Our Thoughts Precisely

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Review: How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price

Title: How To Break Up With Your Phone
Series: n/a
Author: Catherine Price
Source/Format: Blogging for Books; Paperback
More Details: Nonfiction; Self-help
Publisher/Publication Date: Ten Speed Press; February 13, 2018

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Packed with tested strategies and practical tips, this book is the essential, life-changing guide for everyone who owns a smartphone...

Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? Do you frequently pick it up "just to check," only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Do you say you want to spend less time on your phone--but have no idea how to do so without giving it up completely? If so, this book is your solution. Award-winning journalist Catherine Price presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up--and then make up--with your phone. The goal? A long-term relationship that actually feels good. You'll discover how phones and apps are designed to be addictive, and learn how the time we spend on them damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories. You'll then make customized changes to your settings, apps, environment, and mindset that will ultimately enable you to take back control of your life...

I was mildly apprehensive about whether or not I would like and find some useful advice in How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price. I’ve read a book that covered a similar if not the same topic (Unfriending my Ex and Other Things I’ll Never Do by Kim Stolz), and I liked it. However, thinking back on it now, it was more about Stolz’s experience with taking a break from her phone and her thoughts about it, whereas Price’s writing reads more like an analytical study about the pros and (mostly) cons of heavy phone/tablet/computer/ social media use has on almost every corner of a person’s life, including time and even how our brains function. She also covers how to make changes and healthier choices, and that’s what I liked about How To Break Up With Your Phone.

This book has two parts: the wake-up and the breakup. In the wake-up, Price cites studies as evidence to support the point of the book. It’s meant to be a wake up call: the hard facts and the ugly truth. And this book is more than successful at not only stating those points but making the information stick. The more I read, the more I realized that some of the things being mentioned were habits I exhibited almost unconsciously. As I continued to read, the more I agreed with what was being said. Part two covers the breakup. The writing made the steps for the 30-day plan approachable. There was a focus on realizing, questioning, and changing habits accompanied by a lot of useful tips and simple exercises. Price’s writing is done in a positive, encouraging tone that makes you want to try some of the things being mentioned to find out if the changes will have any effects.

How to Break Up With Your Phone is a quick read that wasn’t just surprisingly good, but also eye opening in a lot of ways. I haven’t had the time to try the 30-day plan for myself. However, the book has given me ideas about smaller changes that I can implement now. How to Break Up With Your Phone is a book that I’m definitely going to keep on my shelf for future reference.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Blogging for Books (Publisher) for this review.

CATHERINE PRICE is an author and science journalist whose articles and essays have appeared in The Best American Science Writing, the New York Times, Popular Science, O, The Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post Magazine, Slate, Parade, Salon, Men’s Journal, Self, Mother Jones, and Health magazine, among others. Her previous books include Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food and 101 Places Not to See Before You Die. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, she’s also a recipient of a Middlebury Fellowship in Environmental Reporting, a two-time Société de Chimie Industrielle fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, an ASME nominee, a 2013 resident at the Mesa Refuge, a fellow in both the Food and Medical Evidence Boot Camps at the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and winner of the Gobind Behari Lal prize for science writing. You can learn more about her and her work at catherine-price.com...

Monday, April 9, 2018

Quarterly Recap: January-March

It’s finally time for another Quarterly Recap. That obligatory recap post that appears once every three months on Our Thoughts Precisely. It feels like forever since I last sat down to write and collect links for this type of post, the time gap even longer thanks to the annual skip I took at the end of last year. So, starting with reviews….

January Reviews...

n/a

February Reviews...

March Reviews...

**All weekly meme labels can be found on the Extras page**

Other January Posts...

Other February Posts...

Other March Posts...

Acrylics #1: The Night
Lets talk about older artwork

Looking back, the last three months are pretty much what I expected them to be. In January, there was a small decrease in the amount of blog posts since I was just coming back from being on an extended break from blogging after the holidays. So, it took a minute to get back into the swing of things. So, looking ahead, I have a couple of posts that I’m excited to share on the blog including Acrylics #2 and an updated upcoming music/recent release list.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

In Which I forgot About the Blogiversary + Pardon the Construction...

As you can tell by the title of this post, I completely forgot about Our Thoughts Precisely’s blogiversary. What’s ironic is that last year I said I was going to do something different to celebrate March 15th (like a Q&A), and instead, I completely forgot about it until I started going back through the archive to get a scope for how many different graphics I would need to make before updating the look of the blog. Well, it’s April. The 15th of March has long since been over. And instead of a Q&A or some other type of commemorative post, my way of celebrating the blog turning 5 years old is to give it a completely updated appearance. Yes, I’m at it again—sorry Andrea, Adri...

A little backstory…

As I continue to work on my art, I’m paying closer attention to composition. And as the months rolled by, every time I looked at the latest header and disorganized design of the blog graphics, I kept having the same thought: “Wow, this is really unfocused.” Where was the composition? What part of the header did I want the eye to be drawn to? In fact, I didn’t know. And from there, I fell down the rabbit hole of searching every corner of the blog for the cohesiveness I wanted. And I didn’t find it. Last year, I changed the header and some of the graphics, but rather than update my entire arsenal of art, I mixed in the new stuff with images that I made back in the first, second, and third year of running the blog. The result was a mix-mashed collection of random graphics. It certainly wasn’t cohesive, which prompted me to make more changes. I told myself that I was only going to make little updates to make things match. Except, those small changes spiraled into an entirely different look that then required a lot of work and more time to make it into something I was happy with.

So…

The blog is 5 years old and has gone through a lot of changes over the years (the only consistent aspect about it is the name). And over the next 1 to 2 weeks, I’m going to be updating basically all corners of the blog. Some things may take longer than others as I go through the process of phasing out old graphics for the new ones. Somethings won't immediately change, for example the weekly meme graphics, because I'm currently in the process of working on those.

And I think that about covers it for today. Now, I’ve got some work to do....

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

ARC Review: Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Title: Ace of Shades
Series: The Shadow Game #1
Author: Amanda Foody
Source/Format: Netgalley; eARC
More Details: Young Adult; Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Harlequin Teen; April 10, 2018

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets...and secrets hide in every shadow...

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted. Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems. Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi's enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city. And she’ll need to play...

Going into Ace of Shades, I was very excited. I’ve read Amanda Foody’s debut book, Daughter of the Burning City, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. I had high hopes that Ace of Shades would be the same way. I had some mixed feelings about it and didn’t like it as much as Daughter of the Burning City. Still, it was a good story.

The story starts quickly with Enne arriving in New Reynes. The reason is immediately stated, and the story and the main players are introduced and developed from there. New Reynes was definitely the City of Sin. Once again, I think Foody did a good job developing the darker themes of the story such as corruption, crime, and gambling. However, so much of the city was dark, dangerous, and rife with corruption with little to nothing else to break up those themes. It certainly lived up to its name. But, I would have liked to see a little more of the outside world beyond it. It was mentioned, but mainly through flashbacks and exposition from Enne’s limited point of view. But I never got a sense for what those places were actually like. The bulk of the action and mystery was centered in New Reynes and the search for Enne’s missing mother. Luckily, I didn't mind because there was a lot going on with the plot.

So who was good and who was bad? Who could be good or bad in a city nicknamed the City of Sin? There was no easy way to tell when many of the characters were morally ambiguous. That being said, the characters were a highlight for me, or more specifically, I liked the dynamics between them. Levi Glaisyer was far from an infallible character. He made a lot of mistakes and kept a lot of secrets. His past was catching up with him. And I could say the same thing about many of the characters from Ace of Shades, including Enne. At times, Enne was a little naïve, but it fit with the context of her upbringing and subsequent arrival in a new place.

Like I said above, Ace of Shades wasn’t a bad story. I liked it a lot actually. However, the beginning didn’t really draw me in the way Daughter of the Burning City did. It took several chapters before I was able to really get into the story. By far my favorite parts of the book took place in the latter half of the story when the true nature of the city and the game were revealed. There were hints of broader political and social unrest brewing beneath the surface of New Reynes, but they were hints. Of course, the implications point toward where the story could go after the end of Ace of Shades. And I’m interested in seeing where those implications eventually lead and what the consequences will be for Enne, Levi, and the other characters.

So, Ace of Shades was a good story. It was a promising beginning to a new series, and I know I’ll probably read the sequel. I also recommend it for those who enjoyed Foody’s last book, Daughter of the Burning City.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Harlequin Teen via Netgalley for this review.

About the author...

Amanda Foody has always considered imagination to be our best attempt at magic. After spending her childhood longing to attend Hogwarts, she now loves to write about immersive settings and characters grappling with insurmountable destinies. She holds a Masters in Accountancy from Villanova University, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from the College of William and Mary. Currently, she works as a tax accountant in Philadelphia, PA, surrounded by her many siblings and many books. DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY is her first novel. Her second, ACE OF SHADES, will follow in April 2018...

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Monday, April 2, 2018

Music Monday (41): Chloe X Halle

Rules:

Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE

Breana: This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned Chloe X Halle on a Music Monday post. It’s just been a while. Since then, on March 23rd, they released their debut studio album, The Kids are Alright. And I love it. So, my first pick is Warrior. You might recognize the song since it appeared on A Wrinkle in Time (2018) soundtrack. It’s also on their new album….