The Reading List #46
Where on earth has September gone? Honestly, the fact that it's October on Sunday is a little scary!
Whilst I've not blogged as much I had planned to this month, it's been a month packed with great things and I've been doing some planning to really focus on this space in October...
Today, we're here for another reading list.
Without fail, I start my mornings reading, and I usually at the moment have multiple books on the go at any one time.
For that reason, there will be a fair few of these posts popping up over the next few weeks and months!
Mindfulness for Life, Craig Hassed and Stephen McKenzie
This really is a sweeping mindfulness manual, covering history, theory and practice. It's all about how mindfulness can become a part of your everyday life, and is far from difficult. It takes practice, but the benefits you get in return are huge. I think this book strikes a really good balance between offering an overview of mindfulness alongside practical tips and advice for specific situations and conditions.
The first few chapters cover the history and context of mindfulness, which I found really interesting. Mindfulness as a concept it something I've been playing around with and trying out for a good few years, but I didn't know much about its origins. After that, there are specific chapters on a whole range of health and lifestyle problems. There will be scientific basis for why mindfulness can help, case studies and then a box packed with tips on how to use mindfulness to help that particular condition. Most useful for me were those on anxiety, depression and sleep, but there were also topics such as addiction and dementia.
Becoming, Laura Jane Williams
Confession: I read this ages ago, when it very first came out, but I've just found my comments in my notebook of books to include on here and realised I never shared my thoughts! She's written another book since then, but I'll tell you about that one another day... I've followed Laura's blog for a very long time, and from the moment she first announced this book I was READY. Becoming is Laura's story. When the man she thought she'd marry married her friend instead, she didn't know what she'd do - but that was only the beginning of her story.
To say it's the story of her journey to 'find herself' doesn't really do it enough justice, but that's essentially what this book is. It follows her around the world, introduces the people she meets and describes the lessons she learned. The tone of voice is exactly like her blog, but the medium allows her to give a far more rounded picture. In many ways, Laura is very, very different to me, but the moments of clarity and realisation she has are so universal. It's really all about accepting we make mistakes, we're all learning, and actually we are all doing 'ok'. It's heartwarming, it's funny, it's sad, it's poignant, it's reassuring... brilliant.
The Oath, Dennis Koller
*This was kindly sent to me by a PR to be considered for review purposes.
Tom McGuire took the Oath as a young naval officer, and years later is a homicide inspector, investigating the murder of a newspaper reporter. The details of her death remind McGuire of his time as a PoW in North Vietnam years before. Suddenly, his life is about to cross paths once again with a man he found himself imprisoned with back in Hanoi.
As I've said before, I love reading novels based in a time, place or context I know little about, and the Vietnam War is one of those things about which I know only the basics. After being drawn in initially by that background, I was quickly greeted by a fast-paced ride that is anything but predictable. It was well written and at times hard to read, when recounting McGuire's times as a prisoner. The one drawback I found was that I sometimes took a page or two in a new chapter to realise which voice we were hearing and whether we were in Vietnam or San Francisco. Apart from that, it was a gripping read with an unexpected ending.
Talk Like TED - The 9 public speaking secrets of the world's top minds, Carmine Gallo
This book draws on analysis of over 150 hours of TED talks and interviews with the very best speakers and presenters. From this, Gallo presents nine secrets she believes hold the key to success when it comes to public speaking.
I really enjoyed reading this. At first glance, some of the tips are things you've heard before and are fairly self-explanatory, but the power comes from the examples. The thoughts and words of the greatest speakers have been studied and compiled to create these tips, and the case studies and scientific analysis presented are fascinating. Instead of just telling you to be authentic, this book tells you exactly why that works, how to do it, and who before you has done it well. It's engaging and interesting, with some great nuggets of advice.
So there we have it, the latest round-up. This time, three of the four are non-fiction. I've always been a fiction-lover growing up, but recently I'm devouring more and more non-fiction alongside those reads and really enjoying it.
As always, let me know if there's anything you think needs to be added to my 'to read' pile...
Sophie x
Whilst I've not blogged as much I had planned to this month, it's been a month packed with great things and I've been doing some planning to really focus on this space in October...
Today, we're here for another reading list.
Without fail, I start my mornings reading, and I usually at the moment have multiple books on the go at any one time.
For that reason, there will be a fair few of these posts popping up over the next few weeks and months!
Mindfulness for Life, Craig Hassed and Stephen McKenzie
This really is a sweeping mindfulness manual, covering history, theory and practice. It's all about how mindfulness can become a part of your everyday life, and is far from difficult. It takes practice, but the benefits you get in return are huge. I think this book strikes a really good balance between offering an overview of mindfulness alongside practical tips and advice for specific situations and conditions.
The first few chapters cover the history and context of mindfulness, which I found really interesting. Mindfulness as a concept it something I've been playing around with and trying out for a good few years, but I didn't know much about its origins. After that, there are specific chapters on a whole range of health and lifestyle problems. There will be scientific basis for why mindfulness can help, case studies and then a box packed with tips on how to use mindfulness to help that particular condition. Most useful for me were those on anxiety, depression and sleep, but there were also topics such as addiction and dementia.
Becoming, Laura Jane Williams
Confession: I read this ages ago, when it very first came out, but I've just found my comments in my notebook of books to include on here and realised I never shared my thoughts! She's written another book since then, but I'll tell you about that one another day... I've followed Laura's blog for a very long time, and from the moment she first announced this book I was READY. Becoming is Laura's story. When the man she thought she'd marry married her friend instead, she didn't know what she'd do - but that was only the beginning of her story.
To say it's the story of her journey to 'find herself' doesn't really do it enough justice, but that's essentially what this book is. It follows her around the world, introduces the people she meets and describes the lessons she learned. The tone of voice is exactly like her blog, but the medium allows her to give a far more rounded picture. In many ways, Laura is very, very different to me, but the moments of clarity and realisation she has are so universal. It's really all about accepting we make mistakes, we're all learning, and actually we are all doing 'ok'. It's heartwarming, it's funny, it's sad, it's poignant, it's reassuring... brilliant.
The Oath, Dennis Koller
*This was kindly sent to me by a PR to be considered for review purposes.
Tom McGuire took the Oath as a young naval officer, and years later is a homicide inspector, investigating the murder of a newspaper reporter. The details of her death remind McGuire of his time as a PoW in North Vietnam years before. Suddenly, his life is about to cross paths once again with a man he found himself imprisoned with back in Hanoi.
As I've said before, I love reading novels based in a time, place or context I know little about, and the Vietnam War is one of those things about which I know only the basics. After being drawn in initially by that background, I was quickly greeted by a fast-paced ride that is anything but predictable. It was well written and at times hard to read, when recounting McGuire's times as a prisoner. The one drawback I found was that I sometimes took a page or two in a new chapter to realise which voice we were hearing and whether we were in Vietnam or San Francisco. Apart from that, it was a gripping read with an unexpected ending.
Talk Like TED - The 9 public speaking secrets of the world's top minds, Carmine Gallo
This book draws on analysis of over 150 hours of TED talks and interviews with the very best speakers and presenters. From this, Gallo presents nine secrets she believes hold the key to success when it comes to public speaking.
I really enjoyed reading this. At first glance, some of the tips are things you've heard before and are fairly self-explanatory, but the power comes from the examples. The thoughts and words of the greatest speakers have been studied and compiled to create these tips, and the case studies and scientific analysis presented are fascinating. Instead of just telling you to be authentic, this book tells you exactly why that works, how to do it, and who before you has done it well. It's engaging and interesting, with some great nuggets of advice.
So there we have it, the latest round-up. This time, three of the four are non-fiction. I've always been a fiction-lover growing up, but recently I'm devouring more and more non-fiction alongside those reads and really enjoying it.
As always, let me know if there's anything you think needs to be added to my 'to read' pile...
Sophie x
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