Inspirational and Encouraging Books I Want to Read in 2016

Usually most of my reading consists of fiction being purely for the purpose of entertainment. I enjoy getting lost in someomeone else’s world and totally wrapped up and consumed with their story. I love a good book that sucks me in and makes me feel like the characters could be real people.

I love the suspense of what is going to happen next or how the particular problem is going to be solved. I enjoy vicariously living through a fictional character’s romance and I love when an author constructs a completely new world that is so different from the one we live in – like The Hunger Games and other Dystopian novels.

That said, the past few months I have been trying to create some space for enjoying books that aren’t fictional and purely for entertainment. I

t all started in November when I read The Happiness Makeover. Nothing in the book was earth shattering or new information, but I liked how accessible it was.

There were a lot of good reminders in it, the chapters where relatively short, and it was something uplifting to read for a few minutes before bed or in the morning when I wasn’t quite ready to get out of my warm bed yet.

After reading that book, I started looking for more books like this. Something that was uplifting, relating to areas I wanted to improve about myself, yet not so nitty gritty scientific that it wasn’t accessible to read.

Here are a few more books that made my list. I haven’t finished all of them yet. A couple are a work in progress and some I’m still waiting on from the library.

Fringe Hours, by Jessica N. Turner

The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You sounds like the perfect book for just about every mom out there.

You are never too busy to make time for what you love. It’s just a matter of prioritizing — evaluating how you spend your days and dedicating time for what you value. 

It isn’t that I neglect myself, but I would love to get in some better habits of how and when I make time for me – things like getting up earlier and starting my day right away instead of wasting my morning, exercising at home before the kids get up, or doing some early morning work.

Attitudes of Gratitude, by M.J. Ryan

I liked the author’s style in The Happiness Makeover, so I decided to see what else she had written and came across her book called Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life.

Gratitude isn’t something that is unnatural to me. I know I have a ton to be thankful for. If I sit down make a gratitude list, I don’t have a problem with seeing those areas of my life.

Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy. 

My problem is that even though I’m very aware of those things, I have a tendency to let the other not so great areas of my life, the annoying or frustrating unplanned crap in life, override all that is so incredibly great.

Power Thoughts Devotional, by Joyce Meyer

This is an easy one. Power Thoughts Devotional: 365 Daily Inspirations for Winning the Battle of the Mind is a daily devotional, something short and uplifting – 1 page – daily.

Power Thought: I expect good things to happen in my life today.

Even if I am too busy to read much of anything else that day, I  can still spend a couple minutes reading something positive and encouraging.

Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert

I have been pretty hesitant with this book. I didn’t love Eat, Pray, Love. The premise of that book bothered me, a lot of the author annoyed me, and the only portion I really enjoyed was the Eat. But, I had heard so many great things about Gilbert’s new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.

But…who doesn’t want to learn how to tackle what they love, face what they fear, and develop habits, attitudes, and the best approach to live a creative life? If you do, read this book and check out Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk – Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating.

Whatever you practice, you will improve at.

Janssen, who I totally trust in regards to book recommendations, even had it on her 10 best books of 2015 list (and she couldn’t stand Eat, Pray, Love). Read her full review of Big Magic here.

Adventures for Your Soul, by Shannon Kaiser

I saw someone (I can’t remember who!) post about the book Adventures for Your Soul: 21 Ways to Transform Your Habits and Reach Your Full Potential on Instagram and was instantly intrigued.

What does “follow your joy route” mean for you? Well, it means going inward and asking yourself some important questions.

The description on Amazon lists off a bunch of things that in a way sound pretty similar to Big Magic: achieving your goals, removing limiting beliefs or self-sabatoging patters, freedom from fear, living with a purpose and passion, etc. It will be interesting to see how different or similar the two books are.

Need More Book Ideas? Check out some of these:

Allison shares 10 Books to Help You with Your New Year’s Resolutions on Some the Wiser Reads. I always love Allison’s book recommendations. She has great taste and has read so many different books. There are a few on her list that are on mine as well, but lots of other titles to check out, too.

I love a good book-to-movie transformation. Simply Shellie shares 16 Books Becoming Movies in 2016. I admit, I usually like the book better than the movie, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching the on screen adaptation of something I’ve read.

Modern Mrs. Darcy has a fun 2016 Reading Challenge complete with checklist and recommendations for each item on the checklist.

Kaitlyn Bouchillon shares 12 Can’t-Miss Books Coming in 2016. All of these are new to me – probably because I haven’t been paying attention! There are definitely a few I’d like to check out.

What books do you want to read this year? Have you read anything from my list?