These Books won't change your life but ...

Lean Into Your Hobbies (They’re Not a Luxury)

In a world obsessed with self-improvement, optimisation, and “using time wisely,” hobbies can quietly slip to the bottom of the list.

I’m a huge fan of educational books. I love learning, understanding how the body works, how the mind heals, how habits are formed and broken. Self-development books have a huge place in my life.

But when it comes to true relaxation and enjoyment, fiction is where I can find relaxation.

Fictional stories about real life.
Stories that place you in another time, another country, another woman’s shoes — and somehow teach you without even realising.

Reading: A Companion for Life

Reading is a hobby I picked up before I even started school, and it has stayed with me through every chapter of my life.

I nearly feel like something is missing when I don’t have a page-turner on the go — a story I’m attached to, characters I’m invested in.

In this digital age, where everything is instant and glowing, I still love a physical book:

• a paperback,(or four) beside the bed

• one bought at the airport for holidays

• pages turned slowly, not scrolled

My eyes are so bored of screens. A book can captivate me in a way screens never manage to.

Stories With Strong Voices and Women at the Centre

Some of the most powerful books I’ve read in recent years have been stories led by strong women and mothers — women navigating grief, survival, love, displacement, resilience, and identity.

A few that have stayed with me long after the last page:

• The Herbalist

• American Dirt

• Where the Crawdads Sing

• The Light Between Oceans

• The Heart’s Invisible Furies

• The Four Winds

• A Thousand Splendid Suns

These are just a handful of the many wow books I’ve read — stories that widened my understanding of the world at the same time.

Why Hobbies Matter — Especially in Sobriety and Motherhood

Hobbies aren’t indulgent.
They’re regulating.

They help us to ground ourselves — when we need it most.

Leaning into what you genuinely enjoy (not what looks productive on paper) is a form of self-respect.

For me, reading fiction isn’t about escaping life, it's something that has accompanied me through all the stages in my life.

And that’s something I’ll never grow out of.