furyofvissarion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furyofvissarion) wrote2015-05-25 07:09 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2015-05-25 07:09 pm
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I'm almost up to blogging books from 2015!!
Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World - Mark Williams and Danny Penman. I've tried meditation before & found it not v. useful or easy to get into. I'm not saying this book changed that magically, because it didn't, or at least not all on its own (& I'm definitely not saying that I no longer find meditation challenging, because I definitely do). But it felt accessible, & clear, & helpful in a lot of ways. I also liked that it had a specific eight-week plan to go through. It's the kind of book I need to review periodically to remind myself of what I found helpful about it. Anyway, I'd recommend it for meditation skeptics (particularly those who, like me, are uncomfortable w/more spiritually-oriented meditations). You can listen to the meditations from the books here.
Fluency Made Achievable and The Vocab Cookbook - Kerstin Hammes. These are short, upbeat, practical guides to learning a language, particularly useful for those who don't want to just sit in a class for a couple of hours a week & let that be it. A wide range of tips means that most readers will find things they want to try & that feel workable for them. Mind you, I have lots of things from these books that I thought, oh yes, I should do that, & I still haven't... but that's on me, not the books!
New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire - Midori Snyder. Comfort rereads! I have such a soft spot for this trilogy -- though elemental magic is not a unique concept, I think these were the first books in which I encountered it. These books also talk about colonialism, friendship between girls (& the rocky road it can take to get there, especially given expectations of girl hate), love for cities (& the land!), the philosophy of martial arts, &... probably a billion other small things that make these like catnip for me. They're not perfect, but I love them a lot.
Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban - J. K. Rowling. Not much to say, again, just plowing through to keep my French up!
Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World - Noreena Hertz. Well-meant & necessary, but a lot of the advice seems really obvious (consider the source of a study & who funded it, etc.) -- I guess this isn't obvious to a lot of people, but it did mean I felt like I wasn't necessarily the audience for this book. Well, that & the constant references indicating she was addressing people in management: think about how you can farm out some of your tasks to subordinates so you can focus better, consider how you can implement thing x in your business, etc.
There was that old chestnut about how social media means that we're more likely to surround ourselves w/people & news that we agree w/, & block out other viewpoints, & we should make sure to interact w/people & ideas we don't agree w/. Which makes sense in many, many cases, but what it made me think of is: when POCs (f'rex, or people in other oppressed categories too) curate the online stuff around them to ensure they shut out lots of people/viewpoints they disagree w/, that's self-care! We can't block out the majority hateful status quo opinions even if we wanted to: we can curate our Twitter feeds or FB all we like, but those opinions are going to sneak in anyway, that's how hegemony works. We'll see an offensive headline on a paper someone's reading on the train, or a coworker will spout some nonsense. This onslaught of oppressive poisonous stuff is something it's quite natural & helpful to build some space away from. & I feel like denying that is a huge sign of privilege.
Fluency Made Achievable and The Vocab Cookbook - Kerstin Hammes. These are short, upbeat, practical guides to learning a language, particularly useful for those who don't want to just sit in a class for a couple of hours a week & let that be it. A wide range of tips means that most readers will find things they want to try & that feel workable for them. Mind you, I have lots of things from these books that I thought, oh yes, I should do that, & I still haven't... but that's on me, not the books!
New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire - Midori Snyder. Comfort rereads! I have such a soft spot for this trilogy -- though elemental magic is not a unique concept, I think these were the first books in which I encountered it. These books also talk about colonialism, friendship between girls (& the rocky road it can take to get there, especially given expectations of girl hate), love for cities (& the land!), the philosophy of martial arts, &... probably a billion other small things that make these like catnip for me. They're not perfect, but I love them a lot.
Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban - J. K. Rowling. Not much to say, again, just plowing through to keep my French up!
Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World - Noreena Hertz. Well-meant & necessary, but a lot of the advice seems really obvious (consider the source of a study & who funded it, etc.) -- I guess this isn't obvious to a lot of people, but it did mean I felt like I wasn't necessarily the audience for this book. Well, that & the constant references indicating she was addressing people in management: think about how you can farm out some of your tasks to subordinates so you can focus better, consider how you can implement thing x in your business, etc.
There was that old chestnut about how social media means that we're more likely to surround ourselves w/people & news that we agree w/, & block out other viewpoints, & we should make sure to interact w/people & ideas we don't agree w/. Which makes sense in many, many cases, but what it made me think of is: when POCs (f'rex, or people in other oppressed categories too) curate the online stuff around them to ensure they shut out lots of people/viewpoints they disagree w/, that's self-care! We can't block out the majority hateful status quo opinions even if we wanted to: we can curate our Twitter feeds or FB all we like, but those opinions are going to sneak in anyway, that's how hegemony works. We'll see an offensive headline on a paper someone's reading on the train, or a coworker will spout some nonsense. This onslaught of oppressive poisonous stuff is something it's quite natural & helpful to build some space away from. & I feel like denying that is a huge sign of privilege.