Reading Fanatic Reviews
Advice and How To NonfictionHypersanity by Neel Burton
Available at Amazon only
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Hypersanity*
Thoughts on Thinking
What an intriguing book! It truly is a book that makes you think about thinking. The earlier sections of the book dissect various aspects of logical and illogical thought. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on fallacies, as these seem to be so rife in today’s political climate. But the author does not only attend to the left brain; the right brain is also given analysis and exploration in sections on intuition, wisdom, emotion, inspiration, and even music. I actually wish more time was spent on the more right-brain parts of thinking that aren’t usually given such prominence or importance. Throughout the book, the author uses examples to illustrate the various points he is making. I have just recently read another book on thinking, and that book seemed to be more about getting you around to the author’s way of thinking. This book is better and completely different, thank goodness! This author presents his ideas and arguments clearly and succinctly and urges the reader, directly and indirectly, to engage and explore the various ways of thinking, taking no sides or positions that are self-serving. I recommend reading this book in small doses, as it can tax our human minds to think about thought, and I also heartily suggest that you continue to think about thinking when engaging with the world around you. You will understand not only your own thinking better but also the thinking of others who matter in your world.
Being Creative by Michael Atavar
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Being Creative*
Spurs to Creativity
In this book, the author has 20 tools that creatives can use to inspire creativity. The author states that this works for all manner of creativity, but I can definitely see that it would be particularly beneficial for writers, as most of the exercises do involve some writing. The book is divided into five sections: beginning, processes, how to keep going, methods, and ending. Each of these sections has four tools, and the tools themselves have a couple of exercises as well as insight by the author. It is definitely a book that gets you thinking about creativity and can certainly free your mind to look at the world in new ways. The explanations that go along with the tools give much food for thought about the world and the creative process. I play music and write as my creative outlets, and while some of the tools were familiar to me, others were not, but I could see their usefulness. I look forward to working with these tools now and in the future.
How to Day Trade Penny Stocks by Bill Sykes & Timothy Gibbs
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
How to Day Trade Penny Stocks for Beginners*
The Skinny on Day Trading Penny Stocks
I have recently read these authors’ day trading book for beginners, and I felt that it lacked in the information needed for the true beginner. I was wondering if it would be the same for this book. I was delighted to discover that this book is chock-full of information and contains enough of it for the serious beginner to contemplate whether or not to actually start day trading penny stocks as well as the best steps about how to do it. The book begins with the basics and gets more complicated as it goes along, but the authors do so in such a way that the beginner isn’t overwhelmed with the technical details. While there are plenty of industry-specific terms in this book, they are introduced gradually and explained well. The authors give all sorts of practical information, like how to ease your way into penny stock trading and how to avoid being scammed. If you’re thinking of trading penny stocks, I highly recommend this book as it will give you solid information and advice.
Narcissistic Mother by Mia Warren
Available at Amazon only
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Narcissistic Mother*
Style Improvements Needed, But Good Info
I recently read this author’s other book on changing your life after narcissistic abuse and was curious to see what her take was on parental narcissism; the other book was more about narcissism within a romantic relationship. The author herself states at the beginning of the book that she herself has a narcissistic mother, and I believe that her background has colored the rest of the book in both positive and negative ways.
The book is structured cleanly, with background definitions and explanations at the start, the effects of narcism, and a section ending on what you can do to heal from parental narcissistic abuse. The author seems to have pulled a lot of her information that isn’t clearly personal from the works of writers in the psychology field. In fact, some lists that I mention later below seem to be directly taken from other authors.
Within the chapters themselves, I think the author should have formatted each section to make it easier to read. Much of the background and explanations are written like a list–like a list of traits of a narcissistic mother or the forms of abuse that the narcissist will use. These are written just as sequential paragraphs that start in a very similar and boring fashion, like “the second sign of _____ is… [new paragraph] The third sign of _____ is…” Some of these lists go on for 10 or more signs, examples, or trades, so this can get tedious. It would have been more readable if the author had listed each sign as a subheading of the section within the chapter.
That said, if you believe you have a narcissistic mother (or father), this book will help you get clarity on precisely what that is, what it has done to you, and what you can do to heal now that you recognize that it is an issue.
How to Hire an Executor by Anthony S. Park
Available at Amazon only
NOT with Kindle Unlimited
How to Hire an Executor*
Good Read for Heirs or while Estate Planning
I have read the author’s previous book on probate and found that to be a well-organized and insightful work on what can be a very tricky subject. I’m happy to say that this book is as well done as that one. It follows a logical flow, first talking about what precisely an executor is and problems that one can have with an estate if an executor is not up for the job. He then goes onto the meat of the book, first describing what a professional executor does and then going into other details like fees, the hiring process, and what to expect. As in the book for probate, the book is very neatly organized into chapters and topics with examples clearly marked with italics and a bulleted takeaway list at the end of each chapter. The author is an attorney, so there is some bias toward hiring a professional, but he does look at the pitfalls of having each type of executor, personal or professional, as well as the processes involved.
For whatever reason, I have been reading and reviewing a lot of nonfiction in the last week. Most of it, unfortunately, has been so poorly formatted that it is actually hard to read. I’ve read books where even the table of contents was a mess, let alone the rest of the book. So it was a pure delight to open the Kindle version of this book and see a perfectly formatted ebook. The table of contents is well organized and concise, and the chapters are well laid out with subtopic headings and the purposeful formatting I mentioned in the previous paragraph. It really does make a difference for a reader enjoyment when a book is formatted well!
In the last chapter of the book, the author does put forth his own services as a professional executor. He clearly states the type of clients that he works for. Normally, I don’t like it when a book like this ends on a big sales pitch, but I feel like the author actually earned a little space to talk about his business because of the quality of information shared in the bulk of the book. This can be easily skipped over if it doesn’t apply to you. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who is in the estate planning process or for heirs trying to sort out an estate; this book will help both parties figure out whether a professional executor is the right choice.
Mindfulness by Olivia Telford
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Mindfulness*
Practical, Helpful Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness definitely seems to be a buzzword these days. This book attempts to define it and help you use it to help your life, both dealing with the negatives and cultivating the positives. The book is relatively simple and straightforward beginning with the definition of mindfulness, some simple exercises, and meditation information and techniques. The first section after that goes into detail about destructive negatives, like stress, anger, and anxiety, that mindfulness could potentially help with. The next section looks at how mindfulness can be used to help build better habits (or beat bad ones), relationships, and perhaps a better life. Both of these practical sections have a little article about the topic and include mindfulness exercises that the author believes will help. One tiny little thing bugged me. The author clearly states at the beginning that mindfulness is not meditation, yet she includes meditation in the subtitle, perhaps making the potential reader think that meditation is the only way that mindfulness can be achieved or that this book is only about mindfulness through meditation. As noted above, meditation does have its own chapter, but the exercises in the rest of the book don’t focus on meditation.
I think this is a solid introduction to mindfulness that contains simple, practical exercises could be helpful if you have issues like I mentioned above.
What Million-Dollar Brands Know by Lisa N. Alexander
Available at Amazon (eBook, paperback), Barnes & Noble (paperback), Thalia (paperback)
Free with Kindle Unlimited
What Million Dollar Businesses Know*
Mostly Meant for Medium- to Large-Size Businesses
Perhaps because I work with so many entrepreneurs in my own entrepreneurial business, I tend to think about creating personal, solopreneur brands. This book does have some information that will help very small or one-person businesses with their branding and marketing, but the bulk of the book is truly about marketing for medium- to large-sized businesses. There definitely are nuggets here for a business of any size, and certainly, small business owners will find ideas that they can use as they scale their business to include more people. I think the author depends too much upon the words of other people, making the book seem like it is not her own insights or conclusions but rather a compilation of others’ business and marketing ideas. At times, this makes the book not as readable as it could be; there are lots of quotes–some of the long–that aren’t really pulled together by a topic sentence or framed for easier digestion. I think ideas could have been summarized better. Some content seems like generic marketing ideas that you could find anywhere. I do like the million-dollar questions at the end of each chapter; they are meant to get you thinking and working with the ideas of the book.
Life Hacking Spiritual Practices by Joe Fontenot
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Life Hacking Spiritual Practices*
Subtitle Better Fit Than Title
I think that the subtitle actually makes a better title than the real title of this book! When an author uses a trendy term like “life hacking,” I feel it more obscures what a book is about than illuminate. Something just rubs me wrong, too, about the idea of “hacking” anything spiritual. But I won’t keep going on about semantics. This book is meant for Christians who feel like the crazy modern world keeps them from truly living their Christian beliefs and hampers their closeness to God. The author has a clear and easy writing style as well as very workable suggestions and tips for how to become more focused on the religious aspect of your life and God. I wish, too, that the author had been more explicit in the blurb that this is a Christian book. The term “spiritual” can be used to define and describe a much broader realm than Christianity, so it is not accurate to use a more general term. Name it and claim it! This way, it makes it clear to people who just look at the blurb, and not the categories, what exactly this book is about. That said, this is a scripturally sound book written in in an engaging way that may help Christians find their way back to God, even with the pressures of modern life, and to help them live their lives in a way that more embodies Christ’s message.
Change Your Life after Narcissistic Abuse by Mia Warren
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Change Your Life after Narcissistic Abuse*
More about Background Info Than Changing Your Life
The title of this book makes you think it is going to be all about how to change your life after you get out of a relationship with someone who is clinically narcissistic. That is not wholly true; only the end portion of the book directly addresses this. (Even that section really isn’t about changing your life; it is more about issues you might have as you move on.) Earlier sections actually have useful information, but they aren’t about what the title says the book is. The book starts off defining clinical narcissism and some of its different types. The author then goes on to say how a person in a relationship with a narcissist can unwittingly feed the other person’s disorder and follows this with information about the typical tricks the narcissist uses to get his or her way. The author has quite a long section about how to not be a victim if you are in a relationship with a narcissist, finally suggesting that the best thing a person can do is leave the narcissist. Then, she guides the reader through the difficulties of trying to get away, including tactics that the narcissist will use to try to get the person back. Finally, the last section addresses what the title says the book is about (mostly). I think this book either needed to be more on point or have a different title.
This book reminded me about another one that was just released not long ago that looked at narcissism, Narcissist by Keith Coleman; the books are actually structured very similarly. This one has more information about what to do when you get out of the toxic relationship. There is one thing that annoyed me in this book; this has happened with several nonfiction books lately. In the middle of the book, there is a request for a review. I don’t mind one of these at the end of the book (and there is one there as well), but it is quite annoying to turn a Kindle page and see this; this even includes a graphic. Very irritating.
Productivity Plan by Robert Green
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Productivity Plan*
Fuzzy Focus, Not Much of a “Plan”
This book is all over the map. I like it when my nonfiction books are precisely about what they say. If you call a book a “plan,” it should have a plan. If a book is about productivity, every chapter should focus on that theme. I found the book did not fulfill either word’s promise. I didn’t see any big overall “plan” mentioned in this book. There are a variety of strategies and tips offered but no comprehensive plan. The book does have some discussion of productivity, including what hampers it, like perfectionism and thinking that working long equals working well. But I didn’t really feel like he got to the heart of the issues about what can make one more productive while still maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual health. The book should have been more tightly focused on productivity itself instead of peripheral subjects, and he needed to delve more deeply into productivity as well. Many sections in the Table of Contents (which is far too long and detailed) are just a paragraph in the book itself; there’s little depth here. The book in places felt like a grab bag of pop-psych ideas about productivity and peripherally related concepts like sleep and meditation. If you are genuinely looking for a productivity plan, you would do better to look elsewhere.
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