June 19, 2024June 14, 2024 by Libby

Summer Reading List Ideas

We are well into June — how is your summer going so far??

It seems like every year summer seems to fly by. My life has felt all over the place lately, and I keep having these weird moments where I remember that we are already into June! My mind is still frozen in April mode.

SO — reminding myself it is time to enjoy all the summer produce, all the sunshine, and all the outdoor time with friends and family before I miss it all!

That would certainly be sad. We only get so many sunny days each year in Michigan!

Summer can ALSO be a great time to start reading a bit more! Whether it is at the beach, by the pool, in your backyard, or simply all comfy before bed (like I prefer!), reading can be such a nice way to get your mind off stressful things in life, dive into a topic you are interested in, or learn from the experiences and stories of others — whether real life (memoir, biography, etc) or through fiction.

Below I have 10 ideas for books to add to your (actual or hypothetical) summer reading list! Some of these I have read before, and others I am hoping to read in the coming months.

I’ve compiled a mix of books below — food/body image-related, emotional health-related, one fun fiction read, and a couple of memoirs! Maybe 1 or 2 of them will resonate with you as far as something to check out in the months ahead. 🙂

Note: While I do recommend the mental/emotional health-related books below, I don’t agree with 100% of the thoughts in said books! That is probably obvious, as rarely will we find a book that we wholeheartedly agree with 100%. Most things aren’t that black/white. That being said, I still find them to be useful and helpful in many ways and would read them again / recommend them to others. (With my mini caveats) :).

Summer Reading List Ideas:

The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are

This is one body image-related book that I have on-hand and am looking forward to reading soon! The author, Cynthia Bulik, runs the well-respected eating disorder program at UNC.

The Woman in the Mirror goes beyond typical self-esteem books to dig deep into the origins of women’s problems with body image. Psychologist Cynthia Bulik guides readers in the challenging task of disentangling self-esteem from body esteem, and taking charge of the insidious negative self-talk that started as early as when you first realized you didn’t really look like a fairy princess. By reprogramming how we feel about ourselves and our bodies, we can practice healthy eating and sensible exercise, and focus on the many things we have to offer our family, community, and job. Bulik provides us the tools to reclaim our self-confidence and to respect and love who we are.

Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless

I love how author Melissa Johnson highlights throughout this book the depth and meaningfulness of true beauty compared to surface-level, culture-driven beauty.

It’s time to get honest with ourselves. Culture’s beauty standards are messed up. We all know it, and we all think we can resist the pull to look a certain way. Yet most of us–our daughters and nieces too–still strive for a broken kind of beauty and feel I’m. not. good. enough.

For Melissa Johnson, a marriage and family therapist, this lie eventually led to battling an eating disorder. Through that experience, she saw that chasing broken beauty breaks women in so many ways. She also realized that true, soul-deep beauty is not impossible–it abounds in us and all around us. And now Melissa’s on a mission to help you

uncover the hidden damage cultural lies about beauty have on your mind and soul
reconnect with God, in whose image you are made
walk away from shame and striving
love yourself–and others–unconditionally

Brave Enough

I really enjoyed reading this memoir written by Olympic cross country skier, Jessie Diggins. I found her journey with her sport very inspiring, and also found the eating disorder angle interesting. Definitely would recommend giving this book a read!

In Brave Enough, Jessie Diggins reveals the true story of her journey from the American Midwest into sports history. With candid charm and characteristic grit, she connects the dots from her free-spirited upbringing in the woods of Minnesota to racing in the bright spotlights of the Olympics. Going far beyond stories of races and ribbons, she describes the challenges and frustrations of becoming a serious athlete; learning how to push through and beyond physical and psychological limits; and the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels. She openly shares her harrowing struggle with bulimia, recounting both the adversity and how she healed from it in order to bring hope and understanding to others experiencing eating disorders.

The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and Glory of Growing Up

I recently learned about this memoir, and especially as an avid Harry Potter reader growing up, am looking forward to reading it soon!

Evanna Lynch’s casting as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films is a tale that grew to almost mythic proportions—a legend of how she faced disordered eating as a young girl, found solace in a beloved book series, and later landed the part of her favorite character. But that is not the whole story.

Even after recovery, there remains a conflict at her core: a bitter struggle between the pursuit of perfection and the desire to fearlessly embrace her creative side. Revealing a startlingly accomplished voice, Lynch delves into the heart of her relationship with her body. As she takes the reader through a personal journey of leaving behind the safety of girlhood, Lynch explores the pivotal choices that ultimately led her down the path of creativity and toward acceptance of the wild, sensual, and unpredictable reality of womanhood.

Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-Being and Success

This book is a good intro on the importance of emotional health/intelligence. Something that is often so neglected, leading to drastic consequences!

Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 years as an emotion scientist, he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults – a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he’d endured. And that was the beginning of Marc’s awareness that what he was going through was temporary. He wasn’t alone, he wasn’t stuck on a timeline, and he wasn’t “wrong” to feel scared, isolated, and angry. Now, best of all, he could do something about it.

Find Your Strength: A Workbook for the Highly Sensitive Person

As a fellow HSP, I’m looking forward to diving into this resource soon. I’ve found April Snow’s podcast and blog to be helpful in orienting my life to better suit my energy needs/tendency for overwhelm.

This elegantly designed workbook by psychotherapist April Snow, LMFT, offers you a series of exercises that will help you overcome the obstacles and harness the benefits of your empathetic gifts.

If you often feel anxious, burned out, and overstimulated, you’re not alone. Some people are born highly sensitive to the emotions of others and to their surroundings, but this can be a source of great strength if you learn simple methods to care for yourself and to enable yourself to thrive. With this workbook, you can find strength and healing as you:

Explore and honor your innate sensitivity
Create a lifestyle that supports your needs
Learn how to navigate relationships and create healthy boundaries
Discover methods to help you thrive at work
Turn your sensitive nature into a force for good in your life and in the world

Needing to Know for Sure: A CBT-Based Guide to Overcoming Compulsive Checking and Reassurance Seeking

Many people with disordered eating (and many of us in general!) wrestle with overthinking and struggle with uncertainty. If you find yourself in that camp from time to time (or a lot of the time!), you may find this book helpful!

Do you have thoughts like these—thoughts that cause you to second-guess yourself, and lead to anxiety, stress, and worry? Do you find yourself repeatedly checking your email for no reason, asking others for their opinions about something again and again, or lying awake at night overanalyzing and planning ahead in an attempt to feel less anxious? If so, you probably have a problem with compulsive reassurance seeking. The good news is that you can break free from this “reassurance trap”—this book will show you how.

The Attachment Effect: Exploring the Powerful Ways Our Earliest Bond Shapes Our Relationships and Lives

The past few months I’ve been diving into books on attachment, and found this book to be a good intro. It provides a solid overview of how our early attachment dynamics with our primary caregivers affect the various aspects of our lives later on in adulthood. Even if you have an insecure attachment pattern, it may be encouraging to know that, with enough emotional work/healing, you can have what is considered “earned secure attachment”!

A revealing look at attachment theory, uncovering how our early childhood experiences create a blueprint for all our relationships to come.

Topics include:

What it means to be securely and insecurely attached
How our early childhood experiences create a blueprint for future relationships–and how to use those insights to gain self-awareness and growth
Why anxious and avoidant attachment types tend to attract each other, and how to break the negative cycle
How anyone can work to become “earned secure” regardless of their upbringing and past relationships.

This Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness

Recommended by my friend, Layni, I enjoyed reading this book and reflecting on how so often it is on our darkest moments and pain where God’s beauty and goodness can be most vivid and feel the most real.

We live in a broken world. Amid the daily realities of sickness and isolation, disappointment and pain, it can be profoundly difficult to grasp the real goodness of God. But this is where God breaks into our darkness with beauty. In the wonder of creation, in art or film, story or song, in the kindness of his people and the good they create, God breaks into our pain in a tangible way, teaching us to trust his kindness and hope for his healing. Beauty is a voice singing into our suffering, beckoning us toward restoration.

The Nightingale

Lastly, one fiction book that I read several years ago and absolutely loved! I read that it is also being made into a movie, with a release date in 2024 or 2025. In my opinion, there is so much inspiration, courage, healing, and excitement to be gained from reading high-quality fiction books!

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.