far as the East is from the West

At the beginning of 2021 I made a promise to myself to read at least one book a month. It did not matter what the genre of the book, my goal was simply to read more.

Well I can say that I have successfully finished that goal I made to myself and loved it! January, February, and March were by far the hardest months to push myself to read. (I was not an avid reader before I made this commitment to myself, although I did enjoy an occasional book.) If you think about it, the books I was reading were about 300 pages, that is only 10 pages a day. I only needed 5 minutes a day to read. There are plenty of moments throughout my day where I have 5 minutes to spare on reading.

Yet I still had to acknowledge my goal that I set. I needed to intentionally set aside time to read – 30 minutes here, 15 minutes there – until I worked my way up and had the desire to read.

In 2021 my love for reading was rekindled, I love talking about the books I am reading and asking others what they have read recently so I can add those books to my list. I have chosen to surround myself with people who also have the desire to read more. I even started posting book reviews on my social media accounts to share the excitement about what I have been reading lately (follow me on instagram @hannahcchaffin, shameless plug).

Here are some of my favorite books that I have read in 2021

Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (I fell in love with this book!)

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reed

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

One Day in December by Josie Silver

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Send for Me by Lauren Fox

God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

I am so looking forward to the books that I will read in 2022 and the conversations that follow those books. Let me know what books you are loving lately so I can add them to my list!

Hannah