What is better than matcha? Well apart from more matcha, it's a heavenly matcha tea and a delicious book to get lost in. So we bring you Taiki Tea book club. 

How it will work

From today, we will be announcing a new book to read each month. Every book we announce we will give a little review and summary of what it is about. Then once you have finished reading, we want your opinion and reviews. You can do this on any of our social medias, or here on the blog. The aim is to create a community for those that love books (with a Taiki Tea matcha, of course). 

For each of the following books, we want your input on what we read next. How we will do this is through Twitter and Instagram polls. Each month, we will narrow the choices down to 2 or 3 books and then we want your vote on what to read. 

We are super excited to read some amazing books, and be able to read them alongside you. So without further ado, we bring you.........Augusts book of the month.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

After a lot of thought about how to start this review, the only words I can use to really nail this book is thought-provoking.

In every sense, this book makes you question a lot about your life now and how you live it. Not in a negative 'you need to do better' way, but in a calming, beautiful, comforting kind of way. I came out of the other side feeling refreshed, realising that actually, I have answers to many questions about my life, but also, I am still unsure I have just one passion, one mission, one vocation, one thing I can call my Ikigai, which is the biggest question I am left to answer, something I am really happy about.

"Our ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning."                                                      Ikigai: Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

Apart from all the thought-provokingness, the book gives you a lot of simple and effective tools and ideas on how to better structure your life and day - to day routine. It talks about how, in Japan, the power of flow is incorporated into everything they do, even the mundane activities. How learning keeps you young and you should never stop challenging yourself with a pragmatic approach. It gives insight into the Japanese diet (with include green tea), and the power of community. Also, most significant in today's world, how we all need to slow down, take time for ourselves, have the tools to manage stress and feeling overwhelmed and appreciate everything around us. 

                                                            Image: @ikigaibooks twitter

All in all, this book is a short, snappy and fantastic read providing insights into Japanese life and lessons we can draw from to live a long and happy life. Simply put, a great read to start our book club with. 

To purchase Ikigai from wordery.com please click here