October 2024 Reads

I read six books in October, two of which were short poetry books. Here is a blurb of each of the books I read in October.

“Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World” is a Christian book written by Jennie Allen and is filled with stories, science-based insights, and practical ideas for building deep community. I had several takeaways from this book, but here are just a few.

5 out of 5 stars

“We’re all just kind of waiting for connection to find us. We’re waiting for someone else to initiate and be there for us. We’ve replaced intrusive, real conversations with small talk, and we’ve substituted soul-bearing, deep, connected living with texts and a night together every once in a while. Quit waiting for people to reach out to you. Start initiating and asking people the questions you wish they’d ask you.”

Factors to look for in friendships include availability, humility, proximity, transparency, consistency, accountability to others, and a shared purpose.

Some ideas for building friendships:

• invite friends to bonfires
• plan get togethers
• intentional, active listening
• affirm your friends
• ask your friends about the highs and lows of their week
• join a club
• ask deep questions
• listen
• share the real stuff

“A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota” is a collection of stories of what it’s like to live as a person of color in Minnesota, was published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, and was edited by Sun Yung Shin.

4 out of 5 stars

Here are some quotes that stood out to me:

“[People] unconsciously believe you are unfit to mother your own child simply because you are a Black woman.”

“Sometimes I catch myself staring at my son, wondering what he is going to do when someone gives him a piece of paper with boxes on it and asks him to check the box saying who he is – if he is going to pause before marking “Black.” As I do. Because Black is not a race.”

“To be a Korean adoptee in Minnesota is to be both hypervisible and invisible at the same time. It means that people can tell you they don’t see you as Korean as if that is a compliment.”

“If My Flowers Bloom” is a Button Poetry book of poems by Deshara Suggs-Joe, a queer, Black poet and visual artist. These poems were about desire, and many were sexual in nature. Honestly, this book was not one I enjoyed. I have included a snippet of my favorite poem from the book.

2 out of 5 stars

“ex traction” is a Button Poetry book of poems by Lara Coley, a San Francisco poet and educator who has taught creative writing and ESL in juvenile detention centers, schools, universities, and mental health treatment centers. Lara’s poems sharply dissect love relationships, and many are abuse and loving emotionally unavailable men.

4 out of 5 stars

Here are some snippets:

“How do you love so softly, so gently, so quietly, with your hand so tightly cradled around my throat?”

“We were lying on my bed and I asked him why, in our two years together, he’d never told me he loved me. He said he didn’t need to, that everyone knew. Een Jessica knows, he said. Well, good for her, I said. Good for Jessica.”

“She is wearing your affection like a coat, tailored to fit her. I remember stretching your love around my shoulders like a misshapen shovel that would never cover any parts of me that needed warmth.”

“Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture is Bad for Business – and How to Fix It” was written by Malissa Clark, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology at the University of Georgia. Malissa is also a recognized expert on the topics of workaholism, overwork, burnout, and employee well-being. I highly recommend this book and will post about it in more detail sometime.

5 out of 5 stars

This book was filled with helpful information. This book covered signs of workaholic behavior, how to counteract workaholic behavior, the main components of workaholism, specific signals of workaholic culture within an organization, overwork assessments, and questions to ask after you get a job offer. Here are some of my many take-aways.

The most direct way to figure out what’s valued in a culture isn’t to listen to what people say is important. It’s to pay attention to who gets rewarded and promoted to leadership roles. Groups elevate people who represent their principles and advance their goals.

Here are some signs of workaholic behavior:

• rumination – always thinking about work
• overcommitment – always taking on too much and not knowing limits
• busyness – always doing – unstructured time feels uncomfortable
• perfectionism – nothing is ever good enough
• poor delegation
• poor scoping – underestimating how long it will take to do something
• catastrophizing

3 questions to ask after you get a job offer to learn about the culture (courtesy of Work Life with Adam Grant):

• Tell me about something that happens here that wouldn’t happen elsewhere.
• Tell me about a time when people didn’t walk the talk here.
• Tell me a story about who gets hired, promoted, and fired around here.

“All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive” was written by Rainesford Stauffer, an author, journalist, and speaker. This book contained a thoughtful exploration of ambition. Although this book contained several ramblings, there were some great takeaways.

4 out of 5 stars

So many modern ideas of ambition are rooted in work-related self-development, self-improvement, and career mobility, but ambition isn’t just about work. For those of us who feel that our performance at work – or our ambition – is the most valuable, worthiest, and most significant part of us, and thus, the most important part of our lives, we lose ourselves at the center of our stories.

Two primary sources of influence of our self-concept are our childhood experiences and our evaluation by others. Evaluation is ambition’s sidekick. Ambition is often registered as achievement.

Don’t let the world place limits on your ambition. Our efforts, time, imagination, and care can be oriented toward what matters to us most deeply in the face of a world that’s screaming to-do lists at us. Ambitions can be demonstrated in your hobbies, your values, how you care for yourself, your contributions to your community and causes, your friendships, etc.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Think about your unrésuméd self – What are the things that actually fill you up that no one cares about, or you can’t put on your resume?
• Who came up with this aspiration? Is it my idea or something random I thought I should aspire to?
• What resources does it take to be ambitious about this, and is it worth it?
• What does this ambition serve? It is me, a loved one, or something I care deeply about, or just an arbitrary marker of success?
• How can the personal definitions we have of ambition expand?

I look forward to reading, learning, and sharing more with you soon!