What I Read in July/August
I'm starting this new series because I thought it would be fun to share what I've been reading recently and my thoughts on them, even though I can't guarantee the consistency as I'm not a devoted reader and just starting out. Still, better to strike it while the iron is hot, right? So, I read a total of four books in July and August (one in July, three in August), which I think is a good number for a starter.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Becoming is the memoir genre book written by Michelle Obama, The First Lady of US. This book talks about her honest perspective on life, marriage, self-doubt, motherhood, and being the first lady. It is divided into three main parts: Becoming Me - takes us to her early childhood and her family at South Side of Chicago. Coming from a working-class family, she shows her ambition, her success at school years, through her Princeton University and Harvard Law School education, to her early career as a lawyer at the law firm Sidley&Austin, where she met Barack Obama. Becoming Us - reveals the beginning of their romantic relationship, followed by their marriage and the beginning of Barack's political career. And the final part is Becoming More - which tells us the first family life.
Becoming is the first memoir genre book that I managed to finish. I love how Michelle narrates her own story in this book as someone very vulnerable. Throughout the book, Michelle Obama is candid, insightful, and witty. Most importantly, I feel connected and could relate to some of her 421 pages journey she's shared. A few parts are pretty dull to me, especially about politics, but that doesn't affect my overall opinion on her book.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knigh
This book is mainly about getting control of your life. Sarah Knight denotes the people needing the book into 3 personality types; Simon, Alvin, and Theodore referencing the cultural archetypes - Alvin and the Chipmunks to describe her reader. She conveys the message about prioritizing in a witty way, light-hearted, non-preachy, and bits of profanity.
I understand she is trying to help by giving practical insights and tips, but I did find it to be quite repetitive with excessive examples. Or maybe I'm not the target audience, but everything was obvious and just basic common sense that I find nothing new through her book. It's basically about strategizing, focus & starting small by breaking it into small chunks. And her chipmunk analogy didn't really hit the mark for me.
My rating: ⭐⭐/5 (I'm being generous here)
The Things You can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
As the title suggests, it's best to read this book slowly to savor each chapter, starting with rest, mindfulness, passion, relationships, love, life, future, and ending with spirituality. In each chapter, Haemin Sunim writes a small essay about his own experience relating to that specific topic and his view on it, followed by a series of quotes and sayings supplemented with a sprinkle of beautiful illustrations.
I read this sweet little book slowly to get the best of it as suggested by the author. The English translation is relatively simple and easy to comprehend, yet the words are still beautiful. I started reading this book at a difficult time, which provided me so much comfort (extra star for this). Here is one of my favorite excerpts:
We lose interest in movies or TV series
in which good characters are always good and bad ones are always bad
This does not match up to reality
No person is always good or bad
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince is a classic metaphorical tale about his journey from planet to planet and in each tiny world is populated a single adult as an allegory for all of life.
The Little Prince is one of those famous books that seems that everyone has to read, so I thought I should too. I know this book is regarded as a children's book, but I feel like it is actually for the grown-ups, just in a simpler way for stating all the complicated thoughts of the little prince. I personally think there were layers beneath layers to this story that I still haven't grasped yet. Maybe I am just way too far gone into the world of grown-ups but isn't that's the beauty of this story?
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
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