Back of Book: 

When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But it wasn’t long before they noticed a marked difference between Jonas and his brother, Wyatt. Jonas preferred sports and trucks and many of the things little boys were “supposed” to like; but Wyatt liked princess dolls and dress-up and playing Little Mermaid. By the time the twins were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt’s insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept and embrace Wyatt’s transition to Nicole, and to undergo an emotionally wrenching transformation of their own that would change all their lives forever.

Becoming Nicole chronicles a journey that could have destroyed a family but instead brought it closer together. It’s the story of a mother whose instincts told her that her child needed love and acceptance, not ostracism and disapproval; of a Republican, Air Force veteran father who overcame his deepest fears to become a vocal advocate for trans rights; of a loving brother who bravely stuck up for his twin sister; and of a town forced to confront its prejudices, a school compelled to rewrite its rules, and a courageous community of transgender activists determined to make their voices heard. Ultimately, Becoming Nicole is the story of an extraordinary girl who fought for the right to be herself.

Granted wide-ranging access to personal diaries, home videos, clinical journals, legal documents, medical records, and the Maineses themselves, Amy Ellis Nutt spent almost four years reporting this immersive account of an American family confronting an issue that is at the center of today’s cultural debate. Becoming Nicole will resonate with anyone who’s ever raised a child, felt at odds with society’s conventions and norms, or had to embrace life when it plays out unexpectedly. It’s a story of standing up for your beliefs and yourself—and it will inspire all of us to do the same. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Biography | LGBTQIA+ 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

In your hands, you hold the secret to transforming your life. Big words? Yes, but this is a plan that has already proven itself with millions of people around the world. Pastor Will Bowen developed the life-changing A Complaint Free World plan based on the simple idea that good things will happen for you in abundance if you can just leave your grumbling behind. In a Sunday-morning sermon, Will told his congregation he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone and, to prove he was serious, he passed out purple bracelets to each church member and offered them a challenge. "If you catch yourself complaining, take the bracelet and move it to the other wrist."

Now, less than a year later, more than six million people have taken up the challenge, trying to go twenty-one consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, and in so doing, forming a new, positive habit. By changing your words, you can change your thoughts and then begin to create your life by design. People have shared stories with Will of chronic pain relieved, relationships healed, careers improved, and becoming an overall happier person. Less pain, improved health, satisfying relationships, a better job, being more serene and joyous—sound good? It’s not only possible, it’s probable. Consciously striving to reformat your mental hard drive is not easy, but you can start now by using the steps Bowen presents here.

In this book, you can learn what constitutes a complaint, why we complain, what benefits we think we receive from complaining, how complaining is destructive to our lives, and how we can get others around us to stop complaining. You will learn the steps to eradicating this poisonous form of expression from your life. If you stay with it, you will find that not only will you not complain, but others around you will cease to do so as well. In a short period of time, you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of having.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Self Help 

Review: 🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

“I had a profoundly well-educated Princetonian ask me, ‘Where is your tomahawk?’ I had a beautiful woman approach me in the college gymnasium and exclaim, ‘You have the most beautiful red skin.’ I took a friend to see Dances with Wolves and was told, ‘Your people have a beautiful culture.’ . . . I made many lifelong friends at college, and they supported but also challenged me with questions like, ‘Why should Indians have reservations?’ ”

What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers—or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matterof-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what’s up with Indians, anyway.

• What is the real story of Thanksgiving?

• Why are tribal languages important?

• What do you think of that incident where people died in a sweat lodge?

White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.

Anton Treuer, author of The Assassination of Hole in the Day and many other books on Ojibwe history and language, received an Ambassador Award in 2011 from Facing Race: We’re All in This Together, an initiative of the St. Paul Foundation. All around Minnesota, Treuer has given scores of public lectures and been asked hundreds of questions—many like the ones in this book.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Informative  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

From Somalia to Snow: How Central Minnesota Became Home to Somalis gives readers an invaluable insider's look into the lives and culture of our Somali neighbors and the important challenges they face. Designed with a diverse audience in mind, this book is a must-read for students, health-care professionals, business owners, social service agencies, and anyone who wants to better understand the Somali people.

In providing a great understanding of Somali culture, tradition, religion, and issues of integration and assimilation, this book also focuses on why thousands of Somali refugees came to live in this cold, snowy area with people of predominantly European descent.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Informative  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book does a great job at explaining many important topics involving Somali people in Minnesota and their culture. Unfortunately, it is very specific. The target audience of this book is most definitely teachers, medical professionals, and business owners that live in central Minnesota. Despite this, at least three fourths of this book is still relevant to the average person. The ending of the book heavily focused on politics and business, which are two topics that I find quite boring, making the last two sections not the most relevant to me.

Overall, this book is an easy to read guide on the Somali community that lives in Minnesota today. Much can be gleaned about broader topics in this book, such as immigration, Islam, and Somali culture that are not specific to Minnesota, which makes it applicable to all readers to a certain degree. I always find it hard to rate nonfiction books, because they oftentimes aren't super entertaining, but if they are interesting and good teachers, this means the book's goal has been fulfilled. I found Ibrahim's book to both be interesting and informative, so therefore, I think this book was great.

Back of Book: 

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When, in March of 2006, Charles Cullen was marched from his final sentencing in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, courthouse into a waiting police van, it seemed certain that the chilling secrets of his life, career, and capture would disappear with him. Now, in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, journalist Charles Graeber presents the whole story for the first time. Based on hundreds of pages of previously unseen police records, interviews, wire-tap recordings and videotapes, as well as exclusive jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself and the confidential informant who helped bring him down, The Good Nurse weaves an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship, and betrayal.

Graeber's portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill, and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends. Were it not for the hardboiled, unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen's professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there's no telling how many more lives could have been lost.

In the tradition of In Cold Blood, The Good Nurse does more than chronicle Cullen's deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers a penetrating look inside America's medical system. Harrowing and irresistibly paced, this book will make you look at medicine, hospitals, and the people who work in them, in an entirely different way.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | True Crime | Biography 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

I picked The Good Nurse up because a friend recommended it to me. Honestly, I was surprised by how much I liked it. It tells the story of a nurse named Charlie Cullen who has a level of darkness within him. He appears to be a perfect nurse, one who knows his trade well. He is willing to help out whenever he can, working extra shifts and coming in impeccably early. In reality though, Charlie isn’t what he first appears to be. He is actually a serial killer, one that may have killed up to 400 patients in his time working as a nurse. The Good Nurse tells Cullen’s story. 

The Good Nurse is divided into two parts. The first follows Charlie Cullen, showing you his daily habits and giving you an insight on hospital life. It starts out sharing the details of his tragic childhood, including the death of both his mother and father, the abuse of his sisters from their boyfriends, and his own attempts at suicide. His mother was struck dead in a car crash and from a young age, Charlie blamed the hospital for not being able to save her. The story then proceeds through his successful college career and his entering into the hospital system. Charlie liked his job, but what gave him the truest joy was when he murdered his patients and got away with it; Charlie loved the power it placed into his hands. Hospital after hospital got suspicious of these out-of-character deaths and conducted mini investigations. Most of these led to Charlie and he would be released from the hospital's care, but was never officially “fired." Many hospitals were aware of Charlie’s questionable behavior, but they did nothing at all. They didn’t want a serial killer to be placed in their hands, so they just kept passing him from hospital to hospital. Charlie worked at nine different hospitals over a span of sixteen years in two different states before he was arrested. This shows how scared hospitals were to apprehend him, even though they knew that Charlie was murdering patients on their premises. This part of the novel was intriguing because we got a glimpse into Charlie’s world without learning how he got away with killing patients in a hospital. This is revealed in part two, which follows the investigation team who was trying to prove him guilty. 

Part two was different than the first because we are now watching Charlie from a distance. We follow several detectives as they dig through all of Charlie’s files at different hospitals. Interestingly enough, many of his files seem to have “disappeared” or are “incomplete." This sent up a red flag in the detective's books. They knew that it was highly unusual for a person to work at nine different hospitals, but for files to go missing at more than one? This was highly suspicious and made them realize that much was being hidden from them. The hospitals clearly didn’t want to help them with the case, so they took a different approach. They turned to one of Charlie’s best friends, a girl named Amy. She helps the detectives get closer to Cullen. She puts together a bunch of clues, odd happenstances that seem a daily practice for Charlie. She realizes that some of the things he does are odd, such as always taking common medicine out of the Pyxis machine or standing at the end of the hallway, observing those around him. She just figured that he was trying to help others, just that the way he went about doing so was a little strange. She puzzles out though, that in truth, these strange things he did were just pieces of how he murdered people. He would take medicine out of the Pyxis machine to throw people off track, where in reality, he just helped restock the machine and took the drugs he used to kill patients out of the stash before they had even made it to the machine. He would then use these drugs to spike IVs, which were then delivered throughout the hospital by various staff members. This way Charlie didn’t even have to deliver the IVs that killed the patients. Amy herself might have even dispatched these spiked IV bags. Amy had discovered all of this herself, but didn’t have any evidence to prove that Charlie did any of it. Her and the group of detectives create a plan. She plans a dinner date with Charlie, but what he doesn’t know is that she is wearing a recording device that is monitoring everything that they are saying. In the end, she gets Charlie to admit that he killed these people and the detectives swarm in and arrest him. It took a large amount of courage to do what Amy did. I will always admire her for the steps that she took to take a serial killer down, especially because she was his best friend. 

This book is amazing and terrifying because it all actually happened. It is the first true crime book that I have ever read and I was completely astonished by it. Graeber did an astounding job of portraying Cullen as a real person with severe issues that make you pity him a bit, but never excused the terrible actions that he did. I find that it is truly amazing that this book even exists. Cullen refused to talk to anyone about his process in killing people, but Graeber managed to strike a connection with him. Cullen freely spoke his thoughts and allowed the world to finally hear an inside account of “The Angel of Death," as he is often dubbed by the public eye. I found it scary, thrilling, and unpredictable. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller or is at all interested in the ways of hospitals. I found it fascinating that Cullen got away with all these murders in places that people go to get healed. I hope that many people will read this book and realize that you can’t assume anything in this world; sometimes people’s true colors are hidden deep inside. 

Back of Book: 

For anyone who could use proof that the world is full of good people, this beautifully illustrated book features 101 stories of human decency from Upworthy, the beloved social media brand that reaches more than 100 million people per month.

This heartening book from Upworthy, the kindest place on the internet, offers respite to everyone navigating an increasingly turbulent world, both online and off. Filled with personal stories handpicked from millions of the brand’s impassioned followers, it reinforces the notion that humanity is fundamentally good.

Rippling with emotion, humor, and honesty, the tales collected here are mined from the community’s comment section in response to such questions as: What’s the kindest thing a stranger has ever done for you? Who’s the teacher who changed your life? When did the “little things” make a difference? Who was there for you when you needed it most? Each chapter is anchored by intimate long-form stories punctuated with lighthearted anecdotes and whimsical line drawings. Together, they provide a stirring testament to the complexity and resilience of the human spirit.

An inspiring counterbalance to today’s daunting news cycle, this timely book is a go-to resource for comfort and joy.

Book Number: Stand Alone

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Short Stories | Self Help 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Over one hundred accounts showcasing the good of humanity—from life changing teachers, to random acts of kindness from strangers, and the smallest of things that make the biggest of differences.

I must say, I'd never heard of Upworthy before reading this book. I know nothing about their brand, their motives, or how trustworthy they are. However, the stories inside this volume are truly wonderful. I was a little saddened to learn that they were written by a team of on staff writers rather than by the people who actually lived the experiences, but that most certainly explains a few things (such as the one liners at the end of many of the accounts that seem a bit too scripted). Despite this, that doesn't change the treasure of greatness that this book contains.

My favorite sections have to be "Learn by Heart," which showcases teachers that mean the world to people and "The Kids are Alright," which showcases children and some of the goofy, yet loving things that children do. I had many teachers that changed my life for the better, so I completely understand where these people are coming from. And kids are just so cute and silly! I think my favorite of the entire collection has to be "Baby Dada." This story is just so pure, and the fact that the kid is addicted to "Moana" is so legit.

Reading one or two stories a day is probably the best way to consume "Good People," but if your having a really rough day, binge reading a bunch of these stories can be very uplifting. I mixed both of these methods, so I didn't finish the book in a single day, but I did consume the entire thing relatively quickly.

There is one thing that really bothered me while reading this: the sections didn't have a prologue explaining what each segment entailed. Luckily, it was pretty easy to pick up the drift of the theme of each section. I feel it would have been helpful though to give the brain a bit of a warning before switching topics though. Also, I think the end story could have been a bit stronger, but this is an organizational thing, not a writing thing.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with "Good People." I think this would be a fun one to annotate and mark up, so one can easily revisit their favorite stories as well as easily see how one's thoughts change about certain stories as they progress through life. This isn't a book I would have ever bought for myself, but I am very glad that I was gifted this one. If you need a little dose of good in your life, don't shy away from checking up Upworthy and their book "Good People."

Back of Book: 

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world--and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?

A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.

By investigating one of the world's most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonficiton | Informative | Science 

Review: 🌟🌟

A deep dive into the matsutake mushroom and how it refuses to surrender despite human's best efforts to destroy its natural habitat.

I'm not going to lie about this one: I'm pretty sure I didn't understand like half of what this book was talking about. I had to read this for one of my classes, and I understand how it ties into globalization at the very least. I found certain sections to be really interesting, especially the interludes that were written in a bit more of a flowery language compared to the scientific deep dive of the rest of the book. I knew nothing about the matsutake mushroom before reading this book, so I feel like I still absorbed many new facts about it, despite not understanding the mass majority of the book.

Overall, I found some of Tsing's thoughts to be very astute and interesting, but I was mostly bored as I read this book. It probably would have taken me many months to get through if I didn't read it for class. If one is really into science, economics, and globalization, I'm sure that this would have been a more invigorating read. But for me though, most of it flew over my poor head. Oh well.

Back of Book: 

Discover a new and hopeful path forward as you consider your family's approach to social media, screen time, and technology.

We've all heard the mind-boggling statistics about technology and social media use. The numbers don't lie; our obsession with smartphones and social media is slowly eroding the very essence of our homes and families. We see it. We feel it. We know it.

So what do we do about it?

Spoiler alert: Forget parental control apps, time limits, or reward charts. This revolutionary path takes us into the heart of the beast itself: the social media algorithm. Former social media influencer and trailblazer Erin Loechner has seen the perks and pitfalls of social media usage, and she knows how to hack the strategies of tech wizards and platform experts so you can borrow their billion-dollar playbook to engage your family in meaningful ways away from screens.

The Opt-Out Family is packed with eye-opening research and startling insights, as well as practical encouragement and creative ideas to transform your family's relationship with today's ever-evolving technology. As a result, you will:
• Experience more quality time with your children that doesn't revolve around screens
• Create healthy habits as a family that will set your children up for success in the future
• Discover what your kids actually need from you, and learn how to delight and engage them better than a device can
• And, ultimately, establish true and lasting influence within your own four walls--and far beyond

The Opt-Out Family unlocks a world where genuine connections flourish and technology takes a backseat. It's time to reclaim your home and build a tech-free family culture that's stronger than your Wi-Fi signal.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Informative | Parenting 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Though written for parents raising children in the tumultuous wave of technology and the digital world, "The Opt-Out Family" offers insights to anyone who has pondered the adverse affects of tech on kids or has ever wondered if some aspects of life may be better without a smartphone staring back at us twenty-four seven.

I have always enjoyed learning about how technology's algorithms function and I found Loechner's deep-dive into how it affects children to be quite interesting. She has some very strong opinions about how and when technology should be used with little to no wiggle room, which occasionally made this book seem a tad more aggressive then it needed to. Besides that, Loechner has many wonderful stories and insights about raising kids that are digitally literate as well as helping children thrive with little to no technology.

Every chapter dives into a different aspect of technology and how it is a burden to our children and our society. Loechner then provides alternative methods to help your children grow into thriving adults that can connect to the world around them rather than be glued to their smartphones. This book is most definitely a parenting book, and I advise caution in believing everything that the author pens at face value. There are some methods that I think are really neat, and other things that I found to be a bit overbearing. Remember, your kids are your responsibility and there is no wrong way to raise a child.

Some of the segments that I particularly enjoyed were when Loechner broke down of some of social media and AI bots algorithms to see how their "brains" tick. These technological "beings" have so much coding and I found it fascinating to learn a little bit more about what makes them work (or fail) and how they are affecting this generation's children. Also, it's always funny to read about people bullying ChatGPT.

I also found it really cool that Loechner uses some of the biggest technological industries, such as Google, Meta, TikTok, and many others, own logic against them. She looks into some of their values, mindsets, and core beliefs in order to adapt your own family's ways of thinking.

Overall, I found "The Opt-Out Family" to be an informational read full of many insightful bits about technology and great advice for anyone who wants to better educate themselves about the risks of tech. However, in our modern society, I believe that we can't completely avoid technology: it is just too ingrained in the world we live in. I completely agree that children should have limited access to tech in their youth and that their usage should increase with age. I grew up with pretty limited interaction with tech and no social media, and I feel that it took away a bunch of potential stress from my life. I pity anyone that is completely addicted to their socials or finds themselves glued to their smartphone's screen. It was interesting to read about Loechner's personal experiences with raising her children and being part of an opt-out family, but I once again want to forewarn against taking her opinions as fact. Just because a book is nonfiction it doesn't mean that everything stated is true. Make sure to do your own research and use Loechner's book as a supplement, not the baseline. I personally believe that some of Loechner's ideals are a bit extreme and that some middle ground must be met for the next generation to be able to function in our digital age while not being entirely consumed by the technology that should be a resource, not a lifestyle. I would recommend checking this one out if you want a deeper look into how technology is affecting children in this day and age and/or if you are in need of some guidance as a parent in tackling the beast that is technology in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Back of Book: 

Psychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn devised a course at Yale University to help students examine the biases that cause so many problems in their daily lives. Called “Thinking," the course quickly became one of the university’s most popular. In Ahn’s class, students examine “thinking problems”—such as confirmation bias, causal attribution, and delayed gratification—and how they contribute to our most pressing societal issues and inequities.

Thinking 101 draws on decades of research from other cognitive psychologists, as well as from Ahn's own teaching and groundbreaking studies. She presents it all in a compellingly readable style that uses fun examples from K-pop dancing, anecdotes from her own life, and illuminating stories from history and the headlines. As Thinking 101 shows, with better awareness of our biases, we can improve our lives and tackle real-world problems. It is, quite simply, required reading for everyone who wants to think—and live—better.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Psychology | Self Help 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

A deep dive into the psychological workings of the human brain about the way we think and how we can reason better in our day to day lives.

I found "Thinking 101" to be an overall lovely time as far as a psychology book goes. Ahn has a positive attitude, memorable stories, and personal experiences that really makes the book thrive. She covers things such as why humans are overconfident in their abilities, how people fall prey to anecdotes, loss aversion, and framing, as well why humans find it so darn hard to get rid of things once it belongs to them, even if they won it for free, or if they've only owned it for several minutes. I think that her personal stories as a college professor, mother, wife, and immigrant are what really brings this book to life.

Many of the things in this book weren't exactly shocking and the information presented was hardly ever new. However, the way the Ahn framed the novel made it easy to understand, allows humanity to make fun of themselves in a comical and positive way, and kept me engaged. The order that the topics were presented in flowed well and she did a great job of referencing stories and anecdotes that she has used previously.

Overall, I found the month I spent with "Thinking 101" to be rather enjoyable. I may not have had my mind blown by this one, but I appreciated the way it shaped my thinking. However, I'm not sure how much of the book that I will remember down the road, but I feel that it was a valuable worth of my time nonetheless. I would recommend checking this one out if you like to sporadically read books about the human mind, the habits we make, and the fallacies we fall for.

Back of Book: 

In Wealth Is a Mindset, Shang Saavedra, Founder of Save My Cents and top personal finance coach, creates a judgment-free space for readers to learn about personal finance and make their dreams of financial independence come true, one cent at a time.

Shang Saavedra is the Founder and CEO of Save My Cents, a personal-finance education and coaching platform that focuses on the intersection of mental health and financial wealth. Her ethos is that changing one’s finances isn’t merely about making or saving more money. In her mind, personal finance is personal and thus related to one's upbringing, past experiences, family history, and more. It requires bravely facing the traumas and fears of one's past and tracing how they lead to mindsets grounded in scarcity and insecurity, especially as they relate to the handling of money. 

Drawing upon scientific research on psychology and neuroscience, as well as many mental health experts, Saavedra has developed a methodology called “Trigger, Action, Reward,” which identifies the root causes of unhealthy money behaviors, provides concrete suggestions on how to break those cycles, and guides readers toward an abundance mindset that leads to financial success and security. Through her online classes and coaching lessons in investing, saving for retirement, debt freedom, and more, she has helped thousands of clients implement the TAR strategy and achieve transformative change in their lives. 

Wealth Is a Mindset provides practical, concrete applications of Saavedra’s mindset-changing methodology. It is also an empathetic memoir that shows how Saavedra and her husband overcame many of their own emotional challenges to attain financial freedom. Dozens of anecdotes from her clients illustrate how the strategy works in real life. More importantly, it shows that we all are human, our inherent worth going far beyond simply a salary and net worth number. Featuring prescriptive, judgment-free exercises and worksheets to show step by step how to pay down debt, raise income, start a side hustle, save more money, invest for retirement, and build generational wealth, Wealth Is a Mindset will help readers find ways to improve their money and their lives, no matter where they are in their personal money story. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Informative | Self-Help | Finance | Psychology 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟

A self-help book that dives deep into the psychology behind our money habits while urging the reader to change their own lifestyle. 

I'm pretty mixed with this one. On one hand, Saavedra has plenty of helpful insights about what to do and not to do with one's money. However, I didn't understand a huge chunk of this book which makes it hard to utilize as a productive resource. I personally know very little about personal finances and investing, so most everything I read was brand new information to me. I think it will take a few reads to truly dissect the useful information out of this one for me. 

The look into psychology and different types of money archetypes that people fall into was interesting. The few that she talks about in great detail are Feast and Famine, Adverse Events, and Scarce Immigrant. These are three common archetypes that people fall into when it comes to how they view and spend their money. She also talks about how personal finance not being taught to us as children/young adults makes it really hard for us to properly digest this information while simultaneously failing to prepare us for the reality of society and the money we need to save up in order to survive. 

There are a ton of sections that talk about how to design a budget, how to pay off debt, and what types of saving accounts to open up at different stages of your life. After finishing this book, I feel none the wiser of what I should do to prepare for financial freedom and retirement success, but I do feel that I have a great resource on my hands if I need to specifically refer to what to do regarding money and certain life events. 

Saavedra doesn't hold back when it comes to talking about her personal life story, which I feel is super important when it comes to a life coach. She talks about everything she has had to cut out of her life to live in a frugal world of financial freedom. Her stories are often inspiring, but they also can be condescending at times. She talks about how she needed to cut out designer purses and leave her overflowing closet behind, which just feels out of this world as someone who grew up with much less than this. I don't often gripe about the circumstances of my youth, but I want to point out that it took me years to realize that most people didn't grow up without cold water in their shower or a hammer holding their window open in the summer. I'm glad she's being honest, but it can be hard not to feel resentment toward her from time to time. 

Overall, "Wealth is a Mindset" is not only a personal finance self-help book, but also a deep dive into human psychology and the trauma that shapes us into the spenders that we are. This book overflows with good information, unfortunately, I had a hard time absorbing it. I may keep this one around for future reference, but for now, I don't feel that much wiser about personal finance. 

Back of Book: 

Growing up as a fat girl, Virgie Tovar believed that her body was something to be fixed. But after two decades of dieting and constant guilt, she was over it―and gave herself the freedom to trust her own body again. Ever since, she’s been helping others to do the same. Tovar is hungry for a world where bodies are valued equally, food is free from moral judgment, and you can jiggle through life with respect. In concise and candid language, she delves into unlearning fatphobia, dismantling sexist notions of fashion, and how to reject diet culture’s greatest lie: that fat people need to wait before beginning their best lives. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Adult | Nonfiction | Informative 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟

A memoir-manifesto that speaks out against fatphobia and diet culture that is packed to the brim with feminist ideals. 

I was recommended this book by one of my local librarians and since it was so short, I figured that I'd give it a go. I wasn't very enthused by it for many reasons, but it did make some valid points. I definitely wasn't the target audience, but I still feel like this book talked down to people like me who are white, skinny, and don't care much about their appearance. At times, I felt pretty uncomfortable reading this book, which definitely alienated me from this book a tish. This book makes diets seem inherently evil (which they're not), but I do agree that they shouldn't be forced upon people who don't want them. 

This book really felt like something I would have been forced to read in the Intercultural Communication class that I was a part of a few years back. This book would make a great piece for discussion, especially in a class such as that one. From the feminist themes, to the discussions on race and sexuality, this book has many interesting things to consider. 

Overall, for this book being so short, I feel that it wasn't a waste of my time. However, it made me a bit uncomfortable at times and felt like something that I would be forced to read for school rather than something that I would read on my own to learn about other people. This book definitely had some good points in it, but I didn't overly vibe with the author's voice. It raised some good points, but not something that I would recommend personally.