This post is a little delayed because I’ve been on vacation, enjoying the beauty and culture of the Dominican Republic. August wasn’t that great of a reading month for me anyways, I was super busy and only managed to read two books. Thoughts on them below 🙂

Deep Work by Cal Newport

My rating: 3/5 stars

“Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

Part 1 of this book focuses on the idea of “Deep Work” and starts of really interesting. Cal Newport does a fantastic job explaining this concept pretty early on and an even better job explaining its value, benefits etc. For this reason, I felt like Part 1 dragged on a little longer than it needed to. I felt I was already convinced, sold, and ready to move into the “implementation” part of the book but kept having to read what seemed like repetitions of what had already been said in earlier pages. 

Part 2 of this book (“The Rules”) is where things get even more interesting because of the practical aspects of it. I don’t agree with everything in this section but there were definitely some great tips in there that I feel can be applicable to my work and personal life. 

Two main things I didn’t like about this book and feel I have to mention:
1) 95% of the examples of successful people and their work habits consisted of white men. I would have liked to see more diversity as white men are not the only successful people in the world and certainly not the only group of people incorporating deep work into their everyday lives.

2) I don’t think this book does a good job of balancing deep work and social media. There are a lot of examples of successful people (usually old men) who quit social media or are not accessible by email; which is great for them but very unrealistic in the age that we live in and it would have been more helpful to get tips on how to balance having social media in your life while still engaging in deep work. 

Overall, great concept, solid advice but not always applicable depending on your professional background.

Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin

My rating: 4/5

“…that love is the sum of our choices, the strength of our commitments, the ties that bind us together.” 

Thoroughly enjoyed this and not at all surprised since “Something Borrowed” is one of my favourite go-to rom coms which I didn’t even know was originally a book by Emily Giffin until I picked up this one. 

I think Giffin clearly has a talent for capturing complicated feelings & flawed/sometimes unlikable characters all while delivering an engaging/compelling story.

In Love the One You’re With, Ellen’s chance encounter with an old flame, re-ignites forgotten feelings and produces longing nostalgia, which makes her question her marriage, love and life choices. 

Whether you’re rooting for Leo (the ex-flame) or for Andy (the husband); judging Ellen or relating to her circumstance; you still end up turning each page out of curiosity which is what I think makes this book so great.