Today I’m sharing The Villains who Snapped My Spine. Thank you @booktrib for my gifted copy! Available now!
Synopsis:
In June 2021, a typical 30-year-old self-proclaimed car and coffee enthusiast’s life was suddenly derailed.
The humor-laced and nostalgia-infused debut memoir follows A. H. Nazzareno in his attempt to make sense of a rare diagnosis. Written in a hospital bed and in the immediate weeks following major surgery, courtesy of Dr. Summeroff, an uncertain yet hopeful future emerges from a villain-riddled past.
Short essays are one of my favorite genres to pick up when I just need a little something in between books. I like them because if I don’t continue to read after the first essay or two, no big deal – I can pick it back up at another time.
Jenny Lawson’s Broken: In the Best Possible Way, was exactly the book I needed this summer. Full of short memoir-style essays that gave me all the feels. There were many that made me laugh: full, loud, belly laughs. Some that I had to stop, go back to the beginning and read aloud to The Boyfriend. And many that made me reflect on my own wellbeing, my own mental health, or my my own life.
Lawson mixed the essays perfectly, with the deeper, more cathartic stories nearly intertwining with the humor; and even some humor sneaking into some of the harder to read essays.
I had never heard of Jenny Lawson before this book – but it sounded good and I loved the cover. I enjoyed this one so much that I have added more of her books to my TBR and Amazon wishlist.
I always enjoy reading nonfiction book about being more creative (or doing business differently, or even thinking about marketing and advertising in a different way). So when I spotted Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, I knew I had to read it.
It’s been a long few years and there are many days – weeks! – where I feel like my creative juices are tapped. Sometimes flipping through Reels helps, sometimes juts seeing what other people in other genres are doing helps.
Author Austin Kleon gives a lot of great ideas to help creators stay creative. Some I’ve used (like tidying up) and some I definitely need to try.
I really loved Kleon’s suggestion to “forget the noun, do the verb,” especially when it comes to my career. I’m not a communicator without communicating, or an outreach specialist without reaching out to my constituents.
If you are at all creative (if you’re reading this, you’re creative!) you need to read this book!
I enjoyed reading Slay Like a Mother, and I learned a lot about. Myself while reading this book. The overall takeaway from this book is to stop talking badly to yourself and to turn your inner monologue from a negative Nelly to a more positive and empowering voice.
What I learned about myself is I don’t have a negative internal voice. That said, I still absolutely enjoyed reading and learning from this book. There were a lot of great takeaways, and easy, actionable items that you can use right away.
I also appreciated that the author, Katherine Wintsch, writes from her own experiences, making this feel more personal and less clinical.
After reading Who Moved My Cheese? earlier this year, I was really excited to read I Moved Your Cheese – which isn’t exactly a sequel, but definitely reads as a rebuttal to the premise of Who Moved My Cheese.
If you haven’t read the original Cheese story, the premise is that change happens, and readers are asked whether they are early adapters of change, those who wait until they have to change with the times, or those who struggle until they are forced to change.
To me, I Moved Your Cheese felt like it was somewhere between digging its heels in against change, or asking readers to be the harbinger of change, not the one adapting to change.
Rather than mice in a maze, in I Moved Your Cheese, the mice learn how to escape the maze, making their own destiny. I felt like this was an allegory for “thinking outside the box.” Rather than endlessly searching the maze, the mice make make their own path by leaving the maze.
However, the story of the mouse Big, whose focus is on fitness rather than finding the cheese, or even finding a way out of the maze, really made me think of the people in my life that have their heels dug in against change. Big was going to do what he wanted to do, not matter what. He wasn’t “thinking outside the maze” nor was he adapting to changes within the maze.
This was definitely an interesting read, and I’m glad I read this after Who Moved My Cheese?
Leann Reads Books 