I am heading on a trip to Israel next week! I thought it would be a good idea to squeeze in a little bit of travelling before heading back to school. This is my first time visiting this country and I am super excited. I’ve got a whole itinerary planned out for the next two weeks. As you may all know, I’ve started travelling a bit more as of last year, and one of my least favorite thing about travelling is the plane ride. Aside from catching up on your TV shows (which I sometimes forget to download prior to boarding), another great alternative that gets me through the plane ride is reading books!  I hardly ever have time to read during the regular day so it’s a great chance for me to catch up on some top reads. I will be honest here, it takes less energy watching Netflix than it does reading a book. Although I do wish I read a bit more on a regular basis.

Anyways, in today’s blog post I will be introducing you to the top five best reads for young women. I am really into lifestyle & self-help books. I love learning different perspective on how to better the way I live my life. I also think this is so important, when you are living in your twenties, there is no better time to learn.

My number one top pick is “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson – a counter intuitive approach to living a good life. This book focuses on how finding important and meaningful things in life takes up the most time and energy of an individual. Thus, the key to a good life is simply not caring (or “not giving a f*ck). A few key points from the book that really sparked for me is convention self-help advice for when you visualize success and reinforce the idea that you aren’t reaching who you want to become. Another part of the book that I really relate to is the material crisis. As someone who loves to shop for resources such as, clothes, makeup, electronics, etc. According to the book, the problem we face is existential and spiritual. “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

 

My second pick is “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. I found this book really helpful with networking. I went to my first networking event earlier last year and I freaked out.  I didn’t know what to say to people, how to act without being awkward. After reading this book, I felt I had a better sense of communicating with other strangers. A few lessons that you will get out of from this read is praising other’s, empathetic, smile, encourage others, less complaining, and a few others. Although based off of this, it seems so simple, the book goes into more details from another perspective on each type of lesson. Carnegie refers to a quote by Henry Ford: "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other

Changing up the self-help field to something a bit more hands on, yet practical is the book called “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art. Call me a neat-freak, and even though I thought I knew how to clean up, I really picked up a few new tricks along the way of reading this book. No to mention that this is a  #1 New York Times best-selling guide. Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo will take you through step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. I highly recommend this to both, people who struggle with organizing and those who love cleaning up!  

Switching it up from self-help, one of the most unforgettable book I’ve read is The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan. Think for a second, what is the word for opposite of lonliness? This book is a collection of essays and stories written by the young Yale graduate. Marina graduated in May 2012 and was heading to work at the New Yorker, but tragically after graduating, she died in a car crash. This book went viral and has received more than 1.4 million hits. She definitely left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that captures hope, uncertainty and possibility of her generation. 

Ending this blog post off with a fun book is “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)” by Mindy Kaling. I LOVE “The Mindy Project” and of course, when I found out she wrote a book, I was so excited. She also has another book called “Why Not Me?” which is on my list of to-reads. This is a fun, light, easy read. I guarantee you will laugh, and by laugh I mean laugh out loud, in the middle of the subway. Her book reminds me of some of Tina Fey’s book.