Emma Goto

Decided to pick this one up because it's considered an Australian classic - buts it's more a classic in the sense that it was really popular when it was published, not really because it's groundbreaking in any way. Giving it somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but bumping it down to a 3 because while I did enjoy it, I wouldn't recommend anyone go out of their way to read it.

The only thing I knew going into reading Wuthering Heights was that it was some sort of love story with a guy named Heathcliff. Unfortunately Heathcliff is a pretty terrible person and there is a love story but it's very tragic. Overall though it is impressive that Emily Brontë managed to write something like this in 19th century England.

I knew of the atomic bombings from the Japanese side but going into this book I didn't know about Oppenheimer (the “father of the atomic bomb”) so I learnt a lot. However at 600 pages this book is very dense, which I guess serves its purpose as a very-detailed biography. I do wish it was a bit easier to read, though!

I went into this one with a bit of scepticism, considering that the “10,000 hour rule” talked about in the book has been to a certain extent debunked.

I question some of the claims he makes, sometimes it didn't feel like there was enough evidence for what he was saying. But it did make for an interesting read!

As the author rightly points out, most productivity books are written by men. It's good to see this book tackle things from a slightly different perspective - a woman who's trying to balance both her career ambitions as well as raising a family and running a household.

Vanderkam reasons that in order to have enough time to do the things we need, we should outsource the things we aren't good at, like household chores. Since people spend so much money on cars, etc., what's a little bit more money spend on outsourcing your laundry, etc.? Not sure I completely agree with this concept, or that outsourcing is as cheap as the author claims it is (maybe that's because I don't live in America).

Standout point for me was the author's mention of “flow” states and how a study was done that shows that people who spend more time in flow (focused on challenging yet doable work) are happier. Heard of being in a state of “flow” before but didn't know that it actually makes you happier (but that makes sense). Going to go research that more.

Originally published in the late 1990s, The Power of Now was written after its author, Eckhart Tolle, had an epiphany at age 29 and became “enlightened”. The book achieved huge success once it was recommended by popular talkshow host Oprah Winfrey.

The author holds some very strong beliefs which almost feel like his own religion in a way. This may turn you off if you are fairly anti-religious or already follow a religion.

He also makes some (to me, dubious) claims about his teachings. For example, that it will help you age slower, and strengthen your immune system.

(Although I was left feeling sceptical as I read his claims, I am open to acknowledging that his teachings could help lower your stress, which in turn probably helps you to stay healthy and live a little bit longer).

Nonetheless, for all that I disliked about the book I still enjoyed it enough to write this blog post about it!Acknowledge the thoughts in your head, and let go

People spend almost all of their time thinking. Sometimes, we might dwell on things that have happened to us in the past, or worry about things that might happen in the future.

Holding onto these thoughts isn’t very useful. It prevents us from enjoying the “now” because we spend so much time stuck in the past or the future.

When these thoughts come into your head, you should take a step back and observe the thought impartially. Don’t beat yourself up about these negative thoughts either (because that’s just creating more negative thoughts). Acknowledge it, and by acknowledging it you’ll have an easier time of letting it go.

In a way, a lot of what Eckhart Tolle talks about is very similar to the concept of mindfulness, which you may be familiar with. Using meditation apps like [Headspace](https://www.headspace.com/mindfulness) can help you to hone your mindfulness skill, even for as little as 5 - 10 minutes a day.

Don’t yearn for happiness in the future, because you’re never going to get there

This is something I’m very guilty of. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking “I’ll be happy once I attain X” or “I’ll be happy when I become Y”. But the truth is that you’ll reach that milestone, and then you’ll set yourself another one! You’ll forever be chasing happiness in the future, when instead you should be focusing on happiness in the “now”.

Being happy today is easier said than done. I recently listened to an audiobook, Habits for Happiness, which gave a couple of tips:

* Every day, think of three things that you are grateful for

* Make sure to get enough sleep, and regularly exercise

* Create a vision board for yourself that outlines all the things you want to achieve to be happy

* Set yourself goals to work towards achieving your vision

I love goal setting and creating vision boards, although it technically does seem to conflict with what Eckhart Tolle talks about. I think the way to approach it is that it’s okay to have a vision, but you have to enjoy the process of getting there, rather than putting off the enjoyment for until you get there.

## Conclusion

As much as I rolled my eyes at some of what Tolle had to say, I still did feel that this book had an impact on me. Especially during this pandemic I sometimes do feel myself struggling a little bit and this book was a helpful reminder to spend less time worrying or yearning and to try to enjoy the “now”.

From looking at its reviews on Goodreads, if you are already fairly familiar with meditation, zen or other spiritual books I would give this one a miss. However if you are fairly new to the topic (like me) and are open to books on spirituality or willing to look past the dodgy bits, I would recommend giving this book a go.

The Checklist Manifesto may look like yet another self-help or productivity book. But I found it to be a well-written book on the power of the humble checklist.

Its author, Atul Gawande, is a surgeon who has helped to create a checklist now used by hospitals worldwide. When hospitals began using the checklist, they reduced deaths and major complications during surgery by more than 30% (wow!)

The checklist itself is simple, only covering the most important steps during a surgery. Think things like confirming a patient's identity, or making sure they've received antibiotics. These key steps might _seem_ trivial, but on average, one of these steps was missed in two thirds of surgery patients.

In the book, Gawande also takes the time to explore how other industries use checklists, for flying planes, building skyscrapers or running investment firms. Altogether, he made a pretty compelling case for the power of checklists.

The 3 steps to implementing a successful checklist

1. Keep the checklists usable. In a high-stakes situation like surgery or flying an airplane, you want to keep your checklists brief and to the point. Only cover the most important tasks. If you miss these tasks, they could cause major or fatal consequences. This also ensures that people will actually _use_ the checklist and follow all the steps.

2. Have the checklists broken down into subsections, to occur before key trigger points. In a surgery, that might be right before you give a patient anaesthesia, or the moment before the first incision. Breaking it down makes it less overwhelming, and a trigger makes it easier to remember when to do a checklist.

3. Test the checklist, and refine it. A checklist is never going to be right on the first go. Through many iterations, you’ll be able to amend the bits that are confusing, or add and remove sections as needed.

How developers can use checklists

The book proves that checklists work in medicine and other industries, but what about for developers? A developer’s checklist could include things like:

* Writing test notes before a task, or talking through your approach with the stakeholder or another developer. This way, you can make sure that all your assumptions are correct.

* Making sure all tests pass before raising a pull request.

* Showing your work to another developer before letting the code hit production, to double-check for bugs.

It might seem silly to have such a checklist, but the idea here is to keep the tasks simple. If you miss them (and let’s face it, sometimes we do) they could have big consequences. Misunderstanding a requirement from a stakeholder could force you to rewrite part of your code. And if you shipped a bug to production you could have some angry customers on your hands.

Conclusion

The Checklist Manifesto was a fun read, with lots of interesting examples of how different industries are using checklists. Among the many productivity books I've read over the years, this one is up there! I can definitely see the value this could add to my own life - I just need to figure out what these checklists could look like.

A book about a summer romance with a movie star, which jumps between that summer and 30 years later when the woman, now a mother, narrates the story to her grown daughters. The romance is a bit more towards nostalgia and melancholy than romcom.

I don't know what it is about the book, like it's just straight fiction but it really gripped me? I think also the jumps between the two time periods lets the mother to reflect on her naivety at the time and also to see the story from her daughters' perspectives.

This novel is in the same universe as Leckie's other books, but I've honestly completely forgotten what they are about and I still enjoyed this one. The cool (or maybe a bit gross? idk) plot point of this book is that there's this alien race where to reach adulthood you have to merge with another so you end up with one consciousness across 2 bodies. Then there's some politicy stuff and some action so overall was a pretty fun read.

3.5 stars

I get that even though he's a prince, it doesn't automatically mean he's gonna have a happy life... but even so reading a book about him complaining about how his life was hard just felt really cringey. There's a lot of little jabs and accusations towards his family as well which is really something you can't walk back after the fact. Kinda sad and makes me wish he could have taken the high road in this situation.

About a white writer stealing a story from Chinese American author and passing it off as her own, while making her penname be racially ambiguous hence the title “yellowface”.

The main character doesn't think of herself as a racist but is very obviously one (a lot of little microaggressions throughout the whole book like being surprised when an Asian character speaks good English). So you start off by obviously hating her, but the way it's done feels quite heavy handed. And as she gets sucked more into her lie towards the end you can't help but feel some sympathy for her but at the same time you don't want her to succeed so it feels pretty conflicting.

The ending also acts more as a set up for a second novel but I can't help but wish it was resolved a bit more satisfyingly.