This year is halfway over!! I can’t believe it. I’ve been reading a LOT this year, especially the past couple months, and feel like I can’t get enough. Please send me absolutely all your recommendations. I love to have a fiction book, an inspiration/ spirituality book, and an audiobook (usually memoir) all going at the same time.

Rayna is always telling me I need to share more of the books that I read. I always resist it, because I don’t want to accidentally start selecting my books based on how well I think they go with my brand or something (gag!) but I also know that if you’re trusting someone to write for you, you might want to know a little about what they read. (Or, just that they DO read, in general!)

I read books! I love books! And I’m here to tell you about a few of my favorites this year.

A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot.

This one was a a reread, and I dove deep into it for a presentation I gave earlier this year. If you haven’t heard of the book, it is a biography of Amy Carmichael, the missionary who gave her life to Jesus and the people of India. She was possibly one of the first modern missionaries to specifically work with survivors of sexual trauma.

I came away from reading this feeling incredibly inspired. Her motto “Love to live, live to love,” is one that I would like to adopt. 🙂

The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

This one is memoir/inspiration book from a Holocaust survivor turned therapist. It was a quick read for me, in spite of the heavy content. I don’t usually love books that say “You can choose to be happy and healed!” but she somehow believes that while still understanding the incredibly intense work it can take at the same time. But you can chose to do the work. So gripping and worth the read.

Making Room by Christine Pohl

A book club read, all about the Christian tradition and teaching of hospitality. It wasn’t all completely new concepts to me, but simultaneously felt transformational, somehow. The practice of hospitality has majorly shaped the way I (aspire to) run Studio Tell, and it felt like curriculum for how I want my business to operate. Highly recommend!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Of course everyone was talking about this book when the movie came out, so I jumped on the bandwagon and read the story! I loved it. A bit of a slog, through some especially science-y parts, but also easy to breeze through. I think anyone would enjoy reading it. And it has the most surprising and satisfying ending!

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Another book club read! I doubt I would have picked this book up otherwise but it was so. good. Thematically powerful, in similar ways to Lord of the Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia, in my opinion, with the dichotomy of light and darkness warring inside the same person. It’s the kind of book I probably will want to read every couple of years.

I’m already reading more in the second half of 2026 than I did in the first half! Books are one of the happiest things in my life. I hope this post inspires you to pick up a book you’ve been procrastinating, or find one that you don’t want to procrastinate.

*Cover photo by Arielle of Arielle Ashworth Photo