highlights – Page 8 – Marlo Yonocruz

Book notes: Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney book summary review and key ideas.

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Conversations with Friends: A Novel by Salley Rooney

Synopsis:

“Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa’s world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances’ friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally, terribly, with Bobbi.

Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances’ intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.” -Audible

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Book notes: Just Listen by Mark Goulston

Just Listen by Mark Goulston book summary review and key ideas.

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Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone by Mark Goulston, MD

Synopsis:

“Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, business consultant, and coach, author Mark Goulston combines his background with the latest scientific research to help listeners turn the “impossible” and “unreachable” people in their lives into allies, devoted customers, loyal colleagues, and lifetime friends. Just Listen provides simple but powerful techniques listeners can use to really get through to people.

You’ll learn how to: make a powerful and positive first impression; listen effectively; make even a total stranger (potential client) feel understood; talk an angry or aggressive person away from an instinctual, unproductive reaction and toward a more rational mindset; and achieve buy-in – the linchpin of all persuasion, negotiation, and sales.

Whether they’re coworkers, friends, strangers, or enemies, the first make-or-break step in persuading anyone to do anything is getting them to hear you out. With this groundbreaking audiobook, listeners will be able to master the fine but critical art of effective communication.” -Audible

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Book notes: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller book summary review and key ideas.

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A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Author

Synopsis:

“Full of beautiful, heart-wrenching, and hilarious stories, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years details one man’s opportunity to edit his life as if her were a character in a movie. Years after writing his best-selling memoir, Donald Miller went into a funk and spent months sleeping in and avoiding his publisher. One story had ended, and Don was unsure how to start another. But he gets rescued by two movie producers who want to make a movie based on his memoir. When they start fictionalizing Don’s life for film – changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative – the real-life Don starts a journey to edit his actual life into a better story.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years details that journey and challenges listeners to reconsider what they strive for in life. It shows how to get a second chance at life the first time around.” -Audible

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Book notes: Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee

Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee book summary review and key ideas.

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Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living by Bruce Lee

Synopsis:

“A teacher is never a giver of truth—he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst. (Bruce Lee)

Within the chapters of Striking Thoughts, you will find the secrets of Bruce Lee’s incredible success—as an actor, martial artist, and inspiration to the world. Consisting of eight sections, Striking Thoughts covers 72 topics and 825 aphorisms—from spirituality to personal liberation and from family life to filmmaking—all of which Bruce lived by.

His ideas helped energize his life and career and made it possible for him to live a happy and assured life, overcoming challenging obstacles with seeming ease. They also inspired his family, friends, students, and colleagues to achieve success in their own lives, and this personal collection will help you in your journey, too.” -Audible

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Book notes: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman book summary review and key ideas.

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Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:

“Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

“A fantastic story that is both the stuff of dreams and nightmares” (San Diego Union-Tribune), Neil Gaiman’s first solo novel has become a touchstone of urban fantasy and a perennial favorite of readers and listeners everywhere.” -Audible

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Book notes: Build the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey

Build the Life You Want by Arthur C Brooks and Oprah Winfrey book summary review and key ideas.

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Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey

Synopsis:

“In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action, they show you how to improve your life right now instead of waiting for the outside world to change.

With insight, compassion, and hope, Brooks and Winfrey reveal how the tools of emotional self-management can change your life―immediately. They recommend practical, research-based practices to build the four pillars of happiness: family, friendship, work, and faith. And along the way, they share hard-earned wisdom from their own lives and careers as well as the witness of regular people whose lives are joyful despite setbacks and hardship.

Equipped with the tools of emotional self-management and ready to build your four pillars, you can take control of your present and future rather than hoping and waiting for your circumstances to improve. Build the Life You Want is your blueprint for a better life.” -Audible

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Book notes: The Sandman, Act 3 by Neil Gaiman

The Sandman, Act 3 by Neil Gaiman book summary review and key ideas.

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The Sandman, Act III by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:

“The groundbreaking audio production of what Los Angeles Times Magazine called “the greatest epic in the history of comic books” continues. Leading perhaps the best cast ever assembled in audio, James McAvoy returns to voice Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, in The Sandman: Act III, the third installment of the New York Times best-selling audio saga. Award-winning audio trailblazer Dirk Maggs adapts the blockbuster DC graphic novel series written by Neil Gaiman (Good Omens) into another fully immersive listening experience, presented for the first time in breathtaking 3D audio.

In Act III, we follow Morpheus on a grand journey to take care of family business. He visits with his son Orpheus (Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page), an act that brings with it profound consequences. Accompanied by Delirium (Kristen Schaal, Bob’s Burgers), he tracks down their estranged brother, Destruction (David Harewood, Supergirl), the only member of the Endless ever to abandon their post. And at an inn at the intersection of all worlds, a group of travelers are forced together by a storm that threatens to destroy reality itself, with grave repercussions for Morpheus and the rest of the Endless.” -Amazon

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A Year in Review: 2023

Blessings, achievements, goals, and life lessons of 2023.

Hello friends, followers, and various people on the internet 👋 Happy New Year! 🎊

2023 seemed to pass by so quickly! But even more astounding than that, for the first time in my Yearly Review history, I’ve managed to get this published right on January 1st 🥳💪🏻

Table of Contents

Why Am I Writing This?

This post allows me to simultaneously:

Self-reflect on my past year
Share personal highlights with those who are curious or interested

These year-end reviews give me the space to recap memorable events, express gratitude, compile my personal statistics, and examine how much progress I made on my personal goals.

My Tradition Since 2016

Since 2016, I’ve been doing these posts mainly for my own records. However, these reflections may also be beneficial to others, so I write them with the intention of a public audience reading them.

For those who don’t know, I do 3 other types of journal reflections: daily, weekly, and monthly. This yearly reflection is somewhat of a compilation of those reflections but formatted in a more digestible way for the public.

Past Years In Review:

In a separate post, I’ve compiled all of the life lessons I’ve learned this year. My hope is that sharing my own hard-earned lessons will benefit those who may encounter similar challenges. I also want to compile these into a book one day, since it’s my long-term dream to become a published author.