(upbeat New Age music)
- Hey everyone, it's your girl Jen, and today we are doing
a book update.
It's been officially a year since my last book update,
and so I thought I would fill you guys in
on my favorite books of 2019.
I was doing some reflection a couple weeks ago,
and I actually numbered out all the books
that I read last year, and it was 42.
For me, that is a staggering number,
I have never ever read this many books in my lifetime.
But any-hoo, today we're gonna be whittling it down
to the top 10, so let's get started.
So my first book is "Essentialism", by Greg Mckeown.
I picked this book up because I have always been
the type to feel overwhelmed, and burnt out,
and spread thin, and I think it's because I've had
this mentality of just, "power through it,
grit your teeth, and suck it up,"
and I thought that that was the way
I can just get everything done.
But, it's not a very sustainable mentality.
There are some things you just gotta say no to.
I had a problem just really prioritizing what was
important and what was essential in my life,
and I feel like this book really gave me
the right tools, and the strategies,
to float up what is the most priority,
and finish those top things.
I've learned that sometimes doing the most
isn't the greatest thing, and it's important to spend
your time on the right activities and the right people
so you feel more fulfilled.
Being busy all the time doesn't mean that you're being
productive, so if you are the type of person
that just wants to Marie Condo their mind,
or just learn how to use their time more efficiently,
I would highly recommend this book.
In 2019 Brene Brown became one of my most
favorite inspirational people.
If you have not seen her TED Talk on vulnerability,
I highly recommend you go check it out,
but I read "Daring Greatly", which is just a deep dive
of the vulnerability movement,
and how you can live more wholeheartedly.
It had a huge impact on my self esteem,
and the way I connect with people,
and I especially loved the bit about empathy.
So she describes empathy as "connecting with the emotion
"that someone is experiencing, not the event
or the circumstance."
A lot of the times when someone is opening up
to us, or sharing an experience that they've had,
I think a common misconception is,
"oh, I can't be empathetic to that because
that has never happened to me."
For example, let's say your friend's like,
"oh my God, I went to work today, and I shat my pants."
Maybe you have not shat your pants at work,
however I'm pretty sure we've all felt
the emotion of shame, and embarrassment, and that emotion
is what we need to connect with.
This book gave me a glimpse on how I can live more
unapologetically, and just live more freely,
and it's definitely a book that I want to re-read
because it's something that I wanna keep fresh
on my mind, constantly.
So my next book is "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell.
And I know this book came out a long time ago,
I actually first read it when I was 18.
It completely blew my mind, but it's been over 10 years,
and I was like, "you know what?
It's time to read it again, let's see."
I read it, and it blew my mind again,
and so now it's on my list.
So this book is about outliers, and outliers
are the most successful, the most intelligent,
most athletic, just the best of the best in the world
and that's why they're the outliers.
And a lot of the self made outliers, we look at them
and we're like, "damn, you did the damn thing."
And yes, that is a huge factor, they did put in
so many hours.
Malcolm Gladwell says that you need to put in
roughly 10,000 hours to master a craft,
and that is a lot of hours, a lot of time,
I can't even compute how many years 10,000 hours is,
but it's a ton.
But regardless, we look at these people like The Beatles,
or Bill Gates, and we're like, "wow."
However, Malcolm Gladwell starts digging a little bit
deeper and he starts to point out patterns,
and circumstances, that have happened, to have them
elevated up to that level.
So he defines an outlier as "those who have been given
"opportunities and who have had the strength
and presence of mind to seize them."
So, obviously, putting in the 10,000 hours is a big one,
but there are other things to consider,
like when you were born, how long you've had
a headstart on starting something,
what your parents have, your ethnicity.
There's a string of fortunate incidents
and circumstances that have happened that have attributed
to their success.
So he uses Bill Gates as an example.
He's wildly rich, wildly successful,
incredibly smart, however there are some things to consider.
So, Bill Gates was born at a time where computers
were just starting to get big,
they were pretty rare, and very expensive.
A computer was the size of a room.
And his parents just happened to have a computer
in their house.
So Bill Gates started to tinker around with it,
learn how to code slowly, and then when he turned 13,
his parents funded a computer club.
So he had unlimited access to these computers,
with all his computer friends, and they just coded.
And Bill Gates just got consumed into coding,
and learning, and he started to put in his 10,000 hours
a lot earlier than everybody else.
So by the time the computer started booming,
he already had this incredible knowledge
about this subject that a lot of people
didn't have access to.
If his parents didn't have the money to give him
one of the first computers, he probably wouldn't
be Bill Gates.
And having a headstart is a huge thing to consider
in every type of craft.
If you look at all the early tech tycoons,
they're all born at the same year.
Bill Joy, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,
there's absolutely a pattern here, and this book
just does an in depth review and analysis on that,
and I found it fascinating.
Speaking of technology, we're gonna move on
to our next book, which is called "Irresistible:
The Rise of Addictive Technology" by Adam Alter.
I feel like so many of us are addicted to our screens.
You are watching this on your phone, or your laptop,
or your TV, wherever, we are glued.
And I have an alarming statistic.
"In 2008, adults spent an average of 18 minutes
"on their phones a day.
"In 2015 adults spent two hours
and 48 minutes per day."
I do not know what the updated statistics is for
the year 2020, but I'm sure it has skyrocketed.
I feel like some people might see it as
a fault in themselves, being "oh my gosh,
I can't get off my phone, I have no willpower, I am weak."
But, the people behind this technology, it's their job
to make it addicting as.
And this book just gave me clear examples,
and just peeled my eyes back on what is happening
behind the people that are making this technology.
So, in 2010, Steve Jobs, God rest his soul,
had a talk about the Ipad, and it was just
this really long talk convincing everybody
why they needed an Ipad.
And then later on in 2010, a New York Times article
came out and Steve Jobs said that he doesn't let
his children use the Ipad.
I just found it interesting that the very thing
that he was convincing everyone needs to use,
is something that he doesn't even let
his children use.
A lot of the people producing these tech products
avoid the very thing that they're selling,
and it's because they know that shit's addicting.
And he also explains these boundaries we can create
in the technology space, so I found it very interesting.
So my next book is called "Sapiens", it is actually
the only book, the real tangible book I have,
because I read the rest on Kindle,
or I listen to it on Audible, but I actually got
this book at an airport, and it was truly
the best decision I've made.
This is one very thorough book about the history
of human existence.
It's like if all your history, and your anthropology classes
had a baby, it would be this book.
I absolutely love just her clear descriptions,
and also her commentary, and it just really reminded me
of all the things that I forgot in all those classes
that I learned.
It's been a very long time since I've been in school,
so if I don't have a refresher, I will not remember it.
It was just really nice to be re-informed about
the history and the existence of homo sapiens,
and it was very impressive to see how we,
as a collective unit, were able to just
completely dominate the planet.
We have been killin' it for a very long time.
Literally and figuratively.
We are the only species that know how to work
as a unit, with tools, and to be able to expand
and it explains why in such a short period of time
we have been able to just bulldoze, and create
all these agricultural revolution,
and industrial revolution.
We've been freaking on it, and this book
just highlights all of that.
It's very alarming to see how rapidly this has all
been going, we have the capacity to completely
destroy the planet, however we have the capacity
to completely save the planet.
It's kind of like the Spider-Man quote,
"with great power comes great responsibility."
I have hope for us.
So now we're gonna move on to some fiction.
I have to talk about "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo".
This book was so good, I read it twice.
I literally finished it and I was, "I'm gonna hit it again."
I was trying to chase the high from reading it
the first time, and honestly the second time was really good
because I got to catch some things that I didn't notice
in the first run.
It's about Evelyn Hugo, who is an icon,
the Hollywood icon of the 1950s all the way to the 1980s,
and with just wild fame comes some scandals along the way.
So she's had seven husbands, and she's been very
tight lipped with it her entire life,
but the book starts when she's pretty much 70,
and she's old, and so now she's ready to talk about it,
and she does not hold back.
The tea is hot, it's got everything.
It's actually a very progressive read,
there's a lot of visibility from race,
sexuality, and I think that's something
really refreshing to see, especially in a mainstream book.
I mean, maybe I've just been in the dark
with what kind of books to read, but I loved this.
If you guys have any recommendations that are similar
to this book, and have the visibility and representation,
please let me know.
Evelyn Hugo is unfortunately a fictional character,
but she is real in my heart.
Evelyn Hugo is a character inspired by Marilyn Monroe,
Elizabeth Taylor, and if you've ever been fascinated
of that whole old Hollywood lifestyle,
and what it was like to be there, read this book,
you will be teleported in.
So if you guys know me, you all know
that I love me a thriller.
For my thriller recommendation I have
"Final Girls" by Riley Sager.
This one is definitely a read to just pack on
a trip, if you're on the plane, and you just want time
to fly by, definitely give this a read.
It's about this girl named Quincy, and she,
this is not a spoiler, by the way, this happens
right from the jump, but Quincy is the sole survivor
of this mass murder.
She was at a cabin trip with her friends,
and then this killer came and killed all her friends,
except for her, so she's the lone survivor,
and that's why she's called a final girl.
And there's only a few final girls in the world,
and they almost talk to each other, because no one
can really fully, fully understand what it's like
to be in that position.
It's like a reverse murder mystery.
The killing already happened, now we're just trying
to figure out who killed who.
So now we're gonna finish things off with some memoirs.
I wanna talk about "Hunger" by Roxane Gay.
This is the book to read if you have ever struggled
with body issues, body image, and even self doubt.
This was one of the most honest and powerful
memoirs I've read, because it was so raw.
And a lot of her, the themes about self doubt,
I felt like she was boiling down the doubts that I have
in my head, but into text.
And just eloquently written.
So the author is someone in the category of
super morbidly obese, but hunger really opened up
my eyes to the hardships that they face from the stereotypes
to the physical obstacles.
It was just very enlightening.
And just the part about the self doubt,
I just really, really connected with her on that level.
Michelle Obama, she needs no introduction.
When I think of her she's the definition of poise and grace
and sometimes it's easy to forget that she's just like
all of us, she's just a human.
And I feel like after reading this memoir
it just grounded her, and I just found it
really inspiring to see her work for what she's earned.
She's been through a lot, and I also found it
very comforting to know that Michelle and I
actually have some things in common.
For example, we both find huge comfort
in preparation, and we both love low light dinners
with our mans.
So, Michelle and I are basically the same person.
So my list recommendation is called "Dry"
by Augusten Burroughs.
I have been reading a lot of books about sobriety,
and this was my favorite overview of what
alcoholism is like.
This memoir is a journal he kept
while he was in rehab, and while he was out.
And so he really does a great job describing that
insatiable desire for alcohol.
And so, and he explains what rehab was like,
and how getting out of it was like,
and then just seeing the world through this stripped,
raw, vision of how far you've gone down,
and then just dealing with that constant temptation
of having a drink, and how prevalent it is in our lives.
So that's his memoir in a nutshell,
but I feel like this memoir really stood out to me
because of his writing style.
He has got personality, he's got sass,
he's got wit, and I just found myself laughing through it,
and I know it's a sad topic, addiction,
but I was laughing.
But yeah, this book definitely gave me a better
perspective of what alcoholism is,
and how to recover from it.
All right guys, those are my 10 favorite book
recommendations of 2019.
I cannot wait to crack open some more books this year.
My goal, by the end of 2020, is to read 52 books.
Let's slap on another 10.
Let's see if I can do it.
I would love, love, love, to get your guys'
book recommendations in the comments down below.
I think from this video you guys get a good
vibe of what I like.
I wanna thank you guys so much for watching,
and I'll see you guys in the next one; bye.
(lips kissing)
(soft New Age music)