Share an overview of books you’ve read recently and whether they’re worth adding to your collection.
Hello friends! How is it going? I hope you are having a wonderful morning. It’s been raining a lot here in Tucson and I’ve been having some sweet dreams. I’m looking forward to a cool afternoon walk!
In today’s article, I would like to share an overview of a book I read recently. By the way, reading is at the bottom of my priority list for now. I didn’t have much time to read this year. Because we’re still trying to find the groove of studying from home, working, and holding it down while pilots travel. I am also working on the IHP3 and Peptides for Practitioners courses. When I’m a solo parent, by the time I put the kids to bed and fold the laundry, I almost collapse into bed.
Needless to say, my reading pace has slowed down a bit, but I’ve still been able to read some great books lately.
Here’s a summary of books I’ve read recently and recommendations to add these to your list.
Books I read recently
From here to the great unknown world
I’ve always been a big Elvis fan, and when I was in high school, I admired him the most. (Elvis in his prime, okay? LOL) I’ve always been interested in his life and family, so when I heard about this book written by his daughter Lisa Marie Presley, I was eager to listen to the audio version. It includes clips recorded by Lisa Marie, and is also narrated by Julia Roberts (so good) and Elvis’ granddaughter Riley Keogh.
This book follows Lisa Marie’s extraordinary but eventful life as Elvis Presley’s only child. The film explores fame, identity, addiction, heartbreak, and the deep pain of losing a son. Through Riley’s recollections and the discovery of her mother’s audio tapes, this memoir is an example of resilience and a love letter between mother and daughter. Audio version highly recommended – 9/10
From Amazon:
A month later, Lisa Marie would die, and the world would never know her story in her own words, nor would it ever get to know the passionate, fun, caring, and complex woman Riley loved and now mourns.
Mr. Riley obtained the tapes that his mother had recorded for the book, and as he lay in bed, he listened to Lisa Marie tell stories about crashing golf carts in the Graceland garden, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being alone upstairs. About running towards his body on the floor and dragging him out of the bathroom screaming. Living with her mother in Los Angeles, being forced to go to school after school, always getting kicked out, always getting into trouble. About her unique lifelong relationship with Danny Keogh, her marriage to Michael Jackson, and what they have in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About the ever-present sadness. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these heated, painful memories to the world.
To inform her mother.
This wonderful book, written in the voices of both Lisa Marie and Riley, follows a mother and daughter communicating as they try to heal each other from this life to the next. Deeply moving and deeply enlightening, From Here to the Great Unknown is a one-of-a-kind book, the last words of an American icon’s only child.
aquitect in paris
The Architect of Paris is a beautifully written, suspenseful story set in Nazi-occupied Paris. The film tells the story of Lucien Bernard, a talented architect who is hired to design a secret hiding place for a Jewish family. This job can be deadly if discovered. What begins as a job for extra money quickly becomes something deeper as Lucien’s courage and conscience grow with each risky project. This is a story of courage and redemption, and how ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they choose compassion over fear. This was a great story. I also loved the architectural details throughout. And I loved the ending. 9/10
From Amazon:
1942, Paris. Architect Lucien Bernard accepts a commission that will bring him great wealth, but he may also be sentenced to death. He has to design a secret hiding place for a wealthy Jewish man. It is a space so invisible that even the most determined Nazi soldier cannot discover it. When one of Lucian’s designs goes horribly wrong, the problem of hiding the Jews becomes personal, and he can no longer deny the enormity of his project. What does he owe his peers, and how far will he go to make things right?
when breath becomes air
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is a deeply moving memoir about a talented neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer while building his life and career. He moves from doctor to patient, grappling with the meaning of living and dying, and searching for ways to make life meaningful in the face of death. This book made me think about a lot of things, but despite the very heavy subject matter, it somehow felt fun and light. 10/10
From Amazon:
At age 36, and nearing the end of his 10-year training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating dying patients, the next he was a patient struggling to survive. And just like that, the future he and his wife had envisioned disappeared. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from an innocent medical student “obsessed with the question of what creates a virtuous and meaningful life, given that all living things die,” to a neurosurgeon at Stanford University working in the most important place in human identity: the brain, to a patient coming to terms with his own mortality, and finally to a new father.
What makes life worth living even in the face of death? What do you do when the future is no longer a ladder towards your life’s goals, but flattens into the eternal present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life, while another life is disappearing? These are some of the issues Kalanithi tackles in this deeply moving and exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi passed away in March 2015 while writing this book, but his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “Even in the face of my own mortality, I began to realize that in some ways nothing had changed,” he writes. “Samuel Beckett’s seven words began to repeat in my head: ‘I cannot go on any longer. I will continue.'” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenges of facing death and the relationship between doctor and patient, by a genius writer who became both.
OK Friends: What have you been reading lately? Is there anything you recommend?
I just started reading two new books…my goal is to finish them before the holidays 😉
Shit
Gina
