The return of the reading corner: books for new life chapters | Ep 202

In this episode, we revive a much-loved segment of the podcast: the Reading Corner.After a long pause filled with life changes, travel, and new chapters, we return to books as a source of reflection, grounding, and growth.This conversation isn’t about book reviews or recommendations in the traditional sense, but about how stories shape us, challenge us, and gently guide us back to ourselves.Natalie shares her deep immersion into three books by Peruvian author Ailton Krenak (The Time of the Black Jaguar, Dear and Thunder, and The Spirit of the Glacier Speaks), which explore Indigenous wisdom, connection to Mother Earth, and living from the heart rather than the head.These books resonate strongly with her current life in South Africa and her vision of living off-grid, self-sufficient, and in harmony with the land.She reflects on themes of colonial history, ancestral knowledge, food, ceremony, balance between masculine and feminine energies, and the importance of compassion over blame. Rather than offering practical “how-to” steps, these books invite her to let go of checklists and trust intuition, presence, and relationship with nature.Lenka then shares two very different yet surprisingly aligned reads: I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You by Miranda Hart and Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani.Both books tell deeply personal stories of illness, breakdown, healing, and transformation. Lenka reflects on how these narratives reinforce the importance of self-acceptance, authenticity, and releasing societal expectations.Through humour, vulnerability, and profound life events, both authors model what it looks like to stop people-pleasing, honour one’s truth, and choose a life that feels aligned, even when it looks unconventional.Together, we explore how very different books can carry the same core message: healing, fulfilment, and peace often begin when we allow ourselves to be fully who we are.We discuss how reading personal stories can be more powerful than prescriptive self-help, offering inspiration through lived experience rather than rigid frameworks.The episode closes with an invitation to listeners to reconnect with reading in a meaningful way, to share books that have inspired or challenged them, and to approach learning with curiosity rather than judgment.This Reading Corner is less about finishing books, and more about letting them open new questions, paths, and ways of being.