Book: The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, Roddy Doyle

I honestly thought that Roddy Doyle was a comedy writer, this was not one of them.

Always keen to have a look at second hand books,  I was happy to explore a book sale at Constantia Village, all books R5!

One of the other buyers pointed out this book and said that it is very good and that I must read it. I was keen for another light hearted read and was happy about a recommendation.

There is A LOT of swearing at the beginning of the book; I found it very curious that someone would recommend such a book.

It is an incredibly sad and depressing book about a woman who is abused by her husband; with that said, it is written well and I finished it in two days.  (I didn't want to go into the new book with this depressing book).

Book: Myths of Ancient Greece, Robert Graves

For sometime I have wanted to brush up on my Greek mythology.  The first book I acquired,  I really did not enjoy and barely made it to the second page, it felt asif I was reading a doctoral thesis, not my idea of fun.

Finding this version,  the 'Retold for young people,' was perfect and just right for a quick read during the December holiday.

Book: Complete Kak! Tim Richman & Grant Schreiber

After Shantaram, I was in search of some light and fun Christmas reading. This book was perfect for my reading needs. Although it was published ten years ago, some of it is still giggle worthy.

Book: Shantaram, Gregory Davids Roberts

This is another book that I received through the Facebook book exchange. This is a book I had heard of and was rather keen to read.

Roberts writing style is magical, he writes so incredibly beautifully and descriptively.

I took a hiatus between chapters to read a few other books, this wasn't a good idea as I got a bit muddled with all the names. Personally, the book got a bit long for me towards the end,  instead of enjoying the story I was more focussed on the number of pages still to go.

With that said, worth reading if only to enjoy his beautiful writing.

Book: Stoner, A Novel, John Williams

It is very unlikely that I would have even given this book a second look if it wasn't for the 'Facebook book exchange'. I would have missed out on a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, beautifully written, you feel so sorry for the poor old William Stoner. 

The only thing that really annoyed me was the guy that did the introduction, John McGahern, pretty much gave away the whole storyline, why do that? So, my recommendation is, when you read this book, skip the intro.

This is the post I saw on a friend's Facebook page, and I immediately replied that I would be IN! 

BOOK LOVERS

I’m looking for people to participate in a huge book exchange. You can be anywhere in the world. All you have to do is buy your favorite book (just one) and send it to a stranger (I'll send their details through in a private message).

You’ll receive a rough maximum of 36 books back to you, to keep. They'll be favorite books from strangers around the world!

If you are interested in taking part, please comment ‘IN’ below and I'll send you all the details!

[If you want to restart the chain, paste the above on your Facebook page or I imagine WhatsApp could work just as well, then if someone wants to participate, you send the following to them in a private message:]

Part 1: Post this to your facebook status.
BOOK LOVERS

I’m looking for people to participate in a huge book exchange. You can be anywhere in the world. All you have to do is buy your favorite book (just one) and send it to a stranger (I'll send their details through in a private message).

You’ll receive a rough maximum of 36 books back to you, to keep. They'll be favorite books from strangers around the world!

If you are interested in taking part, please comment ‘IN’ below and I'll send you all the details!

Part 2:
You’ll need to send ONE book you love (new or pre loved) to the person below:

Kim Snyders
SAQA House
1067 Arcadia Street
Arcadia
Gauteng
South Africa
0083
(072)599 7839

Part 3:
Finally, send this message to the people who commented on YOUR status, and give them MY address: (which will replace name in #2)
and put YOUR address below:

Regine le Roux
08 Earl Street
Hout Bay
Cape Town
7806
+27 833021528

P.S. If you decide not to participate please let me know so I can find a replacement. Since everybody made a little financial effort, it wouldn't be fair to disrupt the chain. In order to find people to exchange books with, we need to share the project. I think giving a book to a stranger is a pretty nice idea, and it’ll be even nicer to receive several books in return.

You can also use the lazy girl option and order off Takealot/Amazon.

Thanks guys, can't wait!
xx

Book: The 4-Hour Body, Timothy Ferriss

On my mission of getting healthier and reaching a  weight goal I set myeslf, I was rather intrigued to find Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Body. He covers A LOT of topics, weight loss, muscle gain, sleeping, exercise the works. He does recommend that you only focus on the part that is applicable to you; I focussed specifically on weight loss and his low carb eating plan. Personally, I think he is a bit just too obsessed with his body, but to each his own. I have never been a fan of dieting, my view has always been to eat in moderation and to exercise; there are however some good tips in the book which I am testing and measuring; we'll see how it goes. 

Even though it is quite a thick book, I worked through it quite quickly.

I definitely preferred his The 4-Hour Work Week much more.

Book: The Leopard in the Luggage, Arthur Goldstuck

I think I read The Rabbit in the Thorn Tree much quicker and enjoyed it more.

One thing I did realise while reading it, an urban legend is actually what is being referred to as 'fake news' these days.

One of the interesting stories I had believed to be true, was that the singer of 'Don't worry, be happy', Bobby McFerrin had committed suicide because of depression; this is not true.

Book: Dear Genius, A memoir of my life with Truman Capote, Jack Dunphy

I really battled to get into this book. It all got rather confusing with the inclusion of a priest who is supposed to represent Dunphy. I made the call not to finish the book, life is too short for books you don't enjoy reading.

Book: The Boer War Diary of Jan Leendert Moerdijk 1899 - 1902

Some time ago I met up with Chris Moerdyk for tea. We chatted about the books we were reading, and I mentioned that I had just finished The Boer War by Thomas Pakenham. He shared that his grandfather had kept a diary during the Boer War, and sent me a copy of the book a couple of days later. It was translated by his brother.  It was so interesting to get insight into that period, he had such a sharp wit, and it is endearing how much he cared for his horses. I am very grateful to have been able to get this sneak peek into our history of that time.

Book: Getting to YES, Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury

This is a very generic book on negotiating skills, and as they say, each situation will require its own specific tactics.

Three things to consider:

• BATNA Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement
• Communication
• Be prepared

I think there are better books to rather consider reading.

Book: Geldwolf, Carel van der Merwe

Initially I thought the author had confused the names of the main character's wife and mistress, then I realised that it was his writing style. I do enjoy good Afrikaans writing, and it was a good read for the long weekend. 

Book: The Talking Parcel, Gerald Durrell

I remember first reading this book in Std 5 (grade 7) and it was absolutely magical. It was the first time I had ever come across the name Penelope and the idea of a phoenix. I had been looking for it in all the second-hand bookstores to no avail, and could also not find it on Takealot. After a recent visit to the local Hout Bay library, I found it! It was such fun to reread it. 

Book: SynchroDestiny, Deepak Chopra

It was quite a read to get into the first few chapters, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading more on meditation, sutras and mantras, which are discussed in the second part of the book. For some time I have been wanting to learn how to meditate better, so it's rather apt that this book came into my possession. It is a book that I will refer to often as there are fantastic daily mantras.

Book: Botswana Time, Will Randall

What a wonderful African adventure Will takes the reader on. He has a marvellous writing style and sense of humour. I will definitely look at getting my hands on his other books too. 

Book: The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom ~ Practical & Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying, Suze Orman

I started reading this book years ago, then lost interest when I reached a chapter about planning for retirement; not that I don't think it is important, it was just that Suze makes a lot of reference to American regulations. The other day I saw the book on my bookshelf, and it irks me to have a half-read book 'staring' at me.  What I should have done initially was just to skip over that chapter, which I did this time around. 

There are three key lessons for me from this book: the first part of the book helped me to understand my relationship and thinking about money. She takes you through an exercise that digs down quite deeply to help you understand this relationship. 

The next lesson is the importance of respecting money; this really resonated with me, as 'respect' is one of our core values at Reputation Matters.  This links to Suze's second law of financial freedom: Respect attracts money ~ disrespect repels money. 

The third lesson is trusting yourself with your money. I've had a financial advisor for years, recently I started feeling that I have been taken for a ride; I only hear from him once a year when my investments need to be renewed/reviewed and he obviously gets a commission from it. He does not listen to a word I say, and I am doubtful that after 15 years he actually knows what it is we do. Suze encourages people to listen to their gut feeling, and I think that is the reason this book has crossed my path again, giving me that 'virtual' nod that you need to listen to that inner voice especially when it comes to investments and financial planning. 

Book: Amelia Earhart, her last flight, Oliver Knaggs

Yip, every now and again I do have a blonde moment...when I saw this book, I thought it was a documentation by Amelia of her last flight. I did realise soon enough that this would never have been possible as her plane had disappeared; Amelia, her navigator Fred Noonan, and the aeroplane have never been recovered. The hypothesis is that the plane that they were using to fly around the world got into trouble and landed (crashed) somewhere around the Marshall Islands. She and Noonan were imprisoned because they were believed to be American spies. He was executed and she died of starvation in a prison (how incredibly sad!). The book was written by a South African, how cool is that? I enjoyed his writing style and the journey he took us on to do research for the book. 

Book: True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend, Sue Townsend

I am on a mission to work through the Adrian Mole series. They are such fun, easy to read books. I really raced through the first two, unfortunately, the same can't be said for this one; I did not enjoy it as much an had considerably less guffawed moments. I prefer the diary entry style of the previous two and wasn't too sure why the new characters were introduced. Hopefully, the next one will be back to the winning formula that worked for the first two. 

Book: Een Lewe 'n Biografie geskryf deur Professor Dr C N Barnard enCurtis Bill Pepper

Ever since my first visit to the Heart of Cape Town museum a couple of years ago, I was fascinated by the first heart transplant. They played a video as part of the tour and I was hooked on the story, charm and achievements of Prof Barnard. So I was thrilled to pick up this book at a second hand book store. 

A wonderful December holiday read. I wondered whether I would still finish it this year. I battled to put it down! And was way ahead of schedule to finish it. It is a wonderfully well written Afrikaans book. I am in awe of his achievements, not too phased with his private life, although it is not too clear how much support his first wife gave him. 

There is a sequel, Die Tweede Lewe.

Die Tweede Lewe, Chris Barnard

I was absolutely thrilled to have found the follow up to Dr. Chris Barnard's "Een Lewe", as it felt that it just ended in mid-air. As I have mentioned before I am in awe of his achievements as a heart surgeon. What an incredible feat to be the first person to transplant a heart! He had a brilliant mind and was incredibly innovative with new techniques in heart surgery and even coming up with a solution to have two hearts in a chest if one heart was not strong enough.

In my review of Een Lewe, I indicated that I wasn't too sure how much support his first wife gave him; I don't think that was fair. I actually feel incredibly sorry for her. I think fame and the excitement of all the opulence took centre stage in Dr. Barnard's life (which one can understand taking his humble beginnings into consideration); at functions he would be socialising with everyone, and instead of making sure that Louwtjie (his wife), was by his side, she was pretty much sidelined and had to fend for herself. Now if networking and socialising is not your cup of tea and you don't know anyone, this could be hell. So, instead of keeping an eye on her, he pretty much kept an eye on all the other skirts in the room. 

Personally, I felt that there was waaay too much about his private life shared in this book that was just too much information [TMI]. 

I do like his writing style and again worked through the book quite quickly. 

Book: Number 10, Sue Townsend

On my journey to catch up on classics last year, I started reading the Adrian Mole diary series by Sue Townsend and was hooked. 

I was keen to read one of her other, non-diary books as well and gave Number 10 a go. Sadly I did not enjoy it as much. In the true, beautiful, literary sense to phrase it as eloquently as possible, it was "meh". 

Book: The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Sue Townsend

Such a fun series, looking forward to the next installment.

Book: Star Wars, The Courtship of Princess Leia, Dave Wolverton

This is a very different genre to what I normally read. Mark is a massive Star Wars fan and suggested I read this book. I have managed to sit through Episode four, five and six and did like Han Solo (or Hans Olo as I like to tease Mark). I do like his oneliners. It did take me some time to get into the book, did however enjoy it. 

Book: Sh*t My Dad Says, Justin Halpern

A wonderfully sweet book, showing the relationship between the youngest son (Justin), and his 73 year old dad.