November was generally a pretty disorganized mess in terms of reading. I picked up about four different books and read them in bits and pieces, but I ultimately finished just the two below. I’m falling into a rhythm of reading one book at least loosely related to work and one book “just for fun.” I’ve got several books in my queue for next month, so here’s hoping I get some time to read over the holidays 🙂

Motivational Interviewing in Nutrition and Fitness by Dawn Clifford and Laura Curtis

I recently began a new job in which I spend about half my time doing nutrition counseling, which is a big change compared to my previous role. So, I’ve been looking for ways to sharpen my counseling skills and really make the most out of my time with patients. Motivational Interviewing (MI) has become a cornerstone in the training of most healthcare professionals over the past few decades, and this book does an excellent job of applying its principles to the nutrition/fitness/wellness space. I bought a hard copy of this for cheap off of eBay (not available as an eBook from my library), and I’m very glad I did because I think I will be referring to it often; it includes a variety of handouts and tools to add structure to counseling sessions.

5/5 stars.

We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

I think I stumbled upon this book as a recommendation from my preferred reading app, Libby. Their algorithm must be pretty spot-on because I did indeed enjoy this book, although it is a bit of a departure from my usual genre. The story focuses on the mysterious death of a father and daughter and later a police women who was linked to the case, both personally and professionally. Two of the characters bond over their common experience of losing a part of their bodies (a leg for one, an eye for the other), and it’s clear that the author did a great deal of research on prosthetics and the people who use them in their everyday lives–I always appreciate when writers do their homework! Overall, I would describe this as a “thoughtful who-dunnit” (aka psychological thriller) that I very much enjoyed reading in spurts over the course of the month. In fact, my library loan ran out, so I quickly requested it again and was relieved when I was able to finish the last 100 pages a few days later. As for the ending, all I’ll say is that I did not see it coming–the best kind!

5/5 stars.

What did you read in November?