Book Review: Thrive by Arianna Huffington

Non-fiction.  I really just do not have enough good things to say about this book.  Read it.  There are helpful ideas and thoughts in here for everybody, but especially if you are a working woman and mother.  This is a book for our times, discussing how over-stressed and over-worked we are, how we are doing some of it to ourselves, and what some solutions are to these situations.  Some of it is small, like not checking your email constantly or leaving it open all the time so it pings relentlessly in your ear, others are deeper and more complex issues that may not appeal to some, like daily meditation.  This is not one of those books where the privileged rich person is telling the poor person how to live.  It is humble, insightful, honest, and above all else extremely helpful.

And so it goes...

Rootstrikers: Follow-Up to Third World America Book Review

In the review of Third World America I posted the link to The Huffington Post where you can get more information on the ideas and organizations listed in her book (for the specific section on Third World America: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/third-world-america/).  One of them called "Fix Congress First!" is now called "Rootstrikers" and can be found here: http://www.rootstrikers.org/  They are organized online, have links to help you find your representatives, spots for street teams and college campus groups, and they have wikis and other neat things like videos and presentation information for those who are interested.  It is a good site and relatively easy to navigate if you are interested in finding out more about them and starting with grass roots action and using the internet to get ideas out there in an organized yet personal way.  Just thought I would share if you are interested in checking out some of the places and organizations mentioned in the book.

The name is based off a quote by Henry David Thoreau, a good one: "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

And so it goes...

Book Review: Third World America by Arianna Huffington

Read for "Real World Reads" non-fiction book club at Crystal Lake Public Library for March 2013.

     The woman is a genius, I am ready to elect her right now!   A lot of what is in this book I have been saying for years, and I was very surprised.  I thought this was one of this years book club reads that I was not going to like when I read the title.  I do not know much about her, but I will start paying attention to her now and I will start looking at The Huffington Post online (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/).  I thought she was spot-on about the issues, how they arose, and had some very smart ideas on how to fix the mess.  I found her willing to poke at people on both sides of the aisle in Washington, but more importantly, she looked at the root causes of the issues and not just the symptoms.  She did not spend all of her time blaming politicians but looked at the key figures, organizations, banks, and other factors that are the real causes.  I think every politician needs to read this book and every voter as well: we elect them, they should speak for us and act in our interests, not in the interests of lobbyists and corporations.  I am excited for the book club discussion coming up this Tuesday.  This should make for a great jumping-off point for some discourse on these serious issues.

And so it goes...