Prisoner of Tehran
A memoir about a young woman's extraordinary story of courage, faith, hope and perseverance.
This book really opened my eyes to revolutions, prisons, and how they impact peoples lives deeply. It taught me the importance of standing up for what we think and believe is right and to always be hopeful, kind, and forgiving to others.
Attitude is Everything
This book is all about how your attitude is your window to the world. Maintaining a positive attitude can really help improve your quality of life, attract good company and reach your goals.
My favorite part was definitely the "watch your words" section. By observing the words we use and carefully tweaking them, we can guide our subconscious mind to be more positive, energetic, and help others around us feel the same way. By changing your reply for "How are you?" - a simple question that we answer daily from "Fine, I guess" to "Fantastic!" or "Great!", you can really see the confidence boost you get and others feel when you do so!
Show Your Work!
I just love the artistic vibes from this book - the pages, the pictures, and the diagrams were really something to look forward to at every page turn.
This book inspired the newsletter section of this website and the halfstackdevs blog. 😊
This book is all about how to share like an artist, getting noticed, being authentic, and sticking around. The mindset shift to sharing the process, not the product is something I now relate to and try showcasing. I especially loved the chapter on being an "amateur", which means "lover" in French- someone who's very passionate, enthusiastic and not afraid to share what they're learning and working on with everybody else. The zen monk Shunryu Suzuki once said "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."
Make Your Bed
This book is short but packed with insightful wisdom. Huge thanks to my friend for gifting me this 😊. I particularly enjoyed how the author illustrates how we can apply the lessons he acquired from Navy SEAL training to our daily lives and make them better.
The Psychology of Money
This book is all about the obvious yet never thought about aspects of money. How doing well with money has little to do with how smart you are and more to do with how you behave. How true wealth is often in the unseen, how risk and luck and cheeky cousins, and that there is no reason to risk what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need.
My favorite part was the first chapter: We often wonder if people who make extravagant purchases or do seemingly irrational things are crazy. The thing is, no one is crazy. If someone makes a decision that doesn't make sense, it actually doesn't make sense to us. Their decisions likely felt like the best choices given their circumstances and considerations. The fact is, no one makes big decisions based on pure rational thinking. They’re done during coffee breaks, day dreaming sessions, dining tables, or in conference rooms where a lot of other factors come into play and that decision felt like the best one.
Rich Dad Poor Dad
A book that definitely started me on my path to understand how money works. The basic concepts of money and wealth are explained in a very simple to understand manner that made reading the book very interesting and delightful. The book is filled with anecdotes and stories that make the concepts very easy to understand and remember. I totally recommend this book to anyone trying to get started with understanding money and wealth.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
A very practical book that gives you a lot of tips and tricks to stop worrying and start living. Dale Carnegie does a fantastic job of explaining various concepts and anecdotes in a very friendly conversational style. I genuinely love this book and believe it has had a profound impact on my life.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Although this is Dale Carnegie's most popular book, I ended up reading this only after reading "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" and really loving Dale Carnegie's conversational style and practical approach. This is definitely a great read for anyone who wants to improve their soft skills in general. It provides great insights into how to deal with people, understand them. Takeaways from the book include: everyone has a craving to feel important, we must always think about the situation from the other person's point of view.
Shadow and Bone
I got this book after really enjoying the Netflix adaptation. It was really interesting to see how the book has been adapted and the subtle differences between the book and the series. I really liked the world building and thought the story was quite engaging. This book is a read that I enjoyed.
White Fang
A nice and interesting book to spend time with. I love the way the story is told from the perspective of White Fang - A wolf who starts his journey in the Northland discovering one law at a time, differently from the way we humans perceive the world. A quaint example of this would be when White Fang thought that one wall of the cave he lived in was made of light, which his parents could walk through, unlike the other ones where he would face an obstruction. It gives you a fresh angle on things you otherwise wouldn't have. The story is a heartwarming one with a nice ending that takes you on a wild adventure through the eyes of White Fang.
