Tag Archives: Books

[BOOK REVIEW]: Bittersweet by Susan Cain

“This book is about the melancholic direction, which I call the “bittersweet”: a tendency to states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. The bittersweet is also about the recognition that light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired. “Days of honey, days of onion,” as an Arabic proverb puts it.” ― Susan Cain, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

Over the past few months, I’ve been deathly quiet on this blog because I’ve been grieving the losses that have happened in my life but after I finished reading Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain I realized that everybody will die or leave, everything that begins will end and every ending is a start of a new beginning and yes, it will hurt when life happens but we feel the hurt and move forward (with the grief) accepting that love and loss are two sides of the same coin – we can’t have one without the other. Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole has been my favourite book of the year (so far) it has taught me so much about love and grief I would recommend this book to everyone because it’s truly about the human condition.

[Book review] The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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“I think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths,’ she said, realizing something for the first time. ‘But maybe there are no easy paths. There are just paths. In one life, I might be married. In another, I might be working in a shop. I might have said yes to this cute guy who asked me out for a coffee. In another I might be researching glaciers in the Arctic Circle. In another, I might be an Olympic swimming champion. Who knows? Every second of every day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad.”

― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

Yesterday I finished reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig the book centers around Nora Seed who after attempting to kill herself finds herself in a library full of books, books which contain all the other lives she could have lived and all the other versions of herself she could have been…the book is a journey like no other filled with so much wisdom and a poignant reminder to make the best of the lives we have. If I had to rate the book I would give it a 10/10 (yes, it is that good)

Get Me To 21 by Gabi Lowe [Book review]

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One of our life’s purposes is to bear witness to each other’s story even when it’s excruciating – that’s what Gabi Lowe has taught me

Yesterday I finished reading Get Me To 21: The Jenna Lowe story by Gabi Lowe it’s a story of a family’s determination to keep Jenna alive and Jenna’s determination to live fully in the face of death…the book is not about death or Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) means that you have high blood pressure in the arteries that go from your heart to your lungs [PAH is the disease that Jenna had]) .it’s about life and love…it’s breathtakingly raw and moving (at times I felt like an intruder like I had no place bearing witness to a mother’s pain but I finished the book Gabi Lowe taught me that one of our life’s purposes is to bear witness to each other’s story even when it’s excruciating. Get Me To 21 is a must-read for everyone.

Day 3002 : Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

It’s 12: 29 PM on day 3002 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read the Bible and do some work

Yesterday after weeks of reading I finished reading Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi it’s a book that describes the state of Flow – basically that in-the-zone feeling when you’re doing something and everything else fades into the background – and how we can all achieve it. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is by far the most intellectual book I’ve ever read so if you open this very interesting book best be prepared to concentrate for a sustained period of time.

Day 2900: Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough by Kay Warren [Book Review]

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“If we are going to experience joy in this lifetime, there’s only one possible way: We will have to choose it. We will have to choose it in spite of unbelievable circumstances. We will have to choose it in the middle of a situation that seems too hard to bear. We will have to choose it even if our worst nightmare comes true. This isn’t what we want to hear. We keep trying to line up all the little ducks in a row, to smooth out the rough spots, and to shore up all the wobbly places, still convinced that if we get our act together, we finish the huge project, our health clears up, we get a raise, or we can just get things right, we can finally be joyful.”

― Kay Warren, Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough

It’s 11 : 07 PM on day 2900 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read a Bible verse and do some work

Recently I finished reading Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough by Kay Warren – a book that uses the Bible as a guide and teaches us how to be joyous at all times – I loved the practical nature of the advice in the book and would recommend it to Christians who are struggling to find joy in their lives.

Thank you so much Julie for sending me this book.

Day 2851: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

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“This is our life. We get to decide the rules. We get to say what goes and what stays, what matters and what doesn’t.” ― Sandhya Menon, When Dimple Met Rishi

It’s 4 : 01 PM on day 2851 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read a Bible verse, hang out with mom at the mall and spend time outside (in our yard – it’s such a beautiful day)

Recently I finished reading When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – a novel about a traditional Indian-American boy, Rishi, who meets Dimple, a marriage-phobic modern Indian-American girl and their journey – I love how the book accurately captured the dynamic of an Indian family although I feel I must point out what I feel is a factual inaccuracy no Indian families that I know are in a rush to marry off their eighteen-year-old these days Indian parents usually wait at least until their children are finished with university before they start arranging marriages.

Thanks Julie for sending me the book it was a fun read.

Day 2829: Room by Emma Donoghue

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“You know who you belong to, Jack?”

“Yeah.”

“Yourself.”

He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.”

― Emma Donoghue, Room

It’s 12 : 01 PM on day 2829 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read a Bible verse, have breakfast and promote my 50 New Feet Campaign benefiting MiracleFeet –raised $14 669 only $4 081 more to raise by June 17, 2018 to reach my new goal of helping 75 kids with Clubfoot by June 17, 2018.

Two days ago I finished reading Room by Emma Donoghue – a novel about a mother’s quest to free herself and her son from their captor and a glimpse of their lives after gaining freedom – it’s a sweet story of a mother’s love but honestly it gave me the creeps because I know women get abducted daily worldwide. This book is well-written but reader discretion is advised (if you get scared easily or get really emotional when reading this book might not be for you).

Day 2768: Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone

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The next time someone starts labeling your obsession an illness, tell them, “I’m not afflicted, I’m gifted.” – Grant Cardone

It’s 1: 10 PM on day 2768 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, have breakfast, read Proverbs 6 promote my 50 New Feet Campaign benefiting MiracleFeet –raised $13 584 only $5 166 more to raise by June 17, 2018 to reach my new goal of helping 75 kids with Clubfoot by June 17, 2018

Recently I finished reading Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone the book is counterintuitive in that it sort of tells you that everything you’ve taught about achievement is wrong the world says slow down take a vacation while Grant says go all-in to achieve your goals be obsessed I LOVE the book because for the first time ever I feel like the fact that I’m obsessed with my goals is not something I should try to change. I am obsessed and I refuse to be average #BeObsessed .

Day 2742: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

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“Active racism is telling a nurse supervisor that an African American nurse can’t touch your baby. It’s snickering at a black joke. But passive racism? It’s noticing there’s only one person of color in your office and not asking your boss why. It’s reading your kid’s fourth-grade curriculum and seeing that the only black history covered is slavery, and not questioning why. It’s defending a woman in court whose indictment directly resulted from her race…and glossing over that fact, like it hardly matters.” ― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

It’s 2 : 21 PM on day 2742 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, have breakfast, read 3 John 1:4 and promote my 50 New Feet Campaign benefiting MiracleFeet – raised $12 659 only $6 091 more to raise by June 17, 2018 to reach my new goal of helping 75 kids with Clubfoot by June 17, 2018.

Yesterday I finished reading Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult – a book that centres around a African American nurse named Ruth who is charged with murder after a Caucasian baby dies on her watch but there’s a catch the baby’s White Supremacist parents specifically requested that Ruth be taken off their baby’s case – I love this book because it gives you a view of racism from all the different angles and I found that there are a lot of parallels between racism and ableism because whether you’re black or in a wheelchair the burden of proof is on you, you have to work ten times as hard to prove you’re competent even before you do anything to suggest otherwise because the automatic presumption is incompetence.

Day 2648: The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison by Jacques Pauw

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“A pattern of appointing cronies and loyalists in key positions emerged at the outset of Zuma’s presidency. He was mindful that he could still be brought to book for corruption in the future, and set in motion a shadow security state that would undermine the independence of the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).”
― Jacques Pauw, The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison

It’s 1 : 40 PM on day 2648 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read Malachi 3:1 and promote my 50 New Feet Campaign benefiting MiracleFeet –-raised $5 126 only $7 374 more to raise by June 17, 2018 to help 50 kids with clubfoot (thanks to everyone who has helped out so far).

Yesterday I finally finished reading The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison by Jacques Pauw the book is about how South Africa’s current President, Jacob Zuma, has used his position to create a shadow state in order to feed his greed and keep himself out of prison I was devastated to find out the President of my country has sold my country to get rich while ordinary South Africans languish in poverty it’s just not right, it’s not fair… it reminded me of the last line in Animal Farm “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”