This is one of those books that you just read and are like; yes, these things do happen to real people. One of the most frankly told memoirs about the real life of Sarah Hepola, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget is a book that will dive deep into many societal issues that ail us in the 21st Century such as addiction, cynism, misogyny and how the society expect us to handle it all. This book reveals, creatively and laughably, yet still very serious, the devastating effect of alcohol addiction in a modern-day woman who seeks to affirm her place in the society. Some few things that stood out for me as a male reader in this book include the deep struggle that women go through to try to make an impact in a male-dominated society and how they sometimes get themselves in awful ‘manly’ behaviors in an attempt to certify themselves as strong but end up losing all the strength in their femininity.

A common occurrence in modern times is women desiring to be cool, fit in and be empowered by picking up all the bad habits in men. These women will never hide their wine or drinking habits. They would take shots and be praised for it. This memoir talks of how this drug equality affects women; about the impact drinking as one of the boys has on women.

The author clearly shows how the different perceptions of women and alcohol affected her drinking making her an unruly addict, and how this habit can affect other women. The book carefully explores how young women are encouraged by their peers to drink excessively and how the blame persists even for all the things that go wrong within the drinking spree. Sarah reveals how much she struggled and used alcohol to fit in even in her first job where she drank with her colleagues almost every evening. With the habit of going for beers after work, she felt empowered because it was not feminine to do such an activity and she was breaking the norm.

By adopting such behavior that is perceived by culture as hyper-masculine, women want to be taken seriously and considered equal. Women do the same in other places. Sarah Hepola points out the electric suits or short hair that are popular with power-conscious women. Our culture undermines what is considered feminine and promotes what is considered masculine. There are a lot of problems with this power plays and deficiency associations, but the important thing this book highlights is that what alcohol does to women’s bodies is just not what it does to men’s bodies and Sarah Hepola goes into this in detail. In reality, women get drunk faster than men, which means women get drunk more easily and eventually black out way faster. This puts women on the path of predators such as rapists and other people who prey on drunk women- and there are lots of them.

This book led me to see that the reality of women and alcohol has changed in the 21st century, and cultural narratives have totally changed. Women no longer drink in private to alleviate their secret feminine discomfort in a rather masculine world. They drink heavily and take pride in themselves because they want to be empowered and taken seriously and yes until they are considered cool. While we can talk about finding more ways to empower, I think it is also important that as a culture we strive to stop putting negative masculine traits on women. Things should be respected based on their impact on the world and not on the gender of the perpetrator. Young women should no longer feel compelled to act like a man when men and women are treated equally. All these toxic masculinity, I dare say, also affects men and their drinking habits too. If you think guys don’t drink too much to hype their masculinity, you are terribly mistaken. Men are equally pressured by society to drink more as a masculine trait. How devastating!!

Everyone has thought of it: How do I start my business successfully? And how has it been done in the past? Have multi-million entrepreneurs ever undergone the start-up journey? In this amazing book by Jessica Livingston, we get to hear the intimate stories of start-up founders and how the journey was for them to get to their millionaire status with firms that employ thousands of employees. From big names such as Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Mitch Kapor (Lotus), we get an inside look at the intricacies of starting a business and watching it grow through all stages- sometimes to levels that they had not anticipated. In simple terms, this is a memoir for all entrepreneurs to take a leap of faith, and who knows, they might ultimately become the next big thing.

This book, published in 2001, has sometimes been referred to as the ‘Entrepreneur bible’ because of just how much impact it has had on different individuals all over the world. It is one of those books that gets you pumped up for your next big business. As an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, I would recommend you reading this book before you begin your business. Either way, if you have already kickstarted the business, this is still an ideal place to draw insights from if you want your business to ever be a Billion Dollar Company. There are a few things that stood out for me from the entire book that seems to have cut across all experiences of this millionaire businesspeople and are probably the reasons why this book is a best seller.

1. Rejection is a must

We have probably heard it before and taken it for granted but all great ideas were at some point rejected. Even these big business names were rejected several times as start-ups. It is amazing just how much investors can be blind to a brilliant idea and this is one of the most reverberated aspects of this book across all the multiple testimonies by the billionaire businessmen interviewed. Therefore, do not expect a smooth sail as a businessman. You will be rejected often, and this book does emphasize it.

2. Perseverance separates the chaff

Another key issue that is highlighted in this book is the need to persevere while you are starting out in your entrepreneurship journey. Most of the testimonials from these billionaire entrepreneurs emphasize on the high probability of almost losing all hope. However, the book reminds us, through the interviews, that when you want to give is, is probably the time you are closest to success. As an entrepreneur, Founders at Work reminds us that you can never really succeed in business if you give up way too easily. The sail is not smooth.

3. Most work happens in the beginning

In all the greatest entrepreneur stories, the founders testify to spending sleepless nights and working sometimes above 20 hours a day. When the business starts in a dorm room or even a tiny office and there are only 3 employees, that is when the work is the most. Compared to a multi conglomerate with 1,000 employees, start-ups have single individuals managing entire departments. Therefore, Founders at Work reminds us that more than just the fancy we see after companies succeed, there is the hard work stage often characterized by exhausted by ambitious individuals.

This great gem by first-time author Jessica Livingston uses one of the most creative ways to get the message home. If you want to understand the entrepreneur journey, what better way to do it than to read words from the horse’s mouth.

We have all thought about it: Why do we behave how we behave and which factors have affected us so drastically yet so imperceptibly that when we do the most involuntary of things, they can still be traced back to a particular motivation? This exciting science of understanding behavior, character, and motivations is well documented in this exciting book by Robert Sapolsky. This 2017 non-fiction novel has been hailed as one of the most daring, investigates human behavior carefully summed up into a single book. Interestingly, this book provides insurmountable insights to a professor of neuroscience as well as to a novice who just wants to know the basic understanding of behavior. So, what exciting insights exist in this book, and why do some Wall Street Journal reviewers say ”It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read”?

For starters, the book is written by a celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist. Robert Sapolsky has taken his time to research on this field of study extensively. This book is a landmark, world-changing look into human behavior on both ends of the spectrum both good and bad, and everything in between. In simple terms, Sapolsky seeks to simply answer the question: Why do we do what we do?

One interesting aspect is Sapolsky’s mode of storytelling. His premise is quite delightful mixing severe and scientific logic with warm and hearty storytelling. He begins by examining everything that affects a person’s reaction in the exact moment a certain behavior occurs, and then reversely goes back, through several stages, to the genesis of this particular involuntary reaction to a certain thing which inadvertently forms human behavior. In the long run, Sapolsky ultimately ends up at the very beginning, through our deep evolutionary legacy and the history of the human species.

Therefore, the writer starts his explanation of human biology through neurobiology. When a behavior occurs; a positive reaction, a negative reaction, or anything in between is visible to the human eye. Is there something that, however, went on in a person’s brain just a second before the behavior occurred? Then Sapolsky also examines that slightly beforehand, something happened that must have influenced that reaction and behavior. Maybe a smell, sight, or even sound, caused the nervous system to produce that behavior. Also, some biological triggers such as hormones could have acted hours to days earlier to influence the response that occurred because of that stimuli. As it stands now, as you read the book, the author has greatly expanded your scope of vision making us think broader about endocrinology, neurobiology, and the impact of our environment on our most involuntary behaviors.

But that is not all, the author further takes us deeper to understand behavior. Did preceding structural changes in the nervous system affect the behavior? Changes such as physical trauma, adolescence, or childhood? And what about genetic make-up and structure? Finally, Sapolsky brings into focus events beyond the individual such as society and culture. What ecological factors influenced the formation of that culture? Finally, what evolutionary factors, which might be millions of years old, influenced certain cultural tendencies and behaviors?

When it’s all said and done, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst is one of the best rides through human psychology that anyone can ever take. The author uses scientific research with proven methodologies to try and dissect one of the scariest questions of human existence: Why do we behave how we behave? And in this, we are forced to deal with some of society’s most crucial yet thorny subjects including morality, free will, war, peace, corruption, discrimination, democracy, and a host of other issues.

Very few books tell a story of redemption as well as Schindler’s Ark. It is no mistake that this book has been adapted into a film that has been rated to be one of the greatest films ever made. My tears still well up when I read this book as it reminds me of how broken our world is and just how much the efforts of one man can change the world. Luckily, I read the book before I watched the film and I must say, the film does so much justice to the book. The movie retells an already beautiful book so meticulously it is almost impossible to tell it is the same story as well as it being hard to differentiate the same story. That is how beautiful this book is.

Schindler’s Ark (later known as Schindler’s List) is the story of Oskar Schindler- a drunk, womanizing, very smooth-talking individual who later became a hero that would never be forgotten to this very day. Because of his social and charming personality, Oskar enjoyed the good life socializing with the commanders at the Nazi concentration camp during the 2nd World War. However as Auschwitz concentration camp turned into a killing camp for Jews, he risked his own life severally trying to protect the lives of the then outcasted Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia. In the course of this brave yet dangerous endeavour, he was several times arrested but luckily found a way to always outwit the Nazi Regime. Oskar is famed or saving the lives of over a thousand Jews who would have otherwise died under the hands of the regime then.

As I write this, you might think this is just another ordinary book about heroism, but here are 3 things that stood out for me in this book that will make me remember it for the rest of my life.

Not all heroes wear caps

With the advent of comic books and superhero films, we have been made to believe that as a superhero one should wear caps. Well, unlike Superman, Batman, or Thor, Oskar was a superhero to many yet he did not wear a cap. He was a simple man whose heart was all that he needed to function for him to make a difference. In his attempt to do what his heart told him to do, Oskar ended up being a legend. A Beverly Hills bag-seller known as Leopold Page, for a long time tried to persuade Hollywood to make a film about the man who had saved his wife and him from the Nazis. When he found Thomas Keneally he finally knew someone is going to tell the story of his favorite superhero.

One man can make a difference

Although we have been led to believe that it takes an entire generation to make a change, this book reminds us of the effect that a single man can have on an entire generation, and of generations to come. Oskar’s simple decision and the risk he decided to take not only saved the lives of thousands but also inspire millions to this day to take risks. When one man stands for the truth, though he may be going against what is normal at that time, he will be remembered for ages to come. That is the impact of one man.

This is just one of those books that you need to read to understand how blessed you are to have freedom, liberty, and life. It also reminds us of the impact you can have for your generation when you stand for the truth.

When someone talks of Shona Rhimes, we all think of acclaimed, award-winning television show creator, writer, and executive producer. Well-known for her hit show ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and its spin-off ‘Private Practise’ as well as legal dramas ‘Scandal’ and ‘How to get away with murder’, Shonda Rhimes has outdone herself over and over again. And she is not just a television show creator and does not just write screenplays, she is also an acclaimed novelist, and today we want to focus on her book, Year of Yes. When you want to understand the power of positivity and female power, then this is the book for you. So, grab a pen and notebook and let me take you down the path of the 4 greatest lessons you can learn as a woman, or as a person just basically trying to make it through an unfair world with hidden opportunities.

1. Say Yes to your physique

Rhimes admits to have had challenges with her physical appearance. Her weight has been an issue that scarred her emotions and esteem for a long time. She often used to say Yes to her overeating and though that that would help her hide what was really disturbing her inside. She then changed her eating habits and started living healthy. In her book, she advocates that no one should ever judge you by how you look but you need to make deliberate changes to love yourself, not by necessarily transforming yourself to what the society says, but by embracing the best version of yourself. Say yes to your physique.

2. Say Yes to Your Voice

Shonda Rhimes admits to always being the person who preferred to have a silent voice and not really air what she felt was wrong and how she thought it could be handled. Of course, she admits that at times certain voices propagate lies and division. But her desire to have her voice heard was even propagated through Grey Anatomy’s Christina Yang who ended up saying everything that Shonda was at times never confident enough to say. It took Rhimes a lot of effort to graduate herself from using Yang’s character to ultimately using her voice. Her advice to you is you do not have to have an award-winning show to air your voice, just use the platform available, no matter how small it is.

3. Say Yes to Being the No Person

Shonda admits in her book that for a long time she was the person who feared so much for societal acceptance and having friends around her, that she often did not have the strength to say no, even to decisions that could damage her. This eventually caused her a lot of pain and made her make bad decisions that needed a lot fo work to rectify. Shonda advices her readers to learn to say no when it matters the most. Have difficult and uncomfortable conversations whenever you need to. You will appreciate yourself later on for doing that.

4. Say Yes to genuine relationships

We often put up masks to fit in- get this from a billionaire celebrity who is friends with the likes of Obama. In her debut book, Shonda categorically reminds us to say yes only to true friendships. There is nothing worse than thinking someone has got your back as a friend, or family, only to be crushed when you need them the most. Be a good friend, and only trust the real versions of people.

From a person who creates fictional characters for a living, Shonda did a superb job in being herself in this novel. She delved into deep aspects of herself and her struggles that will impact millions from all over the world.

 As A Man Thinketh is not an outdated book. James Allan did this work in 1903 but it has remained to be one of the greatest books. Every motivational speaker quotes it. He has tried to put the book simple and short so that everyone can read it. Within a few minutes, you can learn his teachings and grasp them easily. If you put into practice this advice, you will get very positive results. He shows that everything happening around you is controlled by your thoughts. You have the key to every condition bad or good that is part of your life. It is one of the cheapest books which can even fit in your pocket. You can even read it within one hour and create a positive attitude

This title is inspired by a bible verse from the books of Proverbs 23:7. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” If you want to become powerful, achieve your dreams like starting your first company. Many motivational talks and blogs will give you steps to follow like a drug prescription. Allen’s book helps you realize how much power you already possess. This review will show you how your thoughts control everything, from starting a business, running it, relating with people, your character, your artwork, and everything revolving around your life. By the end of this summary, you will give yourself freedom. You will learn that your mind is a garden, your thinking can make you older and why you need to be a dreamer.

We can change our lives by mastering our thoughts. 

One puzzling question is what makes up human beings, but simply we are our thoughts. Everything coming from us is the product of what is growing from our thoughts just like how a plant sprout from a tiny seed. This whole pattern of thoughts builds a character. Personality and character are developed by our thoughts. Altitude relies on your attitude and action and attitude are closely related. Those people who attain little results in their lives think very little of themselves and they always think they are small. You heard the story of the two teams in the bible who were sent to survey the promised land. The first team said the land has owners who look like giants and they are like grasshoppers to them. The second team said that the land is fertile and full of honey and milk. This is how minds shape our character and if we change our thought, we change our character. This can be achieved by working on our thoughts which helps us achieve Divine Perfection. Having disorganized thoughts can put you in deep trouble.

We should shape the world too.

We tend to blame our failures on something, and we are guilty of it. It makes us feel okay but drags us back. We forget our external factors are connected to our character but it not the way you think. As we shape the world it shapes us too. The kind of situations we end up in shapes our character. Remember there are people with a heart of gold. Sometimes changing someone’s character is not easy.

Positive thoughts are determined by your better health and other goals

How much you sleep, heart rate, headaches and lack of exercise can be a result of poor thoughts. Focusing your thoughts on a specific goal will give you an excellent result. If you want better results direct your thoughts to feel better and positive about a specific goal. Let go of all thoughts that you feel are negative.

Lastly, We control our success, Have a big dream

Let’s remember we are also to blame for our failures. If we think we are small, we will always be small in everything, but we are the ones who can free ourselves. We should not forget our ideals and values. We should also keep our dreams alive like Christopher Columbus who dreamed of the world and discovered America.

Master your thoughts and you will change your character and life around you. You will achieve all that you dream of if your thoughts are positive. You will also unlock yourself and discover the quality world.

Humanity is one of the mysteries in the universe which no one has a conclusion. The sapiens book explains the major human revolutions which are the current scientific revolution which started about 500 years ago, The agriculture revolution which dates back 10,000 years ago and the cognitive revolution which is estimated to have started around seventy years ago. These revolution changes have helped humans discover themselves, create solutions to their daily solutions and expand more than life has provided. This revolution has led to growth in politics, capitalism, and religion. These theories have helped man to overcome the challenge of Natural selection and helped him to survive. 

This Sapiens book was written by Yuval Noah Harari which wad first published in Israel with the Hebrew language in 2011 and later in English in 2014. The writer is trying to explain what does it mean to be a human. He has brought the humanities and science together to get insight and try to explain what is humankind. In 443 pages, you can learn a lot and come out with so many takeouts. Let me discuss some here which come out clearly in the book. 

One thing Yuval has painted is we are humans but we are not the only humans. We are homo sapiens or intelligent or wiser humans as we immodestly consider ourselves and we are one in many species that have come across the earth. The sapiens ancestors may behave eliminated the Neanderthal species forty thousand years ago for them to adapt and live freely. These species may have bigger brains than our ancestors. 

We the Sapien human species are the only ones remaining. Something interesting is that Europeans and Middle Eastern have complicated status of Homo Sapiens because they are not pure Homo sapiens according to the book. They may be as a result of interbreeding of species of Neanderthal and sapiens and they may make up four percent of Neanderthal genes. This means there are no mixed race but mixed species. 

First insight we have the myth-makers which is an idea that separated sapiens from other species. Sapiens take advantage of how they make a myth through language for communication with others and imagination. This helps them figure alternatives and possibilities to survive. This theory helps them rule the world, organize themselves to gather resources and cooperation in different activities. Myths form the basic to glue the Sapiens together. Cognitive Revolution is the process which helps in genetic mutation to help these powers of speech and imagination develop. 

Second, we have the Intersubjectively laws which are our shared ‘intersubjective’ myths. These include money, laws, gods, Morals, patriarchy, and drawing of boundaries to make partitioned countries. If you want to understand humans study the intersubjective myths they have in common. 

Third, we have brands that come up as powerful intersubjective Myths. We have so many brands names products that are not physical nor do they exist. These brands are fiction but they mean a lot to humans. They are powerful because they help humans in production. 

Fourth we have fictions like money which is just a piece of paper in which everyone believes it has value but it has none but gives humans peace of mind. 

If you read the book you will come across other insights like if you want to change the world change the myth an example is culture. Another insight is Culture forbids and Biology solves, The law of the few which makes producers enjoy less and consumers more, How happiness happens, We are superhumans and the last insight is how Sapiens will end by the development of transhuman. 

This is perhaps one of my best book explaining the revolution of humankind. It good for researchers and historians. 

This is one of the best selling nonfiction books written by Jon Krakauer. The writer is one of the climbers of Mount Everest which ended with a disaster where eight were killed and several others swept by a storm while other summits were starting. This was happening during the season when climbing is considered to be dangerous. The writer who is being consulted for climbing adventure and expedition is the narrator of the book. They are in the summit of the mountain too exhausted tired and happy of what they are about to accomplish. They start climbing down but the unfortunate happens as the storms start to form and to make the matter worse his friends who they had climbed with are still up in the summit. That when the lost 8 people and 4 more others in unclear circumstances.
Mt Everest is one of the tallest mountains discovered in 1852. Many climbers had tried to reach the summit for over 101 years but they failed. Many had lost their lives or disappeared when attempting to make history. In 1953 this dream came to be when two men managed to climb to the summit. That was Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. They entered the world book of records and even to date they are highly celebrated. This accomplishment created a new interest and confirmed that it is possible and by the 80s there were many guides experiences that motivated more people who could afford to climb. There was a complaint about how these guided expedition climbing events were commercialized at the Everest. The writer had an assignment to join a team and document the whole trip phenomenon in the Outside magazine for commercial purposes. He doubts if he will reach the summit but he can’t let down such a lifetime golden opportunity and furthermore this has been one of his childhood dreams.
He leaves his Seattle home in 1996 and heads to Nepal where he is meeting his teammates at Kathmandu. They have one of the celebrated climbers Rob Hall from New Zealand and he has great records of guiding people to the summit. His company earns a lot and it is well established. Many of his teams are strangers with little experience and he worries a lot but he trusts the leader and senior guide.
They started in a small village called Lukla. The start is easy and fun especially when you meet the villagers of the Sherpa ethnic group who are hired to help in the journey. The Buddhist monk blesses them for a safe journey.
They succeed to reach the basement of the mountain where camping takes place. There the witter meets with Scott who is a rival of Hall in guiding. The team starts feeling the effects of nausea sickness, exhaustion, and loss of appetite. The altitude is now affecting them. They prepare for the next month by taking every exercise that is necessary. Everyone struggles to run and exercise. The writer’s wife is against and also the runs camps are being aborted due to cold temperatures.
The team summit begins everyone has an oxygen tank. Krakauer blames the guides sometimes for neglecting his clients. At the third camp, they had to supplement themselves with oxygen as now they are on the death zone where they are experiencing thin air. A fourth camp there is a wind storm threatening to blow away the tents. Finally, the writer makes it to the summit. on the way down the weather no longer favors them. They are suffering from low oxygen and he now has some poor eyesight. He, fortunately, made it to his camp. The books explain the details of how others how the others faced unfortunate events and the sad to learn of the events the next morning.