Victor Villas - Review
How to Keep House While Drowning
Douban
★ 7.6 19 ratings
KC Davis LPC publishing house: S&S/Simon Element
This revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home. If you’re struggling to stay on top of your to-do list, you probably have a good reason: anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support. For therapist KC Davis, the birth of her second child triggered a stress-mess cycle. The more behind she felt, the less motivated she was to start. She didn’t fold a single piece of laundry for seven months. One life-changing realization restored her sanity—and the functionality of her home: You don’t work for your home; your home works for you. In other words, messiness is not a moral failing. A new sense of calm washed over her as she let go of the shame-based messaging that interpreted a pile of dirty laundry as “I can never keep up” and a chaotic kitchen as “I’m a bad mother.” Instead, she looked at unwashed clothes and thought, “I am alive,” and at stacks of dishes and thought, “I cooked my family dinner three nights in a row.” Building on this foundation of self-compassion, KC devised the powerful practical approach that has exploded in popularity through her TikTok account, @domesticblisters. The secret is to simplify your to-do list and to find creative workarounds that accommodate your limited time and energy. In this book, you’ll learn exactly how to customize your cleaning strategy and rebuild your relationship with your home, including: -How to see chores as kindnesses to your future self, not as a reflection of your worth -How to start by setting priorities -How to stagger tasks so you won’t procrastinate -How to clean in quick bursts within your existing daily routine -How to use creative shortcuts to transform a room from messy to functional With KC’s help, your home will feel like a sanctuary again. It will become a place to rest, even when things aren’t finished. You will move with ease, and peace and calm will edge out guilt, self-criticism, and endless checklists. They have no place here.
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Aug. 2, 2024
Interesting read for anyone who sometimes feel overwhelmed by the chores and never-ending maintenance and upkeep of modern life. Big emphasis on the "drowning" part, because most of the book is dedicated (and most useful) to people who are in fact drowning, i.e. health challenges.
Aug. 2, 2024 Review Survivalist Housekeeping - a review of How to Keep House While Drowning
You're Not Listening
You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Douban Goodreads Skybridge
Kate Murphy publishing house: Celadon Books 2020 - 1 other title: You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters
When was the last time you listened to someone, or someone really listened to you? "If you’re like most people, you don’t listen as often or as well as you’d like. There’s no one better qualified than a talented journalist to introduce you to the right mindset and skillset―and this book does it with science and humor." -Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take "An essential book for our times." -Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone At work, we’re taught to lead the conversation. On social media, we shape our personal narratives. At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians. We’re not listening. And no one is listening to us. Despite living in a world where technology allows constant digital communication and opportunities to connect, it seems no one is really listening or even knows how. And it’s making us lonelier, more isolated, and less tolerant than ever before. A listener by trade, New York Times contributor Kate Murphy wanted to know how we got here. In this always illuminating and often humorous deep dive, Murphy explains why we’re not listening, what it’s doing to us, and how we can reverse the trend. She makes accessible the psychology, neuroscience, and sociology of listening while also introducing us to some of the best listeners out there (including a CIA agent, focus group moderator, bartender, radio producer, and top furniture salesman). Equal parts cultural observation, scientific exploration, and rousing call to action that's full of practical advice, You're Not Listening is to listening what Susan Cain's Quiet was to introversion. It’s time to stop talking and start listening.
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June 21, 2024
Now that I’m done with the book I can’t really recall much that will change my habits.
June 21, 2024 Review Maybe I wasn't listening - a review of You're Not Listening
The Checklist Manifesto
Douban
Atul Gawande publishing house: Picador 2011 - 1
The volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded out ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. The author Atul shows how producing a ninety-second checklist for complex world of surgery would reduce deaths and complications by more than one-third at virtually no cost and for almost any kind of operation. The checklist cna be very power and bring striking improvement in various fields beyond medications.
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June 21, 2024
Can’t say I learned anything meaningful from the book other than that doctors have an attitude problem… wait I also knew that.
June 21, 2024 Review Ticks all the boxes that gets a book published - a review of The Checklist Manifesto
How to Know a Person
Google Books Goodreads
David Brooks publishing house: Random House Publishing Group 2023 - 10 other title: How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives—from the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to? Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception. The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.
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June 1, 2024
The book can be enjoyed as a good talk with an elder. Unsurprisingly it's also yet another NYTimes bestselling Conservative author preaching his enlightened worldview, so reading between the lines you can see the stereotypical "rational man" coming down with the stoic teachings, but most of the book is pretty benign - even if not super insightful.
June 1, 2024 Review Didn't see it deeply - a review of How to Know a Person
Uncommon Measure
Google Books
Natalie Hodges publishing house: Bellevue Literary Press 2022 - 03
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST NPR “BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR” SELECTION NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE A virtuosic debut from a gifted violinist searching for a new mode of artistic becomingHow does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform our experience of time?Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert solo violinist. Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined—one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.
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Feb. 14, 2024
The rare case of a memoir that really works, interesting on its own without having to throw around famous people and world changing events.
Feb. 14, 2024 Review Uncommonly Moving - a review of Uncommon Measure
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
Douban
Brianna Wiest publishing house: Thought Catalog Books 2018 - 11
Over the past few years, Brianna Wiest has gained renown for her deeply moving, philosophical writing. This new compilation of her published work features pieces on why you should pursue purpose over passion, embrace negative thinking, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. Some of these pieces have never been seen; others have been read by millions of people around the world. Regardless, each will leave you thinking: this idea changed my life.
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Feb. 1, 2024
This book is so bad it almost becomes good. It's a collection that rehashes the most popular modern takes you can find browsing the average TED talk playlist. There's no consistency, no overarching theme. The title is truthful, it's one big chain of essays rewording Oprah, Brené Brown, Ryan Holiday at best; Deepak Chopra snake oil psychology at worst. Well, truthful if conceding that these are in fact essays, because a few will read like Buzzed text filler before a quiz on what is your "love language". McMindfulness, endless enumerations, jumping to conclusions, silly wordplay. The whole self help bingo is game.
Feb. 1, 2024 Review 101 Platitudes to Forget - a review of 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces
Goodreads
Patrick Mackie publishing house: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2023 - 6
In exhilarating, transformative prose, the poet Patrick Mackie reveals a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive. Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand about his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer? Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death, from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments, from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, Patrick Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer’s life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing himself to extraordinary feats of musicianship. In Mozart in Motion , we are returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century and hear Mozart’s music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being.
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Jan. 12, 2024
While I have the general feeling that the author's commentary is well informed, this is a hard book to appraise if you're not familiar enough with Mozart's work to recognize pieces by name, plus a few of his contemporaries like Haydn. My lack of familiarity makes the author's more speculative and far-fetching analysis stand out sorely, as I have no idea if such opinions are glaringly obvious from the music itself - for those who have the right ear - or if it's just a strong take the author felt like sharing.
Jan. 13, 2024 Review Difficult but interesting - a review of Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces
Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage
Goodreads
Heather Havrilesky publishing house: Ecco Press 2022 - 2
If falling in love is the peak of human experience, then marriage is the slow descent down that mountain, on a trail built from conflict, compromise, and nagging doubts. Considering the limited economic advantages to marriage, the deluge of other mate options a swipe away, and the fact that almost half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce anyway, why do so many of us still chain ourselves to one human being for life? In , Heather Havrilesky illustrates the delights, aggravations, and sublime calamities of her marriage over the span of fifteen years, charting an unpredictable course from meeting her one true love to slowly learning just how much energy is required to keep that love aflame. This refreshingly honest portrait of a marriage reveals that our relationships are not simply "happy" or "unhappy," but something much murkier--at once unsavory, taxing, and deeply satisfying. With tales of fumbled proposals, harrowing suburban migrations, external temptations, and the bewildering insults of growing older, is a work of rare candor and insight. Havrilesky traces a path from daydreaming about forever for the first time to understanding what a tedious, glorious drag forever can be.
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Jan. 6, 2024
I give the book some extra stars for being well written and captivatingly sincere enough to keep me with it until the end. What gives me hope is that the toxicity was exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. I think a lot of people are going to resonate with a lot of the book, because the author collects a catalogue of character faults - anyone will definitely find theirs represented in here and possibly relate.
Jan. 6, 2024 Review Brazenly Sincere - a review of Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage
The Food Lab
Douban
J. Kenji López-Alt publishing house: W. W. Norton & Company 2015 - 9
A New York Times Bestseller Winner of the James Beard Award for General Cooking and the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award "The one book you must have, no matter what you’re planning to cook or where your skill level falls."―New York Times Book Review Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!)―and use a foolproof method that works every time? As Serious Eats's culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new―but simple―techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more. Over 1000 color photographs
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March 10, 2023
Lousy and cringeworthy humor, garbage ebook formatting. Worth skimming through if you have physical copy available at a local library or can borrow from a friend. I regret paying for the ebook.
March 10, 2023 Review Spoiled - a review of The Food Lab
Guia do Barista: Da origem do café ao espresso perfeito
Goodreads
Edgard Alexandre Bresani publishing house: Café Editora 2007 - 1
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
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June 26, 2022
Defendo a importância de ter material sobre café em Português, motivo suficiente para merecer uma estrela de consolação. Para quem não tem problemas com barreira linguística, recomendo deixar esse livro pra lá e ir atrás dos clássicos internacionais primeiro e usar esse livro apenas como um complemento para aprender o vocabulário e especificadas sobre o Café no Brasil.
June 26, 2022 Review Decepção - a review of Guia do Barista: Da origem do café ao espresso perfeito
Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World
Goodreads
迈克尔·波伦 publishing house: Audible Original 2020 - 1
Pollan takes us on a journey through the history of the drug, which was first discovered in a small part of East Africa and within a century became an addiction affecting most of the human species. Caffeine, it turns out, has changed the course of human history - won and lost wars, changed politics, dominated economies. What's more, the author shows that the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without it. The science of how the drug has evolved to addict us is no less fascinating.
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Nov. 10, 2020
As an audiobook, it's a short listen. It was interesting enough for me to finish it in just three batches of mildly unfocused attention. There's a bit of history, a bit of experts voicing opinions, a bit of well thought puns and wordplays, and as always a bit off Michael Pollan's bullshit.
Nov. 10, 2020 Review Coffee conversations - a review of Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World