Circum-Bytes

ThoughtPieces & ValueAdds. Stuff that add value and make you (re)think. *Byte indicates personal note. Circumspecte

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Eat, Pray, Love *Byte

Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir found me at a good friend’s house in Accra, June 2010. Some months later, it proceeded to save me - from myself, among other things.

Gilbert’s writing is verbose without being annoying, descriptive without going over the top, and humorous. I love her use of humor, particularly the episodes where she “talks to herself”. There were countless times I would just giggle to myself after reading one of her monologues, she’s my kind of crazy; I talk to myself too.

"Operation Self-Esteem—Day Fucking One"

And then there are phrases like the one above. Shocking, they leave you in your tracks. But that’s the thing about Eat, Pray, Love. It’s raw and says what some of us think, feel, but hesitate to say out.

A true memoir that explores the depths of failure, fear, helplessness and the heights of triumph, happiness, love. The journey of self-knowledge. My biggest takeaway:

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”

Keep close, you’re likely to go back to specific sections.

Jemila

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A transformational journey through Italy, India, and Bali searching for pleasure and devotion—the massive bestseller from the author of The Signature of All Things This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

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Rumi: The Big Red Book *Byte

Coleman Barks

*Byte - August 16, 2014

Quite simply, my guilty pleasure. I got this book on August 30, 2012 while transiting in Instanbul en route to Washington, DC. I had encountered Rumi’s work some years before but never purchased an actual book of his work - opting instead for ebooks and online documentation. I’d told myself that if I ever made it to Turkey - where Rumi spent most of his life after leaving Afghanistan with his family - that’s where I would purchase my first Rumi book. And that’s exactly what happened.

I’ve been through Istanbul a few more times and each time, I muse about him having walked the same streets in a different era, yet here we are, tied together by a similar love for writing and words. If I ever had the chance to meet one person in human history (past, present and future), I think it would have to be Rumi. He weaves words, strings them along with emotion, and delivers a softly planted kiss on your cheek. This isn’t one to be read from one cover to the end. It’s to be indulged, one delicious bit at a time, however it comes to you.

Jemila

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“Really, what other book would anyone ever need?” —Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Honeybee

“Elegant and exquisite.” —Deepak Chopra, author of Muhammad, Jesus, and Buddha

The Big Red Book *is a poetic masterpiece from Jalaluddin Rumi, the medieval Sufi mystic whom *Time *magazine calls “the most popular poet in America.” Readers continue to be awed and inspired by Rumi’s masterfully lyrical, deeply expressive poems, collected in volumes such as *The Illustrated Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, and the bestselling The Essential Rumi. With The Big Red Book, acclaimed poet and Rumi interpreter Coleman Barks offers a never-before-published translation of a crucial anthology of poems widely considered to be one of Persian literature’s greatest treasures.

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David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Malcolm Gladwell

**Malcolm Gladwell, the #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, *and *What the Dog Saw, offers his most provocative---|and dazzling---|book yet. ** Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He *shouldn't *have won.

Or should he have?

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell* *challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.

Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland's Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms---|all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.

In the tradition of Gladwell's previous bestsellers---|The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and *What the Dog Saw---|**David and Goliath* draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.

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The Complete Conversations with God

Neale Donald Walsch

To mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of Conversations with God, Book 1, all three of the most essential books in Neale Donald Walsch's seminal trilogy are brought together in one beautiful volume just in time for the gift-giving season.   Conversations with God, Book 1 was the start of Neale Donald Walsch's ongoing dialogue with God. The trilogy contains the most essential truths and lessons for spiritual seekers, and these books are the bestselling of all the author's works. Featuring a new foreword by the author, printed throughout in two colors, and inserted in a fully enclosed full-color box, this remarkable book will be a Christmas gift to treasure.

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How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age *Byte

Theodore Schick

*Byte - August 16, 2014

This book. My dad gave it to me in Accra, ealy 2000s. I didn’t understand why he gave it to me, but it looked interesting, so I flipped through the pages. I never read it. I couldn’t. It was too dense for my young teenage mind. So why this byte? Because it made me question. The book title alone was enough to have me question - Why this book? Why should we think about weird things? Am I weird? Do I think about weird things? What happens when you think about weird things?

It turned out to be my first real introduction to the concept of “critical thinking” - part of its title - but I only just realized that - ha! Ultimately, the book title alone was powerful enough to have me remember the book and it’s cover imagery. And many times when I’ve wanted to innovate, try something new, think outside the box, I remember the title of this book. The one I never read - but now plan to. I guess some books fulfil their goal by just becoming part of your existence.

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Designed to help readers sharpen their reasoning skills, this book takes a critical look at over 50 paranormal or mysterious claims.

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Things Fall Apart *Byte

Chinua Achebe

*Byte - March 22, 2014

I woke up this morning to news that Nigeria’s prolific author Chinua Achebe had passed. I’m sad, but I’m also grateful - for his life, his work and more importantly, his influence.

Prior to attending Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast, I had virtually no idea about what “African literature” was. If you meant the stories submitted by readers to The Mirror, a Saturday weekly in Ghana, then maybe. But if you meant stories that capture the sometimes mundane details of daily life in an African country, complete with the kola nuts, local proverbs, and complexities of traditional and contemporary African life, then not really.

Then came Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Efua Sutherland’s The Marriage of Anansewa - and a whole new world was opened up to me. I can’t recount the number of times I read Things Fall Apart, it was just that good. Achebe’s descriptions of Okonkwo, Unoka and Obierika - some of the main characters - were all too real and inviting. Each character taught something unique and valuable. 

Jemila

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Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo’s world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.

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Americanah *Byte

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

*Byte - May 30, 2013

I had the opportunity to meet and interact with Adichie in 2009 and I have to say that she is such a down to earth and real person. So much such that, I wrote about the encounter. Her latest book “Americanah” is already getting raving reviews and I recently started reading my copy. Adichie has a special gift for capturing and expressing the realities of contemporary African society. The first chapter of Americanah is about a Nigerian blogger at Princeton university who contemplates returning home as she makes her way to a braiding salon. Pretty normal right? Exactly.

Adichie takes the very normal – or even mundane – and unpeels the layers within. As a Ghanaian blogger who’s looking to move back to the continent (Africa) soon and who has natural (untreated) hair, that chapter alone resonated with me on so many levels. What’s more, I’m predicting a good dose of humor in later chapters of Americanah. Bon, I’ll leave it you guys to figure out how Americanah unfolds. I know many other people who are avid about the book and I can personally vouch that it’s a must read.

Jemila

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A powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland. 

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The Alchemist * Byte

Paulo Coelho

Circum-Byte: August 16, 2014

The kind of book you read over and over and over and…you get the point. A story about purpose in life & following one’s dream, the Alchemist is perfect in it’s simplicity - in style, language, storyline - yet the lessons drawn are powerful and, in my case at least, life changing.

A necessary precursor to Paulo Coelho’s other books. None can compare (I've read all of them, with the exception of his latest "Adultery" which I hope to get my hands on soon). I have many favorites in the Alchemist, but these have to be the alpha and the omega:

"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

All in all, it’s an essential read  - children and adults alike.

Jemila

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"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky." Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.

Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho’s charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.

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The Prophet * Byte

Kahlil Gibran

Circum Byte - August 16, 2014:

Hands-down one of the best pieces of writing I have come across. More of a life reference than a book; let it marinate then go back to it with a new awareness. Transcends the rules of time; too many truths to count. Like this one:

"Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

Jemila

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Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, *The Prophet, *is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies. * The Prophet *is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

Each essay reveals deep insights into the impulses of the human heart and mind. The Chicago Post *said of *The Prophet: “Cadenced and vibrant with feeling, the words of Kahlil Gibran bring to one’s ears the majestic rhythm of Ecclesiastes … If there is a man or woman who can read this book without a quiet acceptance of a great man’s philosophy and a singing in the heart as of music born within, that man or woman is indeed dead to life and truth.”

With twelve full-page drawings by Gibran, this beautiful work makes an incredible gift for anyone seeking enlightenment and inspiration.

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Half of a Yellow Sun *Byte

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

*Byte - November 4, 2009

A comment from Chimamanda Adichie during one of her book events in Washington, DC that I attended; captures the ethos of her writing - the danger of a single story:

“I worry about just singing the same song over and over, because I find that I’m often in situations where I have to say this over and over, where I’m saying, look, people cannot insist that Africa is one thing. Also, I think it’s important for me to say that. But in insisting that Africa isn’t a single story I’m not trying at all to deny or evade certain things. There are many problems where we come from, I think we all know that. But for me, what’s problematic is when most people focus on one thing; it just turns the whole thing into a lie. It’s also about how the story is told.”

Jemila

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With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.

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By Elif Shafak - Forty Rules of Love *Byte

Elif Shafak

*Byte - June 9, 2014

I’m currently reading Elif Shafak’s “The Forty Rules of Love” which imagines the meeting between poet Rumi and his companion, the dervish, mystical Shams. photo

I love so much about it, but this really stuck out to me - the first time the two met face to face. I think it really captures the question of purpose, owning your unique journey, and eschewing comparison (see below).

I’d read one review that says that Elif Shafak gives Paulo Coelho a run for his money (see photo). I pffed it away, but halfway through the book, I have to admit, she has won me over. Perhaps she is the Shams to Coelho’s Rumi, either way, I’m smitten by both. Highly recommend “The Forty Rules of Love”. It’s a light, easy, but deeply insightful read :)

“A curious crowd had gathered around us, but the dervish didn’t seem to mind the audience. Still studying my face carefully, he insisted, “Please think about it.” Didn’t the Prophet say, “Forgive me, God, I couldn’t know Thee as I should have,’ while Bistami pronounced, “Glory be to me, I carry God inside my cloak?” If one man feels so small in relation to God while another man claims to carry God inside, which of the two is greater?”…

“I see what you are trying to say,” I began, not wanting him to hear so much as a quaver in my voice. “I’ll compare the two statements and tell you why, even though Bistami’s statement sounds higher, it is in fact the other way around.”

“I am all ears,” the dervish said.”

“You see, God’s love is an endless ocean and human beings strive to get as much water as they can out of it. But at the end of the day, how much water we each get depends on the size of our cups. Some people have barrels, some buckets, while some others have only got bowls.”

As I spoke, I watched the dervish’s expression change from subtle scorn to open acknowledgement and from there into the soft smile of someone recognizing his own thoughts in the words of another.

“Bistami’s container was relatively small, and his thirst was quenched after a mouthful. He was happy in the state he was at. It was wonderful that he recognized the divine in himself, but even then there still remains a distinction between God and Self. Unity was not achieved. As for the Prophet he was the Elect of God and had a much bigger cup to fill. This is why God asked him in the Qu’ran, ‘Have we not opened up your heart?’ His heart thus widened, his cup immense, it was thirst upon thirst for him.”

No wonder he said, “We do not know You as we should,” although he certainly knew Him as no other did.”…

I glimpsed a trace of thoughtfulness in his face, a wistful pucker of the lips, as if he wanted to say more but simply couldn’t or wouldn’t. And in that moment, in that pause, I heard the question he hadn’t asked me:

“And how about you, great preacher? Tell me, how big is your cup?”

Jemila

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Where There Is No Doctor *Byte

David Werner

Where there is no doctor. Quite an awkward title for a book - or so I thought in the early 1990s.

This book was one of the many “grown up books” I would steal into the living room to take and flip through the pages in pure fascination. A real adult book.

I learnt a lot from it - how to help a woman deliver her baby at home, how to injections, what to do when someone collapse, y’know, the basics. While my teacher parents considered this book a necessity for living in a developing country where health care isn’t necessarily the best, this was a book of pure fascination for 10-year old Jemi. A peek into the then-elusive grown up world.

I just heard about yet another young Ghanaian - mid-30s - who passed away suddenly. The issue? A heart attack. I don’t think many of us really thought about heart attacks for people under 40 until the late Komla Dumor passed away. But once it did happen, I became more conscious about my health and the tolls I exact upon my body.

Coming from a country where there is so much to be done and - seemingly - so few people to do it, it’s easy to want to pick up all the pieces, to be the gladiator that holds your world up. It’s not because you’re an over-achiever - although for some that’s exactly the diagnosis - but rather because you care. A lot.

I’d reckon a guess that in our parents’ days the issue was overworking. In our days it’s over commitment. Don’t ask me which is better, they both kill the same.

The thing however is that a lot of the stress-related issues can be curtailed with the right INFORMATION.

In a medical emergency information can literally be the difference between life and death. And yet, even with Google at our finger tips, it seems we couldn’t be further from crucial information. I remembered this book when I heard about young Ghana’s latest heart attack victim.

In many ways we still live in places where there is no doctor. What happened to first-aid training for girl guides? To life skills?

More importantly - how can we average citizens equip ourselves with the info needed to bridge the glaring gaps in our health systems?

Because we must. #musing #Project300

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Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. *

Blink *is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In *Blink *we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police.

*Blink *reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People *Byte

Stephen R. Covey

*Byte - August 17, 2014

This book has influenced me more than any other in the last 5 years. My dad sent it to me in 2007 but I never read it (I was in college, I told myself I didn’t have time). On July 16, 2012, I was going through my old inbox and came across it. In a different frame of mind - I had just completed my first year of graduate school - I decided to read it. It turned out to be the day Stephen Covey - the author -  died.

While I wish I had read it back in 2007, I am thankful that Covey wrote so many books and left so much wisdowm behind. Recently bought my second Covey book “The 3rd Alternative” and can’t wait to get into it.

7 Habits is a must-have for anyone who is committed to self-development and to any value-oriented entrepreneur. Take your time with it, ruminate over its teachings. It will help you ask yourself the hard questions and will bring you much clarity on anything from communicating, being true, making decisions, collaborating, improving productivity and determining what values you stand for.

Jemila

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One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated readers for 25 years. It has transformed the lives of Presidents and CEOs, educators and parents— in short, millions of people of all ages and occupations.