tirshavira's reviews
7 reviews

The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments by Meik Wiking

inspiring lighthearted reflective

4.5

• A Little Book of Hygge brought me to this book. Turns out I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed reading Hygge.
• The format is pretty much the same with Hygge. Meik Wiking's personal story combined with his research, findings, and theories (and humors).
• This is the type of book I must read in its physical format rather than e-book. Its full-color illustrations, along with the thick & proper paper material gives me a pleasant & exclusive reading experience.

People from Bloomington by Budi Darma

challenging dark mysterious

3.0

I really love the first story of this book about the old man. That gave me goosebumps. But unfortunately the rest of the chapters are not as engaging as the first one, it's too hard to understand.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

dark emotional sad

3.0

I was trying to enjoy this book but there are quite a lot of medical terms that made my head spinning. But anyway, Paul Kalanithi's experience is still worth to read.

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

informative lighthearted relaxing

4.5

• A real page-turner! One of the fastest book I finished reading. 
• I love how Meik Wiking combines his own story with theories, findings, and research (also some humors).
• Also I love the full-color photographs! It made my reading experience more enjoyable.
• And the cover illustration is cute as well. This is the type of book I'd love to put on the very front of my bookshelf.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

informative inspiring reflective

5.0

Feels after reads:

• Super impactful ; I deactivated my stock investing account right after finishing this book HAHA.
• Bye FOMO! ; This book for me is such a reassurance that financial decision is personal & unique to every person. You can have a different choice with people & that's completely ok. 
• Worth the hype ; No wonder this book is a bestseller. People can easily relate on many things there.
• You do you ; I love how this book doesn't tell me the exact how-to(s). Instead, readers are allowed to gain our own insights and do whatever we think is right.

Key takeaways:

• Financial decision is more than just a theory ; our personal experiences and starting point shapes the way we spend & save our money.
• There's no financial decision that fits us all ; People can have various ways of investing and that's ok!
• There's always a risk behind every investing method. It's an undeniable part of it.

Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn

hopeful inspiring reflective

5.0

Feels after reads:

• I LOVEEEE ITTT!!! *chef's kiss* *standing applause*
• Special thanks to @bookstrissa on IG (I randomly stumbled upon her review about this book & got hooked since then).
• Can I just stabilo the entire book??? too many insightful & relatable quotes :')
• A perfect page-turner ; I finished the 1st chapter of this book only in 2 hours & the entire book in 2 weeks.
• Very diverse topics ; romantic relationship, parent-child relationship, siblings relationship, friendship, and even relationship with own self. 
• Engaging combination of interview transcript with personal experiences ; there's always a "what I learn" paragraph after every interviewees' section, which adds more feelings in it.
• Each chapter has its own mood ; starts from "how do we find love?", which I found heartwarming, "how do we sustain love?", which I found inspiring, "how can we survive losing love?", which is actually the toughest part to read but I found it relieving, and all wrapped up thoughtfully in the last chapter, "what I wish I'd known about love".

Key Takeaways:

• Continuity of love ; "Love is a lifelong project & continual process of looking inwards (to ourselves) & outwards (to people & life we are living)."
• The work of re-seeing as a way to sustain love ; "To stay conscious, curious, and re-see people we love, because we always work in progress."
• Combination of growth that can concurrently happen in a relationship ; Self-growth & growing together. 
• Appreciate to love ; "Romance is about finding ways to show someone they are appreciated."
• Interdependence in a relationship ; "To not lean wholly on them, but to stand beside them."
• Admitting pain as a step to heal ; Not to make it as a competition of "who suffers the most." Instead, making it as a way to connect deeply with people & be kind to one another.

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

dark hopeful reflective

4.0

• Main takeaway I got from this book is about our "extreme mindset". We tend to see the world as black or white, either extremely happy or extremely sad, extremely good or extremely bad, while the reality is not like that.
• Another takeaway is about how we tend to see and judge ourselves worse than our real self actually is. We are the worst critic to ourselves.
• This book gave me a lot of insight, but there are several parts that's too repetitive and sometimes it's a bit boring. But it's still bearable, I still manage to finish this book till the end.