3 books (that changed my life)

Ok...may be a little dramatic, but they totally did. Prior to landing "dream job", I was laid off. "Bitter is the New Black" by Jen Lancaster had just hit the shelf and I just happened to stumble upon it one day as I was sulking through the local bookstore (which is therapy for me in itself sometimes). Thank God. At a time where I felt like all was lost, this crazy ass Chicago-ian made me laugh out loud through tears. It helped to know, it's NOT just me. I rocked the hell out of black at the time because as Jen said, "bitter is the new black" and I could have changed my name to "Bitter" at the time.

Of course, I got through it.

Then, after landing "dream job", just when it seemed that all was well with the world, someone decided, "she's just too happy" and decided to have boyfriend-of-the-present become boyfriend-of-the-past. Bummer! This time no bookstore was involved. A friend of mine tipped me off on this "quick, fun but truthful read" and after telling my Mom about it, she quickly bought me the book. "It's Called a Break-up because it's Broken" by Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt, inspired me beyond belief. It challenged me to do something I didn't think I could. Go sixty days. Sixty days with absolutely no communication with the cheese-ball who broke my heart. And even though I knew he was a cheese-ball, I was deathly afraid of losing him, or him forgetting about, or just having to do it period. Eventually, after being burned a few times, I began my own personal "he-tox" (detox from him as the authors so cutely named it). It was indeed a quick, funny and easy read...and quite frankly, kept in real, in a very surreal time for me. That's how I starting journaling/blogging. I wrote in detail about my he-tox (my withdrawal) and won. I made it sixty days...hell I made it 90+ days. I don't even keep track anymore. And I got over it.

Finally, after I was "over it", Mom came through again. She had heard about this wonderful author, Elizabeth Gilbert, who had traveled through parts of the world in search of her self. Knowing I was finding myself and getting to know me a little better, she bought me "Eat.Pray.Love". I admire Ms. Gilbert. Her courage to never settle. Her courage to get down and dirty with herself. Simply fabulous. I'm doing this just about every day of my life now. And I really freakin' like me.

You don't have to be going through something to enjoy any of these reads, but I'm a firm believer everything happens for a reason and these three books came into and changed my life.

Check 'em out:



Night folks! It's waaaay past my bedtime.