My Reading List, April 2024

April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 MstldelanoLeave a comment

I just finished a few books recently, and now I’m on to the next set of books to read!

I hope that this new month has been treating you all well. I had a difficult time with my health recently (more about that on Friday) and I decided to lean into more enjoyable, restorative activities to help with that. One of my favorite activities for restoring my energy is reading. Recently, I completed a few books: first, I reread, Write It Down, Make It Happen by Dr. Henriette Anne Klauser. I’m considering doing another review on this, since I had some new revelations while reading it. Secondly, I reread How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb (it seems that March was a good month to reread some of my favorites!). This one I’ll definitely do another review on, since I honestly felt like I was reading it for the first time: it’s been so long since I read this one, and I got so many great takeaways this time! And, as you all know, I finished True Gifts by Jewel Veitch last month, too (I reviewed it here).

Over on my YouTube, I listed the books I’m reading in April. This week, I’ll be finishing up Where The Forest Meets The Stars by Glendy Vanderah. I’ll also be diving into Take Care of Your Type – An Enneagram Guide to Self Care by Christina S. Wilcox. I’m curious about how I can leverage the enneagram to improve my life, so this should be an interesting book to read. I’ll also be reading The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Loving Teens Effectively by Gary Chapman. As the parent of a pre-teen, I’m always looking for ways to deepen and strengthen our communication and connection, and I am a fan of Chapman’s work, so it’ll be great to see what strategies I can try with my child. Finally, I’ll be reading Pause, Rest, Be – Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change by Octavia F. Raheem. The author led a rest practice during ExodUS Summit 2023, and I was very impressed by the exercise. I’ll be replaying the rest practice at least once while I read the book.

Anyhoo, here is the video summarizing my reading list:

What are you reading this month? I’d love to hear what books you’re enjoying right now.

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life curation · reading list

Book Review: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb

March 26, 2018March 23, 2018 MstldelanoLeave a comment

I’m a bit behind with my book reviews, but it’s great to finally get caught up. February’s book selection was “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael J. Gelb.

I enjoyed that this book is broken down into 7 broad concepts, and the author goes to great lengths to describe how da Vinci embodied those concepts

The seven Da Vincian principles – Curiosita (curiosity), Dimostrazione (closely examining beliefs and learning via questioning), Sensazione (fully engaging the senses), Sfumato (embracing uncertainty and ambiguity), Arte/Scienza (balancing between arts and sciences), Corporalita (physical health and fitness), Connessione (understanding relationships between and connection among all things)- are the building blocks for living a genius life. Gelb provides examples from da Vinci’s life, as well as practical exercises, to describe how these principles worked in the past and how we can make these work in the present day.

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I especially appreciated how Gelb provided exercises for embodying the Da Vincian principles at work and while parenting. He took great care to show how these concepts can be applied wholistically. I feel that many books exclude multiple groups in favor of focusing on one particular group. But this is a testament to Gelb’s application of da Vinci’s stance of connessione: all groups are connected, related and at some level inseparable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely reread it! I think I’ll draw upon these concepts for future posts, because I strongly feel that this multidimensional approach to life is crucial. In these times, where change can happen in an instant and we need to be able to respond quickly, I feel there is so much benefit to training ourselves to be the best thinkers that we can be.

Make sure that you check this one out! You won’t regret it!

life curation · reading list

Reading List: February’s Book

January 25, 2018January 18, 2018 MstldelanoLeave a comment

Are you all enjoying The Four Hour Work Week? I know that I am! In fact, I’m really glad for the snow days I had a couple of weeks ago, because it helped me to manage all of the reading I had to do this month.

February’s reading selection should be a great read, though I already know that it’ll be nearly impossible to complete all of the exercises during the month. Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m cheating a bit. You see, I’m already reading this book, along with January’s selection, and another book that was recommended by a mentor. So I’m reading THREE books this month (not an outrageous number for me, but I’m avidly taking notes and plan on discussing each of them, so this is far more tedious than my normal leisurely reading).

The book for February is “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael Gelb. This book is supposed to help us uplevel to the status of genius, through seven simple steps that we can incorporate daily. I’m currently reading for comprehension, but during the month of February, I’ll be reading for implementation and integration into my life.

Have any of you already read “How to Think”? Let me know in the comments, and (without spoilers, please!) let us know what you thought of the book!