Primer to Eco-Friendly Minimalist Living

Instead of simply decluttering and then fill your house only to declutter again, Seferian wants you to break the consumption cycle. Blending minimalist living with an eco-friendly lifestyle, Sustainable Minimalism gives tips and suggestions to lower your carbon footprint and reduce the amount of waste you produce. 

Similar to Bea Johnson's Zero Waste Home without being quite as judgemental, Seferian acknowledges the privilege needed to enact many green measures, yet encourages you to start with small affordable steps. While some of her remarks are pretty extreme (no more air travel, foraging for food), she focuses her attention on more actionable items like composting and alternatives to single-use plastics.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a sucker for any and all business and productivity books, so I was intrigued by Joe Sanok's promise to help you create the schedule you want. Constant hustling will just lead to burnout, and Sanok is dead on that you need to combine rest and slow down with focused sprints to be your most productive and happier.

Unfortunately, Sanok is a terrible storyteller, miserably failing to connect his personal anecdotes into larger concepts and completely lacking in transitions between anything - topics, chapters, even paragraphs. The occasional pieces of decent advice are obscured by boring scientific statements, pointless tangents, and cliché personality tests. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins Leadership through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Tearjerker Memoir From a Young War Widow

What happens when a knock on the door shatters your life as you know it? Only five weeks after deploying to Afghanistan as a physician assistant, Captain Cory Jenkins was killed by an IED. Suddenly a young widow with a 9-week old daughter, his wife Brooke is set on a path she never expected to trod.

Critically speaking, the writing is good, but not excellent. Her transitions and childhood stories didn't blend as seamlessly into the story as they should. Walters touches on the juxtaposition of having her private grief so publicly displayed, and I would have loved for her to diver deeper into more universal themes. 

However, Walters does a great job conveying the overwhelming mix of emotions from her experience. I read the memoir in one afternoon and sobbed through the entire middle of the book. An emotional look at healing from loss, learning to forgive, and finding faith amid tragedy, Coming Home is a great read for anyone who loves personal memoirs.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, who is a friend of mine. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

When Qian was seven years old, her family immigrated to the United States. As her parents struggled to cope with the transition from respected professors to "illegal" sweatshop laborers, Qian tries to find her place in a new world. Highlighting the dichotomy of coming to America for free speech but being afraid to speak, this moving coming-of-age memoir really brought home the reality about the immigrant experience in the US.