Review: Love Beyond Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head to Your Heart

Love Beyond Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head to Your Heart by John Ortberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I love this book more the second time around than even the first. I am the first to admit, it is difficult to understand God's love. It's not like He is there in the flesh bending over to hug you when you are in tears. But somehow he loves each person just the same more than we can imagine. John Ortberg's book spells out, as well as it seems you can, God's love to someone. The hard part is accepting his love, because I know I am not worthy of it, yet I must receive it to become His. It's also a good reminder that we are all 'ragdolls' with our own problems, struggles and blemishes and we are here to show God's love to everyone—not just those easy to love.



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Review: The Last Page

The Last Page by Lacy Camey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This is a cute story, but it just wasn't all that well written. I would have definitely given it a 3 or 4 star if there had been a little more editing to it. There are a lot of places where text should have been cut because the main character was just saying the obvious over and over again. Even so, it was a free book and quick read.

Spoilers:

The plot is cute—A girl has been broken up with by her boyfriend because he is marrying a girl he got pregnant while cheating on her, so she goes to therapy. She meets a guy near her family's summer home, where she, her sister and her best friend are staying. She is supposed to be churning out a fashion line, but can't because she is depressed and later because she sprains her wrist. Somehow, however, she's able to make a line for dogs, which goes over splendidly in the rich neighborhood she is living in. The guy she meets ends up being her therapist's grandson and, after a bit of a mix up in which her ex comes back to her, she and the guy end up together and her doggy couture line goes national.



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Review: You Unstuck: Mastering the New Rules of Risk-Taking at Work and in Life

You Unstuck: Mastering the New Rules of Risk-Taking at Work and in Life by Libby Gill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book had a lot of good ideas to get yourself "Unstuck" in a variety of areas including money, relationships and careers. The main idea of the book is that people get stuck through fear and that to get past that fear you must make small accomplishments toward your goal, therefore gaining confidence in that area and making the big goal easier and more attainable. I definitely gained some easy actions to take when something feels overwhelming to me. If you feel stuck or would like to improve in facing your fears, I would recommend this book.



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Review: The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice by Todd Henry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Many people believe that you're either creative or you're not, but Todd Henry's "The Accidental Creative" will challenge those beliefs.

In this book, not only does Henry argue that one can become more creative, he also says that building more structure in one's life will bring more creativity to those who are already creative.

Those of us who are creative would rather not hear those things as we usually identify ourselves as creative, as in it's a thing you are or aren't (although we really know that everyone can be creative). Also, hose of us who have creative-type jobs enjoy being messy and waiting for the ideas to just come to us.

However, I have to admit that Henry's ideas of adding more structure probably does allow you to come up with more ideas. After all, we all know our best ideas come when we are working on something else, so wouldn't it make sense that we'd need to schedule some of that time to "something else?"

Many of the concepts he uses is similar to the concepts in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, such as having reviews, carrying a notebook for ideas, but he goes further in that he suggests we eliminate or "prune" some of our projects and activities so that we can focus on others.

I like the idea he has of setting up your year by quarters and deciding which projects should be focused on during each, even planning your reading activities by what you are focusing on to ensure the greatest ideas.

For someone who has a lot of ideas, this narrowing down ideas can prove a wonderful way to finally finish some projects and move on to others. I've noticed this in writing a children's book with friends. The further along we go, the more book ideas we have, but if we stopped and started on the other ideas right away we wouldn't be nearing the end of the process. Instead we each write down and tell each other the basic premise and then when we are done with this first book we will decide on our next two to three we would like to focus on in the next year and decide on one to actually write and illustrate next.

Some of the things I'd like to incorporate are meeting more often with creative friends to purposely discuss creative ideas, setting aside an hour a week to devote to new ideas and weeding out some of the ideas I don't yet have time to focus on. I'd also like to do some more long-term planning for my life, so I can determine which projects are most important.

If you're struggling to maintain the creative ideas you need to manifest in your career or daily life, then this book will inspire you to come up with the structure to ensure the ideas continue throughout your life.



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Review: The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant

The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant by Robert Sullivan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



"Music is the sound of the circulation in nature's veins." —Thoreau in Walden

Few associate Henry David Thoreau as a lover of music and dancing, but if you read "The Thoreau You Don't Know," you'll learn a lot about the man who wrote "Walden" that you don't yet know about him. Rather than the recluse that some are often want to painting him as, Robert Sullivan sets out an argument for Thoreau as someone who knew his neighbors and often had visitors even while at Walden Pond.

I learned so much about Thoreau and those he was friends with at the time, including Emerson and Walt Whitman. It's hard to imagine what his life was like, though he writes about it often, since Thoreau had many odd jobs, many well-known author friends and seemed to have tons of free time in between to write, walk and be to himself.

I can definitely relate to Thoreau as a person who not only enjoys being around others, but also likes being alone and observing life. A minimalist at heart, I find his time at Walden very romantic and exciting.

The depth of the insight in this book should not be missed by anyone who wants to learn more about Thoreau, or even the time period and area he lived in.



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Review: Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love

Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



An extension of Dan Miller's "No More Mondays," Barbara Winter's "Making a Living Without a Job" extends this knowledge to go beyond the basics to show you examples of what a life without a full-time job might actually be like. Not only has she created several different money-making endeavors throughout her career, but she trains many others to do the same.

My favorite portion of the book is where she talks about creating multiple streams of income. She has you picturing a juggler, who begins spinning one plate and once that plate is going, to start spinning another plate. Basically, she is describing her process for creating many ways of bringing income in at the same time. Instead of starting everything at once, though, Winter encourages you to start one project for 90 days, then begin the next. She explains that if you create many ways to make money you'll never rely solely on one income stream, which makes it easier to survive.

Much of the book also focuses on increasing your self-esteem and easy ways to do that; coming up with creative money-making ideas and why you should never stop that process; and how to take care of yourself along the way.

It is an easy, quick read with tons of ideas for new businesses that can be started immediately.

If you are looking to bring in money, this book will show you where ideas for self-employment comes from.



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Review: No More Mondays: Fire Yourself -- and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work

No More Mondays: Fire Yourself -- and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work by Dan Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



If you're questioning your line of work, Dan Miller does a great job at giving you options for your future.
In this book, he gives ideas for starting your own business or becoming a freelancer or contractor, but he doesn't ever tell you exactly what you should do. He makes it clear that everyone's answer to "what should I do for a living?" will be a little different depending on their wants, desires, skills and passions.
There are plenty of ideas throughout the book for passion seekers to explore their ideas and at the end of each chapter their is a list of things you should have learned from the chapter and some questions to ask yourself.

Miller also explains that while many people believe being an employee is the safest route, it, in fact, is not. Some of the reasons he gives is that many businesses are using cost-cutting measures to eliminate giving some of the benefits people are used to in a position, that many businesses are eliminating employee positions to save money and that if you lose your job you must replace 100 percent of your income, rather than losing one client of many, where you would only be losing a percentage of your profits.

I think even those who are not thinking about leaving a job in the next year or so should look into this book and begin exploring ideas in the future about what measures they could take to rely less on their 9-to-5 job. I think it's a great career exploration book as well as get you thinking about alternate ideas and using your imagination to find a passionate career that is likely to bring in more money than what you are making working for someone else.



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