MY SUMMER READS

Long story short... after a road trip, I ended up getting really sick. I got back to my home and was told by my doctor that my only true healer was time. After staring at my ceiling for awhile and loosing interest after watching hours of Netflix shows...I caught up on a lot of reading and I did it by the ocean. I spent the summer with my nose in a book, drowning in other worlds to distract me from my own. Here are a few of my reads I lost myself in this summer.

Film For Her by Orion Carloto

"I close my eyes just long enough to let go of the suffering and allow myself this moment to feel everything." -Orion Carloto, Film For Her

Film For Her by Orion Carloto is an incredible scrapbook of a sullen California dream. Her words have always been captivating after reading “Flux” and growing up watching Orion's youtube videos, her artistry slips off the page and completely intoxicates you. Theses stories and poems are accompanied with her own film photos and art. She dives into modern relationships, family and friends in such a real and raw way. Her writing makes me wanna run away to the coast and lay in bed all day at the same time. Truly a masterpiece to devourer an afternoon in the sun.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

"Life will give you whatever experience is the most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment." -Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

I stumbled across this book in my basement when we were moving to the west coast. I’d previously read “The Power of Now” by the same author and I truly believe that I came across this book when I most needed it. It is a powerful read that beautifully explains the spiritual concept that we are separate from our minds or “egos” and we are the awareness behind our thoughts, not the identities and narratives we tell ourselves.

Tolle explains and brings light to how absolutely insane the human mind is, that all of our suffering is actually created by ourselves, our ego. How there is an energy within us much more powerful than what we think or perceive. The only way out of this vicious circle is to become aware. To let go and drop into presence. You become aware that there is so much more power in not needing to be understood. There's a light feeling that comes with just Being, rather than rebuilding this false sense of self to gain something for yourself or from others. He writes that the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. It’s truly a life changing read, with so many beautiful teachings and quotes. It really changed how I move through challenges and has brought me a lot of peace.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

"Family is found...whether it be blood or circumstance or choice, what binds us

does not matter. All that matters is that we are bound." -Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

Malibu rising was such a page turner. Set in 1983, it follows the story of the famous Riva family, Nina a talented surfer and supermodel, Jay, a championship surfer, Hudson, a well-known photographer and and the youngest beloved sister, Kit, who has a spit fire and a surfers calling, they all carry their own set of secrets. By the morning the Riva mansion will go up in flames and through the novel, you can feel all of the family skeletons lift off the page.

The story follows parallel to their parent's love story. Their mother June Costas and legendary singer father Mick Riva, who fell in love the summer of 1956 in Malibu. Now, due to her mother’s addictions and her absentee father, as the oldest Nina has to step up and raise her siblings on her own. The siblings find their own way to navigate through the dark, all while being in the limelight. It truly is a beautiful story about growing up amongst adversity, the true meaning of family and how where you come from can affect who you become, but ultimately the choice is yours.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. -Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is truly a book you could re-read for the rest of your life and still find new hidden meanings within. It follows the story of a shepherd who has a recurring dream as he sleeps under a sycamore tree. In the dream he is told to go find hidden treasure under the pyramids of Egypt. He visits a gypsy who helps him interpret his dream and tells him that it is indeed prophetic and he must follow it.

Before his journey, he meets a mysterious old man who introduces himself as Melchizedek, the King of Salem. He tells him all about his knowing of having a personal legend and lets him in that all he has to do is follow the omens and he will get to the pyramids. Through a series of events, strung together by fate, he ends up getting robbed on his journey, leading him to have to work at a crystal shop for a year to collect enough money to continue, then onto a caravan crossing the Sahara desert where he meets and falls in love with a girl named Fatima and is brought face to face with an alchemist, and the magic within himself, only to find that the true treasure would inevitably lead him back home.

It truly is a profound tale that everything happens for a reason and that life isn't about the end destination but the journey to get there. The twist at the end of the book made me laugh!! SO GOOD.