Books I will be reading this year 2022. My TBR List!!

 

                                                 

   Hopefully wish to complete my -

To Be Read List 2022. 

What I bought/ received/ downloaded…

Book Review and my thoughts on The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How it's Broken {UPCOMING REVIEW}

 

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear - { BOOK REVIEW }

  

James Clear's Non-fiction book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones has practical views for how to break bad habits and build keep new habits. 

Some take away and definitions from this book: 

* A habit when performed regularly and automatically becomes a routine or behavior in most cases.

* Results that are unimaginable can be attained through accumulating small but consistent habits ultimately. 

If you are willing to stick with small and unimportant changes at first will compound into remarkable results.

*   Quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits.

*   Anything is possible with better habits. You end up with same results when you stick with the same habits.

*   Habits are the compound interest of self improvement. 

*   If you can get just 1 percent better each day, you'll end up with results that are nearly 37 times better after one year. 

*    It is the product of daily habits - not once in a lifetime transformations that makes you successful.

*    What compounds into toxic result is your repeated 1 percent errors, day after day, by replicating little excuses, and our small choices. 

*   What leads to a problem is the accumulation of many missteps - a 1 percent decline here and there eventually.

* The author suggests four laws of behavior change that are a sample set of rules -

How to create a Good Habit

1) Make it obvious

2) Make it attractive

3) Make it easy 

4) Make it satisfying  

How to Break a Bad Habit

1) Make it invisible

2) Make it unattractive

3) Make it difficult

4) Make it unsatisfying

* To create a more disciplined environment, the qualities essentially needed to improve discipline are perseverance, grit and willpower for success.

* Habits are a dopamine - driven feedback loop. Our motivation to act is because the dopamine rises. What gets us to the action is the anticipation of a reward - not the fulfillment of it.

*  As great is the anticipation, so will be the dopamine spike.

* Because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe we tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved by our culture. 

*  We tend to imitate the habits of these social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).

* Habits and identity shapes each other, it's a two way street.

* A habit is behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.

How to create a Good Habit 

The 1st law: Make it obvious

1) To be aware of your current habits - write it down.

2)  Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.

The 2nd law: Make it attractive

1) Pair it - An action you want to do with an action you need to do.

2) Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.

3)Create a motivational ritual. Enjoy doing something immediately before a difficult habit.

The 3rd law: Make it Easy

1) Reduce Friction: The number of steps between you and your habits must be reduced.

2)  Prime the Environment: To make future actions easier your environment must be prepared.

3) Use the two minute rule: Your habits must be down scaled until they can be done in two minutes or less.

Automate your habits:- Invest and purchase in technology onetime that lock in future behavior.

The 4th law: Make it satisfying

How to break a bad habit.

Inversion of the 1'st law - Make it invisible

1) Reduce exposure:- Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.

Inversion of the 2nd Law:- Make it unattractive

2) Reframe your mindset:- Highlight it - benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

Inversion of 3rd Law

3) Increase friction:- Increase it - the number of steps between you and your bad habits.

This is a wonderful book, eye opener providing insights on our daily habits that are routine, changes that we can bring to our habits that are bad. Recommended!

Author - James Clear

Pages - 320

Language - English

Publisher - Random House Business Books

Publication Date - 18th October 2018

Disclosure of Material : I have received a review copy of this book by the publisher  in the form of e-book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

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Book Review and my thoughts on Just Mercy - A story of Justice and Redemption By Bryan Stevenson { UPCOMING REVIEW}

REVIEW COMING SOON ON THIS PAGE!!!
 

ELEANOR OLIPHANT is Completely Fine by Gail HoneyMan - BOOK REVIEW

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the first novel written by the British author Gail HoneyMan. Eleanor Oliphant’s story is about how she managed her life alone with great pride. She is thirty years old, and have been working in an office since she was twenty one years in a graphic design company in Glasgow from when she left university. She worked as a finance clerk where she found graphic design was no interest to her. She speaks on the phone to mummy once a week and drinks two liters of vodka, eats frozen pizza every weekend. Her mother thinks Eleanor Oliphant shared a strong bond with mummy. Whatsoever, she was raised by foster carers in her childhood. Even when she is hurting, tearful and lonely, Eleanor Oliphant is fine. 

I loved the way Eleanor had an opinion about everything that was happening around her life including the people associated to her. In the first few chapters, she meets Raymond Gibbons an IT consultant when her computer stopped working and she wanted to get it repaired. She gets to go out for parties and lunches invited by Raymond Gibbons where she forgets about her crush - the Musician she adored dearly. Eleanor thought Raymond walked unattractively and was a chain smoker.

Quote from the book - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: "I feel sorry for beautiful people. Beauty, from the moment you possess it, it is already slipping away, ephemeral. That must be difficult. Always having to prove that there is more to you, wanting people to see beneath the surface, to be loved for yourself, and not your stunning body, sparkling eyers or thick, lustrous hair."

"The most professions, getting older means getting better at your job, earning respect because of your seniority and experience. If your job depends on your looks, the opposite is true-how depressing. Suffering other people's unkindness must be difficult too; all those bitter, less attractive people, jealous and resentful of your beauty. That's incredibly unfair of them. After all, beautiful people didn't ask to be born that way. It's as unfair to dislike someone because they're attractive as it is to dislike someone because of deformity."

“These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon them.”

Eleanor had a crush, like how a teenager would feel, on a musician named Johnnie Lomond who she followed in Tweets and Instagram who was very handsome and talented also whom she wished to meet someday. 

I would recommend this heart warming, witty and lovely read that won the costa first novel award. Recommended! For the British book awards for 2018, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine won the "Début Book of the Year" and "Overall Winner" awards.

Disclosure of Material:  I have received a review copy of this book by the publisher  in the form of e-book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

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The Judge's List by John Grisham - REVIEWED

Another brilliant legal thriller book I read by the best selling author John Grisham is the Judge's List in 2022 January. The story begins when Lacy Stoltz meets a woman named Jeri whose father was murdered in 1992 and she claimed had learned the identity of the killer. Lacy is the interim director of the board on Judicial conduct and it is her duty to investigate complaints of misconduct filed against state court judges. Jeri filed a formal complaint and Lacy were required by state law to get involved. The killing took place twenty years ago in Lacy' s Jurisdiction.

It is very clear to know when you read the initial chapters how a corrupt judge in the higher judiciary can destroy many lives. The characters in this book run a marathon to chase down the killer to the justice system.

In the legal thriller, John Grisham's, Judge's list, the suspect is a sitting judge in Florida - Mr, Ross Bannick suspected of eight murders since 1991 all within driving distance from Pensacola. Each crime scene was in different state. Ross Bannick knew about killing more than anyone did. Strangulation was the method used by the killer, same type of rope, same method, but for the last one no rope was used. Just a few blows to the head. The killer's motive is driven by a sick need for revenge. An antisocial and educated killer who knows technology know-hows, forensic, police procedures and the law, where he left no evidence for the first six crimes he committed. Lacy eventually contacted the FBI and welcomed its Behavioral Analysis unit, the elite team that goes after serial killers.

Having to know the killer already in this legal thriller, leaving no evidence. All Lacy could gather is motive and method. what happens to Mr Ross Bannick at the end? To get to the end which kept me up all night.

 

Disclosure of material: I have received a review copy of this book by the publisher  in the form of e-book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

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