You know your boyfriend knows you well when he gives you a non-fiction book on habit-forming for the holidays rather than expensive jewelry.
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit offered much to think about. While the author applies a lot of what he teaches us to business, I couldn’t stop thinking about how my habits affect my LIFE, mainly my health, and specifically, healthy eating. For that reason, I most enjoyed the first third of the book, which focuses on habits in individuals. (The other two sections focus on organizations/companies and society at large.)
My biggest takeaway is to HAVE A PLAN. Because if you don’t have a plan, as well as a way to get yourself to STICK to that plan when things get rough, you’ll fall back into whatever habit you were trying to avoid. Of course, Duhigg’s ideas are much more complicated than that, but I like to boil things down to a practical level so I can easily use them to better my life.
I’d recommend this one!
So great to read a friend’s debut novel! What I liked best about this book:
1. The characters really drew me in. I feel like I’m friends with Hannah!
2. The D.C. references are especially fun if you live in the capital :)
Definitely recommend The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs.
I never would’ve picked up Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding except Vanity Fair ran a piece (now available on Kindle) about the author’s struggle to write and publish his first novel. Who wouldn’t root for a new author?
The book got mixed reviews — here’s a positive one from The New York Times, plus another from a guy who didn’t seem to like it much. I couldn’t put it down, captivated by both the characters and the prose. Great example of a tragic hero.
Can’t say I love the cover, but this is definitely a book worth checking out, regardless of whether you’re a baseball fan.
I bought this novel about the Holocaust ages ago for my mom, and she loved it enough to gift it back to me. Finally got around to starting it — and finished it just a few hours later, during a long-haul flight to S. Africa. Wonderful story! Highly recommended.
Finally read Lisa McKay’s Love at the Speed of Email, and it was even better than I expected. (How did a traditional publisher NOT pick this up? It’s fit for a movie.)
Read this book if you’re into travel, adventure, are single in your 30s or simply love a non-traditional love story.
If you’re a writer, this book offers a bonus — the author explores writing and what it means to her. My favorite line: “Often I feel as if I have not understood anything of what an experience has really meant to me until I have anchored it in text.” (p. 126)
I couldn’t put down this narrative non-fiction. SUCH a riveting story, and along the way you learn about the Burundi and Rwanda civil wars. Highly recommended.
I’m one of the lucky ones who got my hands on Torre DeRoche’s Swept: Love With a Chance of Drowning before a publisher picked it up and Torre pulled the self-published copy from Amazon. Great read! 4 out of 5 stars.
Cheryl Strayed’s WILD was so, SO good. It’s not just about a woman who hikes the challenging Pacific Crest Trail; it’s about how Cheryl comes to terms with her mother’s death and learns to love herself.
What’s so well done about this book — and why it’s a great study for anyone who writes memoir — is how Cheryl weaves memories of her mom and ex-husband and drugs and love into the experience she’s having on the trail. She dips in and out of memories so seamlessly. And at the end, she uses an awesome technique to tell us just how life turned out for her, so the reader can feel satisfied.
I was honestly shocked to see that a book about a woman hiking alone in the woods had become so popular… and now I know why. Compelling story! Don’t miss this one.
