Nadea's Book Recommendations for 2024

I hope your new year is off to a peaceful and restful start.

Before I started putting together this compilation, I honestly thought that I hadn’t read many books in 2023, but when I went back to see everything I had made my way through, I was actually pleasantly surprised.

For me, 2023 was the year of audiobooks and podcasts (I strongly prefer listening to things on 1.5x or 2x speed and multitasking by listening to stuff while I do other tasks), though I did make an effort to sit and read physical books (sometimes in conjunction with the corresponding audiobook), with middling success. I really did try to read more fiction and creative writing last year, but nothing really hooked me -- with the exception of a couple of the old classics, like my favourite and familiar Jules Verne and Brontë novels. I’ll keep trying in 2024!

Just like last year's list, quite a few of the books on the following recommendation list are now available in our studio library, so if you ever want to flip through them or if you would like to borrow them, feel welcome.

As a movement coach who guides people in showing up for themselves and taking care of and honouring their own bodies, I’ve observed many things about the humans who we welcome into our studio. Some of those observations include how it is very, very common for us all to be increasingly anxious and disconnected from our bodies, and how the majority of us hold ourselves and our bodies to harsh and exacting standards that, frankly, are not serving us well.

So many people come into the studio looking to be “fixed” or “healed” or "corrected" through physical exercise, assuming that our bodies are defective and wrong in some way or another. So many of us hold onto the deeply engrained societal belief that if we’re physically “healthier” (which is often mistaken to be synonymous with “thinner” or “more toned”), we’ll automatically feel better in every respect or at