Shake, Reshape & Fuel : Books I Read & Loved in 2015

Hello, my name is Joy…and I’m an input junkie.

It’s true. I am somewhat obsessed with gathering information, gleaning nuggets of wisdom, and putting into action what I learn, in my personal, professional or spiritual life. I read several books at the same time (although have a bad habit of not finishing them all), listen to books on Audible, and fold laundry while devouring a Podcast or teaching series.

Information just lights my fire!

Not to be confused with news. News media seems to have mastered the art of draining the soul. But I digress.

For as much of a bookworm as I’ve become over the past several years, it may be hard to believe that I was not a reader as a child. While my older sister would hide under her covers with a flashlight, nose buried in novels late into the night, reading books felt like absolute torture to me.

It wasn’t until I was a teenager stuck in my granny’s house in Cape Town, with little else to do, that books came to life. She had handed me a Mary Higgins Clark murder mystery and I was all in. I read every single one I could get my hands on. I like to think of my penchant for suspense and good detective work as early prep for life as a police wife, but maybe I just have a thing for who-done-its.

After high school, I forgot about books. Reading was either a luxury I didn’t seem to have the emotional bandwidth for, in the form of novels (although I made exceptions for The Shack and Francine River’s Mark of the Lion series), or a necessity I had to endure (think college textbooks).

While my love for words came long after my love for fonts, an appreciation for books grew quickly after I discovered the wealth of insight and wisdom tucked away in the world of non-fiction.

There are so many excellent books out there that I’ve often lamented over the fact that I can’t just slip them under my pillow at night and absorb their information via some kind of magical pillow-brain osmosis. Until I figure out how to make that happen, I read the old fashioned way – every single day, even if just for 10 minutes – and listen to audiobooks each time I’m on the road for an extended period of time by myself.

To help you narrow down the ever-expanding list of must-read non-fiction books, I thought I’d share 12 that I read – and loved – this past year.

These brilliants reads either shook me up spiritually, reshaped my entrepreneurial thinking and methods of doing business, or fueled my passion to accomplish what I feel called to do with my life. Some did all three.