Tag: 2024 nonfiction reader challenge

Book Review | I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Posted May 8, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Diversity Reading Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge
The Classics Club

The Reason

This has been on my TBR forever and it was available on audio, so I decided to finally read it.

The Quotes

“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

“Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn’t know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn’t be taught to me at George Washington High School. ”

“Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”

The Narrator(s)

Read by the author herself. I always love it when the author narrates, because you can hear the inflections and emphasis in the places they meant them. She also sings the verses, and they were beautiful to hear.

My Thoughts

This is one of those books that come highly recommended and that you hear referenced all the time. I’ve been meaning to read it for a long time because of hearing so much about it, but I had no idea what I was in for. I’d expected it to be deep and meaningful just from all the references about it, and having an idea of what life must have been like for a black woman in those days, but I have a long way to go for learning and understanding it.

My Feels

I don’t know how Maya Angelou managed to write about her painful and defining moments in such a beautiful and lyrical way. I have no words to describe the feelings, but there were parts I had to stop and just take time to process. This is such a powerful book.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Posted May 8, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

The New York Times bestselling author of Better and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.

In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #39: Nonfiction recommended by a friend)
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

A physician friend recommended this book to me more than 10 years ago. It was available on audiobook when I browsed my library’s catalog so I thought I should finally read it since it’s been on my TBR long enough!

The Quotes

“We don’t like checklists. They can be painstaking. They’re not much fun. But I don’t think the issue here is mere laziness. There’s something deeper, more visceral going on when people walk away not only from saving lives but from making money. It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist, an embarrassment. It runs counter to deeply held beliefs about how the truly great among us—those we aspire to be—handle situations of high stakes and complexity. The truly great are daring. They improvise. They do not have protocols and checklists. Maybe our idea of heroism needs updating.”

“One essential characteristic of modern life is that we all depend on systems—on assemblages of people or technologies or both—and among our most profound difficulties is making them work.”

“There are good checklists and bad, Boorman explained. Bad checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people’s brains off rather than turn them on. Good checklists, on the other hand, are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything—a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps—the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.

The Narrator(s)

John Bedford Lloyd. It was great! He was clear and precise, and easy to follow.

My Thoughts

I thought it was cool that a whole book was dedicated to the importance of having checklists. For the regular layperson like me, checklists are usually just part of the tools I use for convenience and keeping myself organized, and it has also saved me some stress many times, but in aviation, construction, and medicine, it can be the difference between life and death. I think checklists are worth implementing in any situation you can think of though, and I think the book is definitely worth reading.

My Feels

You’d think that reading about checklists as a subject matter could get boring, but it’s surprisingly fascinating. I loved listening to the studies, the examples, and anecdotes of all the times checklists made a difference. In some of these cases, it feels infuriating to me that people refuse to use checklists just because of ego or hubris. If I could, I’d have a checklist for everything in my life to make things so much easier, but absent of that, I think I’ll just do my best to implement it where I can.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Posted April 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark.”

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #21: Written by a ghostwriter)
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

This has been on my TBR for years but I kept putting it off because my mental health hadn’t been the best for the last few years and the subject matter of this book certainly wouldn’t help. I’ve been feeling much better recently and I thought I should finally get this read.

The Quotes

“I love reading true crime, but I’ve always been aware of the fact that, as a reader, I am actively choosing to be a consumer of someone else’s tragedy. So like any responsible consumer, I try to be careful in the choices I make. I read only the best: writers who are dogged, insightful, and humane.”

“He loses his power when we know his face.”

“What is the lasting damage when you believe the warm spot you were just sleeping in will be your grave?”

“I don’t care if I’m the one who captures him. I just want bracelets on his wrists and a cell door slamming behind him.”

The Narrator(s)

Gabra Zackman, with an introduction by Gillian Flynn, and an afterword by Patton Oswalt. It was very well-done.

My Thoughts

There was so much to process here. I loved how it was written and organized, and I love the biographical nature of the author writing down her thoughts about the case and including personal information and why it’s important to her. I care about the case because she cares about the case, and I think it’s important to have just as much highlight on the people who put the work into solving the case, as it is on the victims and perpetrators. There are so many crimes that go unsolved because sometimes people just don’t care enough, and perhaps it’s not always healthy for any one person to care too much, but I still respect that they do care.

I have seen some discussions online about how the author didn’t contribute to solving the case and didn’t even have the killer in her sights, and while the latter may be true, I don’t agree with the former. The fact that she kept the case active and in the spotlight (with her true crime blog), kept talking to detectives, witnesses, and victims, kept doing research and cross-checking data, kept bouncing ideas off of other people who were also still working on the case, is a huge contribution to making sure someone was taking action to find the killer, and to disregard that is ignorant and disrespectful.

My Feels

It was horrifying to read about all the terrible things the killer did, and to so many victims. It was heartbreaking to read about the victims, the fear, the powerlessness, the devastation of so many families and those left behind. It was infuriating to think of all the close calls where they could’ve caught the killer but didn’t. And it’s so sad to realize that the author didn’t live to see the killer caught and her life’s work achieved. But I am glad that I finally read this book.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Posted April 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Not all Great Masters of Wisdom are venerable graybeards. One is as familiar to us as that beloved teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. From the “how” of Pooh to the Tao of Pooh is a simple, effortless, joyous step…a delicious journey to Pooh Corner illuminated by the timeless teachings of the Taoist immortals.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’ve always loved Pooh, and I’ve had this book on my TBR for ages. It’s only 3 hours on audiobook, so I thought I might as well get it read!

The Quotes

“Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.”

“The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.”

“There are things about ourselves that we need to get rid of; there are things we need to change. But at the same time, we do not need to be too desperate, too ruthless, too combative. Along the way to usefulness and happiness, many of those things will change themselves, and the others can be worked on as we go. The first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it.”

“The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.”

The Narrator(s)

Simon Vance. I loved the narration and the voices he made for Pooh and the others!

My Thoughts

I don’t have much to say except, whoa, I did not expect to love this as much as I did! There’s a lot to learn from this little book. There were many things that resonated with me, and I feel like I need to read and reread this every once in a while to remind myself of all the wisdom contained within.

My Feels

I needed to hear a lot of the things said in this book. It made me feel like I am okay, just as I am, and it made me remember the wonderment and innocent happiness I had as a child. I don’t want to be naive or gullible, but I would like to have some of that innocence back.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Way Forward by Yung Pueblo

Posted April 15, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Way Forward by Yung Pueblo

The #1 New York Times bestselling poet returns with his most inspiring collection yet. In this third and final installment of his poetic trilogy, Yung Pueblo expands upon favorite themes while guiding readers further, toward a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others.

In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well and fully, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux.

In his latest collection of poetry and short prose, Yung Pueblo offers clear strategies for managing the unknown, inhabiting your personal power, and bringing your truest, healthiest self to relationships. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection , The Way Forward is exactly that­­—an inspired beginning.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #4: Lowercase letters on the spine)
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I came across this book while browsing in the bookshop, and immediately fell in love with the poems. I’ve never read anything by this author before, but the words just resonated with me and I knew I had to read more!

The Quotes

“if existing takes every ounce of your energy,
then that alone is heroic work”

“i got lost while trying to survive”

“It is only heavy because you are deciding over and over again to carry it”

“Some people will not get you, but what matters is that you get you.”

My Thoughts

I didn’t know that this is part of a series by the author. I flipped through a couple of pages when I saw it at the bookshop and I was pulled in immediately. There are many that give food for thought, and I took a long time reading this book because I had to ruminate over many of the verses. I wanted to copy some of them into my journal, the ones that resonate most, but there were too many and at that rate I’d be copying the whole book into my journal. I decided to just buy a copy for myself, and I know I’ll come back to it often. I’m definitely going to look in to the other books in the series too.

My Feels

I love this book. It reads easily, just words on paper, but it’s everything I’ve felt and was never able to articulate. It’s also all the encouragement and inspiration I needed but didn’t know how to ask for. I feel like this book spoke to the deepest, darkest parts of me and told me it was okay to be not okay. I felt seen.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

Posted February 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

So, I’ve written a book.

Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities (“It’s a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!”) I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.

This certainly doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’m a fan of Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, and I’ve been wanting to read this for a while. I don’t read a lot of memoirs and biographies in general so it takes me a while to pick them up, but one of my reading goals this year is to read more nonfiction, and the audiobook became available to me at just the right time.

The Quotes

“Life is just too damn short to let someone else’s opinion steer the wheel.”

“But with friends, you design your own relationship, which in turn designs your grief, which can be felt even deeper when they are gone. Those can be roots that are much harder to pull.”

“I love my children as I was loved as a child, and I pray that they will do the same when their time comes. Some cycles are meant to be broken. Some are meant to be reinforced.”

“Courage is a defining factor in the life of any artist. The courage to bare your innermost feelings, to reveal your true voice, or to stand in front of an audience and lay it out there for the world to see. The emotional vulnerability that is often necessary to summon a great song can also work against you when sharing your song for the world to hear. This is the paralyzing conflict of any sensitive artist. A feeling I’ve experienced with every lyric I’ve sung to someone other than myself. Will they like it? Am I good enough? It is the courage to be yourself that bridges those opposing emotions, and when it does, magic can happen.”

The Narrator

Dave Grohl himself. I loved it. I loved listening to the book directly from his voice, to hear him tell me his stories about his life and his musical journey. It was perfect!

My Thoughts

Dave Grohl isn’t just an amazing musician, he is an amazing writer and storyteller. I’ve been a casual fan of his and of Foo Fighters, but while I liked his music and what little I know of his public persona, there is a lot I never knew about him and I’m glad he decided to tell his story in this book. The stories he tells in this book made me laugh, made me cry, filled me with awe and amazement, inspired me, and made me a bigger fan.

My Feels

What I love most about this book are the stories Dave Grohl tells about his connection to the people in his life. His relationships with people who are important to him; his mother, his family, his friends, and band mates. The way he connects with his fans, and other celebrities whom he is a fan of. He is such a down-to-earth person, even with all that fame and stardom from a relatively young age. Listening to him narrate the book, you feel like you are having a conversation with a close friend, and he is a person whom I’d truly love to be close friends with.

My Rating

5/5 stars. I loved listening to the book so much and I was sad when it was over. I almost wanted to start over just to hear it all over again. I’ve told my husband (who’s also a fan of Dave Grohl) little anecdotes while I was reading so he has put a hold on the book as well. Who knows? I might reread when he does!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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