The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama
In this second book by the former US first lady, she provides tools for navigating through challenges. I found Michelle Obama very authentic discussing her fears and other personal challenges. Although there are no ‘fixes’ to all challenges, Michelle takes readers through tools that have worked for her in addressing issues of self-doubt, relationships, and parenting among others. The tools include starting kind, going high, assembling a ‘kitchen table of trusted friends and mentors/ support system, recognizing one’s light, finding strength in community, living fearlessly, and keeping one’s light shining. The book calls on readers to examine their lives to find purpose, their source of gladness, and connect with others in a challenging world.
The book was recommended by my best friend and my favourite quote is; “Our hurts become our fears. Our fears become our limits.’
The 5 AM Club, Robin Sharma
I first read this book in January 2022, and it transformed a project I was working on and inspired my Ph.D. application. In January 2023, five months into my Ph.D., I felt my productivity had dipped and read this book a second time. In nutshell, the book argues that geniuses, the successful and most productive people have a routine and that is in how they spend their first hour of the morning and that explains the title, The 5 AM Club, Own your Morning, Elevate your Life. Many times, I have found myself timing my strides in my morning runs by whispering, ‘Own your Morning, Elevate your Life.’ Sharma recommends splitting the first morning hour equally between workouts, journalling/ meditating/ planning/ goal setting, and reading a book or listening to a podcast, The formula can be amended as one deems suitable. For instance, my minimum reading session is 45 minutes unless reading while traveling.
The book has other useful tools that enhanced my productivity, but they are useless practiced and that is why my favourite quote in the book is; ‘The smallest of implementations is always worth more than the grandest of intentions.’
Iron John, A Book about Men; Robert Bly
In this classic, Robert Bly uses the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, Iron John to explain the need for a different kind of masculinity in men characterized by ‘fierce tenderness’ and ‘resolve’ found neither in machismo nor the feminine models. The book starts with a powerful introduction to the ‘hunger’ in young males for ‘a father’. Bly uses Greek, Celtic and Egyptian mythologies and traditional male initiatory rites symbolized by a man connecting with his physical/emotional/ psychic wounds, communion with a mentor or ‘Inner King’ , reviving the inner warriors, and cultivating love for young men to be to embrace life fully as ‘real men’ with all its challenges.
If you are looking for a book on ‘journeying’ or positive masculinity, then this classic published in 1990 is a good read.
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
I read this dystopian fiction as part of my Ph.D. cohort book club and if you read it without knowing that it was published in 2003, you would think it was written after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cast in the future, this SCI-FI story is told by Jimmy, the last human surviving, who is now called Snowman and lives among new human beings, the Crakers bio-engineered by his childhood friend Crake.
The book is thought-provoking and invites one to rethink technology, climate change, and capitalism among other issues the globe is grappling with.
AGRICULTURE FIRST 
Leave a comment