Gina Lucia
The book in 3 sentences/summary:
Balance your life and work with 4 essential pillars.
Learn from Arianna's life lessons and science combined.
Live better, with more intention and thrive.
My impressions:
After building an online empire such as the Huffington Post, you'd think Arianna would be well-versed in overwork and burnout. You'd be right. Which is exactly why this book came to fruition.
Arianna talks candidly about her experiences and what she's learned from her mistakes in work and life. Throughout Thrive she talks about sleep, meditation, social media and more to encourage the reader to seek more balance in life and work.
Encouragingly Arianna calls on science and other authors to frequently back up her own stories. I only wish she shared more stories to balance it out.
Should you read it? (who would benefit from this):
This book combines businesswoman, mother, science, work, success and balance into one book. It shares small insight into Arianna's life but would be worth reading if any of the above list interests you.
What I personally got from the book:
In almost every section of the book, I've written down an extra tip I'm going to implement into my life. One of which will be keeping a dream journal.
Stephen Fry's writing is so conversational and easy to understand that it makes learning about the Greek Gods enjoyable and accessible.
Fry prefaces the book by making sure the reader is aware they don't need any knowledge whatsoever to read this book. This is a starting from scratch, Greek Mythology 101.
Of course, Fry doesn't just love the stories, he also loves context. He includes extra information throughout. Including how the names of the Greek gods and mythical monsters are used in language today.
While Mythos is easy and entertaining to read, it does contain a lot of information. It's essentially a set of short stories, all of which are just facts told in a very descriptive and humour-filled way.
Which means if you read Mythos, you'll likely read it in sections, otherwise there's just no way you'll retain all the stories. They come thick and fast, there are many Gods and mythical creatures and they all overlap and intermingle with each other which can get kinda complicated. Although to me, it's all incredibly entertaining.
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I just wasn't vibing with the dynamics or the story. Didn't pull me in as well as the first book did.
I didn't vibe with this at all. It felt like it was book 2 and we missed all the character build up and romance from book one. So when something happened to them (the premise of the book), I just didn't care.
This might be the month of DNF because I'm DNFing The Phoenix Keeper. The main character is very annoying when she should be relatable and as I thought might happen, the zoo setting is not for me. I don't like zoos but I thought this might work being fantasy and all, but nope. The audiobook narrator also made the main characters even more annoying 😅😭
The book in 3 sentences/summary:
Do what you love and you'll be happy
Follow the 8 freedom keys to achieve this
Take chances and follow your passion
My impressions:
I'm not convinced by Freedom Seeker, as a book it falls flat in a few key areas.
It tries to tackle a very vague topic like freedom in so many different ways that it feels rushed, unorganised and lacking in substance.
The author frequently makes up words or phrases like ‘freedom keys', ‘freedom seekers' and ‘kindrovert'. By doing this, she removes you from the message or the lesson and makes it less convincing.
It reads as quite self-indulgent I'm sorry to say. She tells a lot of her own stories which take up perhaps 70-80% of the book. Leaving very little room for practice advice and actually just work to add more pages to the book.
I'm sad to say that Freedom Seeker was a disappointment. It's filled with surface-level advice which fails to go deep into important topics and instead leaves you feeling no better off having read it.
Should you read it? (who would benefit from this):
I wouldn't recommend this book to you unless you're particularly interested in reading a few motivational stories and you're not interested in the reality of those stories.
What I personally got from the book:
I got one piece of practical advice from the book which I will put into practice and that's to create a ‘flight fund'. This fund, or pot of money, is something you add to over time and set aside on the off chance that one day, you might want to change tact completely and turn your life into something different. That fund would allow you to do it.
Brilliant graphic novel with character-filled artwork. Really enjoyed the story progression although feel like it ended a little abruptly.
I just wasn't vibing with it. The audio is amazing but the story wasn't gripping me. Might come back to it at a later date.
I got this at a charity shop to give me a decluttering boost in the new year but while reading, I realised it didn't really teach me anything new compared to the first book. It's good, but I don't need it.
Unnecessary racism in this one. Could have changed the wording from the original story or left a footnote or something.
The book in 3 sentences/summary:
All feelings we have are the result of our thoughts in the moment.
These thoughts and feelings are all entirely internal and not caused by external factors.
To shift your feelings in the moment, you need to change your thoughts.
My impressions:
Instant Motivation is a book perfect for those who love understanding and re-training their own mind. It highlights the role of our thoughts and how they impact how we feel. Covering everything from anxiety, to fear, confidence, success and even pain.
It then uses certain principles to help you monitor and reframe your thoughts to adjust how you feel in any given moment.
It's a heavier read, but worth every bit of time you spend reading it.
Should you read it? (who would benefit from this):
If you struggle with anxiety, low self-esteem, focus, stress, motivation etc. This book is for you!
What I personally got from the book:
I absolutely love learning how the mind works so this was a joy to read and pretty exciting too. Understanding how we function and process thoughts means that we can ultimately adjust how we navigate life, there's no better knowledge than that.
Reading Mahina's Wild Adventures was certainly a rush! Mahina has certainly lived and you'll see why with story after story filled with threat, excitement and danger. This is one not to miss, especially if you're dreaming of travel and adventure yourself.
