Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. How is reading going for you in 2021 so far? I read seven books in January. I’m going to give some brief thoughts on each one here, then I need to get to reading some fiction, because six of my seven January reads were nonfiction. The images on these are huge. I don’t know why and I’m not skilled enough to change them, but if you click on the image, it will conveniently take you to the book on Amazon via affiliate link. Happy reading!
Monsters of Men is the third book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. I read the other two books last month. Before I go further into what I thought of this trilogy, let me say that I highly recommend A Monster Calls, which is a graphic novel that will make you cry by this author. Now… this series has been on my TBR for a several years. I was instigated to read it when I saw an ad for the movie Chaos Walking, in which Tom Holland plays the lead character. The first book hinges on this character, Todd, having his 13th birthday. Holland isn’t 13, so I’m guessing there will be some adjustments. Hopefully they will adjust some of the problems that I had, primarily being that Todd has a tendency to be insufferable.
Aside from this, there are some interesting things happening here. I’m not sure they are all done well, but it could make for good discussion. The series looks at colonialism, racism, sexism, education, literacy, patriotism, and terrorism. That’s a lot to cover in three books. There were times it felt like a slog. I mainly stuck it out because I was hoping for Todd to come to certain conclusions at end. Spoiler alert: He didn’t. I was still more satisfied with the end than I was with the middle of the third book. I honestly hope these books will be redeemed by the movies. I don’t know how they will pull off the “Noise.” Oh yeah- in this world thoughts are broadcast for everyone to hear. I am not saying much about that on purpose. It works for me in the book. I hope the movie does it justice. Maybe I’ll revisit this in another post after I see the film. Lots more January books to discuss now…
I learned about Why We Sleep from a video about sleep hygiene. In 2020, I learned some very valuable lessons about being sleep deprived and how you can be affected by it even when you think you’re getting enough sleep. I’ve suffered from summertime Seasonal Affective Disorder for as long as I can remember. I think sleep may be the key to making 2021 different. This book is really well done. It’s based in research, but the author was also funny. I found it informative and enjoyable. The section about how sleep has evolved is very good. If you like nonfiction or want to know more about sleep, I highly recommend this one.
You might see a trend of me reading a lot about brain science. If I mentioned about the last book that sleep is important, it might go without saying that our brains are important. However, just like we neglect sleep, which affects our brains (a LOT,) we tend to neglect our brains in a lot of other ways. When an awesome friend told me about Unf*ck Your Brain I was thrilled. The audiobook is included on Audible, so I get to listen to an experienced therapist talk about brain science while cussing- for FREE! It’s less than four hours long, but has lots of good stuff. The section on addiction was my favorite part of this one.
It turns out Audible has a bunch of free books by Dr. Harper. I decided to pick a short one for a day when I was spending a few hours alone in the car. I decided on Unf*ck Your Adulting. Now, I did turn 45 this month, but I was also born on “the day of childlike fancy,” so I’m not sure I will ever fully identify as an adult. I like that this book doesn’t focus on tactical things like paying bills, changing tires, or other things we can find on YouTube tutorials. This focuses on adulting rules like “don’t be a dick” and “carry your own (metaphorical) baggage.” My favorite rule is “always be a little kinder than necessary.” And I have to say… after reading these rules, I felt so much more like I’m actually doing this adulting thing well.
As a side note, I will mention that these kinds of books tend to give conflicting advice. Dr. Harper has a rule telling you not to make your bed. In the Design Your Life book mentioned below, Benjamin Hardy tells you to make your bed. He doesn’t have as many letters after his name to signify his credentials, so I’m siding with Harper on this one. Although she also notes that her barely-adult son makes his bed. Do it if it makes you feel good. Don’t do it if it doesn’t. And if you decide not to do it, don’t let anything make you feel shameful about that. You get to decide what your own priorities are.
I decided to reread the original Bright Line Eating book. It has just released in paperback, so now is a great time to get it. I have hardcover, ebook, and audio. I am currently helping to moderate the Bright Line Eating Official Facebook group. It’s a free, public group with almost 38,000 members. It was good to refresh myself on what’s in the book, especially the scientific stuff that doesn’t stick like it used to. If you don’t know about this program and how it changed my life, you can read about it here.
This is another audiobook included on Audible. When I saw the title How to Consciously Design Your Ideal Future I thought it sounded great. Who doesn’t want to do that? This is really a collection of articles and this guy likes to use some quotes and examples frequently. If he had been writing a book, those probably would have been edited to be less repetitive. There is a lot of good advice here, but there are times when I realize that I read a lot of these kinds of books and know a lot of this stuff already. It never hurts to hear it in a new way, and I always find something valuable… I just can’t recall anything specific that I heard here except the aforementioned call to bed-making. If you are exposed to much self-development stuff at all, skip this one. If you are new to it, still skip this one and check out the ones listed above.
Again with the brain. I don’t remember how Meditations to Change Your Brain came onto my radar, but there was a short wait for it on my library app, so it is popular. This is definitely a book to get on audio, because they guide you through the meditations. They explain the benefits of meditation and methods to do it so that you maximize the positive benefits for your brain. My favorite is a meditation that focuses on the senses. This is a good meditation resource.