The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

Author: Michelle Obama 

Genre: Autobiography, Memoir

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: As always, Michelle has said it all beautifully! As always, this will be my pick-me-up for inspiration, hope and just plain warmth!

I cannot not read this book. It was only a matter of time before I set out to read this. 2023 has already started on a very busy schedule at home and work and I hardly find time to actually sit and read. So I listened to this as an audiobook during my morning workout and commuting to work.

All I can say is Wow! Just like with Becoming, Michelle Obama has written it all with grace and glory. She has always been an inspiration and a role model for me. Throughout the entire book, it made me feel like I was sitting with her and listening to her talk about her life and its episodes. It felt so personal to listen to her stories in her own voice. Many times during the book, I wanted to walk up to her and say - "Oh God, that's exactly how I thought about it too". I also found it so comforting that she is just like the rest of us with our own uncertainties, questions, doubts, fears and anxieties when it comes to parenting. How she dealt with it and waded through being a woman of color and many other biases in her life are life lessons for any of us trying to survive out there. There are some hilarious anecdotes and situations which made me chuckle, especially the one with her mother. By the end of it, I yearned to meet her mother some day as much as I yearn to meet her. 

This book is a collection of stories from Michelle's life put in a very refreshing way, there are strong messages at the end of every chapter. The chapters on partnering well and friendships stood out to me. Reading about her relationship with Barack Obama and their early days together in Hawaii made me go all "awwww", it felt like a warm blanket wrapped around me on a chilly day. The chapter on friendships was equally endearing - The way she thinks about it are exactly my thoughts too when it comes to maintaining relationships and rejuvenating in the company of good friends.

I can keep writing about this one, but I'll stop here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - there is only very little mention about Barack Obama and his work which was very different from Becoming where she talked a lot about it and I think this is precisely what made it very refreshing!

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

- "Great is the enemy of good"

- Read books by people whose perspective is different from yours, listen to voices you haven’t heard before, look for narratives that are new to you. In them and with them, you might end up finding more room for yourself.”

- Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction - toward the small. Celebrate small victories.

It uplifts me, It gives me hope and reminds me how to live a life with its core values and integrity intact. 

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

 Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: Loved the case studies used as examples throughout the book, towards the end there was a lot of organizational use cases which was not too relevant.

Since I loved Atomic habits so much, I picked this up to piggyback on that when my mind was already in that zone and I wanted to make the most of it. I generally like to bunch up reads on the same genre more so on the same topic. The author does a good job of answering key questions on forming habits and pursuing things relentlessly. I loved the concept of keystone habit formations - where one habit has a ripple effect on many other events/things in life. To me, it is personally proven where I have always been an early bird and made it a habit to wake up before sunrise. I strongly believe this has caused a lot of positive effects in many other facets of my life like being productive at work, creativity and so on.

The author has used a lot of case studies to put across his points and perspective - The Picadilly escalator fire incident, Alcoa to name a few. it was very interesting to read about these incidents and draw a few pearls of wisdom about habit formations from these case studies. The fundamental ideas  about what it takes to form habits and methods to employ to hold on to them are the same across both the book.

The first half was very fascinating but the second half of the book got a bit irrelevant and boring where the author pretty much repeated the same points over and over. 

Atomic habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Author: James Clear

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: Very engaging and derives from simple everyday examples, which makes it very convincing to read and follow.

This book was on my list for 2022, but I couldn't get to reading it last year. Many times in the past, I have taken several new year resolutions only to break them a month later, like many of us do. This year, I really wanted to make a change in how I develop habits like working out, eating healthy, not procrastinating so that it becomes second nature and I am glad I chose this book. The author goes into stating almost right away that habits are an identity change. How we think of ourselves is a key change in making habits last and it brought an "Aha!" moment for me. The main idea of the book is that you can start small and build lasting habits. I also realized that many of my good habits are exactly how the author suggests doing them and is something I already do without realizing - like folding the blankets on the couch right away after relaxing in the evening or change your mindset to saying "I get to cook dinner for my family" instead of "I have to cook dinner for my family". I also liked the fact that the book is not philosophical like many other self help books but there are so many common scenarios we encounter everyday in every chapter of the book and how to deal with them. It makes the reader connect so easily and keeps it intriguing. 

My main takeaways from the book:

- Exponential progress is hard to see, initially

- Patience is essential

- Focus on systems more than goals

- Never miss twice

I think this book can be life changing if one is willing to apply these concepts and be patient until the results start showing up. I am glad I read this book and I'm sure I will refer to it when I need a reinforcement. 

The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life

 Author: Robin Sharma

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: Extremely long-winded and stretched to convey a single message. It was a chore to read, I couldn't wait to finish reading the book.

I have read Robin Sharma's "Who will cry when you die?" and loved it, so I picked up this book from him for my next read. Also, I am a morning person and love waking up really early having some time for myself before the daily rut starts. I wake up at 5:30 am even on weekends so I can get some quiet reading time in before the rest of my family is up and about. I love the stillness and peace of the morning before sunrise and watching the first rays streaming in through my window. So, I knew this book would be preaching to the choir but I was very curious to find out the author's perspective on this topic.

There is one simple message and that is what the title states exactly. The author tries to convey this through a 225 page book and it was excruciatingly painful to read through the same repetitive message in different forms and chapters. The storyline is completely irrelevant and made me so frustrated and impatient throughout the book. It took the author 5 chapters to even get to the concept of waking up at 5 am, too long winded and stretched. At some point, I was so tired of waiting for the actual content that I started to skim over chapters to get to the meaningful parts of the book. 

The only reason I have given it a 2/5 is because of the quotes/messages about discipline, will power and habits. All of these could have been easily packed into well within 80-100 pages and it would've made for a very crisp read. Some of the messages I really liked and resonated with me:

* All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.

* World-class willpower isn’t an inborn strength, but a skill developed through relentless practice.

* Personal discipline is a muscle. The more you stretch it, the stronger it grows. Therefore, the samurais of self-regulation actively create conditions of hardship to build their natural power.

* Continue at all costs. Persistency sits at the threshold of mastery.

The 5 AM club preaches jumping out of one's bed at 5 am and splitting the first hour of your day into a 20/20/20 model where you perform sweat inducing physical activity for the first 20 mins followed by 20 mins of reflecting through meditation, praying, journaling followed by 20 mins of growing - reading, studying and the likes. Sure, I'd love to do this if I didn't have to get things ready for my kids for school, pack lunches, prepare breakfast and so on in the early hours of the morning which is the luxury billionaires and CEO's can afford with additional help and sure enough they can follow the 20/20/20 rule to start the day on fire. There is no one size fits all for this model!

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

 Author: Atul Gawande

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Medicine, Productivity

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: I loved the stories and anecdotes on how checklists saved lives! Very interesting read.

I am a list obsessed person. I cannot function without to-do lists. I have daily, weekly, monthly to-do lists of personal stuff as well as work projects, a meal plan list for every week (which I put together on Sunday night), a list of places I want to visit, a list of books I want to read, a list of to-do activities for my children. When I go on vacations or even a day trip to the city, I jot down a list planning what we will see and do down to the hour or minute including where we will eat and at what time - so much so that my family often quips that I take the fun out of a relaxed vacation by planning out everything ahead of time. 

I was very excited to read this book and I am glad I was not disappointed. It felt like Atul was preaching to the choir, I am already sold on checklists - a habit I picked up from my father since my high school days. The theme of the book is very simple - how to reduce risk by creating and following a checklist. It sounds so simple you might think how some people can miss it. But Atul's anecdotes throughout the book prove how error prone humans are and how well-made checklists can empower us and save lives. The general advice on how to keep checklists simple and accurate applies to well beyond doctors, surgeons and pilots. I myself have seen the benefits of checklists at work during crisis situations, when there is a lot of ambiguity to handle with urgency. Atul hits the nail on its head when he says when power/authority needs to be centralized vs distributed. 

As for the writing, for the most part, Atul made it very exciting with his anecdotes from the airline and medical fields - where human lives are at stake. My absolute favorite was chapter 7, I just could not put the book down after that. This is a wonderful read and an inspiration for anyone who is against checklists and to-do lists.

The Psychology of Money

Author:  Morgan Housel

Genre: NonFiction, Economics, SelfHelp

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: The language is simple, but the book fails to spark any excitement or interest.

I like reading non-fiction these days and I am also more willing to keep an open mind on the subjects I'd like to read about. This book was suggested by a dear friend and we agreed that we'd read it together. To begin with, the title is a little misleading - I was expecting and hoping that this will not be one of those innumerable self help finance books that advice on how/where/when to invest money, stocks, funds and so on. From the title, I expected it to be more of a "how does money affect people's behavior and decision making?" and as it states exactly the psychology of money. To be fair it was a mix of both but a lot more of the former and very little, may be one chapter dedicated to the latter that I wanted to understand more about. 

I am glad it was a short book and a fairly quick read mostly because I was determined to finish reading it fully :) At the end of it, I don't think I learnt anything new, it was mostly a bunch of blog-posts kind of topics reiterating  common sense knowledge like savings are supremely important or keep your debt low which are good reminders to yourself at best. I also didn't like the fact that the author tried to over simplify certain things like how Warren Buffet grew his wealth, if only it was that easy! The book definitely started off well and piqued my interest but by the time I got to the mid point, it was just a collection of incoherent random essays without any concrete action items or thoughtful insights that became pretty boring. 

Overall, a very easy and below average read. A few positives about the book - easy to follow, each chapter is a lesson on its own and succinct. There are a few good reminders out there which we most often tend to forget in this peer pressure filled world, they are worth reminding ourselves about how we want to live our lives. I especially liked the chapters on luck and risk and the essence of time! 

Amma: Jayalalithaa's Journey from Movie Star to Political Queen

Author: Vaasanthi

Genre: NonFiction, Politics, Biography 

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: No surprises, offers nothing new for someone already familiar with Tamilnadu politics. A very quick read.  

I've been wanting to read this one for a while now. It is a very swift read and a quick run through of Amma's life from her childhood to her political life. For someone already quite familiar with Indian politics, lived in India and followed the news, this book offers nothing new.  It just felt like a collage of a lot of newspaper articles/wiki pages put together. The author has deliberately and carefully stayed away from writing in detail about the controversial topics that surrounded Jayalalithaa's life and only touched upon those events in each chapter which is quite alright. I enjoyed reading about Amma's childhood and her relationship with her mother. This part of her life was something I hadn't read or known about before so it was quite interesting.  Many of the incidents described in each chapter although known to everyone brought back memories of my childhood when I watched those with keen attention with my family in the news channels and newspapers. 

To me, personally this book gives an insight into how sexist Indian politics was/is and how one woman fought through all the turbulence in an entirely male dominated political world and emerged victorious. I would've liked to see more pictures from Jayalalithaa's childhood and adolescence and I also felt that the author did not do a good job of documenting in detail about all the welfare schemes created by Jayalalithaa which had heaped a lot of praises. The crisp language makes it a good read despite its over simplification of the content presented.