Book Reviews of 2022 :: Part II

Since it’s now 2023 when I’m posting this, let’s get straight into the reviews. Part I can be found here.

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May :: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

5 Stars

I’d heard a lot about this book, and this author, as a ‘no nonsense’ self-help approach. As my word for 2022 is “Power” it seemed to be a sensible title to read as part of my exploration of my own sense of badassery. Overall, I enjoyed the read, and it did a good job of owning up to the “less scientific” parts and mixing them with the more proven steps to improving your life.

I enjoyed Jen’s story-telling tone, and found myself smiling amidst the sensible tips. As an overview of “hey, do you want more from life?” I feel it was successful in giving the message that we all have more control over our experience of life than we recognise.

There is a lot of repetition in it, but as my background is in Neuroscience, I can’t fault her for doing that when it’s something we know our brains are wired to process.

I will say that she clearly comes from a specific perspective which meant that some of the advice would be hard for ‘everyone’ to be able to follow. I feel there could have been a little more depth on the ‘how’ of some of her techniques, but as an accessible book to read, I feel it did the job it was trying to accomplish.

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June :: Codependent No More by Melody Beattie

5 Stars

I had heard the phrase ‘codependent’ and looking back at my diary, I even used it previously, but 2021 was the year I recognised it in myself and began to work through it.

It was both terrifying and comforting to see phrases I’ve said in my own life written in a book published before I was born. I took my time with this book, reading a couple of chatters, doing the exercises at the end of the chapter, and discussing it with friends to help me see any blind spots. The validation I got from recognising that there is a term for what I experience and some level of explanation for why I behave as I do based on my past experiences was hugely helpful for me.

I feel like I can’t really ‘review’ the book because I ended up assimilating it or seeing the reflections in my own life. It was a hard read, with a lot of self-reflection and exercises including journal prompts at the end of chapters. Although my training is in psychology, neuroscience, and mental health, this book took a lot of aspects from social psychology and merged it with some theories about addiction (I would say these are less accurate in the 2020s than when she wrote the book) and then put the human lens of experience over it all.

I appreciate that a lot of the reviews say it is dated – it is an old book. I also recognise that the core concept is helpful for those of us who identify with over-caring and putting ourselves last to the detriment of our lives for others. Yes, some of the language is generalised and technically all humans have dependency in some form, but this book focuses very much on the people around someone with an addiction (behavioural or chemical) and I believe it’s helpful. This is not a nice neat book that will solve your problems as you go through it. But it will open your eyes to behaviours you weren’t aware were holding you back.

I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who feels they put other people’s needs above their own.

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December :: The Single Most Powerful Technique For Extreme Fusion (ebook) by Russ Harris

3 Stars

Read this as part of my exploration into ACT and DNA-V for work. Fusion is not a term we used often and I did find the anchoring example useful as a single technique. The ebook had multiple typos considering its short length.

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I ended the year with 6 books completed, so definitely not as high a number or as I’d like, but I did read some new genres which I am proud of myself for.

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What was your favourite read of 2022?