Category Archives: Book Review

Cracking the Confidence Code

Confidence, female style

Confidence, female style

For two years I’ve had in my arsenal of books “The Confidence Code.” It was given to me by a friend on impulse – because he was supposed to give it to someone else – and I took it with loving gratitude.

I then buried it in my personal library, there where I could see it but dismiss it. I have given up on self-help books at that time. I thought them boring, limited, would confuse my understanding of the world. There is no one size fits all. And if I would still have to separate the chafe from the grain – it is useless to me. I simply had no time for chaf-ing and grain-ing.

But then I was confronted with a crisis – a confidence crisis – not mine but of someone very close to me. So I had the urge to know more about it, know more about the science, and to see if the book could give me an idea of how I was able to build up my own, so I could share my story, so I could ease her pain. This fall into the abyss of self-doubt – it happens to all.

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On Steve Jobs and his books

A view from the Self-Realization Fellowship at Encinitas, California

A view from the Self-Realization Fellowship at Encinitas, California

Despite my recent views on money, it is still necessary. One needs to work within the parameters of this world as it currently is, and that is still the currency (literally), the vehicle to get around.

So we still have to look at the pros (and I mean the professionals, those who made it) and their best practices.

There’s Warren Buffett, the superstar of personal finance.  We don’t know how he managed to thrive and survive the many financial meltdowns suffered by his generation (a clarification: it is ours too). His life is a testament to the reliability of having a process (look at the financial statements line by line, even the explanatory notes), following the process meticulously (buy, hold-for-a-long-time, sell), and then living simply. This guru/genius/chief, if it is to be believed, still lives in the house he bought in 1958. Isn’t that a wonder!

One other is Apple’s former CEO, the late Steve Jobs (1955-2011).

More than his acerbic nature (if it is to be believed) and his quotable quotes (stay hungry, stay foolish), very intriguing were the books that he read.

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A genre-busting book

book cover infographic“Wonderfully imaginative! “

The old stories of man’s rebellion against God to find himself are given a new twist in this novel which combines Greek mythology with the Book of Genesis set against a backdrop of modern technology.  Forces are at work to awaken the divine spark inside a seemingly ordinary girl:  goddess-incarnate-as-woman yet pawn of greater powers, Maia must tread carefully lest her search lead her to open doors that were not meant to be reopened.  Here is Eve again tempted to repeat the act which caused that terrible tragedy:  the Great Fall from Grace … or is it the path to redemption?

I am reminded of Tolkien’s Hiding of Valinor, of C.S. Lewis’ “Perelandra” and of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’ Labyrinth.”  The book made me aware quite forcefully that another world does exist beside our own and only with eyes unveiled can we hope to get a glimpse of it.  But as there are those who would once more rip down the veil itself to reveal what lies hidden, the heart is suddenly gripped with foreboding lest the time be not yet ripe for such a revelation.  Are we ready to reclaim what we once rejected?  The story of the Seven Sisters is our story, too.  I can’t wait for the second book!” – Myra B.

Brimming with mystery and calling for adventure, P. Milisande’s first book ‘As Above So Below: Veil Over Atlantis’  will enthrall readers.

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Inner abilities

Dwelling Place

Dwelling Place

I just finished a book recommended by one of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits.

The title was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

I did not know that lemon cake could be sad, and the child in the book did not, too. At the back of my mind was the other book/movie Like Water for Chocolate but I suspended the animation, not wanting to color this latest book with my own perceptions (or that other book’s perceptions). Which were pushed back to the forgotten anyway (which reminds me, I have to get to that book again).

Of late, I have been reading several books where people have super powers. Except they are real and not in the realm of the imagined.

Okay. I may be naive but that was my takeaway: these people are real and they had problems. No, not problems, but abilities which are so far off center that it becomes a disability.

Like people who can taste emotion in food, which mostly, interestingly, is one of pain.

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Why I keep reading Game of Thrones

Direwolf, Bran's

Spoiler alert.

I would have stopped when Robb and Catelyn Stark died at the hands of the Freys – if I could. That scene affected me much. I remember putting down the 3rd book of A Song of Ice and Fire, Storm of Swords that day, feeling terribly wronged. I have come to love the Starks – who hasn’t? – and followed the lives and the trials of these honourable, flawed, and wonderful men and women (and children!) who bravely played the hand that fate dealt them, making the right – but would turn out were wrong – choices here, and then there.

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For the Book Lover In You

Keep the Mind...

Keep the Mind...

You love books.  And isn’t it just perfect that they are readily available anywhere now more than ever?

I myself was a voracious reader when I was a kid.  Moving from mom’s Mills & Boon to the thicker, more seductive books, all hand-me-downs from I don’t know where (or did mom buy…?).  I was hooked. But there was not enough books.  And buying more, well, was certainly not in the stars for the young me.  There were other priorities.  So I did not have a book budget then, like I try to have now, but I think it was okay because I would have been lost with so much to select from (i still find myself lost now – sometimes, books/authors do not meet expectations)

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The Book Hubby Could Not Put Down

Are you -Able?

Are you - Able?

Hubby likes men’s magazines and comic books and art books and Sun Tzu.  And that is perhaps the entire repertoire of stuff that he reads.

So it was a surprise to me when he picked up my book -Able, one of the books sent to me for review (one of the more wonderful perks of being a blogger) and surprise, surprise – hubby could not put it down.

What’s to love: the lessons are bite-size, easy to remember, relevant, easy to apply.

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