This episode was supposed to be a minisode, but COME ON! Rowena and Shelley are two bookworms, two boy moms, and this is a topic that is very near to their hearts!

So if you’re a parent and you want your kids to identify as “readers,” to love reading, and to create a culture of reading in your home, then there’s going to be so much gold in this episode for you.

And while the focus is on kids, Rowena and Shelley are also looking more broadly at how you can cultivate a reading culture in your home — whatever your home looks like. So regardless of whether you have kids in your life or not, there are going to be some fun insights and tips for you.

If reading more books and reigniting your love of reading is one of your New Year’s goals, make sure to listen for inspiration and ideas of how YOU can fall in love with reading all over again, whether you are an adult, teen, big kid or little kid.

Links

Books mentioned:

• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens


• The Hobbit, JR Tolkien


• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney


• Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey


• The 13 Story Treehouse, Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton


• Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior


• Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White


• Charlotte’s Web, E.B White

Regular books or audiobooks? Or put another way: reading with your eyes or reading with your ears? Which do you prefer?

In this bonus episode, Rowena and Shelley explore both listening and reading books — covering the benefits and the drawbacks of each. And they share their personal preferences too, so you can decide for yourself which is best for you — reading with your eyes or your ears.

Connect with us on social media and let us know if you have a preference and why. We’d love to hear your stories. 

Links

Read Aloud Revival, Sarah Mackenzie

Lean In, Sheryl Sandburg

Playing Big, Tara Mohr

Think Again, Adam Grant

Chatter, Ethan Kross

The Lazy Genius Kitchen, Kendra Adachi

Audible

Scribd

Audible Australia

BorrowBox Australia

Libby 

Overdrive

Apple Books

Find us online at twobookedup.com and keep in touch with Two Booked Up via email by signing up for the Two Booked Up Bookclub.

Connect with Rowena @rowenamabbott on IG and at rowenamabbott.com. You can also get Rowena’s FREE new e-book, The A - Z of Career and Life Confidence here.

Two Booked Up is a podcast about personal and professional development books, but Shelley and Rowena also love to read fiction!

So today on Two Booked Up, in another of the bonus episodes that make up the Summer Series, Shelley and Rowena are singing the praises of fiction!  Because reading a great story is not only a great brain break and leisure activity, it can be useful in your business, your career and in your day-to-day life.

Sharing lots of fascinating research into the benefits and advantages of reading fiction, this is an episode worth listening to, even if (or especially if!) you don’t usually read fiction or haven’t done for some time.

You just may be convinced after you listen!

Links

Books mentioned:

The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a trilogy of spin-off books based on the Ian Fleming original)

The Last Bookshop in London, Madeleine Martin

Find us online at twobookedup.com and keep in touch with Two Booked Up via email by signing up for the Two Booked Up Bookclub.

Connect with Rowena @rowenamabbott on IG and at rowenamabbott.com. You can also get Rowena’s FREE new e-book, The A - Z of Career and Life Confidence here.

Connect with Shelley @shelleysmithcreative on IG and @ShelleyTSmith on Twitter. Her copywriting business is at shelleysmithcreative.com and her writing and other musings are at

With Rowena in Australia and Shelley in South Africa, it is Summer in Two Booked Up Land! Kids are on school holidays and just about everyone is heading off on vacation or taking some time off. Long days spent relaxing by the pool or on the beach beckon.

And for those of you in the northern hemisphere, it’s a great time to curl up under a cozy blanket with a good book.

So today, in the next bonus episode of the Summer Series of Two Booked Up, Rowena and Shelley are sharing the non-fiction and fiction books that are on their summer TBR lists. With a mix of fiction and non-fiction books, both bookworms share what they are looking forward to reading.

You might hear a suggestion to add to your reading list too! So, as promised, here are links to all the books we’ve mentioned on the show.

Links

Shelley’s summer reading list:

• Stardust by Neil Gaiman


• Fairy Tale by Stephen King


• The Librarian Spy, Madeleine Martin


• Workstyle, Alex Hirst and Lizzie Penny


• A Place to Belong: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond, Amber O’Neal Johnston


• Four Thousand Weeks; time management for mortals by Oliver Burkeman 


• Things that Matter; overcoming distraction to pursue a more meaningful life by Joshua Becker


• The A to Z of Career and Life Confidence, Rowena Mabbott

Rowena’s summer reading list:

Shelley and Rowena are looking back at 2022 and highlighting seven standout non-fiction books that they’ve read this year.

So if you’re looking for ideas to add to your TBR list for the holidays and into 2023, you’re in the right place!

Listen in for why each of the books made it onto each bookworms’ lists — and, for your convenience, here’s a list of the books for you to check out.

Links

Rowena’s favourite non-fiction reads;

• From Strength to Strength by Arthur C Brooks 


• Things that Matter; overcoming distraction to pursue a more meaningful life by Joshua Becker


• Four Thousand Weeks; time management for mortals by Oliver Burkeman 


• Burnout; the secret to solving the stress cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski


• Into the Rip; how the Australian way of risk made my family stronger, happier … and less American by Damien Cave


• The Space Between The Stars by Indira Naidoo


• The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku

Shelley’s favourite non-fiction reads;

• Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin

It’s the final episode of Season 1, so Rowena and Shelley chat about the highlights from each of the three books they discussed and pull together the overall theme of the season. 

The books discussed in Season 1 were The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi and Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

Rowena and Shelley also share that there will be Season 2 of the Two Booked Up podcast, landing in February 2023. But don’t worry — you won’t be without your Two Booked Up fix until then! There’s a series of bonus episodes coming your way over the holiday period — The Summer Series or the Winter Wander (depending on your hemisphere!).

Links mentioned

• The Four Tendencies, Gretchen Rubin


• The Lazy Genius Way, Kendra Adachi


• Essentialism, Greg McKeown

Listen to the previous episodes on The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin:

• Episode 1: Overview and Top Takeaways


• Episode 2: Personal Life and The Four Tendencies


• Episode 3: Running your own business using The Four Tendencies


• Episode 4: Take yourself on a date

Listen to the previous episodes on The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi:

Today Rowena and Shelley not only wrap up their conversations about Essentialism; The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown but they also bring together a few thematic threads from the other two books featured in this season — the Four Tendencies and The Lazy Genius Way.

Rowena shares how embracing the essentialist principles of ‘Explore’, ‘Eliminate’ and then ‘Execute’ in your career or business can lead to greater confidence. 

When you combine the Essentialist approach with knowing yourself better (our top takeaway from The Four Tendencies) and naming what matters (our top takeaway from The Lazy Genius Way) these ideas all intersect to make you feel more confident.

And here’s the best part about stepping into your confidence and discovering your “highest level of contribution,” as Greg puts it… You find more ways to get paid to be YOU and really do work that comes easily to you and that is aligned with your strengths.

Links

Rowena has written several posts on this topic. Here’s some further reading for you:

Know your Values; How to live with intention

A key step for Clarity; determine what enough means for you

Simplify your Life for Clarity and Confidence; My Top 7 Hacks

Be paid to be you; embrace your strengths

Shelley is reading Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

Rowena is reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankel

Find us online at twobookedup.com and keep in touch with Two Booked Up via email by signing up for the Two Booked Up Bookclub.

Connect with Rowena @rowenamabbott on IG and at rowenamabbott.com. You can also get Rowena’s FREE new e-book,

Does an Essentialist really play around? That seems a little frivolous!

Play is in fact a major part of living life as an Essentialist, as you’ll learn in this episode of Two Booked Up.

Rowena and Shelley are continuing their discussion of Essentialism; The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown, and doing a deep dive into one of the ideas that comes up in Chapter 7of the book: the importance of Play in the Essentialist life. 

As The Playful Momprenueur, Shelley has done a lot of research into the concept of play and has made it her mission to be more playful in life and business. In her conversation with Rowena, she reflects on the fact that an Essentialist spends a lot of time exploring — and play is the perfect way to explore.

The bookworms review the properties of Play, as outlined by Stuart Brown in his book Play. They talk about why play is so beneficial, even for us serious adults ;). And they share real life examples of how you can incorporate play into your daily life and into your business or career.

Most of the examples will be simple to implement and pragmatically playful. Other examples involve Shelley acting like a Disney villain! Feel free to choose how silly you’d like your version of play to be…

The Playful Momprenueur Podcast

The Playful Mompreneur Episode 13: A review of the book Play by Stuart Brown

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown

Connect with Helen Joy Butler on Instagram (solo retreats, space clearing, soul plan readings, and more)

Rowena’s Design Your Season Self-Guided Workshop + Workbook

Shelley’s blog posts on experimentation — why

It’s something of an Essentialist Exam on Two Booked Up today! How will Rowena and Shelley stack up as Essentialists? 

In the episode, the bookworms consider these questionsin the light of their featured book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown:

• In what ways did you already consider yourself an Essentialist before you read the book?


• How have you become more of an Essentialist after reading the book?


• In which areas do you feel you still have some work to do in order to become a "true Essentialist"?

This is a continuation of the discussion Shelley and Rowena started last week about the book. So, if you’d like an overview of Essentialism, make sure you’re subscribed to Two Booked Up and then you’ll be able to find the episode prior to this one, Episode 11.

But today is all about application of the principles of Essentialism — whether that’s in family, in business, or life in general.

As Shelley and Rowena consider these questions, we encourage you to ask them of yourself too. And if you’re inclined to share your insights, then you can find our online contact details at the end of this description.

Rowena’s Design Your Season Self-Guided Workshop + Workbook

Shelley’s other podcast, The Playful Mompreneur.

Rowena is reading This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan

Shelley is reading Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer 

Find us online at ...

It’s time for a new book! Today’s episode is the start of Rowena and Shelley’s discussion of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. 

You might hear the term Essentialist and wonder what it means. It sounds a bit like Minimalist, so perhaps it’s about getting more done with less?

But no, being an Essentialist is not about getting more things done or how to do that, but rather how to get the right things done. Essentialists make the best use of their time and energy, in order to operate at their highest point of contribution. And they do that, by only doing what is essential!

In this episode, the first discussing the new book, Rowena and Shelley provide an overview of the 4 key principles of Essentialism and discuss the core mindsets covered in the book. They also share their top takeaways and the ideas from the book that have stuck with them.

Links mentioned

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Effortless by Greg McKeown (the follow-up book to Essentialism)

Listen to our previous episodes on The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi:

• Episode 6: Overview and Top Takeaways


• Episode 7: How we are “Lazy Geniusing” our lives


• Episode 8: Our best tips to “Lazy Genius” your business


• Episode 9: