Carson Reads

One Hundred Years of Solitude follows seven generations of the Buendía family living in a fictitious village named "Macondo". It has been praised far and wide and won Márquez the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982! As with most classics that I read, as soon as I finish I feel like I need to reread it in order to digest the story and its message fully. I would recommend this book to almost anyone— just know that it is NOT an easy read! It combines the supernatural with the ordinary in order to tell the story of Latin America. Totally mesmerizing, totally difficult, but totally worth it.

* means that I read it in Spanish

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon and was 47 years old when he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. He uses his illness as an opportunity to give his "Last Lecture". A last lecture is usually provided by a professor as a hypothetical, if it were to be their final lecture what would they want you to remember from them and the life that they had lived? The address in this memoir, however, really would be Randy's last.

He talks much about how to overcome obstacles in life, why we should dream big, and how time is really all that we have— so use it wisely.

I'd recommend this short read to anyone! It's a good reminder of how precious and delicate life is.

A story about Charlie. He is friendless and about to start his freshman year of high school. This sounds like a trite plot that has been tried over and over again, but Chbosky does it in a real and raw way. Although the protagonist is 15 (and his friends are just a few years older), the story is universal and relatable to everyone.

The best book I have read so far this year. I was blown away by how much I grew to love each of these characters and how much I wanted them to be happy and find their way in life.

WOULD RECOMMEND

It is a book (and a movie) that I will be thinking about for a long time.

"Watchmen" is named one of the best 100 novels by Time! It comprises 12 separate comic books and tells the story of a group of superheroes called the Watchmen. Published in 1987 during the height of the Cold War, much fear existed around war. Definitely a product of its time, it shows what people will go to in order to achieve the "greater good" and the lengths people will go to in order to preserve peace.

None of the Watchmen (except for one) actually has superpowers. Instead, it follows deeply flawed individuals who don masks and try to fight crime.

But if they are so imperfect and obviously human, who will watch the Watchmen?

My first ever comic book read and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Would recommend!

Let me know what you think:)

"The key insight behind Radical Candor is that command and control can hinder innovation ad harm a team's ability to improve the efficiency of routine work. Bosses and companies get better results when they voluntarily lay down unilateral power and encourage their teams and peers to hold them accountable, when they quit trying to control employees and focus instead on encouraging agency."

A book that teaches you how to "be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity!

Not my most favorite read of all time, but I think it would be valuable if you find yourself in a management position somewhere in corporate America.

It felt like Scott intentionally writes redundantly in hopes of having her point get across and stick. I can't tell if it worked or not.

Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor and author of the French fashion magazine Elle. When he was 43 years old he had a massive stroke but was saved! Well, kind of, they kept Bauby alive but he now suffered from something that is called "locked-in syndrome". He was left completely paralyzed except for the use of his left eyelid.

In this memoir about his life, he illustrates how he remains undefeated even though his body is powerless. It is a beautiful and touching read with Bauby telling us about his life through short vignettes that cover different facets of his life. It's one of those books that teaches you empathy and compassion and leaves you feeling small, we take so much for granted and we should all be thankful for the life that we lead and be more compassionate to those who are less fortunate. Jean-Dominique Bauby does not throw himself a pity party and he is not whiny throughout this book. Not once.

It is a beautiful and short read. 100% worth it to get that most valuable perspective shift and learn about the life of this man. Would recommend to any and everyone.

Normal People is what happens when you take talented writing and pair it with a plotless series of vignettes depicting an unrealistic and frustrating relationship between two very ABnormal people.

It follows Connell and Marianne and is set in a fictitious city in modern-day Ireland. Connell is poor but ultra-popular and very athletic. Marianne is very rich but a bit of a loser. Both are very intelligent and get accepted to prestigious schools and win scholarships. It follows their relationship starting in high school. Connell doesn't dare acknowledge Marianne at school even though he has professed his love for her— what would his other cool peers say if they found out he has feelings for someone like her?

It was rated #7 among the most popular books published in 2018, yet it has one of the lowest star ratings on that most popular list. You either love it or hate it and I sincerely didn't enjoy it. There was not a single likable character and it was also very difficult to relate to any of them.

I read it so you don't have to!

Let me know what you think of this book! I'd love to hear.

"Dear Pat,

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and said, 'Why don’t you make something for me?'

I asked what you wanted, and you said, 'A box.'

'what for?'

'To put things in.'

'What things?'

'Whatever you have,' you said.

Well, here's your box. Nealy everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you

And still the box is not full." - John Steinbeck

12 years after writing "The Grapes of Wrath", John Steinbeck crafts this almost biblical story of a family who moves to California. It covers 3 generations and explains that we are not cursed to be good or evil, but we have a choice of what we want to be and that choice is what makes us human. A deeply moving book, I already need to put it back on my to-be-read shelf to read again. 

"We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is." pg 413.

"In the Blood"- John Mayer

I also recently watched the movie! James Dean plays Cal fantastically.

Written by Mitch Albom, this book spans 196 small pages. It follows an old man named Eddie. The storyline starts at the end and follows Eddie as he is involved in a terrible amusement park ride accident. In the next life, he meets 5 people who have had some contact with Eddie or influenced his life while he was still alive. These are the five people who help him, "make sense of [his] yesterdays" (pg. 92). Between almost every chapter there is a page titled, "Today is Eddie's birthday" and it gives us insight into the different stages of his life. We learn about his wife and his deep devotion to her, his service in the military that left him rattled for the rest of his life, and his rocky relationship with his father. We see Eddie as he makes sense of all of these conflicts and more while learning from these five people who he meets in heaven. It is a lovely story and I'd recommend it!

"Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should all be respected. The version represented here is only a guess, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle, and others like him-people who felt unimportant here earth-realize, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved." - Mitch Albom

I just read The Common Path to Uncommon Success by John Lee Dumas 

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, I knew it was in the vein of self-help and I had just heard about it from people probably from my business classes in college or in a Twitter thread on business books that everyone should read.

The book is 258 pages long and is supposed to teach lay folk like you and me how to be successful entrepreneurs. It was published in 2021 and it is basically John Lee Dumas bestowing his knowledge on us in 17 easy-to-follow steps!

John is the host of a podcast called "Entrepreneurs on Fire". It was established in 2012 and was the first business podcast to have a new episode released every single day. In it, he interviews different entrepreneurs, picks their brains, and gets their stories in short episodes. I haven't listened to any of his podcasts but it does seem like a good and cool idea.

If you are seriously trying to figure out how to be an entrepreneur and don’t know where to start, I would recommend this book to you. If you are basically anyone else, don’t waste your time. I think John should stick with podcasts and maybe stay out of books. Is that too harsh to say? Let's unpack it.