Review: Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence

Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence by Amy Jen Su
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Decent book. It basically teaches you to be much more self aware of how you act, behave, and treat other people in a corporate setting. It teaches you to control your emotions and think through things carefully before acting. How your voice sounds to other people and how it effects them.

It's a very situation book which is a good/bad thing because there will be some if not many circumstances that the reader cannot relate to at all yet you still need to read through them. It's a good thing because it's almost like having a coach walk you through an issue right by your side so that next time it happens IRL you're better prepared on how to deal with it. But I think most of the time a coach is there IRL to see your blind spots and to correct them. If you are not that self aware you will not take away anything from this book because you can't manage to see yourself through other people's eyes.

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Review: MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom

MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Anthony Robbins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is basically a collection of advice from some of the top richest people in America on how to manage your money. This book was insightful, but I found it a bit too much of oh look at me donating to charity, you should too!

I can sum up the most valuable thing about this book here:

The golden/foolproof/long term gainer Asset Allocation:
30% stock index funds
40% long term bonds (term of 20-25 year treasuries)
15% intermediate government bonds (term of 7-10 year treasuries)
7.5% gold
7.5% commodities

And if you're younger, and okay with more risk -> go heavier into stocks.
On a yearly basis rebalance this allocation if gains in one allocation is getting too high and out of balance

Notes:
- compounding is very powerful, make sure a portion is in a compounding interest account
- Stock market - invest in index’s like the S&P 500, don’t invest into mutual funds, so many hidden fee’s that ruin it
- Automatically transfer money from paycheck or bank account into a savings account periodically so you never even see that money
- Try to save at least 15% of your money into a compounding savings account
- advise to get a feduciary (not a meat butcher but a dietician analogy) Anthony recommends these guys: STRWealth
- Get free software that manages your asset allocation
- Make sure to create stop limits, potentially lose a little but gain a lot
- He quotes Warren Buffet: "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1"
- The problem may lie with you and you thinking
- Ray dalio “In your life time it’s almost certain that whatever you’re going to put your money in there will come a day when you will lose 50-70%” - so diversify or die!
- The power of Dollar cost averaging over the time, set it up automatically
- Asset allocation rebalancing - when one soars and the asset allocation is off redistribute so it’s back to equally balanced - increase probability it success - 1-2 times per year depending on you
- Tax loss harvesting?
- Diversify asset classes, markets and time
- Have one short term saving for a car or vacay etc
- Annuities for ppl Over 50
- Get out of anything that goes below the 200 day moving average
- Invest in the 5 to 1 discipline

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Review: The Eye of Minds

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

(1.5 stars) I mean... it had an okay story line and the signature Dashner twist was at the end... I just didn't care much idk. It felt really long.
It was very similar to the movie Ready Player One, I haven't read the book of it yet though.

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Review: The Runaway King

The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book within a day and enjoyed it. Wasn't as good as the first book but that's almost expected of sequels. I was hoping for a bit more but it was still good. I feel like Jaron kept getting side tracked from what his mission was, which isn't very kingly, but he's is new. I don't know what he see's in Imogen, and I don't know why he would practically die for her. And I wanted more of Princess Amarinda in the story, but I'll probably see her more in the last book.

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Review: The Soulforge

The Soulforge by Margaret Weis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it's always a breathe of fresh air when you finally get to read a really good book ^_^
This book reminded me of my fav book of all time The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, just not as good :)
It had lots of character development and interesting plots but not a strong overall plot, I wanted more to it.
Added it to my re-reads-fantasy shelf

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Review: Neverwhere

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book reminded me exactly of JK Rowling's book The Casual Vacancy, and it's just not my cuppa tea. What is this book even about... I got a quarter way through and gave up.

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Review: The False Prince

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good book! It kind of reminded me of a guys version of Throne of Glass :P Where Celaena was trying to become the king's assassin, Sage tries to become the False Prince. Celaena was a bad-ass and Saje is a smart-ass lol Celaena would go snooping around the castle while others were sleeping and so would Saje, always plotting their next moves.
It started out reminding me of Aladdin with being a thief and beggar in the market stealing food from the market.
I enjoyed Sage's character, he was a real smart ass haha And he's a genuinely good person.
I'll be reading the next book!

The reason this book didn't get a 4.5/5 is in this spoiler:
(view spoiler)[
Did Connor really believe he was going to get away with all this?... Even his motive behind it all is pretty weak, for the betterment of the city? Nah I'm not buying it. Also he's so mixed as a character - one minute you think he's good, the next is evil. Where he trains these boys kinda like a father would his son, and then he kills one of the orphans point blank... and kills all those people on the boat including the prince.
(hide spoiler)]


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Review: The Hazel Wood

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 Stars. Beginning was interesting. Living in New York as a kid just trying to fit in and finally settle somewhere. Mystery parents, grandmother, and where grandmother lives.
Middle was okay, kinda weak, and the ending kinda lost me. I know it's geared towards people who like fairytales and wanted to be original but gah, it was just okay.
I got bored at the end sadly.
Melissa Albert definitely has a flare for writing though, she writes like she's stirring a bowl of story with a sprinkle of this and a scoop of that. I like how she writes when the characters think to themselves - seems simple but that's a true art.

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Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

(2.5/5) Gahhhh I almost enjoyed it... ALMOST. After I was half way through though it was just really boring to me... I'm so upset lol
The beginning was interesting, a little bit of repetition on things but it was fine.
But even in the beginning I felt some scenes were headed into a certain direction and then they went the opposite direction and left it and never came back to it. Not in a surprising good way either, a direction that was like huh wait what? lol
There were interesting things on magic and wishes with beads and teeth.

It had a Twilight highschool kind of feel.
It disappointed me similar to Heartless by Marissa Meyer - beginning interesting but then it never really goes anywhere interesting
By the end it had a very similar feel to Fallen by Lauren Kate

I won't be reading the next one sadly =/

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Review: The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I just did not enjoy this book. I'm not really sure why... it had potential, had good moments. It had philosophical thoughts and was imaginative. So many possibilities of life on Mars, so many stories lol Idk it just wasn't my cup of tea. I was hoping for all the stories to come together or over lap or have a strong backbone of a story but it didn't. It was literally multiple stories of life on Mars, that's it. I had higher expectations for this and was disappointed. There were so many moments I was just not engaged and bored and couldn't wait for it to be over.

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