There were some really powerful quotes and ideas in this book, but I largely felt like they were lost amongst filler. I found myself disconnected from this book for most of it - I had trouble maintaining attention and revisiting many portions because I had zoned out. This might not have been the audiobook for me, and maybe I would have enjoyed it more as a physical read.

I was granted the listening pleasure of the audiobook by Netgalley. This book was perfect timing as I recently started a gratitude journal and was intrigued on the concept of incorporating gratitude more into my life. The book was read by the author who had a clear, soothing voice but didn’t put you to sleep and you could hear her passion for the subject. The beginning of the book opens with the difference between gratitude and gratefulness with the latter being broader in scope. She shared her journey from having cancer and implementing gratitude in her life as a healing aspect and gave its impact. The chapters had questions for reflection to relate to your own life. While this was an enjoyable audiobook I found myself wanting to stop and go back to listen again to something. I can see this as a book to go back to many times and would help to have the text.

received this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Honestly, this just wasn’t for me. Very repetitive too.

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for this audiobook, in exchange for my honest review.

I sought this book because I reached a point in my life where I wanted to wake up and be more grateful I wanted to be more conscientious of showing gratitude.

I cannot pinpoint why this book just lacked for me and wasn't doing anything for me. It wasn't giving me the UMPH that I needed at the moment, especially at this point in my life. With that said I decided to DNF.

The book was a bit repetitive for my liking and I just feel like I couldn't connect in the way I would've like to with a book like this.

I thought the narrator did a good job.

This book was not for me at the moment but I wouldn't say that I wouldn't recommend it.

I did purchase this title for my library's collection because so many people are seeking books about how to remain positive in life.

I don't need to be sold on the power of gratitude. Gratitude has changed my outlook on life and has been a life altering experience for me. I was curious though to read Nelson's perspective on gratitude and to understand how I could learn to bring gratitude into more areas of my life.

The books is divided into two large sections -
Part 1 - includes Five Guiding Principles: Life is a Gift, Everything is Surprise, The Ordinary is Extraordinary, Appreciation is Generative and Love is Transformative.

Part 2 - shows us how we can bring the practice of gratitude into areas like relationships, loss and legacies.

The book is honest, brimming with wisdom and full of practical ways to be grateful. There are questions and journal prompts to help you move more deeply into mindfulness and gratitude.

If you are looking for a deeper practice of gratitude, this book will certainly serve as a guide.

Embrace the More Inclusive Idea of Gratefulness

Audiobook and eBook Review:
As one who enjoys reading self-help books, I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it at one of my favorite book review sites. I am so glad I chose it as both an audiobook and an eBook. While I certainly enjoyed listening to the author narrate the book—and I do think when authors narrate their own books, the audiobook is so much better because you can feel the author's passion for their writing and subject—I'm so glad I chose the eBook as well. Audiobooks pass through the mind so quickly, but this is a book to be savored and thought about. The author has dealt with medical issues and is also a spiritual seeker—in fact, her spiritual mentor wrote both the foreword and has quotes sprinkled liberally throughout. Both these aspects of her life inform this book. At the very beginning of the book, she distinguishes between the concepts of “gratitude” and “grateful.” While this might appear to be quibbling over details, the author explains herself well and shows how the concept of “grateful” is far more broad and inclusive than simple gratitude. Each chapter has insightful quotes that in themselves give you much to think of. She also has questions about each chapter's topic for you to consider, usually in several places, as well as how to practice what she is talking about in your own life. Occasionally, she offers affirmations as well. The book is so rich, and I know I will be returning to it to dive deeper into each chapter. I particularly liked the second part of the book, after the introduction to gratefulness, its five principles, and general practice, where she looks more deeply at gratefulness in the real world, at different aspects of our lives, like being grateful for our bodies, our emotions, nature, and even uncertain, grief, and loss. If you like pondering these kinds of topics as I do, you may enjoy this book or audiobook as much as I did.

I really enjoyed this book, which helped to boost my confidence and it reminded me to be grateful for everything in my life. While I read it, I was stressing about something in my life and this book reminded me not to focus on that stress and instead, be grateful for other things in my life which were a blessing. This is a great book which will help many people.

The narrator of the audiobook had a calming, confident voice and the netgalley app worked well for me.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted by Kristi Nelson
Narrated by Kristi Nelson
Publisher: Workman Audio
Genre: Health, Mind & Body | Nonfiction (Adult)
Release Date: November 24, 2020

Wake Up Grateful by Kristi Nelson is a book about changing your perspective and focusing on "Grateful Living". I really wanted to love this book!

I found the book to be interesting, but there were a lot of things that didn't work for me (& those stood out more). I found the book to be repetitive and it was expected that I would know & appreciate who Brother David is (I finally had to look up the website so I could see why he was such an expert and why I should care about what he had to say on the subject). I also found the author's criticism of gratitude and gratitude practices to be insulting. In her mind, gratitude and gratefulness are two dissimilar things and gratitude is lesser (though the differences were skimmed over).

In the end, I felt like Brother David should have authored the book himself, instead of his teachings & methods being taught by someone else.

The narration by the author was good. She spoke at a good pace with proper intonation and inflection.

I would recommend checking out the website www.gratefullness.org prior to listening to or reading this book. I think it will help give more context to the book.

I'm so grateful to Kristi Nelson, Workman Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank to Netgalley and the publisher for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this audiobook and the author's own voice was amazing to listen to and to learn from. It's a book about how being grateful and understanding how it may affect your vision of life and being in the best way ever, there were some spirituality that I'm not fan of but it was kind of helpful. This book kind of reminds you of being grateful, to take your time to appreciate everything and everyone that is surrounding you. I liked the audiobook but I decided also to get the written ARC that I'm reading right now in order to keep in memory what I learnt and that it will remain in my mind. I will get my own copy of the book later on . Thank to the author for a wonderful lesson and to share her personal experiences with us. A good thing to start your year with.

This book is beautiful. If I'm honest I've been reading it at a very angry and depressed time in my life. half the time I would read it, I would be angry because I would know that she was right but I'm too tired to keep fighting. And then I'd keep listening and I would know that she was right to the point where it would push me to fight again. And that's really saying something. I was lucky enough to receive this book from #Netgalley to review for free. I read it because I knew I needed help and I can't find anybody to help me. And now I know I will be rereading it and marking the crap out of it because there were a lot of great pieces of advice and beautiful sentiments and painful sentiments that just needed to be known. I have been sick for 14 years and I was not expecting they're to be anything about how to be grateful when your life has essentially left you. When you've lost almost everything. But it does. It's somehow helps with the unhelpable. Headed home to me feel us alone. I would highly recommend this book and already have actually. I hopefully will be able to physically work again one of these days, which point I will buy this book and reread it constantly. Trying to put into action a very good plan.

The author did a good job of reading and the audio sounded good.

The book felt redundant and may have been better as daily affirmations. It's not that any of the information was bad. It just felt like she was repeating the same mantra over and over in with different words.

Sorry, I thought I would not be able to listen and review this title, but t still appears on my bookshelf on my NG app, It may be due to me sampling the start of the narrator. I will update my review once I finish listening to it (over my holiday break).

thank you

Wake up Grateful by Kristi Nelson talks about cheating life and cheating death to get to a point of gratefulness. She went from always wanting more to focusing on what works and what's enough in each moment. Nelson wrote a book that addresses a framework of teachings she's learned about gratefulness. Upon reading the book, I found it as more of a guide to make people more reflective about gratitude.

I reviewed the audiobook via NetGalley. I will say that the pace of the narration and tone weren't too helpful. I believe the narrator's intent was to be poignant and reflective. However, considering the nature of Nelson's health challenges, the monotone nature of the narrator's voice with limited inflection made Nelson's story often solemn, and the pace slowed it down.

Despite my interpretation of the narrative, the content of the book was highly useful and significant and very reflective on the nature of life, love, and happiness. Nelson highlights the importance of not taking moments in our day for granted. She offers actionable steps from to-do lists to breathing exercises that can be easily incorporated into a daily routine. Nelson also talks about struggling with a deadly disease and what it means to confront death.

I would definitely recommend her book. I think it can benefit people who either learned or struggle with a life-threatening disease. I think she presents many relatable moments to help people feel that they are not alone in their journey as well as a gentle nudge and awareness of the end of life and the beauty of living and doing so with a great appreciation for each moment.

How frustrating is it to be told by all the different sources the things you must do to be successful in life? This book definitely does NOT do that. It instead takes an empathetic approach and gives bite size approaches and allows you to have kindness and patience with yourself when dealing with life. This is so necessary for everyone to read in life. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It's difficult to only give three stars to a book that hopes to improve your life by helping you recognize that every moment is an amazing gift to cherish and be amazed by. That said, while the overall theme and message really resonated with me, the specific exercises and tips ether felt awkward, irrational, or unwieldy. And while I'm amazed at the things the author was overcome, it was difficult to apply her experiences to my life.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC digital copy. I have not been compensated for my opinion and this is an honest review.

The audiobook is amazing! The author narrates and her voice is soothing without being too monotoned. Additionally, the reader does not have to listen from page one onward as the chapters could stand on their own. I will likely use my last remaining audible credit on this book so I can access it anytime I need a quick pick-me-up and/or a reminder to be thankful.

Key topics include: thankfulness, self-reflection, inspirational quotes, relevant content, social-emotional, therapeutic.

“You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” – Pema Chodron

Wake up grateful was a practical guide to understanding how to be grateful.
The author explains through her own journey and other helpful examples how to do that. The grateful perspective is a practiced thing. It has to be worked at every day. It helps to focus on a person on life. And....
*Integrity
*Values
*Feelings
*Perspective
The book gives a step by step suggestions “to do” list to awaken your beliefs in gratefulness. There are
questions for reflection are at the end of each chapter. Things to make you more aware of what you should be grateful for.

I thought this was ok. It felt like something was missing. IDK, lots of helpful advice if you’re open to it.

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for this audiobook, in exchange for my honest review.

Full of wisdom, raw honesty, deep analysis and practical guidelines, this book is an excellent tool to change your life through gratitude.

I always hear about the power of gratitude in everyday life, but I used to disregard it because of course I'm already grateful for everything in my life. What I didn't know is that being passively grateful is not nearly as powerful as making a conscious effort to Wake Up Grateful every day, This book educated me on why seeing little joys in life can be so powerful, even neurologically, and how to do it.

I liked how it is divided into the following sections: Part I- Five Guiding Principles: Life is a Gift, Everything is Surprise, The Ordinary is Extraordinary, Appreciation is Generative, and Love is Transformative. Part II is about bringing the grateful practice into areas we need support. The organization is definitely a strong suit of this book.

I love the practicality of this guide, but I personally don't feel like I've taken full advantage of it since I didn't stop to journal, which is highly recommended. Journaling is probably the only way you can really sit with your feelings to such depth. But for me, somehow I can never get into writing - something that this guide could have certainly covered for a 5-star ranking.

Finally, I want to point out that I simultaneously read and listened to this book. It's been my favorite way to read lately because I feel like this way, I absorb the maximum information. Indeed, the audio of this book is incredibly well done. It's always the best thing ever when the author is also the narrator, which is the case here.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Audiobook Review * Wake Up Grateful by Kristi Nelson.
"Open your heart to the things that now enrich your life but came from loving something or someone you had to let go. Be grateful to your heart for its beautiful courage." ~Kristi Nelson, Wake Up Grateful.

Kristi Nelson is a cancer survivor who fought for her recovery and wrote this book as a lesson for the power of gratefulness. She does a beautiful job narrating her book and sharing her vulnerabilities as personal examples. She provides numerous perspectives and practical ways to shift the brain to look for gratitude every day.

Nelson says, "I carry grief as an evident blessing of having loved and been loved." I have six dear guardian angels (Paternal and Maternal Grandparents, Godmother/Aunt, and my Dad). Losing my Dad so unexpectedly from a brain injury after slipping on the icy driveway made me conquer my deepest fears. Grief has become my close friend because it reminds me I've given and known the greatest unconditional love. This exceptional loss gave birth to my daily practice of vulnerability and gratitude. Nelson discusses her thoughts of facing death and how it strengthened her appreciation for the little pieces of life. I see them too. This book is so powerful and meaningful, now especially, as we are all living in this pandemic. 2020 has become the "year of gratitude" because all of the daily distractions disappeared, allowing us to pause and count our blessings. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I will be making this book an annual tradition to listen, practice, and strengthen my gratefulness.

Thank you, #NetGalley and #WorkmanAudio, for this ARC/ALC in exchange for my honest review.