Dear Fellow Reader,
Happy New Year! Are you as amazed as I am that it could be a new year already? What happened?
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I do. No, I am not that great at keeping them. (I bet you knew that because I keep saying that I am going to post more here and then I don’t.) I have decided this year that instead of looking at it as resolutions that I am going to try and build some new habits. I made a laundry list of things that I would like to change or improve upon and from that I am going to try and make new habits that will help me incorporate the changes.
One of the things I learned several years ago from a neighbor was the value of having a quarterly planning session. The idea was to try and plan out what I want to accomplish in the next quarter. I have found this to be helpful, but I think I also enjoy just getting ready for the planning session. Now, I have always had these sessions with myself at home but my neighbor really felt that you needed to get out of your space and so you could concentrate. I used to go to another room in the house that I could “junk up” for a couple of days while I worked on my plans. This time, I just stayed in my office but went over to the “reading corner” and set up a TV tray to hold all the stuff I dragged over there. Somehow, I got caught up in doing things that had nothing to do with planning – or did they? I sat down and decided that I needed to clean out my bookcase. There were books that I was never going to read or books that needed to find a new home. In doing this, I found Gretchen Rubin’s book, Better than Before. It is a book about building habits! How perfect, right? Did I know that I had that book? Okay, kind of a tossup on that but the book was right there when I needed it!
Gretchen Rubin has a very conversational style of writing that is easy to read. She includes personal observations along with research and statistics to back up her information. The book starts out talking about how important self-knowledge is in the process. Ms Rubin’s theory is that if you know what kind of person you are, you can form habits that will go along with your personality and it will make it easier for you. This makes sense, right? The four types of personalities described by her are as follows:
The Upholder – meets outer expectations, meets inner expectations
The Questioner – resists outer expectations, meets inner expectations
The Obliger – meets outer expectations, resists inner expectations
The Rebel – resists outer expectations, resists inner expectations
Once you know where you fit, then you can adapt your habit formation so that your new habits will appeal to your personality type. I will say that I had a bit of a problem defining myself. I felt I was a blend of types but that is probably because I wasn’t crazy about the sound of being an Obliger.
I felt that it was one of those rare moments that a book was in front of me that was exactly what I needed to read. I have a feeling that one read won’t be enough – I have the book totally marked up – that there is plenty of information there to warrant additional visits. If you are looking to kick start your new year or improve some of your habits, this book could be of help. A quick read with lots to think about.
Thanks for reading!
I read about The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess on the website of my local bookseller. I read the description and was interested to read the book. Eve Rosen is 25, lives and works in New York City for a publishing company. She took that job thinking that it would help to fire up her writing, but it hasn’t. Through her work, she corresponds regularly with Henry Grey, a famed writer for the New Yorker magazine. While visiting her parent’s summer home, she is invited to Henry Grey’s home. Here she meets the people she feels she belongs with – the creative elite of Truro. She not only meets Henry Grey and his wife, the poetess, Tillie Sanderson but his son, the beautiful Franny. Franny pays attention to her and she feels she has a connection into the family.
![NextYearinHavanna_FCO_RW[2]+copy](https://cecooney.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/nextyearinhavanna_fco_rw2copy.jpg?w=412&h=621)
For that reason, I picked up the book Next Year Havana by Chanel Cleeton. The story is told from two perspectives. Elisa grew up in Havana as the daughter of “the sugar king”. Her family is in the upper reaches of society in Cuba. She and her sisters attend balls and have clothes from all the best stores. In the other part of the story, we follow Marisol who goes to visit Cuba in 2017 to scatter her grandmother’s ashes. Marisol has grown up in Miami but feels she is as Cuban as she is American. While she is told to be careful in Cuba she had no idea of the type of life she will find there. While being drawn to the natural beauty, she underestimated the political climate.
The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets by Molly Fader examines the relationship between two sisters. These sisters chose very different paths and have not been close. Lindy comes home after 17 years to find that in some ways time has stood still and not necessary in a good way. She finds that her mother is not doing well and that her sister, Delia, needs help that she doesn’t want from Lindy.
Carol Early Cooney 