A Must Read!

This book isn't new, but I just heard about it last month during a self defense class at church and it is a MUST READ! I consider myself a fairly nervous person, prone to worrying (thanks mom! :) and I learned tons from this book! The author, Gavin de Becker, is truly amazing. He owns a corporation that provides consultation and protection to the rich and famous and your average joe shmoe. He's developed complex, high stakes prediction systems used by police agencies, the CIA, FBI, etc. I also really admire him because he came from a very violent home and had a violent filled childhood. And yet, he turned it around and has become a protector and watchman against violence. His life is truly a testiment that you can't blame your childhood for a negative adulthood. The book is filled with personal stories and examples of people that encountered violence and ways they could have, or did, predict that violence. He offers signals to look for like, "Loan Sharking", "Unsolicited Promises", or "Discounting the word NO". He teaches that violence is very predictable. While several chapters didn't seem to apply to me, like marital violence or date stalking, I still felt like I learned a lot. And many have written to him to say that those chapters didn't help them personally, but helped them to intervene for a friend or family member. Most importantly I think, he encourages you to follow your intuition. For example, listen to nagging or "gut" feelings. They'll never lead you astray. We shouldn't be constantly fearful or always in panic mode, because then there is no signal reserved for the times when it's really needed. True fear is not an emotion, like sadness, or a state, like anxiety. True fear is a survival signal that sounds only in the presence of danger. Seriously, an EXCELLENT read!
Last month for book club, I read Banker to the Poor. It's about a man from Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, who saw horrible poverty and starvation in his country and decided to do more about it than just donate food. The book chronicles his efforts to start a bank that would loan out very small amounts to the very poorest of people so that they could raise themselves out of poverty. Until he came along, these people had to borrow from high interest moneychangers, because banks wanted nothing to do with illiterate peasants. His "microlending" idea has helped millions of people and spread to many 3rd world countries and even parts of the U.S. Parts of the book dragged for me because it read like an economics book and I knew I wouldn't need such specific details on how to start such a bank myself, but it did give me a better idea of how immense a challenge he took on and all the years of excruciating labor it took to make it successful. This is a man TRULY deserving of a Nobel Peace prize. (Not like some others that come to mind!) I love that his goal was not to just give a hand-out, but to allow these people to help themselves. His, was actually a realistic and lasting attempt to solve world hunger, not just put a band aid on it.

The month before, I read Outliers for book club. This book kind of jumps around a lot in telling famous people's success stories. His point was that there is no such thing as a "rags to riches" story. In every case, there were extraordinary circumstances that lead to such things as Bill Gates founding Microsoft. It reminded me of the book Freakonomics, because he takes an unconvential look at statistics and studies, analyzing them to portray a new perspective. He also claims that after 10,000 hours of practice, anyone can do just about anything. It just takes time. I liked this book, but for some reason I read it kind of skeptically. I guess when someone is trying SO HARD to convince me of something, regardless of how many studies back it up, I just get a little wary.

And finally, way back in July I picked Confessions of a Shopaholic for book club. I was getting tired of all the serious, life changing books I was reading and just wanted something silly and light to read on the beach. This definitely fit the bill! An easy read and even a semi-good moral at the end. And I just LoVe shopping, so it was fun to read about the fancy stores and merchandise and also to feel consoled about the fact that compartively, I have never even come CLOSE to having a shopping problem! :)