Review: Bossypants

Bossypants by Tina Fey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It reminded me a lot of Ali Wong's autobiography. Comedian woman's autobiography of her childhood and how she was born' raised. And there's some funny bit's in there. Ali talks a lot more about sex and butt holes than Tina though lol which can be a good thing.

Tina is upbeat and comical, not hilarious, but funny. She spoke about her childhood, her upbringing, period pads lol her gay friends, beauty, sense of belonging, and her career 30's Rock, SNL, her famous skit impersonating Sarah Palin.

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Review: The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time

The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time by Cameron Díaz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it :) Feels like you're sitting down with Cameron Diaz and she really cares about your well being and wants to help you. I imagine us sitting in her chic apartment overlooking New York with a glass of red wine in our hands and she's teaching me a million things about ageing. (Inspired vision from the movie The Other Woman haha).

She discusses the social and psychological impact of growing older as well as biological statistics and biological scientific facts and explanations on why and how we age and what can go wrong and what to watch out for. She gives great tips all along the way to stay healthy.

The beginning was all about really accepting your age, don't be focused on being vain and how you look because it's all about how you feel and what you radiate into the universe that others find beautiful. You can't compare the beauty of a 60 year old to a 20 year old because it's not apples to apples. Everyone is beautiful in there own way and at their own age.

Stem cells is the future of regenerative health in the future! Stem cells can transform themselves into any cell the body offers! Whichever cell is needed! This is so interesting haha maybe one day we can actually be Shape Shifters and change ourselves into someone or something else. Or at least slow or stop the aging process.

A positive attitude in general increased your life expectancy, especially if you're positive about the ageing process.

Zygotes and cellular respiration and cell duplication and antioxidants oh my..

This book shows all the possible degenerative diseases (osteoporosis), cancers (breast cancer), etc that women are specifically at risk for and at what age.

Ultimately if you eat balanced nutritious meals, exercise, don't smoke, get restful sleep, don't stress too much, and are socially connected on a daily basis you'll live a healthy long life :) If you have a nice genome too :P

This book is like a textbook and I'm a student in Mrs. Diaz's class haha This past chapter was all on menopause. 99% of the chapter on menopause I had no idea about so that was really interesting.

STOP SMOKING

Manage stress by meditating daily. There's many types of meditation and it's important to find the one that suits you. Clear your mind from the constant chatter about past and future and just be in the now.

Learning and new experiences help the brain to grow, develop and to prevent Alzheimer's and dementia. So go learn a new language, go travel, try axe throwing lol keep that brain actively creating new neurons and neurotransmitters and synapses. Oh and listen and play music too ;P

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Review: Boy: Tales of Childhood

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you're a fan of the Roald Dahl children's books you should definitely read this book!

His life from England to Norway to Africa was an interesting one!
How different life was back then! I'm so glad I never had to go to boarding school.
Roald in his childhood was quite the trouble maker and has some funny stories.
Even through Roald's autobiography I just love how Roald describes people, he really makes anyone into really unique characters.

He tells a funny mouse story where he stuck a dead mouse into a mean old crabby lady's candy store gobstopper candy jar. From sneaking goat poop into his "ancient-sisters" lovers pipe and putting tobacco on top. To getting lashed from "god sent salesmen" of the church.

Cadbury use to send the boys a box of different chocolates and they had to write back their feedback on each one. Roald imagined working for Cadbury and coming up with most brilliant chocolate inventions. Thus sprouting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

I had no idea a fag was an English public-school boy who acts as servant to an older schoolmate... he was kinda looked as an inferior and they would shout for them FAAAAAAAG lol... and then of course America took it to a whole different direction"

Athletes were the demigods, the chosen few." But poor Roald was never made School Boazer or even House Boazer, even though he was Team Captain for the junior and senior Fives team, squash-racquets. And to pile glory upon glory, I was in the school football team as well. lol well he didn't want to be a Boazer anyways.

Roald loved his job after schooling "Most of my companions wore hard bowler hats, and a few like me wore soft trilbys, but not one of us on that train in the year of 1934 went bareheaded. It wasn't done. And none of us, even on the sunniest days, went without his furled umbrella. The umbrella was our badge of office. We felt naked without it. Also it was a sign of respectability. Road-menders and plumbers never went to work with umbrellas. Businessmen did"


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Review: How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(3.5/5 stars) This book is so interesting and entertainingly funny lol Randall Munroe is someone you hope to meet at a party and get to laugh at his jokes while at the same time he teaches you things XD

Really odd random questions providing scientific answers. You learn some random scientific facts along the way. They're questions you'd never ask but once you hear it you want to know the answer. Some of the questions are kinda boring lol but overall this book is entertaining and interesting

"How to land a plane" was probably the funniest one, where he questions the first Canadian astronaut to land on the moon.

"How to play the piano" was pretty interesting because he talks about sound and how humans and animals hear certain wavelengths.

"How to take a selfie" XD Because of camera perspectives Randall gives the example of taking a picture of the giant moon in the sky being tiny in the picture.

"How to accurately hit a drone" lmao he actually called upon Serena Williams to see how many shots it would take to hit the drone with a tennis ball (3 lol)."

"How to Dispose of this Book" was the last one lol

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Review: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great book! Basically prioritize your most important task first and do it until it's done. Prepare your next day and week in advance. For large tasks break them into bite size pieces with deadlines. Find out what you're good at and develop other skills needed. Develop urgency and motivation to do the tasks.

21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done:

1. set the table - write out goals and objectives
2. plan out your next day and week
3. apply 80/20 rule to everything, focus on the 20
4. prioritize goals
5. ABCDE method - before you work on tasks organize by value and priority and work on your most important activities first
6. focus on key result areas - identify those that you have to do
7. practice law of efficiency
8. prepare thoroughly before you begin
9. upgrade your skills
10. leverage your special talents
11. identify key constraints - alleviate them
12. one task at a time
13. put the pressure on yourself
14. maximize personal powers
15. motivate yourself into action
16. practice creative procrastination
17. do most difficult task first
18. break large and daunting tasks into small bite size pieces
19. create large blocks on time to focus
20. develop urgency
21. most important task first and until that's done don't do anything else


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Review: The Three Questions

The Three Questions by Barbara Emrys (author) Don Miguel Ruiz (author)
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that really allows you to absorb the meaning of life and ask yourself simple, but very important questions. In doing so, you will discover what you really are and who you are not. It teaches you how to love yourself again as you did when you were a child and to love unconditionally.

3 questions:
1. Who I am?
2. What is real?
3. What is love?

In order to answer these questions properly we need to know:
1. Who we are not
2. What is not real
3. What is not love.

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Review: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've wanted to read this book since it came out in theatres in 2001 XD Almost 20 years ago!!!

I'm glad I read it because I learned so much more about the characters, the world, the journey, and the history of the ring.

Unlike The Hobbit this book had sooooo much more than the movie! Mostly the beginning and end of this book differed the most from the movie.
The beginning was much more dense in this book of how the hobbits left the shire and the beginnings of their journey.
I wish Tom Bombadil was at least in the movie! I loved his character along with his loving beautiful wife Goldberry.
And whereas the movie ends at Gandalf falling, there's about 20% left of the book still to go after that point. We're taken to the beautiful world of Lothlorien, meeting Galadriel, the ships, the river, and the breaking of the fellowship of the ring where Boromir unwillingly turns even and wants the ring for himself. He scares off Frodo and Frodo realizes he must do this journey alone. Yet Sam figures out where he's headed and heartfeltly joins him on the boat - into the next book!

The middle of the book I sadly found verrrrrry long, overly political, and it was too much to learn in one sitting! I felt at multiple occasions I needed a breather just to let everything sink in lol.

Definitely a re-read lol Also marked as one of my favourite Fantasy novels of all time ;) <3

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Review: Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

From the author that brought you Tuesday's with Morrie you will also enjoy this book Finding Chika. Has the same sentimental life values and life lessons that go along with both books.

Finding Chika was interesting, sweet, and sad. It's about cherishing those that you love, valuing innocence, not giving up hope, and fighting.

Mitch and his wife Janine created an orphanage center in Haiti after the tragic earthquake because so many children were left unable to take care of themselves. They fall in love with Chika and take her back home to America. They sadly learn that she has brain cancer and a disease and the doctors say she only has a few months to live. But they fight the cancer and disease and she lives on for much lnger and fights. This story is about her fight and how Mitch and Janine coped with loving someone they knew they wouldn't get to hold onto forever. Mitch and Janine were late in having kids of their own so they saw Chika as their own daughter in a way and loved her dearly.

As Mitch writes this book Chika appears every once and a while to push him to keep writting and keep going and it gives him the strength he needed to write this book.

In the audiobook there's times where there's cute recordings of Chika which was really sweet.

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Review: Dirty Billionaire

Dirty Billionaire by Meghan March
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hot scenes, meh story, meh characters.

Innocent country singer chick trying to make it big meets successful hotshot hottie 50 Shades (but not kinky 50 Shades). Enough said lol That's basically the story right there haha.

Creighton is pretty hot though. He's that asshole/hot/confident/get what he wants type of guy.

Holly is the innocent girl who loves to sing and who just wants a quick and easy one night stand.

After the one night stand Creighton ends up really liking Holly and finds her special. I have many issues with where this story goes but hey it's a romance novel I don't think women read it for the story lol

The sexy scenes were pretty sexy :P

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Review: The Unhoneymooners

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

5% into this book and I was pretty accurate on what was going to happen for the remainder of the book =/ Which makes it a pretty boring read lol but the jokes and awkwardness in between was mildly entertaining. Very predictable and simple concept story but all in it was alright.

(view spoiler)[
Status update 5% in:
"Fat chick with jealousy towards her happy successful twin sister and also subconscious embedded love and admiration towards the attractive muscle hottie but really she "dispises him and thinks he's an egotistical jerk" hmmm surrrrrreeeee..."
(hide spoiler)]

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Review: The Queen of Nothing

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such a great series!!! <3 Definitely a re-read.

I love the fairytale world and all the very unique characters! I can definitely see this series turn into a movie and I cannot wait!

This books had pretty nice plot twists and turns which I enjoyed, you never know who to fully trust.

The ending was alright, I can live with it but it could have been better. In fact I was expecting more lol But it's okay I still really enjoyed it.

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Review: Dave Ramsey's Complete Guide to Money: The Handbook of Financial Peace University

Dave Ramsey's Complete Guide to Money: The Handbook of Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a great way to learn a little about a lot of financial topics, great for beginners or for people with financial issues. It simplifies things into layman terms so that the average Joe would be able to understand.

Notes:
Marriage counselors tell us that couples who can agree on four major issues have a much higher probability of a successful marriage.
Those 4 things are religion (shared household faith), in-laws (boundaries, influence, etc.), parenting, and money.

Diversify a little further by spreading your investments out over four different kinds of mutual funds. I tell people to put 25% in each of these four types:
1. growth
2. growth and income
3. aggressive growth
4. international

- Growth stock mutual funds are sometimes called mid-cap or equity funds. Mid-cap refers to the fund’s capitalization, or money. So, a mid-cap fund is a medium-sized company. These are companies that are still in the growth stage; that’s why it’s called a growth stock fund. - Growth and income mutual funds are the calmest funds of the bunch. These are sometimes called large-cap funds, because they include large, well-established companies. These funds usually don’t have wildly fluctuating values. That’s good and bad; they won’t shoot up as much when the market’s up, but they also won’t fall as much when the market’s down. These are basically slow-moving, lumbering dinosaurs.
- Aggressive growth mutual funds are the exciting wild child of mutual funds. They represent small companies (so they’re often called small-cap funds), and these are active, emerging, exciting companies. This is the roller coaster of mutual funds. There will be really high highs, and probably some really low lows. I had one back in the 1990s that had a 105 percent rate of return one year, then lost it all the next year. You absolutely don’t want to put all your money here, but you need some aggressive funds in your plan.
- International mutual funds are sometimes called overseas funds, and they represent companies outside the United States. I recommend putting a fourth of your investments in international funds for two reasons. First, you get to participate in the growth of some foreign products that you probably already enjoy; and second, it adds another layer of diversification just in case something weird and unexpected happens to the U.S. stock market.

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Review: Tramps Like Us, Volume 2

Tramps Like Us, Volume 2 by Yayoi Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love this series <3 Gah and the drawings are so great ^.^

This book wasn't assssssss good as the first volume but it's still the same premise the series is playing around with. I think real true feelings are really stating to happen between the two of them now and there's no going back.

I don't own the rest of the series so I'll have to run to Indigo :P

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Review: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Marking as one of my favourite self help/personal development books!!!

I got so much from this book and it's permanently impacted my life. It was slightly repetitive but it was just really zoning in on the points.

This is definitely a re-read so that I can take notes and study it more.

Just off the top of my head here are some of my take aways:
- Be growth-minded not fixed-minded. Fixed minded is when you believe people were born with innate talents and skills and they can't develop/learn/grow. While the growth mind set is about becoming anything or anyone you want and learning and growing into the person you want to be.
- Every human is born into a set of genetic code from their parents and has experiences which can or need not define them. You can change how you act and the decisions you make if you want to, it will just take some effort and work
- Lots of great information on how to raise your children in this book. How certain praises actuakly do harm instead of your intended good praise. Like saying "Oh wow Billy you got 100% on your test? That means you made no mistakes that's great! You're so smart." This instill fear into Billy's mind that he should try his best not to make mistakes in the future or else he will not be "smart." And children feed off of the praise their parents give them so this is so crucial. It's better to talk about their effort instead of judging them. Instead say " Oh wow Billy you got 100% on your test? You must have worked really hard and studied, I'm so proud of your efforts."
- Shyness was also an interesting aspect of this book because if you are a shy person that basically means that you are more so fixed-minded because you find judgement of other people important to you. If you were growth minded then you would focus n working on your shyness and uncomfortableness to improve yourself instead of just defining yourself as shy and that's the end of it.
- When you are raised by judgemental family it can influence you to become fixed-minded.

Carol S. Dweck is a smart cookie, I look forward to her future publications ;)

"the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.""

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Review: Tramps Like Us, Vol. 1

Tramps Like Us, Vol. 1 by Yayoi Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love the story and the characters Violet and Momoooooo.

Momo is a cute guy and he's Violet's pet. She takes good care of him by petting him, bathing him, resting his head on her lap, feeding him lol it's pretty funny but it's really sweet.

Violet is a hard working career woman who can never let her guard down with people so she's very lonely. Momo fills her need by making her feel cared about and wanted.

Love the drawings of females, sooooo pretty :) the eyes, hair, jaw lines, and the guys are good too.

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