December is traditionally when I do my 12 Shoes of Christmas blog posts on my personal website. Given that this year I have mainly been wearing slippers and trainers, I’m not sure how that’s going to go! It may inspire me to wear some proper shoes for a change, we’ll see … While I was pondering possible alternatives, however, I came up with the idea of The 12 Days of Books. Not novels – although these are my favourite for winding down. I’m talking more about books I’ve read for work, or for my studies (I’m currently enrolled on a Masters programme in applied positive psychology and coaching psychology) or for some other, often seemingly-random, reason.

So for the next 12 posts[1] I’m going to share with you some of my thoughts on a different book. It was extremely hard to whittle down the list to just twelve – maybe I need to get started straightaway on next year’s selection! I’d also love to hear which books would be on your Christmas list of recommendations.

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll kick off with our first book!

[1] Please note that I am using poetic licence in my interpretation of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ in a number of ways! First, the official 12 Days run from Christmas Day itself to 5 January, or Twelfth Night, the day before Epiphany on 6 January. However, appreciating that people have plenty of things to do over the festive period other than read book reviews, I’m starting mine now. I’ll be aiming to finish on Twelfth Night, or thereabouts. Second, the typical 12 days, for example those in the partridge in a pear tree carol, are consecutive. As a consequence of point (1), some of mine will be, some won’t.

Liz Gooster

I like to describe myself as happily ‘At Large’ in an independent portfolio career, balancing coaching, leadership development, coach training and being a mum to my young daughter. Positive psychology is a big influence on my work and I’ve recently gained an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology from the University of East London. My interests include reading, writing, travel, yoga, Zumba, coffee and wine! Connect with me on LinkedIn and sign up for my newsletter, Positive Intentions.