Living the Simply Luxurious Life: Making the Everydays Extraordinary and Discovering Your Best Self

by Shannon Ables

What can you uniquely give the world? We often sell ourselves short with self-limiting beliefs, but most of us would be amazed and delighted to know that we do have something special — our distinctive passions and talents — to offer.

And what if I told you that what you have to give will also enable you to live a life of true contentment? How is that possible? It happens when you embrace and curate your own simply luxurious life. We tend to not realize the capacity of our full potential and settle for what society has deemed acceptable. However, each of us has a unique journey to travel if only we would find the courage, paired with key skills we can develop, to step forward.

This book will help you along the deeper journey to discovering your best self as you begin to trust your intuition and listen to your curiosity. You will learn how to:

• Recognize your innate strengths
• Acquire the skills needed to nurture your best self
• Identify and navigate past societal limitations often placed upon women
• Strengthen your brand both personally and professionally
• Build a supportive and healthy community
• Cultivate effortless style
• Enhance your everyday meals with seasonal fare
• Live with less, so that you can live more fully
• Understand how to make a successful fresh start
• Establish and mastermind your financial security
• Experience great pleasure and joy in relationships
• Always strive for quality over quantity in every arena of your life

Living simply luxuriously is a choice: to think critically, to live courageously, and to savor the everydays as much as the grand occasions. As you learn to live well in your everydays, you will elevate your experience and recognize what is working for you and what is not. With this knowledge, you let go of the unnecessary, thus simplifying your life and removing the complexity. Choices become easier, life has more flavor, and you begin to feel deeply satisfying true contentment. The cultivation of a unique simply luxurious life is an extraordinary daily journey that each of us can master, leading us to our fullest potential.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Lifestyle

393 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2018

About the author

Shannon Ables has been living in Bend, Oregon, since 2015 with her two spaniels, Oscar and Norman. Founder and editor of the internationally recognized lifestyle blog, The Simply Luxurious Life (est. 2009) which inspired her first book Choosing The Simply Luxurious Life: A Modern Woman's Guide, and her second, Living The Simply Luxurious Life: Making Your Everydays Extraordinary and Discovering Your Best Self (2018). Her complementary weekly podcast, The Simple Sophisticate was established in 2014, ranking #5 on iTunes New & Noteworthy on its debut, and her vodcast, The Simply Luxurious Kitchen, provides the inspiration for elevating everyday meals using seasonal fare. Shannon is also a regular contributing guest on Portland, Oregon's KATU Afternoon Live and appears on AM Northwest as their resident lifestyle expert. Find and follow TSLL on Instagram @thesimplyluxuriouslife.


Learn more about Shannon Ables at shannonables.com and visit her blog at thesimplyluxuriouslife.com

Reviews

[Anya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a Bible for women who want to become their best selves.
Literally every single topic is discussed and how you can go about improving that part of your life and lifestyle to lead a simple but yet happy and fulfilled life.

I was really wishing I had a physical copy of it to underline and annotate.
It combines minimalism, Marie Kondo's tyding up and decluttering with choosing quality over quantity in any aspect of your life. Hardly anybody will be able to completely transform themselves over night, but see it more as a work book to go over and over again.

I liked the layout of the book a lot, the bold sentences to drive home the important points, even though some of them get discussed repeatedly.
I usually hate it when authors repeat themselves, but in this case it added to the value of the book, because the more often you read it the more you internalize the point.
I also liked the authors personal choices and experiences sprinkled in between, which made it for an interesting read.

I won't ever buy myself a Coco Chanel suit, but as explained in the book, you'll find your own priorities.

Altogether I really enjoyed it and I'm thinking of getting a copy for myself to work through and get back to. I'll definitely check out the author's blog as well.

Thank you so much to Smith Publicity and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC. All thoughts on this publication are entirely my own.

[Marina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author of Living The Simply Luxurious Life is a blogger. Her blog has lots of lovely photos. Unfortunately, her book does not. It’s really just a list of do’s and don’ts. I’m not sure what makes her more qualified than I am to define the difference between a woman and a girl (a woman doesn’t show too much skin, apparently). In fairness, most of what she wrote was inoffensive, but without any pretty pictures to look at , it just felt like I’d wandered into quite a boring lecture.
Thanks to Netgalley for this arc.

[Greta (Upcloseandbookish) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a longtime reader and fan of Shannon Able's blog and listener of her podcast for years. This book is of the same superb quality as her every other work she has ever created. This would be a wonderful gift to any woman starting now her life as it covers a broad range of topics for living a simply luxurious life: simplicity, societal expectations, career, community, finances, emotional life, style, beauty, physical and mental health, to name a few. An invaluable book for building a life of contentment and true luxury.

[Miranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the concept but Ables goes on and on and on, repeating herself over and over again in 387 pages of blog articles strung together with nothing.

Here’s how you live a simply luxurious life, abridged version:

1: Get some sleep on nice sheets
2: take care of your body via food and exercise
3: take care of your surroundings (small house optional but good)
4: be financially savvy
5: buy nice clothes
6: ignore people and focus on your self (not a bad idea)
7: forget societal expectations - create rules that you abide by which speak to your authentic self
8: quality over quantity in every aspect of life
9: travel
10: be content with what you have

Again, loved the concept and I agree with what she’s saying. I just wished she said it in a lot less words.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are always on the lookout for new self-help or even books about straight happiness and Living The Simply Luxurious Life definitely caught my attention when searching for those books. People dream to live the life of luxury but our mindsets are programmed to live a stressful life because of all the drama and workload that piles up in our everyday life. This book taught me that the only person letting the work load pile up is you. If all the tasks on your to-do list were completed right when they are assigned then good bye stress and hello luxury.

Thank you Netgalley and Simply Luxurious for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. We will definitely consider this title for our self-help collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with this author or her blog prior to reading this, her second book. This book contains a lot of great ideas around living a good life. Living within your means and with less clutter, not getting bogged down with unimportant things. It does read like a collection of blog posts however. Overall, I think this has a good message and will speak to a lot of readers.

Thank you to Simply Luxurious and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Pat Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this to support a local author but I could not finish the book. It was written like a blog with lots of bullet points that were regularly redundant.
Also you can tell this is written by someone in their 30s who has not had a wide variety of life experiences on which to reflect. Very simplistic.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the start of the new year, I thought I'd read an inspiring book full of suggestions about improving one's everyday life, and thankfully I was not disappointed. This is a nice book to return to whenever one needs gentle reminders in order to live more in the moment while savoring the simple things, all without being sickeningly sweet.

[Denise O'Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous!

Loved this book for its relaxed narrative, it’s fantastic advice and well researched information. So many fabulous recommendations that I have taken. I ordered a hard copy as well as my kindle! 5 stars!

[Diah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 (thank you Netgalley & publisher for the digital arc)

Shannon Ables's previous book (Choosing The Simply Luxurious Life: A Modern Woman's Guide) is on my want-to-read list since forever. And now that I had the chance to read her next book, I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world.


Living the Simply Luxurious Life contains some tips in curating your life: what needs to be purged physically and mentally, what needs to be added, and how to maximise everything.

I quite like the book, the writing was superb, and the first few chapters hooked me up right away that I had to steal some time in the office to read it. Not that being in the office ever matter when it comes to reading a book lol.

Anyway, I like that despite the simplicity, she still insert some lux brands, it seems realistic although it isn't my thing.

This book also gives some advices that I skipped since it doesn't concern me, but I believe would benefit many others.

The lack of picture/graphic also bothered me. I have no idea whether publisher will insert some pretty things (since this is an arc) or not, but some pics wouldn't hurt.

Also, what I found 'bad' inside was when Ables compared 'woman and girl' by making 'girl' sounded so... stereotyping, when on the next page she wrote not to label anyone. I think it'd be enough to say that woman matured and some girls don't.

[Jenna Gareis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five things about Living the Simply Luxurious Life by Shannon Ables 📚📚📚

1. This book is basically common sense stitched together with quotations.
2. Nothing inherently wrong with it but it just doesn’t add anything tangible to the ever present conversation that began in the Greek temple of Apollo with the command to “Know thyself”.
3. As we are reminded here, Coco Chanel (a still revered but morally dubious character…achem…Nazi collaborator) once supposedly said, “Luxury must be comfortable otherwise it’s not luxury” and that is the entire synopsis of this book.
4. If you’ve never considered who you are or what pleases you then this may be a helpful book for you.
5. I think for the vast majority of readers that might consider this book …you can actually skip it.

[Dora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living the Simply Luxurious Life

I was first introduced to Shannon Ables through her blog and podcast. I read her first book which was very good but this one is better. I wish that it had been around when I was in my twenties. However, the great part about this book is that it contains concepts that are beneficial at any age. Who doesn’t need to know oneself; identify values; learn to budget time and finances?

I would suggest gifting Shannon’s books to all girls on their way to womanhood. I love that Shannon emphasizes making everyday exstraordinary.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for late teens/ early 20s.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I want to disclaim that I'd read her first book years ago and loved it. I read it over and over again and since I have it in my kindle I still go through some pages sometimes. It had a point and was actually useful.

I finally decided to read this one as well and I was very excited about it because the premises were so good. Honestly, I've just finished it and I must say I am quite disappointed. Not because the information provided is useless, it's just that the book is waaayyyy too long for the amount of information included because even if it seems like a lot it actually isn't. What I mean is that she could have said the same things in probably half the pages. It dragged forever and I found it very hard to keep my interest awake in concepts that were being reiterated thousands of time just with different phrasing.

When, towards the end of the book, I read "tips" such as "never stop learning", "get alone time" and "quality over quantity" I rolled my eyes so much I saw my brain. How many times can a person write about the same thing just using different words?? Countless, apparently. Just to give an example: she manages to include knowledge in yourself as a tip in almost every list throughout the book but even at the basically very end you can still find it: "What does a simply luxurious life means? Knowing yourself" and literally a few pages later we find "how to live a content life? Be a friend to yourself". Really?? Again???

As I said, the concepts themselves were not wrong and I completely resonated with them, but they're also very broad and can be applied to such a varieties of life situations that structuring the book with chapters supposed to cover as many life areas as possibile inveitably led to this.

It started out good but became a boring read after a few chapters and I feel that making the book way shorter would have made the information less confusing and gotten the point across much better.

[Willow Rankin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet again, its me reviewing another book written by a blogger.

Whilst, I appreciate the writing style, this book was endless lists of in how to achieve in different areas of life. Unlike her blog, there is not any beautiful photography, or doodles which I felt could of been used to not only break up the monotony of the endless lists, but also made the page more attractive to the reader.

Further, it felt like a blog post, just endless and made it difficult to read. Some of the lists contained the same information as previous, just slightly rewritten.
Taking care of your body through exercise and good food was repeated several times in the same chapter. I understand that this is important, but after the 12th list with the same note it was pretty monotonous.

If this was a weekly blog, the repetition would not be so stark, but reading chapter by chapter, the similarities became too obvious not to ignore.

[Talia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Shannon Able's blog: The Simply Luxurious Life. This book does have a few good tips and prompts, but the overall approach is fairly basic and is cobbled together from other sources that Shannon has read. Because of this, the book does not give enough detail for how to implement many of its recommendations. For example, in the mastering your career chapter you're told to 'be calm'; 'be resilient'; 'master your mind' without any practical tools for doing so. And this is a pattern that repeats itself in many chapters. Able's does also repeat herself often, so in each chapter I felt like I was reading the same points hashed and then re-hashed in different words. I would recommend going for self-help from the original authors if you'd like to implement real change.

[Anna Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous Book! I recommend not only to read it, but to have a paper edition at home. Wish it will be sold in hardcover. Loads of good advices for different life spheres. It happened, that I have not read the first book of hers, this is the second book. But I totally enjoyed it and already purchased the first one and it is on my list to read this year.

Thank you Dear #ShannonAbles for your work and time 💗

[Suzanne E Triplett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provides a structure for reviewing how you live

Ables provides a structure for examining your life including where and how you live, dress, and interact with others and yourself. I will use this book at the beginning of every year to evaluate my progress and identify areas for improvement.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this audiobook for my teens to listen in the car. Would have been ok for that. Since they are not driving anywhere right now I listened to it in my walks.The pace of the reader is extremely fast. Basically just a list of ways to behave read very quickly with a few quotes thrown in

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Shannon's blog and this felt like a giant blog post. She writes authentically.

[Cheryl Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m listening to this audiobook all over again! Love everything about it!

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shannon’s 2nd book continues to provide inspiration to live a simply luxurious life!

[Indra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes we forget to live in the moment and appreciate the process of everyday mundane activities. Enjoy each little process and be mindful.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read Choosing the Simply Luxurious Life I was very much looking forward to reading Shannon’s second book.

Whilst I did enjoy Living the Simply Luxurious Life, I don’t think you need to read both books as the basics are covered in her first book.

This book and her previous one are not about living an expensive lifestyle. Instead it’s about elevating the everyday moments. From making a cup of tea, keeping the home and doing the shopping. To investing a little more in what you buy so it lasts. Quality over quantity in all aspects of your life.

[Kim Gaffney]

Not this book

[My · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found that the book needed some serious editing. There were parts that I really enjoyed, but others that put me off. It is sad because there is a lot of potencial in this book.

Also, because of the structure, there was a lot of repetition.

Mostly, it was a bullet style number of self evidences, that are all over the internet, without the support information - why was that important, is this a fact or the author opinion?

Some parts are just ridiculous, like the kitchen stuff. Ex: "Chop Garlic: Trim, crush (using a broad knife held flat over the clove and smashing it with your fist), and chop." - That was not part of a recipe, but a series of bullet points about the kitchen. It it the perfect example of the excess of the book.

But the main thing is that I really didn´t identified with the author´s views on womanhood.



#LivingTheSimplyLuxuriousLife #NetGalley