THE MOST INSPIRING BOOKS, TV, PODCASTS AND ADVENTURES FROM 2022!
Drum roll please…! Here is our juicy round up of our top recommendations from 2022!
We love sharing our favourite reads, listens and findings with you each month to keep your minds inspired and hearts and bellies full! This ‘round up’ of our faves is a myriad of joy to dive into during your downtime…enjoy every minute and share with your favourite peeps!
READ
Laura loved The Paper Palace - it gave her all of her favourite things in one book! Exploring the complexity of humans and relationships AND vivid descriptions of the beautiful nature in which the story is set. There is nothing she loves more than real human characters with real human feelings and real human flaws. Tender, lusty, and heart-breaking.
Kenny loved Devotion by Hannah Kent. Not only is this book a contender for the most beautiful cover in existence award (such a sucker for a good cover), the story is a wonderful yet heart wrenching tale of love and separation, set in a pilgrim journey between Prussia and Australia. Here’s a snippet of what the Sunday times said: ‘Extraordinarily daring…a remarkable novel, an almost visionary celebration of the death-defying power of women's love.’ Must. Read.
Katy completely adored City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert and sent a copy to all her friends - who gobbled it up too! The story is fun, gripping, wildly colourful and a little bit naughty - what a dream combo! The main character is totally inspiring, refusing to conform with societal norms in the 1920’s onwards, and the relationships between the female characters makes your heart swell. Absolutely delicious, enjoy every page.
Laura loved Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and said this - How the f*ck have I never read this book before? It is everything I love in a novel - deep exploration of characters, beautiful and nuanced relationships, important political themes covered delicately…very funny, very warm and totally compelling.
Katy finally read Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami - at the time cited as one of the best novels ever written. Set in 1987 Tokyo, it's a beautiful and melancholic take on loneliness, relationships and young adulthood. She loved seeing Japan through a student’s eyes and even though parts are heart breaking, it's a beautifully written book that she couldn’t put down.
Laura also enjoyed Honey and spice by Bolu Babalola. A brilliantly addictive rom com with characters that you’ll fall in love with and Beyoncé references that elevate it into the ‘faves’ shelf of my bookshelf! Plus Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters. This book is fiction but is so detailed and granular about the world and challenges faced by our transgender community.
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LISTEN
Laura listened to The High Performance podcast with Danny Cipriani where three men were discussing authenticity, truth and emotion. It was raw, messy and human. And so refreshing to hear men being supported and encouraged to talk about their human-ness.
Our total fave Elizabeth Day of brilliant podcast How to Fail has launched a new podcast with her best friend Emma Reed-Turrel called ‘Best friend therapy’ - and it is absolute genius! Katy loved this episode about boundaries which she thinks every single person could do with listening to! It's something she helps people with in her coaching sessions, and this episode is packed with brilliant tips.
Kenny has been loving the absolute 90s bangers on Fearne Cotton’s show on BBC sounds - but with the added bonus of the legend that is Self Esteem on this episode - Self Esteem is all kinds of good - ridiculously talented, northern, in her 30s and writes ‘patriarchy smashing anthems.’ Top bird. She wrote the soundtrack for Prima Facie. Absolute star.
Staying with the theme, Laura listened to Changes with Annie Mac and Self Esteem. Lovely episode with a year end wrap up theme!! And two of her most fave, heart centered women.
Katy loved another How to Fail interview between Elizabeth and her best friend Clemency Burton-Hill following her shocking and life changing brain hemorrhage. This is the type of conversation that makes you feel immense gratitude for your life, absolute wonder in other humans and a real appreciation for the reminder of how moving classical music can be - even to a novice like Katy who knows little about it. Emotional, funny and deeply inspiring - you won’t regret giving this gift a listen.
Laura listened to Brene Brown interviewing America Ferrera and has been raving about the life-changing messages around the importance of bringing your whole self to leadership ever since - in fact, we cited this episode in lots of our Workplace Wellbeing and Women Rising work within organisations this year! Listen here.
Kenny found this delightful ‘Easy Winter’ playlist and recently went to see Marcus Mumford live at the Albert Hall - her fave venue! What a treat. Listen to his new album here - total swoon.
VISIT….AND OF COURSE, EAT!
If you are based in the north west, our local vegetable farm Groobarbs has opened its own ‘field kitchen’ and it is nothing short of dazzling. A beautiful cosy barn, this ‘field to fork’ experience houses long sharing tables and an imaginative, delicious set menu featuring seasonal produce - the actual dream!
As a team we recently had lunch at Hello Oriental a new spot in Manchester which is a celebration of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine - it’s 3 floors of wondrous food & drink and a really relaxed but fun atmosphere. The bao buns and dumplings were to die for!
We celebrated ‘our’ Laura’s birthday at the incredible @therewildingcommunity Supper Club and it was nothing short of magical!! The stunning location is where we host our Retreat Day events, so to be a guest under a clear night sky and be welcomed with yummy cocktails and the most delicious foraged shared menu was a huge treat. The best company, cosy fire pit vibes and atmosphere for days - we will be back!
We have a constant list of ‘to try’ in our local area and beyond - new entries on there include New Century MCR - helloooooo ‘butty shop’! And Alibi Altrincham a karaoke spot in Altrincham from the gang behind Common Ground coffee shop - a strong contender for the TVH Xmas do!
This year Katy celebrated her Mum’s 70th birthday in Lisbon. What a city - big, scruffy, graffitied AND vibey, friendly and inspiring! The Time Out market is a foodie’s dream, Lx Factory full of cool indie boutiques and Santelmo a dream for an intimate dinner. I came back with many more (ear) piercings! Obrigada, Portugal.
For the wander-lusters out there, have a ponder and a dream over this list of the top cities to live in for work life balance.
Laura took a week’s holiday to go solo hiking in the Lake District. She felt so brave and empowered planning her own routes and map-read her way up 10 of the Wainwright fells! Long walks on her own created the space for epic realisations and ideas about her life and our business - highly recommended to try out your own solo walk / hike and see what lands for you!
Katy & Laura both attended a delicious Supper Club hosted by their wonderful friends @gemcwade and @atthekitchen5 to raise funds for Unicef UK Ukrainian appeal. Gathering people together to sit around a table and try a different menu including borscht, potato dumplings and apple cake was such a treat - keep an eye on them to see what else they have coming up.
After enjoying a delicious wood-fired long lunch at Wilderness festival cooked by the outstanding Sam Evans and Shauna Quinn, we can’t wait to hear more about them and their champion Ben Quinn who helps women rise. “Fire is fire, it doesn’t light or burn better because it was lit by a man”. HOORAH.
WATCH
One of Katy’s favourite ever activities is going to the cinema by herself in the middle of the day! She watched ‘The worst person in the world’ - a Norwegian film shot in beautiful Oslo about a woman turning 30 and all of the existential quandaries there are to navigate. Real, absorbing and thoughtful - she loved it!
Season 2 of Ramy is here and we are all loving it. It’s 30 min episodes really capture the challenges of diverse cultures colliding. We also learn lots about representation in the arts through the diverse and talented cast, as well as having many LOL’s along the way. Love hearts all round.
Holy shit, the world needs to see Prima Facie, a stunning theatre performance and incredibly important message addressing sexual consent starring the wildly impressive Jodie Comer.
Laura loved Stutz documentary on Netflix. Jonah Hill interviews his incredible, beautiful, open hearted therapist. For any self dev / therapy nerd, this will help to take abstract therapy concepts into practical tools! LOVE!
So there you have it, some of the wonderful inspiring things created by other humans that have lit us up throughout 2022 - we hope you enjoy it xxx