Task 24: A Self-Improvement Book

[Saskya]

Is Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar fitted for this task ?

[Mj]

Just completed The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown and really enjoyed it. Thought it was well researched, well written and easy to read. Brown makes great use of her own others' research and books, organizes the information well, provides plenty of her own and researched anecdotal examples. It had just the right amount of information and is a book I can see myself rereading frequently.

[Book Riot]

Saskya wrote: "Does Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar is fitted for this task ?"

Sure!

[Betsy]

I just finished "Getting Things Done:the Art of Stress-free Productivity" by David Allen. The book is an easy read, and the plan is simple: capture everything to be done; clarify what each thing is and its steps to completion; organize the thing and its steps; reflect on them; choose what/when to do next. I'll come back with a rating once I've tried doing this for six weeks. I'm an INFP - wish me luck!

[Amy]

Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps was a humorous but also helpful read, especially for 20-somethings trying to figure everything out.

[Kathy]

I read The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine byTerry Wahls, an M.D. who developed three diets (Wahls Diet, Wahls Paleo, and Wahls Paleo Plus) to help those with MS and other autoimmune illnesses.

[Sophia]

I have almost zero interest in books that are intended for self-improvement, so I tried to find one that fit the non-traditional tag for this task. I chose Augusten Burroughs' This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.. It was entertaining and thought provoking without being heavy-handed. His perspective was refreshing and realistic.

[Katie]

The Calorie Myth was a good book, but not really that informative, for someone who has done a lot of reading on this topic.

[Heidi]

Just completed for this challenge. received this ARC from the giveaways. Interesting book. Worth a read.

[Kathleen]

I read Make Your Own Rules Diet by Tara Stiles.

[Beachesnbooks]

Looking for recommendations for this task--I'm not really familiar with the genre. Does anyone have any suggestions for books related to meditation, mindfulness, holistic health, or anything along those lines? Thanks!!!

[Kathleen]

Jaleenajo wrote: "Looking for recommendations for this task--I'm not really familiar with the genre. Does anyone have any suggestions for books related to meditation, mindfulness, holistic health, or anything along ..."

I have enjoyed books by Gabrielle Bernstein. You might want to look at May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness or Miracles Now: 111 Soulful Methods for Releasing Stress, Busting through Blocks, and Achieving Peace.

[Jen]

I read Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski for this task. I didn't read it to get help with anything in my life, but I still found it be incredibly educational.

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Beachesnbooks]

Katie wrote: "Jaleenajo wrote: "Looking for recommendations for this task--I'm not really familiar with the genre. Does anyone have any suggestions for books related to meditation, mindfulness, holistic health, ..."

Thanks Katie! I'll have to check those out.

[Judith]

I did something a bit different with this challenge. I tried reading several self-improvement books and couldn't get interested in any of them. This is what I ended up reading...
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness - Simon Wiesenthal
This book is not strictly a self-improvement book, it is a book about the nature of forgiveness. This book gave me a lot to think about and in a very broad sense I think it did fit this category.
The first half of the book is about an incident that happened to the author when he was an in a German concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asked him for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jewish people. The second part of the book is made up of essays by various people on the question of whether a single person is capable of giving forgiveness to someone for crimes against people who are no longer alive and are not capable of giving or not giving forgiveness themselves. The answers vary greatly. Though I hope never to have to face a question of this magnitude, we all have smaller questions of forgiveness in our lives and this book gives one a lot of food for thought on the matter.

[Denise]

I read "Confident You" by S.J. Scott and Rebecca Livermore. It was an okay book and had some good ideas

[Melanie]

I read A Simple Way to Pray. It is a book about how to improve my prayer life. It was wonderful and simple and easy to understand.

[Wellington]

I read The Positive Dog by Jon Gordon for this challenge. This is a story with a simple, but beautiful message about being positive and how it can change your life. It is told from the perspective of a dog (Matt) who is down on life. Matt is in a shelter where he meets Bubba. He tells Matt that learning to be positive will transform his life. This transformation will happen by Matt learning how to interact with the beings and world around him as well as with himself in a constructive manner. The story doesn't sugar coat things by making it seem like we won't experience hardships in life, but it does provide tools for helping us to more skillful handle anything that comes our way.

[Alicea]

Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter by Louise Pentland. It's really uplifting and beautifully done.

[Courtney]

Would a textbook in my field count?

[Paulette]

A great read - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

[Nancy]

I read The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner. "Blue zones" are scientifically validated areas of the world with a high proportion of people who reach age 100. The author and other researchers visited a number of such sites around the world, spent time with people, and tried to determine what factors, in each location, might have contributed to their healthful longevity. Not surprisingly, diet is a factor, with most of these people eating diets with a lot of produce and little meat; other things included activity (not "running marathons" kind of activity but normal things, like walking, doing household chores, gardening, etc., as opposed to a couch potato lifestyle); having strong family relationships and a network of friends, and practicing some religious belief. There are some lessons almost anyone could apply, although of course there's no guarantee that you could ward off serious diseases or disabilities.

[Jeannette]

I read The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. I liked the principles behind it, but wasn't very into the book itself.

[Rachel]

I picked a book that I think would definitely be considered non-traditional. I actually had it in mind for a different category on another challenge, but had a bit of a mix-up with my library. Basically, I thought they weren't getting it at all (I'd asked them to buy it), but suddenly it showed up!

The book is called Challenged: A Tribute: One Man's True Story of Caring For, Laughing with and Learning from People with Special Needs. I'm considering it self-improvement because it relates to the field that I work in, and because for the author, it is definitely a story about self-improvement.