#kakinota : the do-over by m.k schiller

It is a funny story between Kyle Manchester, a top notch journalist and Lanie Carmichael, a lawyer.

They meet by an arranged date by his best friend Brad Jansen, who is a lawyer working in a same firm as Lanie.

Brad was dating Lanie's sister, Cassie.
Brad arranged the meeting out of pity that Lanie did not have any dates before.

But at the same time Lanie is using Kyle to get closer to Brad as she was in love with Brad for a while.

To get Kyle agree to her term and conditions, Lanie offered Kyle a high profile story that will earned him a road to Pulitzer.

Even though he disagree at first and Lanie's being a good lawyer herself, he eventually agree to help her to do the do-over.

Brad stated few of his terms and conditions, being the first, "Do not fell in love with me".

But as they get along well through out the do-over processes, it seems that one of them was about to break the golden rule or maybe both of them did.

They however found out the truth of each other skeletons, why the became the person they are today.

                                   8/10

#kakinota : the tools by phil stutz and barry michels

Phil Stutz (psychiatrist) & Barry Michels (law practitioner turn psychotherapist) introduced 5 life-changing techniques to become a better version of ourselves.

The book guide us on how to overcome our own demons and to move forward in life.

The 5 tools are :-

Tool 1 -
Reversal of Desire.
How to overcome our fear of pain (failure). What steps needed for us to do to overcome them and reach out the vast opportunities lay in front of PAIN.

To me the failures were not so scary. I know everybody fails. Failure is part of success. It's either I feel embarrassed, demotivated or angry. Sometimes I just laughed at it or maybe I cried for few days or weeks or months. Until no more tears.Then came the scariest part. THE PICK-YOURSELF-UP JOURNEY. I don't know how long it's going be. Am I strong enough? Or am I going to give up easily? Am I ready to know that maybe my loved ones won't be with me throughout the long journey any more. Am I ready for that too? I don't know.

Tool 2 -

Active Love
To change from resentment to love.
When we face harsh situation with another person, sometimes we will become angry. So whenever we face with this difficulties, it is our choice whether we want to remain angry (the Maze) or we use Active Love approach.

This approach teaches us to accept all ideas including the ones that offend us most. Then we use the Active Love approach such as by telling ourselves we forgive them and feel the Outflow of energy(love)  from deep in our heart.

Tool 3 -

Inner Authority
Find confidence and inner strength
Sometime when we face an overwhelming task for example public speaking, our brain and body freeze. According to the authors, freezing actually  caused by an inner insecurity that we didn't want others to know.

To overcome this, we need to acknowledge our inner self that we're deeply ashamed of.
 When we're in harmony with our inner self,  it will give us a deep inner strength. We know who we really are. We are less concern with other people opinions.

I came from not well to do family. I was once feel ashamed and tried to hide it. The more I tried to hide my insecurities, the more I became restless. There was no peace of mind. I was afraid that one day people will know the truth. I tried to emulate others just to be accepted until one day my inner shadow won the battle between us. Through experiences and maturity, I found what I was looking for.- an inner peace mind and soul.

Tool 4 -

The Grateful Flow.
For peace of mind. When our mind full with negativities, we have been taken over by Black Cloud. To push away this black cloud, we need to inject into our mind some positivities. GRATEFULNESS is very important element in our life. We are so busy looking for something to make us happy until we forget the one we had. All the grateful things were given free and that's why we take it for granted. But once it's taken from us, we cannot get it back. Things like our health, able bodied, sound mind and love.

So the authors suggest that we state at least 5 things we're truly grateful for. Say it loud so we can hear ourselves. Say it slowly so we can feel the grateful flow from our deepest heart to outside. And do as often as we can until we truly mean every single things we say we're grateful for.

Tool 5 -

Jeopardy
Immense willpower.
The authors want us to use our creativity. Imagine ourselves in the future on our own DEATHBED. See our old selves raise and saying something to our present selves. What would that be? Do our old selves congratulate us or angry to us for what we have done or haven't done. Do our old selves praise us or berated us?


But for myself the most profound quotes is

That should remind us not to waste our precious life unwisely.

The tools doesn't end with the chapter. It is an ongoing process in our life.

"No matter how demoralized or lazy you are, if you're alive and conscious, you have enough energy to make some tiny effort on your own behalf even the most minuscule effort counts. The only real mistakes is to do nothing."

                            10/10

#kakinota : the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry by rachel joyce

The story is about a 65 years old retiree named Harold Fry who received a letter from his colleague, Queenie Hennessy after 20 years of her disappearance.

In the letter, Queenie explained she had cancer and was going to die. The letter stated that she has no other family member or relatives to inform about it. She sent it to Harold as a rememberence of their good friendship once upon a time.

Harold felt deeply touched with it as they were once working at the same place and he did not know the reasons of her sudden termination. He wrote a reply letter and with intention of going to post the letter to Queenie.

From a simple intention of posting a letter from one letter box to another, he suddenly got an idea to walk and gave his letter personally to Queenie. He then informed the caretaker to give his message and he wanted her to stay alive until he reached her. His walking became an amazing self-discovery journey from Kingsbridge to St. Bernadine's Hospice, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Through out the journey, Harold met a lot of people who were willing to help a stranger like him without wanting anything in returned, humble him. To Harold, all of these people were different but none struck as strange.

In the moment of solitary, Harold reminisced all things that went wrong in his life - his runaway mother, his troubled father who chased him out of his house when he reached 16, the first time he met his wife, Maureen and how they fell apart and became strangers living in the same house. He remember his son, David, whom he loved so much but unable to express his love to him and they then became estranged too.

He also remember how he met Queenie and they became closed friend. How out of sudden, Queenie disappeared. He felt guilty for not seeking her and asked her what actually happened that night.

It is not only an emotional journey for Harold but it is an emotional journey for Maureen too. How she took for granted and blamed Harold fir everything that had happened in her life. She blamed Harold for his cold treatment to their son, David. And from a good David turn out to be a bad one. How she ignored David's lack of interest in education. She pretended not knowing when David stole her money to feed his addiction. She just blamed everything to Harold. That put a deep strain into their marriage. They became strangers.

Eighty-seven days after setting out to post a letter, Harold Fry arrived at the gate of St. Bernadine's Hospice. Including mistakes and diversions, his journey had amounted to 627 miles. Together with his wife who had waited him at the end of the journey, they visited Queenie at the Hospice.

It is a good story. One need to read to find the answers to what actually happened to David and Queenie.

                                   8/10

#kakinota : how to get from where you are to where you want to be by jack canfield

The best book ever.

That's the only testimony I can give.

It's a motivational book written by the author of world famous Chicken Soup for Soul series.

I knew about those series but I did not read any of the collections. Yet...

I love the cover. Red with big bold written topic. It's quite catchy.

But the content is so so so good. It can be read by anybody. The author explained to the readers step by step how to implement his suggestions which are actually not very hard to follow by. In fact we can insert some of the suggestions into our schedules (if we want too) without changing our daily routines.

It is one of those books where I am proud to say it's worth to read and reread it over and over again. I can read it when I need a push of motivation. I can read it for leisure. And I can read it to maintain my motivation momentum.

The suggestions were proven before and will do so if anyone have the persistence and determination to improve ourselves.

It's worth the money, time and effort spend.

I assure you.

(10/10)

#kakinota : the alchemist by paulo coelho

This novel is about a shepherd named Santiago who follows his dreams.

One night while he was sleeping, he dreamt for the second times about a child who said to him that if he go to pyramids, he will find a hidden treasure. He went to see a Gypsy lady who explained to him the meaning of his dream with a price - she wanted 1/10 of his treasures.

Unfortunately, her explanation didn't get him far until he meet the King of Salem, Melchizedek who urged him to sell his flock and travel to the said  place to find a hidden treasure.

Along the journey, the shepherd faced difficulties which made him almost abandon his dream.

Through out his travel from Andalusia - Tangiers - Desert - Egypt, the boy befriended a lot of people who helped and taught him about the miracle of life. A friend explained to him not to worry much about the future. Feel the thrill of not knowing what the outcome would be. His friend explained  that the future was already written by God and what He had written was always for the good of man. Thus man live only for the present because present was full of surprises and man had to be aware of many things in the present too.

The boy also learn how to make adjustment along the way in the dessert without compromising his goal. He remember the king advised,

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

The novel can be considered as part of motivational book too as it explained indirectly about how people with dreams do not give up easily. We can learn a lot from nature flexibilities when facing adversities in our way achieving goals.

(9/10)

kakinota #the avery shaw experiment by kelly oram

A teen fiction and a funny one.

It is about 16 years old teenager Avery Shaw who is a junior in Spanish Fork, Utah being dump by her boyfriend, Aiden Kennedy.

So being a nerd person, she tried to heal her heartbreak with science.

Since she's not only being dump as a girlfriend, she also being dump as a science partner by her ex.

Despite her broken hearted, she suddenly found a way to heal and at the same time still able to enter 2013 Utah State Science Fair without her ex.

To make her research more interesting, she roped in her ex's brother, Grayson Kennedy. Not only Grayson will assist her as an independent adviser, she also help him to improve his school marks so he will be able to continue to play his sports game and be able to attend UVU later.

These are the commonly accepted 7 stages of grief :
1. Shock/disbelief
2. Denial
3. Bargaining
4. Guilt
5. Anger
6. Depression
7. Acceptance/grief

Readers will read through all the 7 stages and how Avery overcome every stage before she can move to another until at the end of it and move forward in her life.

"Facing the cause of grief is necessary in order to obtain acceptance. People don't forget the loved ones they lose. They make peace with them being gone. In order to get over broken heart, we have to make peace with the person who broke it." Kelly Oram.

kakinota #don't look back by jennifer l. armentrout

This is a thriller and mysteries book.

A girl who had been in an awful accident which left her having amnesia.
She couldn't remember her own name, her family and friends and couldn't even remember what had happened to her.

When Samantha Jo Franco 17 year old being accused of murdering her best friend Cassie Winchester, she knew she need to do something to make her remember what truly happened the night they went missing.

Along the way of trying to discover the truth of what happened that night, she also discovered what kind of person she used to be and the kind of people she befriended before the incident.

Sammy determined not only to find the murderer but also she determined to make amend with people she made enemies before especially with her childhood best friend.

Who is the murderer? At the end of the thriller, I found out that the person I suspected to be was the wrong person.

The book is actually simple and straight to the point and I found it to be entertaining for leisure reading.

psst : It took me 2 days to finish it including less sleep. I couldn't wait to know who was the murderer. A.S.A.P.

kakinota : Enjoying the Chase by Kristy Moseley

I've known the author from the famous wattpad. This story was among the highest readers and voters then. So were her other stories that managed to attract publisher to publish them as well.

This book is a story about boy meet girl. The guy S.W.A.T Officer Nate Peters meet a single mother, Rosie York through their own respective bestfriends. This book explains in detail about Nate's inner feeling when he try to win Rosie and her son DJ's love and trust .

80% of the story came from Nate's P.O.V (point of view) and the rest was Rosie's which is refreshing because usually when it comes to love and romance fictions, I usually find them were written from girls' P.O.V. How a woman/lady/girl try to find ways to be different from the bimbos and be noticed while mostly of the guy were seen as the coolest, toughest and hottest guy who do not have any internal conflict at all.

The story was long and it took me more than 2 days to finish reading. It is fine by the way because I feel that this story is lack of an 'ummph' factor. There is no urgency feeling to know what happened next as I can figure out more or less of what will happen next.

And the author loooove to used the word 'HOT' - the hot guy, the hot girl and the hot body until I felt 'HOTLY' annoying reading and reread it throughout the story.

kakinota : to sell is human by daniel pink

The beginning part of this book is quite boring. It explained about all the researches and outcomes done by the author and other group of researchers. Actually it is important because the author wanted to give some proven proofs before he went on to the solutions and conclusions part ( the 2nd section) which I find it interestingly useful and can be used in our daily communication with others too.

The result of all the tests done explained the difference between an extrovert (loud & pushy) and an introvert (shy & timid) as known by public but findings also found the 3rd personality - AN AMBIVERT which consist some traits of an introvert and some from an extrovert. In simple terms - an ambivert know when to speak up and when to shut up. It is considered as a PERFECT traits not only in sales but as a whole person too. Interesting!

According to Jim Collins, a well known author, a great way to start a friendly and
comfortable conversation is by asking
" Where are you from? " rather than " What do you do? " which sometimes considered as rude for certain cultures.

I personally loved the 3 step of essential rules :

1. Amazing Silence
    which taught us to wait for 15 sec before
    giving our thoughts. The 15 sec silence
    give us enough time to process infos
    we heard and think for the suitable
    answers especially if received negative
     infos about oneself.

2. "Yes and ..."
     A conversation begins with " Yes and .."
     will likely turn into more friendly
     discussion rather than " Yes but ... "
     which sometimes seen as a start for
     more negative outcome.

3. Make your partner look good.
     This require a lot of positive traits in a
     person to do this kindly act. In this world
     well known as "dog eat dog world",
     everyone doing their best to outsmart
     one another. With all the reality shows
     showing that people can and will do
     whatever it take to been seen as winner.
     It is quite refreshing to meet someone
     that is totally different from the rest.


                 

   
   
   
     

kakinota : Three weeks with my brother by nicholas & micah sparks

I have this love-hate relationship with nicholas sparks. I loved his books just like any of his fans but I hated the heartbreaking ending. I've read some books with sad ending before but his books were heartbreaking sad.

I read Night at Rodanthe and I... cried. I just can't believe it ended that way but I think life just don' t filled with happy endings only. I can say that the book make me traumatized with the author. When I saw his books and feel tempted to read, my heart will say " Nope... not going to go through THAT again". Not even the movies too.

But I do loved their memoirs though. I loved reading about their life experiences and how they overcome adversities (toughest one) The higher their successes the higher the sacrifices they had to endure. How their persistence in achieving their dreams to become millionaire and not to be poor ever again.

In every places they went, I searched for the exact photos so I could understand the whole story better.

But what touched me the most is their childhood memories. How they grew up. The sibling rivalry. The closed relationship among family members. And I did cried...... again when I read about Dana.

At the end of the book, not only I admired their inner strength but the way they've been supportive to each other and will do so until the end.Kudos to them. Kudos to their parents too.