Sarah Schumacher
TLDR: this is a must read for new parents. Parenting is an exercise in playing things by ear, but if you can ask questions about your upbringing and grasp the what and how of secure attachment, you'll be starting on a solid foundation.
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The Whole Brain Child is hands down my most recommended book for parents, but The Power of Showing Up might have just moved into first place. You can't go wrong reading any books by Siegel and Bryson though. What I love most about this one is the emphasis on parental upbringing and introspection as the foundation.
I see the Whole Brain child as useful beginning at about toddler ages, as we're talking about brain science/emotional regulation, and babies don't really do a whole lot. The Power of Showing up strikes me as a better earlier book (perhaps the ideal baby shower gift) because it addresses the fact that parents need to analyze their own childhood history in order to parent their children well. I'd already come to that conclusion personally, but I don't think I've ever read it in a book, and it's important.
This book discusses attachment styles, with questions about your own experience, and I can't emphasize how important that is. Like all their books, they provide illustrations, real world/practical examples, and are exceedingly gracious and nonjudgmental about the difficulties inherent in parenting tiny humans. They go above and beyond to make things memorable (4 S's) and there is a reference sheet in the back.
I reluctantly checked this out on the library app because the kid saw it and begged for it. Turns out the entire series is really good and I enjoyed reading it to him. Obviously it's more interesting if you've played Minecraft (at this point, what kid hasn't?) but I think it would still be enjoyable. 8-12 age range although mine is a bit younger. Bonus angle of seeing what bureaucracy looks like through a kid's eyes.
Happens in the same timeline/universe as the 8-bit Warrior books, and at least one scene overlaps so you see it from 2 points of view. I feel like this series gets a bit too technical in terms of game stats and how rankings/classes work in the game. Might be interesting to a 10 year old? But makes it drag/feels like filler and had to skip over stuff to prevent the 6yo from losing interest.
Not a beginner Enneagram book, so keep that in mind. A descriptive list of 9 profiles this is not.
I don't think I've ever read a book with so much lingo. This must be what anatomy class feels like. You have to learn the definition of X, and Y, and then discuss how they react to form Zt6h%Q#!...
I appreciate him outlining the different theories (this guy taught this, another common view is this). I find that kind of thing super helpful, but it's going to require a second reading to grasp all the terms, much less how they influence each other. Maybe I needed a whiteboard.
I've gotten bored with other Enneagram books, so this review isn't necessarily a complaint, just a heads up. I don't think there's anything he could have done differently though. You can't really talk about the importance of a femoral artery without knowing what a femoral artery is called.
His writing style is not the most accessible. It's a book that requires focused attention and few distractions.
Update:
After reading most of his other book, I've had it with terms. The tables with “Holy Virtues” and yada yada... honestly sounds like he's just trying to put his own spin on things instead of using the more mainstream verbiage. Of course, it is “the Sacred Enneagram” so perhaps I should have looked for something like “the down-to-earth Enneagram.” It just feels like he's over complicating things to sound sophisticated. It doesn't help that some scandal has come out about him in the last year and I no longer have any desire to read a thing he's written.
A definitive history indeed. This book is DENSE; while reading I kept thinking every American needs to read this, but most people would never pick up a book of this size. While definitely a history book, thorough and academic, it wasn't unapproachable. What Yuval Noah Harari did in Sapiens to illustrate the expanse of humanity, Kendi has done with the history of racism in America. The subtitle is not an exaggeration. This isn't something one can read while distracted - it's an investment, but it's worth it.
I kept thinking he needed a shorter summary version of this book, so I was happy to see there's a newer book (Stamped) with another author that sounds like it's meant for an audience with a shorter attention span. I'll try to read that version at some point, but I'm preemptively adding it to my Every Human reading list.
While I'm a very experienced cook, I'm not one of those people who's into cookbooks. However, I am into learning and improving on everything I know, and Samin will definitely make you a better cook. The first half of the book is a crash course into why good food tastes good. It's approachable, enjoyable, and as a designer I was familiar with Wendy MacNaughton's fantastic illustrations, so that was a big plus. Samin's reasoning for using illustrations, vs the ubiquitous mouth-watering food photos, is so you don't get a preconceived idea of what “perfect” looks like. I think that really captures the spirit of why she wrote this book.
There are illustrated pull out charts with regional ingredient groupings and such. If you've ever wanted to learn how to cook without memorizing a recipe, this (cook)book is definitely where you should start.
The second half consists of actual recipes, which I'm sure will be great once I get around to trying them. Several of the techniques are already in my repertoire so I can vouch — everyone should learn how to dry brine and spatchcock poultry, stat.
4.5 stars. I read articles as all this crap was happening so I knew about the NBC coverup, and the shocking necessity these interviews had to be published elsewhere. That's what I really wanted to hear more about. If you want to know the mechanics of how rich idiots influence “journalism”, you'll want to read this. It's one reason why I never have, and never will watch any of the mainstream outlets. Thank goodness there are people who have principles, like McHugh, Ronan finding a way to get these stories out no matter what, and all the people who leaked information about what their employers were actually doing. There's also much more than I expected about the private investigator angle and how much of that was happening in the background.
I ordered this from the library based on the title. It wasn't what I expected; he lays out a “compassionate response practice”, which is sort of a visualization type of meditation combined with self-compassion. Whether or not it works remains to be seen, but any time you focus on meditation, mindfulness and self-compassion it's going to benefit your parenting.
I suppose I might have been expecting more of a Whole Brain Child approach, with scientific explanations and practical instructions/phrases (“connect and redirect”). This is not that.
I've read his Simplicity Parenting, which I didn't care for and found obvious/common sense advice. Perhaps that's what caught me so off guard - this is definitely an unconventional approach. Whole Brain Child remains my most highly recommended parenting book, so read that first.
A quick read because of the graphic novel format. I listened to an interview with Mira Jacobs, so I felt like I already knew the plot lines when I got to them, but it was still great. A unique, visual way to see someone else's perspective through their eyes. Her son was the catalyst for the book, but it's more about her experiences.
The way it ended made me want a resolution, selfishly, for advice on how her family handled a subject many of us are currently walking through in real time with her. It actually seemed a fitting way to end, but with a hopeful quality about it.
Couldn't put this one down. Nonfiction that reads like fiction, with stories of several of her clients/composites she weaves in throughout her own story, her relationship with her own therapist, and occasional low key education on therapeutic practice here and there. For jumping around as much as it did, it flowed really well, but it's definitely more of a memoir than I expected. That surprised me, because I saw it on so many recommended lists that tend toward the pop science self-help kind of stuff I tend to read, but I like memoirs so I was ok with that. This isn't what you want if you're looking for something practical.
I think it's the title... it sounds like maybe you, the reader, should talk to someone, and here's why therapy matters. In reality, she goes through a breakup and her friend says maybe she should talk to someone. Definitely memoir.
I've been bullet journaling for 4 years, but I figured I should at least speed read this book. I ended up skimming most of it.
I didn't expect all the self-help motivational stuff. I read a lot of that, but it was irritating here because I've already heard every anecdote, study and scientist's name like 6 times. It felt like productivity 101. That being said, I don't think I'm the target market for this book. I neither want nor need hand-holding. I stumbled onto bullet journaling, just started doing it and made it up as I went along (which is kind of the point). I'm very utilitarian about it and I already have my own systems for goal setting and such.
The type of person I see inclined to pick this book up: (30+ woman with kids, busy and overwhelmed, not great at scheduling, spends time on Pinterest, likes the idea of journaling, does not read business or pop science books for fun). So the short, here's-a-helpful-productivity-fact chapters are probably great. But if you're more my type, just read Part 2 - The System and Part 4 - The Art. The rest is just fluff.
Overall I don't think I learned anything particularly groundbreaking about the method, but my goal was just to get a better grasp of the official system. Ironically, I've never much used the bullet system of bullet journaling (rapid logging), so I wanted to see more of that in practice.
I highly recommend bullet journaling in general, but if you're a self starter you can pick up the method from bulletjournal.com. If you prefer more elaborate explanation and like the idea of motivational goal setting exercises, check out the book, which does a good job of showing how the system works together as a whole.
4.5 stars. He begins with his life story and ends with his spiritual journey, much of which centers on Ram Das. As someone who has heard much of Ram Das but really doesn't get him, it was a nice cameo of his appeal for many.
Pete is just as good at writing about spiritually waking up as he is at speaking about it. If you listen to his podcast, you've probably already heard him pontificate about this, but it was still a great (funny) read. It was nice to hear his story start to finish, and you'll learn something about living.
I always enjoy meeting someone in their ideal career and hearing all the twists and turns in their story. The things that perfectly prepared them for their current role (career paths are rarely linear). This is very much the story Edward Snowden tells about his early experience with computers, the original Internet, and programming. It's fascinating from a career trajectory standpoint, but mostly because he seems to be the only one to see the big picture. His conviction and preparation to give up everything are unbelievable. I also appreciated hearing about his girlfriend and what she went through, as that was something I thought about often at the time.
Full disclosure: I love Jia Tolentino and I'll read anything with her name on it. This book consists of the kind of musing philosophical essays about random subjects that I write myself when I have time, wishing I had half of her eloquence and way with words. These aren't problem solving, solution presenting types of essays, but beautifully written verbal processing on topics I tend to think a lot about myself; the Internet, culture, feminism, social expectations etc. If you've read and enjoy her work online, definitely check out this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I'll admit he was preaching to the choir. I've always defined creativity as nothing more than linking ideas across domains, so the wider your range of interests, the more potential for creativity. As a lifelong polymath obsessed with reading and researching things while working in a creative/technical field, this seems fairly obvious. So the biggest takeaway from this book was how much overspecialization is happening across industries. I've seen some of this in person (the medical field: haven't we all), but it's still concerning to think about in regards to, say, scientific research.
I think this quote from his conclusion really captures the essence of the book: “The question I set out to explore was how to capture and cultivate the power of breadth, diverse experience, and inter-disciplinary exploration, within systems that increasingly demand hyperspecialization, and would have you decide what you should be before first figuring out who you are.”
If you're not convinced, read this book. If you need encouragement that your interests unrelated to your work still matter, read this book. If you disagree with everything I just said, read this book and open your mind a little.
