Weekly Non-Fiction Reading List 9.4.23
This week, we have three books on the list. One is amazing, one is mid and one is purely idiotic. The first book on the list is a great one about our relationship with work, and the second is a generic self-help book. Then we have a book by a right-wing pundit who has hundreds of pages contradicting herself and promoting conspiracies. Enjoy!
Each of the links to the books are affiliate links, so if you use my link to purchase any of these books, some comes back to support what I do (and it also helps fund my reading habit).
The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work by Simone Stolzoff
My experience with this book was such a great reminder for why you shouldn’t make decisions based on reviews from others (and yes, I’m telling you to do the same with me). I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, and while I usually don’t read reviews, I saw one on Amazon that said this one was disconnected and highlighted privileged people who were able to have flexible jobs. I can tell you that this was 100% false, and Simone did an amazing job with this book.
I typically don’t like books with a lot of stories and interviews, but I binged this book in one sitting. Each chapter has a great lesson about managing our relationship with the work place. I absolutely loved the chapter about how work isn’t our family as well as the chapter on how we chase status. These are all things that I’ve learned and like to read about, but Simone killed it with writing about it and combining stories with scientific research.
Whether you have an unhealthy relationship with work or want to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future, you need to read this book.
The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds - Not Crushes - Your Soul by Brad Stulberg
This book wasn’t good or bad, it’s just a pretty generic self-help book. If you’re struggling and need some life advice and a better balance with work and your goals, check this book out. The author is an executive coach, and the book was kind of overhyped by another book I read. It discusses some mindfulness practices, prioritizing your values and not overworking yourself to death. At this point in my life and with as many books as I’ve read, it’s really hard for me to get anything new from these types of books.
You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back by Carol Roth
What a steaming pile of trash this book is. I (possibly stupidly) grabbed this book not knowing who the author was and thinking it was a critique of capitalism. How wrong I was. Carol Roth is not only right-wing, but she’s a conspiracy theorist and contradicts herself regularly throughout the book. For the life of me, I just can’t understand how these right-wing people act like they’re against giant corporations while doing nothing but supporting policies that make the rich richer. Like, do they not understand that these corporations are run by the rich people?
Fortunately, the book tipped me off to what this author is about from the very beginning. Within the introduction, she discusses COVID conspiracies, goes on an anti-mask tangent and promotes the great reset conspiracy. And then the contradictions start immediately.
The premise of the book is how the rich corporations want to own everything so you own nothing. But then, she jumps into cancel culture, and she starts talking about poor Joe Rogan and Elon Musk and how they should be protected by us. Wait…what? One of the richest men in the world and the guy who got a $100 million Spotify contract aren’t part of the rich that we’re supposed to fear and hate? Even though one of them just bought a social media platform while your book talks about how awful it is that social media platforms control speech?
I could go on forever about how dumb this book is, but you get the point. She makes good arguments, but like many right-wing faux intellectuals, they don’t see how contradictory they are. I binged this book just to see what dumb thing she’d say next.
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