The 1% Solution for Work and Life

How to Make Your Next 30 Days The Best Ever
Author: Tom Connellan
Author's web: click here
Subject: nonfiction
My rating: 4+



About the book:
It's that time of the year...people make resolutions, plan for the best year ever to lose the weight, earn the million and put that ring on the finger (or take it off). And just as this book reminds us, about 88% of those people fail to attain their goals, and by the end of the first week of January, only 75% of the resolution makers have stuck to their promises! Talking about motivation...How about aiming to be 1% better every day? This book gives some interesting numbers and puts it all in a different perspective. It's written in form of a story (that I found corny at times), but it's easy to read and to remember, so content wins. Even if you don't like self-help books, read this book, it has amazing facts about those on top so many of us envy. It might be easier to stick to small changes than failing resolutions!

From the book:
You can't be 100 percent better that everyone else, but you can be 1 percent better at hundreds of things.

Everyone who spends time in deliberate practice improves their performance.

There are no shortcuts to excellence. (sorry!)

The Runner's Rule Book

Everything a Runner Needs to Know- And Then Some
Author: Mark Remy and the Editors of Runner's World
Subject: nonfiction, sport
My rating: 5*



About the book:
Yes, I loved this little red book! I would also call this book a short, concise 'rule' book from the pros, to the rest of us, runners or runners wannabes. I truly enjoyed and laughed out loud at the musings of Mark and his colleagues, and man, I really needed to get some directions on how to perform a 'farmer's blow'!! (although I can't promise I will try it!). This book is really not only for runners- it is also for those who sneak into races without knowing what they're in for, as well as for those staying on a park bench watching the runners. It is a hilarious book, and it is so useful- it touches on everything related to running, the running shoes. the toilets you should use on a race day and other rules of thumb. Read this book, if you're a runner or not. Some rules are good to follow anyway (such as spitting on opponents or farting in a group)!


From the book:

'If you never have a 'bad' day, you're probably doing something wrong; if you never have a 'good' day, you're definitely doing something wrong'.

'The best time of the day to run is the time you're most likely to actually do it'.

'Rule 2.34: Please, No push-ups on the finish line. '

'Rule 2.32: Do whatever it takes to finish ahead of a costumed runner. Because being outkicked by Elmo is too much to bear'.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Subject: non-fiction
Book website: click here
My rating: 3*

About the Book:
This is a story written by the whole family, after moving from Arizona to a lush farm. The family decided to start a project, by living and eating off the land for a year. Each member of the family has an area they write about- the daughter about recipes, the dad about ethical and political information related to food etc. The idea of the project sounds interesting and the book actually presents quite clearly where food comes from (rather than the grocery store) and the impact we each have on the environment. Another interesting fact is how we managed to make whole species of plants disappear, by cross breeding and genetic engineering. I wasn't very fond of the writing style, preachy at times. Although the book has interesting passages, I found that was far too little to keep me engaged in reading it.

From the book:
'According to Indian crop ecologist Vandana Shiva, humans have eaten some 80,000 plant species in our history. After recent precipitous changes, three-quarters of all human food comes from just eight species, with the field quickly narrowing down to genetically modified corn, soy and canola.'
'Six companies [...] now control 98 per cent of the world's seed sales. These companies invest heavily in research whose purpose is to increase food production capacity only in ways that can be controlled strictly. The most common genetic modifications now contained in most U.S. corn, soy, cotton, and canola do one of two things: 1.put a bacterial gene into the plant that kills caterpillars, or 2.alter the crop's physiology so it withstands the herbicide Roundup, so that chemicals can be sprayed over the crop. (The crop stays alive, the weeds die). If you guessed [that one of these companies] controls sales of both the resistant seed and the Roundup, give yourself a star'.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures
Author: Anne Fadiman
Subject: Nonfiction, medicine, Laos
Keywords: Hmong culture, epilepsy
My rating: 4*
Awards: Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction


About the book:
The book explores the Hmong population in Merced County, California. Following the case of Lia (a Hmong child with a progressive and unpredictable form of epilepsy), Fadiman maps out the controversies raised by the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of Hmong immigrants. Unable to enter the Laotian forest to find herbs for Lia that will "fix her spirit," her family becomes resigned to the American emergency system, which has little understanding of Hmong animist traditions. The author reveals the rigidity and weaknesses of these two ethnographically separated cultures.

From the book:
'For the residents and pediatricians who had cared for her [Lia] since she was three months old, there was no guide to Lia's world except her chart. As each of them struggled to make sense of a set of problems that were not expressible in the language they knew, the chart simply grew longer and longer, until it contained more than 400,000 words. Every one of those words reflected its author's intelligence, training and good intentions, but not a single one dealt with the Lee's [family's] perception of their daughter's illness.'

'Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person the disease has.' William Osler

' Our view of reality is only a view, not reality itself.'

The Call

Discovering Why You are Here
Author: Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Author's website: click here
Subject: non fiction, spiritual
My rating: 4*

About the book:
The author, a workshop and retreat leader, follows up her two earlier bestsellers (The Invitation and The Dance) with the spiritual search that is at the center of all our lives. On a 40-day vision quest that ended abruptly when she became ill, Mountain Dreamer heeded an inner voice that instructed her to go home; once there, she continued her contemplative retreat, and through meditative practices (which she shares here), she comes to acknowledge the difficulty she has with overcoming ego demands, such as her strong drive to achieve. I enjoyed The Call more than The Invitation; I would recommend it to readers interested in spiritual writing and inspirational books.

From the book:
'If you suffer at all for the world or yourself, if you spend one moment resenting, resisting, trying to hang onto, or deeply desiring to change what is within yourself or in the world right now, you are fighting with reality. And fighting reality- even or perhaps especially the reality of who and what you are- is a losing battle'.
'We will never be deeply happy or truly able to live and love fully until we find our way of living from an awareness of the deep stillness at the center of what we are. It is not so much that what we are at the deepest level wants to wake up, to be aware, to love, to create peace and truth and beauty, but that our essential nature is wakefulness, awareness, love, peace, truth and beauty. To hear the call we only need to listen.'