Hi, I’m Becca!
- voracious reader
- INFJ, questioner, recovering perfectionist
- wife and stay at home mama to our 2 year old son – Mr. O – and our 13 year old rescue pittie – Pearl
- small town girl who relocated from Northern California’s foothills to the Texas Hill Country
- seeker of the secrets to living a good life
This blog is my passion project. Similar to my real life, it’s gone through many evolutions over the past 6 years 😂 It’s transitioned from a travel blog for our cross-country trip to sharing my natural living journey to a blip on our homesteading adventure.
In every iteration, I’ve always included my love of books and reading. For the past year and a half, my focus has been exclusively on sharing my reading life and encouraging others to go deeper into their own.
As a voracious reader I:
- consume 150+ books a year
- read mostly romance with a nonfiction book thrown in each month and the occasional thriller as a palette cleanser
- am a backlist reader – there’s nothing better than falling in love with a new series and having it consume my reading life!
- read digitally – 99% of the time the format I read is ebook or audio
- embrace minimalism even when it comes to books – I’m a huge library lover, have multiple library cards, and last year began a love affair with Kindle Unlimited!
On the Blog
Here on the blog, I love creating seasonal TBRs, sharing new indie authors available on Kindle Unlimited, growing through nonfiction, and experimenting with my reading life. In my biweekly book reviews, I offer you questions to consider for exploring your own reading life.
I am fascinated by the reading life! How digging deeper into stories can benefit our real lives. How we can learn from characters and pull out bits of wisdom and life lessons. And even how we can embrace the seasons in our book choices – whether that’s the season of the year or seasons of life.
Books have the power to expand our empathy, give us comfort or offer escape, and reflect back the insight we may be seeking. I believe any story can offer the hidden message we need to hear in that moment of life.
Bookish serendipity is real. Sometimes the right book with just the right message finds its way into our hands at just the right time. When we give our reading lives a little intention and reflection we can cultivate this phenomenon even more!
If any of this appeals to or inspires you – fantastic! Share your own reading life experiences with me in the comments or reach out in the contact form. I post at least once a week – usually on Saturdays.
You can find me here, follow me on goodreads to see what I’m currently reading, or read with me on Fable with our monthly book club – A Dose of Romance.
If you look at all of this and think I’m a nut, that’s ok too. Thank you for reading!
Always Remember:
- Your reading life is there to support you, you’re not there to support it.
- You can do it any way you want – dog ear those pages, write in your books, read the ending first, take that paperback into the bath or pool, read any genre, age level, or format, etc. Your reading life is yours alone – Do whatever makes YOU happy!
- There are no shoulds in our reading lives! “Should” is a word I really try to remove from my writing and my speech when I’m addressing others. There is no quicker way for me to lose my desire to read a book than to be told I SHOULD read it. Let go of those loud overwhelming “shoulds”!
- Your reading life doesn’t need to look like mine or anyone else’s. Let’s NOT make reading a competitive sport!
- There are no right or wrong answers here. It’s all about what works for you! Experiment!
- Our reading lives change and transition. Often along with the seasons of real life. It’s ok to lean into this. Embrace the slumps and the binges.
Why the name Life’s A Pearl?
The first part is because I’m always seeking more information and knowledge for creating my own version of a good life.
The Pearl part is inspired by our rescue dog, Pearl, as well as the pearls of wisdom to be discovered in life.
Pearl (noun)
1. something precious/ life is precious
2. represents wisdom gained through experience/ a pearl of wisdom
3. our lazy loving rescue pit bull/ It was love at first sight! I’m still not sure who rescued whom.
I took a deep dive into the symbols and myths behind the name Pearl if you’re curious to know more.
If you’re nosy like me 😉 and want to learn more about the many evolutions of this blog or just more about me check out my personal posts.
The Backlist
While I’m moving away from sharing about natural living, my entire backlist will stay available as I still refer to these personal care, cleaning, and from scratch recipes myself.
In my backlist content, you can find tons of natural living DIYs for creating a nontoxic home. I have beginner’s guides to using essential oils, roller bottle recipes, and favorite diffuser combinations. My In the Kitchen section shares basic recipes for homemade food staples and starter information for fermenting foods.