Educated, by Tara Westover
It’s a memoir about growing up in a Mormon and survivalist family. The author was homeschooled as a kid, studied on her own, enrolled in BYU, and ended up in a Ph.D. degree in history.
It’s a haunting book. Education for me (and for most people) means to expand our worldview. But education for her means embraces new information violently. For example, learning about world war 2 for the first time in her freshmen year in college. It’s a thunderstorm of new information, contradictions worldview compare to her past. Her education transformed her into a new person. This transformation is painful because it peels her off from her past. Little by little, she decided to say goodbye to her past, a past she loved. By the end of her education, she found her own voice, and stand in the world anew.
Why we sleep, by Matthew Walker
If I say there is one book changed how I live in 2018, this is the one. The author Matthew Walker is a sleep researcher at UC Berkely. This book is a great summary of the latest scientific discoveries in sleep research. It’s a book full of fascinating facts, stories and useful tips for sleep. The author is passionate about sleep, and I can feel that passion from his writings.
After reading the book, I made these changes to my life
1. Sleeping with an earplug and eye mask on.
2. No heat in the bedroom when I sleep
3. No coffee after 2 pm
4. Started tracking my sleep using this app.
Sleep impact my mental clarity, mood, and physical strength. I value my sleep much more now. It’s a wonderful feeling to change my behavior based on scientific research.
Becoming, by Michelle Obama
It’s an uplifting and personal memorial by Michelle Obama. She opened her book with a story of making a cheese toast at her new home. “In the end, I didn’t just make toast; I made cheese toast…” That made me laugh.
In the book, she reflects and traced her early memories in school, learning piano lessons. She talked about her lack of fulfillment as a professional lawyer in her late 20s and early 30s. She wrote about her difficulties in her marriage, and even her miscarriage.
After reading the book, I found myself surprised by how “normal” she is. I see her struggle and confusion in almost every people I know. When she was the first lady of the United States, she becomes a public figure, and she talked about some of the adjustment she had to make. You can tell from her writing that politic and public life is not something she liked. But she embraced it and made the most out of this experience without losing her own identity. By the end of the book, she talked about the importance of finding your own voice and using your own voice for the good. She is doing exactly that in this book.
PS: This year, I’ve kept the tradition of reading one book a week. Right now I am on book 56. Reading is such a natural part of my life now, and I will definitely keep doing this in 2019. One trend I noticed is how much I read in the form of audiobooks. It’s a wonderful technology that made my time more productive. It freed my eye from straining on small text, and I can enjoy the nature and the environment when I am listening to a book. Joy for me is to put on a pair of shoes, start a new audiobook, and go out for a long walk in the woods over the weekend.
