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katietotallybooked's Reviews (785)
I really loved how Ashton broke apart and explained the Enneagram in this book. The information about each type explains the type from multiple angles. It was the first time I had seen a description of each type during childhood. This actually helped me to determine that I had been mistyping myself as an Enneagram One, when I'm actually a Six - The Loyalist.
I loved the colourful pages. I have so many sticky note flags in this book and I plan to use it as a reference for the Enneagram for years to come!
I loved the colourful pages. I have so many sticky note flags in this book and I plan to use it as a reference for the Enneagram for years to come!
It is a good book that shares the author’s year of gratitude and how she focused on gratitude in her marriage, work, finances, nutrition, family, and other areas of her life. It gave me an understanding of how to practice gratitude.
Being Mortal is my in-real life book club pick for March. I wasn’t looking forward to reading it, as I thought it seemed boring and dry. But from just a few pages in, my whole view changed.
The author’s writing is phenomenal. He takes real stories about real people and weaves them into a narrative, while also expressing his concerns clearly and with factual evidence about the medical industry with our aging and terminally-ill population. It’s best-selling book for a reason.
But the number one reason why I found this book to be so good? I connected and related with it. My mom passed away 3.5 years ago after a rapid battle with cancer. It seemed like one minute she was visiting our family doctor about a bit of pain in her arm and back, and the next she was admitted to the hospital and never came home. The cancer progressed so rapidly that there seemed to be no way to stop it. So my Mom, with my Dad by her side, had to figure out how to accept and come to peace with her fate.
Sometimes there is only so much that doctors can do. Sometimes there is more they can do but we have to draw the line and think about how we want to spend our final days. That is the point that Atul Gawande is making in his book. Medical science has finate power. It can not cure everything. Being Mortal is about taking our own biology into consideration and accepting that limits do exist. So with that in mind, how should our final days be lived? What matters most to you? For my mom, it was alone time with my Dad on that final weekend. My brother and I went to a family wedding and had a night of joy and fun before our world as we knew it completely changed.
This book is a must-read. It’s an important read. And the author has certainly shared an area of thought that needs more attention.
The author’s writing is phenomenal. He takes real stories about real people and weaves them into a narrative, while also expressing his concerns clearly and with factual evidence about the medical industry with our aging and terminally-ill population. It’s best-selling book for a reason.
But the number one reason why I found this book to be so good? I connected and related with it. My mom passed away 3.5 years ago after a rapid battle with cancer. It seemed like one minute she was visiting our family doctor about a bit of pain in her arm and back, and the next she was admitted to the hospital and never came home. The cancer progressed so rapidly that there seemed to be no way to stop it. So my Mom, with my Dad by her side, had to figure out how to accept and come to peace with her fate.
Sometimes there is only so much that doctors can do. Sometimes there is more they can do but we have to draw the line and think about how we want to spend our final days. That is the point that Atul Gawande is making in his book. Medical science has finate power. It can not cure everything. Being Mortal is about taking our own biology into consideration and accepting that limits do exist. So with that in mind, how should our final days be lived? What matters most to you? For my mom, it was alone time with my Dad on that final weekend. My brother and I went to a family wedding and had a night of joy and fun before our world as we knew it completely changed.
This book is a must-read. It’s an important read. And the author has certainly shared an area of thought that needs more attention.
It's been a couple of years since I read Ghost (Book #1) of the Track series, but I could pick up Book #2 with ease and be reminded of why I love this series. The stories are excellent representations of regular, ordinary, realistic kids who live regular, ordinary, and realistic lives. Reynolds brings family, school, and social lives together in his middle-grade stories and then he weaves his characters together with a common interest and school activity - track team. Readers can read this book and see mirrors of themselves in Reynolds characters and their experiences. These books are wonderful, and I will keep reading this series and will always recommend them to young readers.
This Canada Reads nominated title is a solid memoir. I appreciated the author's candidness when sharing his story. He didn't shy away from the details of his childhood, is trouble with alcohol and substance abuse, his complicated family relationships, and his general coming-of-age struggles.
What was missing for me as a reader was emotion from the author. I felt like this memoir was written in such a factual and event focused way, that there wasn't a lot of time for reflection from him on his past. I also listened to parts of this memoir on audio, but I was unimpressed with the audiobook. Even though the author was reading his story himself, it felt robotic and it lacked the emotion that many authors who read their memoirs give to their performance. His narration was flat and I felt like he was just reading off the page.
It was still interesting to read about the author's story. I would have enjoyed more about his Metis heritage than there was. It wasn't until the end of the memoir that he was diving into his genealogy, but perhaps that was truly how he learned about himself.
I still think this was a good book and I enjoyed it. But compared to other memoirs I read, it was under par. I'll be curious to see how it does in the Canada Reads competition.
What was missing for me as a reader was emotion from the author. I felt like this memoir was written in such a factual and event focused way, that there wasn't a lot of time for reflection from him on his past. I also listened to parts of this memoir on audio, but I was unimpressed with the audiobook. Even though the author was reading his story himself, it felt robotic and it lacked the emotion that many authors who read their memoirs give to their performance. His narration was flat and I felt like he was just reading off the page.
It was still interesting to read about the author's story. I would have enjoyed more about his Metis heritage than there was. It wasn't until the end of the memoir that he was diving into his genealogy, but perhaps that was truly how he learned about himself.
I still think this was a good book and I enjoyed it. But compared to other memoirs I read, it was under par. I'll be curious to see how it does in the Canada Reads competition.