Think like a Monk: Train your mind for peace and purpose every day by Jay Shetty.
I don’t normally do a book review until I’ve finished reading it but I thought I would give a taster for this only because, right now he is in the middle of a 20-day meditation and passages from his book reading session (by middle I mean day 5) which he is doing live at 5.30 pm on Facebook and Instagram.
Continue reading “Think Like a Monk”
Even though I bought this book as soon as it came out, it took me a while to read it. I think the main reason I resisted was because the last book I read by Gabrielle Bernstein had so much food for thought that I felt like I needed the headspace to be ready to read this book.
Eventually I did start the book and then with the manifesting challenge coming up in January I decided I wanted to finish it before it started. The book was deeply thoughtful as expected.
I was so pleased to receive a preview copy of this book. The fact that the title had mother in it felt like I would be able to relate to it immediately. With a collection of 26 flash fictions and short stories about the joy, pain and strangeness of being a mother, this was a very interesting book.
A couple of stories were a little futuristic and slightly surreal looking at mothers through aliens eyes or into the future with dire consequences.
Initially, the second story I read shocked me. Calling the baby ‘it’ made me feel uneasy and then leaving ‘it’ in the garage sounded so wrong. I discovered had I read the title I might have guessed what’ it’ was earlier, although by the time I got near the end, everything started making sense.
Continue reading “The Almost Mothers”
After over six months of the writing course, our efforts culminated into a short story collection, Tales from Garden Street, that you can download on amazon. The link for this can be found below.
It feels weird writing about a book in which my story is in because I still feel my writing is not that great. But it is out there and published and I do feel honoured and humbled to share this book with so many excellent writers.
Continue reading “Tales from Garden Street”
I’m not sure why I’m so obsessed with sleep. I’m sure when they are ready they will start sleeping through the night easily. Until they do, I think I will be obsessed with it.
When the girls were babies, I used to love getting the girls ready for bed. A little while after dinner, we would come up, give them a bath, gently wash their hair and then wrap them up in a big towel. Once in the bedroom, I would rub oil or cream and massage it into their chubby little bodies, then put their nappies and nighttime onesies on and then read to them. I would put some music on and then lie with them until they fell asleep. I too would ‘nap’ or fall asleep with them for a bit and then creep out the room trying not to wake them up. Even then some days were better than others but there were more good days.
Continue reading “Calm Sleep Stories”
I love Bollywood films and Bollywood Wives captures this so well! I grew up in an era before the Indian film industry was known as Bollywood. My childhood revolved around Indian film songs and reading Indian filmy magazines such as Cineblitz, stardust and Cineworld (from what I can remember).
I love the title of this book. Does the panda eat, then shoots and then leaves or does the panda eat the shoots and the leaves? Well my eight year old decided that someone eats, shoots and them leaves – the technically correct version luckily!
Continue reading “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”This post summarises my top 5 business books reviews. 
Over the years I have read and reviewed lots of books. Some are business type books, some are related to parenting and education type and although I like reading lots of fiction, I have only reviewed a few fiction books on my blog. The following books that I have read and reviewed are my favourite ones that have a more business focus.
The amazon links below are all affiliated to my account which means that I earn a small commission if you were to buy a book using my link. It is at no extra cost to you.
Continue reading “My top 5 Business book reviews”
City of Sinners is the third book in Harry Virdee series by A.A. Dhand. Considering I’ve read all three of his books this year, I think I’m getting slightly obsessed with him. Continue reading “City of Sinners by A.A. Dhand”
Refuse to Choose by Barbara SherI came across this book, Refuse to Choose, while I was looking at different VA services website and one of them had recommended this book. I am so glad I found this book. It’s a lovely book about how to follow all the things that interest you and you are passionate about. The author calls these people ‘Scanners’ and it makes being indecisive and wanting to do everything acceptable.
The things that she suggests you do are not really new concepts but they way she writes about it makes it all feel ok. As with nearly every single book or course I read now, they all start with buying a brand-new journal in which to write in. For this book, your notebook or journal needs to be new and special for you to write, draw and doodle all your fantastic ideas. Something like Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. I dutifully complied.
Even though I did start my new notebook, I haven’t actually kept up to date with it. It’s currently sitting pretty in my bookshelf along with my notebooks on accounting, tax, blogging, writing and the 3 page a day(!) diary.
The book is split up into two parts and 19 chapters. The first part describes what is a scanner and the second part describes what kind of scanner are you? These are the chapters in the book:
Part one
1. All about Scanners
2. What’s Wrong with me?
3. Scanner Panic
4. Commitment Phobia
5. Too busy to do What I Love
6. I won’t do anything if I can’t do everything
7. I can’t get started
8. I never finish anything
Part two
9. About Cyclical Scanners
10. Are you a Double Agent?
11. Are you a Sybil?
12. Are you a Plate Spinner?
13. About Sequential Scanners
14. Are you a Serial Specialist?
15. Are you a Serial Master
16. Are you a Jack of all Trades?
17. Are you a Wanderer?
18. Are you a Sampler?
19. Are you a High-Speed Indecisive?
In Part two, at the beginning of each chapter is a list of questions about that particular type of scanner and if you can answer yes to a lot of these questions then that is the type of scanner that you are. You can be more than one type of scanner. When I went through this, I got Jack of all trades and Double Agent. It then gives a few examples of people in that group and what they do and then lists out potential careers of types of careers and finally what type of tools a scanner needs. There is a list of tools for a scanner in the appendix which is useful as most of these things I’ve not really ever heard of. Some of favourites are the portable dream deck where you can keep several different projects going at the same time, the scanners day book, A ring binder for all your different projects and a catalogue of ideas with potential. Actually, I think I would probably like them all.
Another big theme I found in the book is to find a good enough job if you can’t find the perfect job and then you can spend the rest of your time pursuing the things that you enjoy. There are several chapters that I want to go back and read again but it really does make you feel better that its ok not to have a niche figured out and pursuing. You don’t need to be a specialist and focus all your energies on the one thing, if you enjoy doing several things at the same time.
If, like me you are wanting to everything that you find interesting without giving up anything, this book is for you. I can see why the VA feels like this book is a must for all other VA’s out there because you can offer lots of different services that you are good at as a VA.
The author, Barbara Sher, also has a website and mailing list which can be found here: http://barbarasclub.com/
Go and enjoy this book as I try and figure out how to organise my life so I can do everything I want to pursue!
Buy the book from amazon here:
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An accountant and a Mum 