ulterior motive or not our best at heart.

When surfer Candice moves from Hawaii to Cornwall she is not just escaping her cheating and controlling husband, she’s in search of her ‘dad’, her roots, what to do with her life, but most importantly I’d say, find herself.

Sometimes when we’re looking for something we are too blinded by our obsession of it. I’m also booking my trip to Fistral now, possibly one of the posh DFL ones!

 

The Prisoner’s Wife - Ali Blood

Emma is the victim of coercive abuse. The story follows the standard abusers pattern of showering their victim with love, give them everything they want and more, then slowly take away anything that gives them autonomy and outside friendships. It’s slow, so slow that you don’t know it’s happening until you’ve dug a hole, gradually making excuses for the change (let’s not look ungrateful) and isolated yourself. To the outside world, life is perfect so who would believe you anyway. But then your abuser gets sent down for 5 years after the law finally catches up with what transpires is London’s most dangerous crime family leader. You’d think that gave you a break and a way out. No, this is when it all implodes…

However, it is nice when sometimes the trash takes itself out. Brilliantly written, I loved it.

 

The Fear - Christiana Spens

Fear comes in many forms and plays out in many ways not always easily spotted by anyone, especially ourselves. However, a state of fear often perpetuates more fear in other areas of our lives, like a disease or dis-ease. It infects who we trust, how we progress, develop, nurture ourselves and others, how we stick with destructive patterns or life in a constant state of managing coping mechanisms. It’s exhausting, its unhealthy and it’s not always easy to recognise. The Fear by Christiana Spens uses her own experience to help us understand and identify our fears individually and as a society and how they may be controlling us to our detriment. Using philosophy, art, popular culture, poetry and much more – a varied and thorough breakdown of fear to help us understand, identify and build upon.

 

 

Wilder Journeys - Laurie King & Miriam Lancewood

Many of us feel the need to escape the chaos and incessant noise of life, and what better place to do it than in nature. Forest bathing, digital detox’s in a countryside setting, silent retreats and even good old camping are great ways that we are trying to embed nature in our lives. However, these are short term ‘quick fixes’. Wilder Journeys follow this notion to intense levels of nature absorption that results in a variety of profound connections that the contributors have experienced and share with us. Nature is stunning and too many of us take it for granted and see very little of it. Opting to swoon over ‘Nature posts’ on Instagram. But lets delve into the incredible journeys of those that did it #IRL.

 

 

More books?

Books with a Nature Vs Nurture Vibe...