I am a fan of Gretchen Rubin and have read all of her books, since The Happiness Project. I am also a regular listener to her podcast, Happier. So when this book become available for review on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it early and review it.
This book did not disappoint me. Similar to The Happiness Project, this book chronicles Rubin's research and personal experiences. In this book she looks at each of the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling as well as a final section about the senses as a whole. The book is a type of memoir through the lense of her exploration of the senses. She seamlessly weaves in information about the senses from scientific research as well as literature. I was particularly interested in her discussions of art from her daily visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book closes with a compendium of try-this-at-home experiments for the reader. I hope to try many of these to enlarge my own sensations.
I highly recommend this book for any non-fiction book lover.

An interesting take on how to live life more fully by really paying attention to the world through your five senses. Some suggestions would be easy for most people to add to their daily routines and some, while fascinating, may be a bit of an overreach for most (ie taking perfume classes and visiting the museum every day).

I admire Gretchen Rubin and love all of her books! She’s smart and an excellent writer. I couldn’t wait to get into this latest title. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. 4 stars.

I enjoyed the topic and how Gretchen encouraged us to use our senses more than we normally do. She gives examples and explains how she put this into practice. It’s always a good idea to read up on self improvement and Gretchen is proven in this area!

I agreed to join my daughter in the 75 Hard challenge, and among other “critical tasks”, I am committed to reading ten pages of a self-help book every day for seventy-five days — so although I had not read Gretchen Rubin before, Life in Five Senses was the first book I selected for the challenge; and I’m glad I did. As humans we are wired to filter out the stimuli that we're accustomed to, so it’s normal to waft through our lives without really sensing those things that we encounter every day. After a trip to the eye doctor left Rubin concerned about her long term sight, she resolved to really see her surroundings from then on; and being the kind of person who enjoys self-appointed tasks and challenges and recording her findings, Rubin decided to spend a year deeply exploring each of her senses and taking notes. Life in Five Senses is divided into what we commonly think of as our core senses (Rubin notes that others might include our sense of equilibrium or feeling one’s heart racing, but she’s focussed on the “Big Five” of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), and along with scientific information that Rubin includes from her research, the author shares many stories of her own experiences through the course of the year, often based on training or exploring her senses. This type of intentionality is exactly what the 75 Hard challenge is meant to promote and I did find myself inspired by Rubin’s project; the blend of informal storytelling and scientific research hit the sweet spot of interest for me, and again, I am really glad that I started my own project here.

Gretchen Rubin has such a great insight into looking at the world through our senses in this book. I liked taking these practices and using them in my own life.
A light read that will have you looking at life differently.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!