Reduce Stress and Improve Happiness: 14 Great Books to Read This Summer

One of the most inspiring perks of being partners in Rumblings is sharing what we’re reading with each other. Our text message chain is a volley of must-read recommendations. Often our business meeting conversations get distracted by sharing inspiration we’re having based on a book we’ve read. 

There is still something magical and simple about a book. The power to evoke an emotion, inspire action, ignite creativity, showcase diverse views, motivate change, and transport us to a different place and time through written language is a great gift. 

As lifelong learners, we both have been avid readers. Still, this past year has brought diversity in our reading and added fiction back into a routine that has previously prioritized nonfiction, professional books. What’s interesting — and maybe a little counterintuitive — is that reading fiction can contribute to overall well-being. 

Reading fiction is uniquely powerful in helping us imagine stories that activate regions of our brains responsible for better understanding others and seeing the world from a new perspective. Studies have shown that reading fiction can help us:

• Develop our imagination

• Build skills to be alone

• Be more empathetic

• Reduce stress (reading puts our brains in a similar state to meditation, eliciting the benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm)

• Experience slower memory loss and mental decline

• Develop a broader vocabulary

• Makes us happier

Although we've expanded our library to include digital and even audiobooks, evidence suggests that reading on paper increases comprehension and helps induce sleep due to being visually less demanding and less distracting, and lacking light-emitting screens. 

Health benefits aside, our biggest challenge is getting through our extensive list of “to-read” books. 

Whichever preference you have for reading, we thought we’d share what’s on our summer reading list. 

90 Seconds to a Life You Love: How to Master Your Difficult Feelings to Cultivate Lasting Confidence, Resilience, and Authenticity by Joan I. Rosenberg

All the Devils are Here by Lisa Penny 

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate 

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story Remaking A Life From Scratch by Erin French

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith 

Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford 

Ten Poems series by Roger Housden 

The Monkeewrench series by P.J. Tracy

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life by Edith Eger

Think Again by Adam Grant

Universal Human by Gary Zukav

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

What’s on your summer reading list? We’d love to hear what books are inspiring you and what you’re learning. Please share with us at  Rumblings Media or via social media with the hashtag #flourishafter50. 

Please support your local library or small independent bookstores whenever possible. 

Sign-up today to get more information on how to flourish after 50!

Together we Rumble!

Karyn and Rebecca