179: Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works & Thoughts

Synopsis

How might your life be better with less?

Imagine a life with less: less stuff, less clutter, less stress and debt and discontent―a life with fewer distractions. Now, imagine a life with more: more time, more meaningful relationships, more growth and contribution and contentment―a life of passion, unencumbered by the trappings of the chaotic world around you. What you’re imagining is an intentional life. And to get there, you’ll have to let go of some clutter that’s in the way.

In Love People, Use Things, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus move past simple decluttering to show how minimalism makes room to reevaluate and heal the seven essential relationships in our lives: stuff, truth, self, money, values, creativity, and people. They use their own experiences―and those of the people they have met along the minimalist journey―to provide a template for how to live a fuller, more meaningful life.

Because once you have less, you can make room for the right kind of more.

The Good

I. I got to understand more about the reaction around minimalism.

II. The critique of minimalism being western and for the rich exclusively does get addressed in a paragraph. – I wish so much that it could have been further expanded upon but I understand this book is not about that. 

III. The $20 dollar rule made me tidy a bit. 

IV. As a whole there was many things that I got from this book. The  relationship with creativity was my favorite chapter in the book. 

The Bad 

I. The authors mom made a racist anti-Black joke that the author felt the need to repeat in this book in 2021 and the editors did not edit it out in 2021. There is also probably a point to be made about their whiteness and the access it has afforded them  to excel in their jobs to be able to acquire so much stuff. 

II. The minimalist can be aggressive with  the minimalism/lifestyle choices of themselves and others. I  can see people reading this  (and intentional living as a whole) as pretentious/in negative way because it can be read that way easily.  

III. It can be repetitive. Possibly repeating of some things like getting rid of all their expensive possessions and jobs could be harmful the book.

IV. It focuses on stuff that I feel did not enhance the book.  The memoir/insertion of their life story took away many times from the book and got away from the minimalism. 

The Meh

This book (Love People Use Things) is a letter to themselves (the authors) people like them  in income, experience, etc.

Cons: people who do not conform to that standard can be potentially left out of their minimalism. 

Pro: is that this will reach people who fit that standard. 

Thoughts

I. People were on Marie Kondo neck but  the Konmari method is way more hands off than the minimalists. 

II. I misguidedly wanted/expected a bit more introspection into why window shopping is such a popular hobby.  I know that this was not in the scope of this book  (so it is not a fault of it) but I would like to see another book tackle this topic. 

III. There is a big conversation about consumerism, capitalism, minimalism, and America that needs a level of impartialness. 

IV. I think it is tough to put out your ideas/live your life without coming off a certain way. Someone being a minimalist/not a minimalist is not a slight to you. On the other hand the way that many perform their minimalism/not minimalism is the putting down of others who are not like them.

V. There is a conversation out there about trauma & minimalism, trauma & antiminimalism.  It has to be addressed how people of both groups are coming from  economic trauma in their upbringing. 

I received this from Celadon Books from the bookishfirst program

(image and synopsis from bookishfirst)

Library Checkout Review & Thoughts: Now That I Found You

Review & Thoughts

I. The message

A. Was the message not handled that much? It can feel like we are told what we and the character should get out of the story. I wonder if the way that there was traveling from spot to spot got in the way of honing in on the message.

B. I am noticing this trend of young adult novels that feel like a bunch of events with messages that either are not being focused in at all or messages that barely are there. Either way the lesson is tacked on in the end.

C. What I took away: is examining motivation in your art/career-putting people as motivation makes your art/career dictated by people. There is much value in making your career about yourself and not others.

II. Conflicts

A. Are a lot stories not developing or giving enough room to their conflicts? Are they avoidng drama to give cleanier/easier stories and characters? Is it because it is a romance so we do not want to go too hard/heavy?

B. Done well- Evie lack of trust /keeping a distance- we understand why and see it in story. They set up good conflicts that were not super present and got wrapped up quickly at the end.

C. It rushed the conclusion and felt the message (loving yourself/finding inner validation) wasn’t processed well (like many contemporaries honestly).

D. No heavy racial discussion or anything.

E. Not a lot of drama -pro: it is not heavy drama and full of negative stuff. con: a lot of the issues are underdeveloped (many stories suffer from this).

II. Evie & unlikeable (Black) girl characters

Evie- there is a weird dislike of “unlikeable” or not nice girl characters.

A. Personally, I usually like the ones they say are unlikeable especially when talking about Black girls.

B. Most of time I don’t realize they are unlikeable.

C. Maybe I am not bothered by her selfishness because I get her. I generally understand why these “unlikeable” characters are the way they are. I definitely think her grandmother and parents are like at the top of the list of why she is the way she is (among the betrayal at the beginning of the novel). She has parents who are absent, a grandmother who can disappear without warning, and someone close who betrayed her.

D. There is a conversation/discourse about specifically “unlikeable” Black girls in young adult that needs to be put more out there.

III. Black love interest & Black guy representation:

A. Black guy who is shy and protective of lead (Evie).

B. I’m overall liking the increase of soft/shy/not as hard Black guys in ya (especially love interests). It is a positive to broaden Black dude representation since there is a trend of the tough Black guy love interest in ya.

IV. Black and brown characters at center.

A. All or at least a large majority of the characters are Black and brown.

B. Casually has Blackness in forefront- it is not done in a way that is stereotypical (been feeling like Blackness is being diluted into superficial markers. The way Blackness is portrayed can feel like a checklist in some of these books).

D. It can feel like it is becoming more and more of an anomaly to have majority Black spaces in ya.

V. Emotional Enjoyment

I was disappointed since emotionally I did not enjoy this as much as I feel I should have.

VI. Miscellaneous

Incompetent adults?

It would be interesting to see an increase in ya with Black (and brown) characters that are realistic contemporary/plain contemporary not be exclusively romance or race based.

(book cover image from goodreads)

181: The Taking of Jake Livingston

Synopsis

Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.

The Bad

~Why does Sawyer need a point of view? What do we gain from Sawyer getting a point of view? Without his sections we could have put energy into Jake, bulking up horror story, side characters, world, maybe more on race, black queerness.

~The writing is off- things just be happening. Nothing is built or interesting. It can be chaotic.

~This story is weird.

~The editors aren’t editing.

~It feels like a first or second or just unfinished draft that needs be polished.

~The suspense is off I think it is because so much was poorly built, revealed, and obvious.

~I kept asking over and over why should we care about any of these characters?

~No tension. no thrills. Lack of emotional attachment.

~Jake-

A. Maybe the issues comes from the story telling us instead of showing us and things just happening.

B. Jake is not a good friend or person to be around. He is made to be right all the time. I just did not connect with him. I like “unlikeable” characters probably more than many other readers do so this is not unlikeable = poor writing. This is poor writig = character I could not connect with.

~the romance is written in ya style of romance that is quirky and overly familiar early which does not show/ build/ make me feel connection with it.

Thoughts

With the increase of loner/nerd/eclectic characters I am seeing more of this painting everyone else in contrast to main character as bad guy and expecting the reader to automatically agree

We are subjected to white violence, why?

Would this make a better show? I wonder if the visuals (and certain other aspects) would have been served better as a movie.

I received this from Penguin Teen through bookishfirst

(image and cover are from goodreads)