books of 2025
It wasn't the best year for reading books (how does anyone with a family find the time?). But I managed to read 5! So here are the books I've read this year, in no particular order.
i guess i haven't learned that yet, shauna niequist
This is the book that I gave the most dog eared pages ever! I read it in just 2 days and learned a lot from it. It was written during the lockdown Covid times around 2019-2020. A good read for insights and general life advice.
we need your art, aimee mcnee
This is a great book for anyone who is (or wants to be) creative. For people that are already working in the creative field. But definitely also for those who would really like to be creative, but haven't found a way to do that. And anyone in between ; )
Aimee has struggled herself for years as a writer. And in this book you can clearly see that she has a ton of valuable lessons and experiences to share with you. I've never read a book that is so good at motivating you to make art. If you ask me, this is a must for everyone who is - or wants to be - an artist. You NEED to hear what she has to say.
joyfull, ingrid fetell lee
This book covers different aspects that all come down to; adding joy. One of the chapters in the book that I really enjoyed was Ingrids research on colors. She talks about how colors affect us and what we can do with color to get a certain effect. For example, how cities lowered their crime rates by using certain colors. But she also mentions simpler ways of how we can add more joy and happiness with colors (among others) in our daily lives.
gentle, courtney carver
If you ask me, this book is an excellent read, as it has something to offer for everyone and is transformative on many levels. We can all benefit from tools to learn how to rest and do less. It is more common in society these days to keep pushing through or get burned out. This book is a great lesson to be more gentle with yourself. To have more self compassion. Couldn't we all benefit from a simpler, more gentle life?
essentialism, Greg McKeown
Essentialism is not about doing more things, but the right things. This is a great book if you want to learn how to apply your energy to get the greatest rewards. How to prioritize and focus on what really matters: learning to say no to many good opportunities so that you can say yes to the great ones.
do/ design: why beauty is key to everything, Alan Moore
Alan Moore puts together small essays as well as stories of successful artists and businesses in order to contrive reasons as to why beauty is the key to everything.
My favorite section was ‘be curious about the world’, using material to feed our imaginations and being fascinated by the everyday.
‘we don’t think beauty - we feel it, we sense it, we know it’ (page 43)
