Tag Archive for: books – relationships

The Motion of a body through space

After losing his job in the Department of Transportation, where he had been a long-valued employee, 63-year-old Remington Alabaster finds himself in need of a new purpose.
When he informs his wife, Serenata, that he intends to run a marathon some months hence, she is immediately dismissive. Until now, Serenata has been the runner and fitness fanatic in the family. But arthritic knees have forced her to abandon running and severely restrict her exercise routine.
Despite her opposition, Remington takes to his training regime with the zeal of a religious convert, while Serenata clings to the hope that his obsession will end once the marathon is over. That hope is crushed when Remington hobbles over the finish line and announces his new goal to compete in the MettleMan, an ultra-triathlon that pushes endurance beyond normal limits and tests his aging body and their marriage.

From the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin

Allergic to group activities of any kind, all her life Serenata has run, swum, and cycled – on her lonesome. But now that she's hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. As she contemplates surgery with dread, her previously sedentary husband Remington, recently and ignominiously redundant, chooses this precise moment to discover exercise.

Which should be good for his health, right? Yet as he joins the cult of fitness that seems increasingly to consume the whole of the Western world, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist. Ignoring all his other obligations in the service of extreme sport, he engages a saucy, taunting personal trainer named Bambi, who treats his wife with contempt. When Remington announces his intention to compete in a legendarily gruelling triathlon, MettleMan, Serenata is sure he's going to end up injured or dead – but the stubbornness of an ageing man in Lycra is not to be underestimated.

The story of an obsession, of a marriage, of a betrayal: The Motion of the Body Through Space is Lionel Shriver at her hilarious, sharp-eyed, audacious best.

VERDICT As she has done before in novels such as We Need To Talk About Kevin, Shriver takes on hot-button topics—in this case the fitness craze, toxic workplaces, the tyranny of political correctness, and the indignities of aging
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Dating 101: Principles and Practice

Dating is the initial and critical first stage in the relationships leading to marriage.  Dating is so important and so terribly misunderstood in this day and age.  As people get involved with dating, they quickly discover that they are in the middle of big unfathomable sea and they are confused.  Youth and young single adults coming into dating newly as well as older single  adults including formerly married men and women have discovered to their chagrin that they have no idea how to make dating work for them.

Dating 101: Principles and Practice is dedicated to charting the all important road-map to this critical stage in the relationships between the sexes.  It explains the principles and the best practices to ensure that you can enjoy the dating stage of the relationship between the male and female gender and have the hope of your dating transiting smoothly into courtship and marriage.

Readers would find Dating 101: Principles and Practice answering the questions they have always asked about dating, such as “where can I find who to date?  “How do I date appropriately? How do I date a guy to early marriage decision? How do I know that he or she is into me? How can I know he or she is my Mr. and Miss Right?  How can I avoid premarital sex during dating? Why should I avoid premarital sex during dating and a lot more?

 

Author:  Pivotal Network Member, Francis Nmeribe

 

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Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant combine stories, research, and practical advice to help you build strength for life's challenges—and help your family and community do the same.

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Mindset: the New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

by Carol Dweck

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset.

Dweck explains why it's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn't foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

“A good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. I have found Carol Dweck’s work on mindsets invaluable in my own life, and even life-changing in my attitudes toward the challenges that, over the years, become more demanding rather than less. This is a book that can change your life, as its ideas have changed mine.”

From Publishers Weekly
Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone," says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn't be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford. Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as... well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess? Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome

The book is available in the latest edition at Amazon

and yes that's an affiliate link. I will earn a few cents if you buy through it.  Thank you!