I know I’m always looking for good book recommendations, as much as wanting to know which books are not worth reading. To that end I’ll be doing a monthly recap of the books I read with a recommendation so you can populate or weed books out of your TBR pile.
Non-Fiction
Decluttered by Jenny Albertini
I don’t remember where I came across Decluttered, but I think it was a blog post with a quote that seemed interesting from the book. I’m glad I borrowed this from the library because it was a very different book than I thought it was going to be. Albertini spent time working in health care, specifically dealing with HIV/AIDS issues around the world. Her experience in the health care field comes through strong as she dives into some of the health issues that come with cluttered living.
Overall, lots of philosophy and not much meat in this book, but the pictures were pretty.
- Purchase at Bookshop.org – Support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon
Just One More Chapter & Supercharge Your Reading by Maneetpaul Singh
These were more short guides than deep books. Both of the books had some value but nothing was revolutionary for me. I enjoyed Just One More Chapter more than Singh’s book on why reading with a Kindle is the best. I think he greatly discounted the requirement to go back and work your notes when you read a book instead shoving that off to Readwise and sync of highlights.
A Better Place on Earth by Andrew McLeod
In this book McLeod covers some of my most revisited topics, poverty, basic income, housing affordability…from the perspective of British Columbia. While my home province likes to tell itself that’s an excellent place to live, we have just as many problems as any other place and our politicians are just as negligent in doing anything about the problems. McLeod highlights many instances of these politicians passing laws that benefit their children and family, while saying there is no money to help the poor on the streets.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local book stores
- Purchase on Amazon
Atomic Habits by James Clear
My second read of Atomic Habits (see my first review) surprised me because I figured it would fall into a typical productivity book, lots of fluff and the author trying to sell you their system. Instead this still had some useful advice for me, like freezing cookies so that I have to put more effort into getting them. A few simple changes like this had a few pounds dropped with little effort over the holidays.
I still think that Clear does a poor job addressing what many people do that live in Scarcity because they’ll never be able to make the changes suggested due to a lack of bandwidth. Productivity books are geared to someone that has a decent enough handle on life to have the time to read a productivity book though so I guess I can’t fault them all for not digging into economic inequality.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon
Right Thing Right Now by Ryan Holiday
This was January’s book club book. I shared a few pieces of writing on it already.
- First Insights
- Scarcity contracts moral circles of concern
- Justice, Power, and the Trap of Weaponized Gratitude
- Right Thing Right Now Review
This is a philosophy book, which means it will have different reads depending on the part of life you’re in. I will be able to come back to this book in a few years and still get more/different things out of it.
The thrust of the book is about justice in the world. What is justice, how do we apply it to others outside ourselves, what are we doing to make the world a more just place? One thing I keep thinking about in light of the world we are currently watching unfold around us is that when we step back from a fight for justice because it gets hard it’s not just that a single voice for justice is silenced. We also show the side of injustice that we can be exhausted so they should push just a bit more to exhaust more people making the fight easier to win1.
As I step away from the justified outrage on social media, I need to ask myself what steps I can continue to take to fight for justice for everyone.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon
Fiction
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
I’ve seen this book around a bunch, but had no idea what it was about until my teenager asked for it on her new Kindle. Since we had it and I wanted to understand what she was reading I dug in. Overall, good book, but it’s a bit steamy and my understanding is that the next instalment turns up the steamy a bit more.
This is a land of dragons and riders fighting the country next to them, but the story they’ve been told isn’t quite what we’re informed at the beginning. The twist in the last few pages I didn’t see coming which is pretty rare. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon
Anxious People by Fredrick Backman
This is my second reading of Anxious People and it didn’t disappoint either time. Backman weaves a confusing story into something that points a poignant finger at society while keeping you confused about what’s going on until the last few chapters.
I had to stop and think about this passage for a bit during my read because it hits hard.
“Do you know what the worst thing about being a parent is? That you’re always judged by your worst moments. You can do a million things right, but if you do one single thing wrong you’re forever that parent who was checking his phone in the park when your child was hit in the head by a swing. We don’t take our eyes off them for days at a time, but then you read just one text message and it’s as if all your best moments never happened.”
I’ll read it again.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon
- Right Thing Right Now Pg 148 ↩︎