book chat - A Year of Living Kindly

Here's one I read a few months back, but it's a perfect fit for this time of year!

A Year of Living Kindly by Donna Cameron, Published September 25th 2018 by She Writes Press

I don't give out many 5 star reviews, but this one earned it. I'd like to read this again, one chapter a week rather than all in a few sittings as I did this time around. Spreading out the chapters would give more time for thought and time to work on implementing the various suggestions. As it was, I still got a lot out of this book - truly, judging by the number of highlights! Kindness is something our world is in dire need of these days. I grew up in the Midwest US which is known for being "nice". Now, as an adult, I'm working on changing some of those "nice" tendencies to true kindness. Learning to pause before we respond (I'm especially looking at you, social media), trying to assume the best of people rather than the worst and being more aware of what's going on around us so we can see opportunities to show kindness are main themes here. Most of the book focuses on kindness toward other humans, but I was happy to see a chapter included near the end regarding showing kindness to animals and the earth. The quarterly reviews are a nice touch as well. Each looks back at topics covered in the preceding 3 months of entries. I would definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and She Writes Press for the opportunity to read and review this thought-provoking book! All comments are my own, unbiased opinion.