Here is a recap of the fabulous reads:
Hilarious! I only wish I could be that witty. Not sure how it's a show on CBS though since every other word in the book is an curse word.... Good, fast read though - can be read in one sitting.
Very good chick read. Essentially the title means "let's not have sex until I'm a size 6, which likely won't be until I'm lying in my coffin." The whole book those is just a collection of funny short-stories about being a wife and a mother. It was an easy read and enjoyable.
This was probably my favorite read. Autobiographical account of a woman who loses her job and blogs to tell about her struggles to find a job. It's way more than that - she's cynical and sarcastic and not afraid to say what's on her mind. I laughed out loud about every 10 pages in this book. I just picked up "Such a Pretty Fat" by her to start reading next.
This was also a good read. Gretchen took 12 months to dedicate to 12 different resolutions to be happier. She broke each month into a theme, such as focusing on her family, trying to clean up her house, or trying new things. A few friends and I were going to try to replicate this idea a few months ago, but it takes a heck of a lot of will-power to do this. Props to Gretchen! It's a very inspiring read though, and helps to know that no one is perfect - she's a working woman, a wife, and a mother and is honest about not being able to reach her goals daily.
So there's a lot of controversy over this book and whether it's actually real - apparently a lot of the information was embellished, which you can pretty easily tell by reading it. Either way, it was a pretty good read - probably the most intense book I've read in that you can't put the book down because you want to know what happens next. It's all about a man with serious drug and alcohol addictions who goes into rehab and falls in love.
This is a very fast read about using checklists during surgery to prevent adverse events. For anyone in healthcare, it's a good book about quality improvement using a simple technique like a checklist. Lesson learned: If I ever have surgery, I'm making sure they use this method.
This was an okay read. There were some simple tips in there about how to make change and some analogy I forget about an elephant. The one thing I remember was the suggestion to go into any room, set a timer for 5 minutes, and start cleaning. Chances are, even when the timer goes off, you'll want to keep going. Either way, you at least cleaned for 5 minutes.
This book is broken down into over 100 little sections, which makes it an easy read. She documents her travels across Italy, Indonesia, and India in her search to, well - eat, pray, and love! Another inspirational book about letting yourself be free and enjoying the world around you. Also saw the movie on this. Very rare that I read a book before I see the movie!
Now we're getting back to about 9 months ago and it's getting hard to remember these books. I think, though, that I wasn't as impressed by this one. Gladwell is a good, fascinating writer, but for some reason this book wasn't quite as catchy as Outliers. It's worth a shot though.
Last year Brad and I saw John speak on campus and I got his book autographed by him. Brad read it and said it was very funny, so I thought I should probably read it too. Very good account of a man with Asperger's who didn't know it until he was 40. It recalls his shinanigans that he pulled when he was younger and making guitars for a heavy metal band. Apparently John is also the brother of Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors.
Hmm... don't remember much about this book except that I honestly read it all in one sitting while Brad was at work.
Now this was a good book. Tells different stories about successful people or practices and digs into the real truth about why they're successful. For me, the best part was about the airline industry and how they use checklists (see book #7) to prevent errors and to guide pilots in times of distress. You'll learn a lot of cool stuff from this book.
And this concludes my yearly reading journey... so far. I also started several books and stopped because I just wasn't that into them. I think that's a good lesson to learn. I'm looking forward to continuing to read next year without any school books! I went to the library yesterday and found about 20 books I'd like to read! If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
Hey Megan......from doing this last year I have been inspired and I've chosen 12 books that I want to read this year. The first book I am reading is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. So far it is excellent!!
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