Books

Book 468: The Voice of Knowledge (Toltec Wisdom Collection #3)- Miguel Ruiz

YAY I’m done! I don’t have to read this dribble ever again. That is of course assuming I don’t go through a life changing experience like Ruiz. If you haven’t been following along, you might wonder about the sass in that previous sentence.

I have not become a fan of Ruiz or his philosophies having finished the first three books of his Toltec Wisdom Collection. I am glad I read them because it showed a different point of view, but I was struggling to figure out why I was so offended by them and this one finally made it click. I’ll talk more about that momentarily, but for let’s take a moment to breathe deep and appreciate I don’t need to re-read these again. Ever.

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Books, Personal Project, Professional Development

Book 467: The Mastery of Love (Toltec Wisdom Collection #2)- Miguel Ruiz

I’m not sure I will make it through the third book in the collection. I probably will because I already have it, but I can guarantee I won’t look into the fourth book, The Fifth Agreement or any of the other works by Ruiz.

As I mentioned when I responded to The Four Agreements, this isn’t really my cup of tea and I think The Mastery of Love made that even more apparent the further I got through the book. I found myself getting more agitated the more I read, thankfully it came it at just under 200 pages.

I’m not sure if it’s the deepening spirituality of the books or what, because Ruiz is very careful not to use only Judeo-Christian references, even if he chooses predominantly Western religious references including the Ancient Greeks.

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Books, Personal Project, Professional Development

Book 466: The Four Agreements (Toltec Wisdom Collection #1) – Miguel Ruiz

This book came to me from the Human Resources person at my previous job. I had gone to her to ask advice on how to communicate with another member of our team and she had a lot of great advice, but she recommended this book.

It came up again when I was talking to our Human Resources person at my new job. We were discussing great resources and I mentioned my old HR person loved this book and I realized I had never actually gotten around to reading it.

Once I finished reading it, I spoke with her again and told her some of the drawbacks and she mentioned some others that might be more in line with my life philosophy and pretty much lack of spirituality. That being said this book still had some great points that I appreciated and think anyone can put into practice in their own life.

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Books

Book 463: Drawn Together – Leah Pearlman

I don’t want to generalize these books, but I know that’s what my response is going to sound like. Perhaps I’ve read too many similar to this recently, but  I’m going to start with a list of all the things this book reminded me of, but then also talk about why I felt it was different.

Prior to the publisher reaching out to me about this book* I actually hadn’t encountered Dharma Comics before, but this line drawing style isn’t anything new. It reminded me of a cross between xkcd and hyperbole and a half but with more of an intention and focus on getting through life and not just observations. And then add in that it reminded me also of books I’ve read recently such as Whose Mind is it Anyway? and How To Be Happy (Or At Least Less Sad), I’m a little surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did.

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Books

Book 461: A Pirate Looks at Fifty – Jimmy Buffett

The first and only book I didn’t finish in time for this year’s autobiography book group. I did finish it, but only about a week late. I wasn’t the one that picked it, and honestly was probably the one who enjoyed this most out of the group.

I grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett thanks to an aunt who has been to many of his concerts. I’m not going to lie though, when I re-listened to Songs You Know by Heart right after finishing the book I did have to question why I was given that album, but couldn’t have Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill until another aunt bought me a copy and said don’t tell your mother. Some of the lyrics are down right questionable! Without reading the book I never would’ve connected Cheeseburgers in Paradise with Buffett’s party days and he ACTUALLY talks about staying skinny doing speed. If you’ve never listened, I’ve dropped the video in at the end of this post.

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