It has been a while since I have shared the books I have read. To tell the truth, it has been a while since I have shared anything. Last year was incredibly busy. We have changed houses; I have had knee surgery. I had so little time for myself, which meant less time for reading. Hope everything will settle down in this new year, and I will have more time for good books.
All of the books I have read recently are digital—Kindle or Audible versions. I haven’t read any printed books at all for some time now—this is what the digital age is doing to us. I think I lean toward Kindle or Audible versions because it is so convenient to read or listen on the go. Therefore, I listen to Audible versions on my phone on the way to school and back, when I am without the kids, and even read from my phone’s Kindle app while waiting for the kids during their after-school activities. It’s easy because my whole library is with me on my phone.
This is a list of books, as best I can remember, that I read or listened to recently.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change by Charles Duhigg (Kindle edition)
This book gives a scientific habit analysis. Why habits exist? How they are formed? How they can be changed? It was a pleasant discovery of our endless possibilities to improve. We need to know how, and this book gives precisely that.
Ignore it! : How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction by Catherine Pearlman Ph.D. LCSW (Kindle edition)
Recently my kids learned some new techniques to get what they want. It all started with negotiation, which I thought is a good thing for them to learn. But after some time, I have realized that our talks are changing to begging, complaining, debating, arguing, and whining. All this is just a waste of quality family time, and I needed some strategy to end this new habit. A counselor at my kids’ school recommended this book to me to help with power struggles. The author presents simple ways to stop power struggles and how to use effective behavior modification techniques to eliminate problematic behaviors. In other words, excellent, easy, and helpful reading.
Goop Clean Beauty by by The Editors of GOOP (Kindle edition)
The concept of clean beauty has been in my mind for some time already. The older you get, the wiser you become. As a result, I am incredibly interested in anti-aging, longevity, and everything that has a positive and adverse effect on this. Carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and other harmful ingredients that are around us in everyday life are not helping. Recently, I started to focus on not loaded with toxic ingredients beauty and self-care products. I love my journey to a cleaner me, and this book provides a useful starting dose of information on this journey.
Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life by Max Lugavere with Paul Grewal, MD (Kindle edition)
I added this book to my healthy lifestyle library, as I was following Max Lugavere on Instagram for some time. After he announced his book release, I was interested in reading it. He is not a doctor, but his research, inspired by his mother’s dementia, is quite impressive. He has explored all up-to-date scientific research, talked to dozens of leading scientists to learn everything he could about brain health, nutritional psychiatry, cognitive optimization, and dementia prevention, and, as a result, wrote Genius Foods, which present the best foods that can help.
Inbound Marketing, Revised and Updated: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (Kindle edition)
This book is a quick read that made exciting discoveries about how Google, industry blogs, and social media channels work. It’s about how marketing is going from television, streets, and brochures to the web. A massive transformation in how people live and shop has made inbound marketing more effective than outbound. And this book is all about how to use now existing tools to create a different up-to-date marketing strategy.
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris (Audible version)
I saw Sam Harris in one of the Ted Talks. Later, I saw some interviews with him and his other public speeches on Youtube. He is focusing on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. Hence, I was very intrigued by this extraordinary neuroscientist and philosopher. I like how he explains controversial questions about the human mind, society, and current events. Indeed, this book was not an easy read, but I was interested in a totally different way of understanding spirituality.
The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage by Mel Robbins (Audible version)
Kick Ass with Mel Robbins by Mell Robins (Audible version)
Take Control of Your Life: How to Silence Fear and Win the Mental Game by Mel Robbins (Audible version)
I love Mel Robbins. She is incredible. I found her on Youtube (you can actually find so much good stuff on Youtube, but you need to navigate around tremendous amounts of “trash”). This was the start, and then, I listened to all her books so far. All. And I have enjoyed all of them.
Most importantly, they are all so encouraging and motivational, and they all complement each other. I highly recommend to listen, not to read, Mel Robbins’ books because of the way she reads them; believe me, it is way more powerful. I enjoy her coffee talks on Youtube, and as a newspaper subscriber, I am happy to receive a letter from her. Totally in love with the kick of motivation and good vibes she gives. Try it yourself. I really recommend it.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck (Audible version)
This book represents a groundbreaking yet simple idea of how success is influenced by how we think about our abilities. Carol Dweck presents two different mindsets, fixed and growth. She introduces the growth mindset as a way of thinking that skills can be developed, and failure is just one step in this process, but not proof of a lack of talent.
Entitlemania: How Not to Spoil Your Kids, and What to Do If You Have by Richard Watts (Audible version)
A useful handbook with many shocking examples of spoiled kids who turn to be entitled adults who believe the world owes them something. This book presents strategies on how to raise kids without spoiling them and redirect them in the right way, how to stop feeling entitled, and how to repair entitled codependent adults. Basically, it teaches what boundaries are and how to set them for financial independence and social reliance.
How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber (Audible version)
This book provides some preparation for the future, as my oldest is still only ten. But I would like to be prepared. The book is packed with lots of real stories and advice for ways to build healthy family relationships, but the Audible version has a very strange and slightly annoying narrating voice and intonation.
How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results by Esther Wojcicki (Audible version)
The author, a legendary teacher in California who inspired many Silicone Valley legends and the mom of three famously successful girls of her own, shares her method of raising successful and happy children using trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
This book discusses the opposite way of raising kids. It was written by Amy Chua, a famous American author and law professor, about her strict and disciplinarian way of raising her daughters, who also turned out to be very successful. This book is about how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. I really recommend listening to the Audible version; it was so enjoyable that I finished it very quickly. It is even enjoyable from a psychological perspective, as hard stories in the book are told humorously. The book has lots of controversial reviews, but I really liked it. My brain was comparing, digesting, and compilating these two last books from different authors and their two different worlds.
I think the truth is hiding somewhere in-between. I just need to find out how to follow the best advice from both that could work well in my family.
At the moment, I am reading four very different books. Multitasking is taking me over. I am going to share those in the near future. I hope I will write more “books I read recently” posts in the future too.
