Reader's Corner

Right now I'm reading a book called 'Altered' by Jennifer Rush. Its the last year I can participate in the summer reading program at my library :'(

Korean_Romeo wrote:

nanox wrote: You aren't going to stop trying to turn me into a feminist, are you?

I care about you a lot. And I just want to save your soul.

I don't understand why it matters. I'm a humanist and that includes feminism. I just define myself as a human who is female, instead of a female first.

What are you reading right now and what do you think about it?

I am currently reading two books. The first one is "A conflict of visions", which explains why people differ in political, social, etc views. Basically it is because of fundamentally different concepts of humanity. Some people think of human nature as enduring and self centered, while others regard humanity as malleable and perfectible. I am typing this in my iPhone, so I won't go into any details. Read it if you are interested in politics and/or history.

The second one is Mindfulness. As the name of the book suggests, it is about the mindful state of being. But it is definitely not just another esoteric book trying to sell you a fairy tale. Rather, it explains mindfulness with scientific studies, written by a Harvard professor. Highly recommended to everyone! It is simply mind blowing.

What are your all time favorite books?

The alchemist by Coelho. I recommend this to everyone. It only takes about 3 hours to read, you can do it in one single train ride. But it reveals to you so much about about your dreams and passions, it is incredible.

What books would you recommend for others to read?

"Fear the fear and do it anyway". A simple, yet very enlightened view about our fears and how to overcome them. I recommend this to everyone because we all have fears. Also, see above.

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?

As you would probably have guessed by now, non fiction. Duh! Though I have to say that I have also enjoyed American gods and its spinoff Anansi boys.

Do you read anything other than books, like journals, news, blogs, the backs of cereal boxes, whatever…?

Sometimes, I read the Economist. But I don't like reading/watching the news.

ChineseHatTrick wrote: What are you reading right now and what do you think about it?

I am currently reading two books. The first one is "A conflict of visions", which explains why people differ in political, social, etc views. Basically it is because of fundamentally different concepts of humanity. Some people think of human nature as enduring and self centered, while others regard humanity as malleable and perfectible. I am typing this in my iPhone, so I won't go into any details. Read it if you are interested in politics and/or history.

The second one is Mindfulness. As the name of the book suggests, it is about the mindful state of being. But it is definitely not just another esoteric book trying to sell you a fairy tale. Rather, it explains mindfulness with scientific studies, written by a Harvard professor. Highly recommended to everyone! It is simply mind blowing.

Thank you! These both sound like books I would really enjoy reading and I do get pretty burned out on reading fiction.

Mindfulness is one of the concepts and skills I stress with my patients because of its effectiveness in helping people overcome trauma. One of the models I use is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, which is a mixture of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Buddhist principles. This model focuses heavily on mindfulness and is one of the only models proven to treat not only depression, but has also been successful in treating those with Borderline Personality Disorder (one of the most difficult mental illnesses to treat). Sounds like this book will have a lot of the same studies that helped to substantiate the models we use in practice. Could be helpful to read not only for my personal well being but also in my work.

Again, thank you so much for sharing! This is the reason I wanted to start this thread. I am definitely ordering a copy of Mindfulness and have to scope out A Conflict of Visions as well.

Was there any particular reason you picked these books initially or were they also recommended to you?

EDIT: Who is the author of Mindfulness? I have found a couple books with that title

Another book I forgot about, but highly recommend is "The Art of Seduction" by Robert Greene. Awesome book!

He also wrote:

The 48 Laws of Power
The 33 Strategies of War
The 50th Law

All of these are excellent reads as well

Ah, my bad. Sometimes I omit words because writing on my iPhone is a major pain in my yellow ass.

The authors are Thomas Sowell and Ellen Langer.

You are welcome. Your work sounds fascinating to me as well. Can you recommend me a book regarding this topic for laymen?

Ellen Langer piqued my interest when I started reading about positive psychology and Thomas Sowell's book has been recommended by Tal Ben Shahar, also from the field of positive psychology (though the second book has nothing to do with PP).

ChineseHatTrick wrote: Ah, my bad. Sometimes I omit words because writing on my iPhone is a major pain in my yellow ass.

The authors are Thomas Sowell and Ellen Langer.

You are welcome. Your work sounds fascinating to me as well. Can you recommend me a book regarding this topic for laymen?

Ellen Langer piqued my interest when I started reading about positive psychology and Thomas Sowell's book has been recommended by Tal Ben Shahar, also from the field of positive psychology (though the second book has nothing to do with PP).

Thank you for clarifying! My boss gives us a certain amount of money each year for continuing education, which includes purchasing books that relate to our job in order to keep us up to date on evidence-based practices - so I was able to pick up a copy earlier today.

I don't think many people are aware of Positive Psychology and are frustrated by traditional talk therapy, since it isn't helpful for a lot of people. It is pretty awesome that you found an interest in this area, because it is something that is not only useful, but can easily be researched and applied individually to improve one's life. The need for a clinician only applies to those with serious mental health issues. I actually became interested in Positive Psychology my last year as an undergrad when I was having trouble coping with the death of two close friends. I went into the school's counseling center and met with a psychiatrist who taught me EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is an acupressure technique that helps people to remove negative emotions by countering them with positive self-talk and pressure points. She started our sessions by telling me about her Positive Psychology model and I found it to be a lot more useful than traditional psychotherapy could have hoped to be. I teach it to some of my clients, as well as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), DBT and the Adlerian model. You might be interested in researching those as well, or maybe not..

Sorry, I could go on about this stuff for days! To answer your question though...

You might want check out some of the DBT workbooks. They are meant as self-help guides, but they explain the way the model works and guide the reader through applying the concepts in daily life with various exercises. I recommend these to clients and actually assign some of the exercises from these books:

-This One Moment: Skills for Everyday Mindfulness, by Marsha Linehan
-Mindfulness Exercises, By Karyn Hall
-The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook: Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance, by Matthew McKay/Jeffrey Wood/Jeffrey Brantley

I really haven't read a lot of non-clinical DBT books, but you might be able to find something good by the woman who created the model. Her name is Marsha Linehan and she has published several books on the subject, although most are for clinicians. The following are my favorites (some may be easier to digest than others, so maybe check the table of contents first):

-Mindfulness and Acceptance: Expanding the Cognitive Behavioral Tradition, by Steven C. Hayes
-DBT Skills Training Manual, 2nd Edition, by Marsha Linehan
-DBT Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide to Dialectical Behavior Therapy, By Sheri Van Dijk
-The Expanded Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Manual: Practical DBT for Self-Help and Individual & Group Settings, by Lane Pederson

There are also books that focus on one specific concept of DBT (e.g., Mindfulness, Reality Acceptance, Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, etc.), which can be useful if you are looking to improve in one particular area. If after learning more about the subject you find that you are more interested in one concept than the others, I can provide some additional recommendations.

I hope that helps!

Small book needs love too. *cough cough*

There was a book thread a while ago. But I couldn't find it.

Glad I found this one.

I'm too tired to go though the questions you asked. I'll get to that later.

Two good books I read in the last weeks:

Philip Coggan - Shiny Objects of Desire

Pearl S. Buck - East Wind, West Wind
(also read The Good Earth before, she won the Nobel prize for that one).