May 2022 Reading List

An interesting read as we switch back and forth between two points of time. At the centre is a quilt with some very unique fabric that is used to unravel history. Providing the underlying message that what we make tells our story so that should be honoured.

The book also has a quilt pattern you can download from Liz’s website.

A quote that reasonated with me and was repeated many times while watching Making Zen presentations in May:

You don’t mind if I carry on with me sewing while I talk, do you? It helps me concentrate and relax. I’m never happy without a needle in my fingers.

This is a Booker Prize winner that was mentioned on What Should I Read Next podcast. My GoodReads Read List didn’t have it as being read but when I started reading it seemed all too familiar. (I’ve only been recording my reads on GoodReads since 2016 so it must have been prior to that.)

We follow a butler who goes on a motoring trip on his own and reflects on his past and what it means to be a good butler, and how times have changed and the need for butlers is slowly diminishing. As I read I kept thinking about the butler from Downton Abbey and how he was well respected by his staff and employers.

A great insight into days gone by when people were born to serve and have only a little bit of time to themselves outside of their employment.

My first Ann Patchett book. It was recommended to be enjoyed as an audio book on What I Should Read Next, as it’s read by Tom Hanks. So that’s exactly what I did.

It took a while to get into the story as we learnt about all the characters, but then it opened up to a wonderful story about family, love and loss. There were also places that just made me angry due to the actions of the step-mother. I classify it as a great book if it triggers emotions in such a way.

I have since listened to Ann Patchett’s These Precious Days which is a series of essays on her life and it details how she decided on the book cover and the story behind Tom Hanks reading the audiobook.

I recently become a part of a voluntary team to handle Instagram and Facebook for the Australian Sewing Guild so I thought I’d start on my quest for knowledge on how to do this from a marketing perspective.

Even though it says “Regional Australia Edition” (there are no other editions) a lot of it is relevant for all Australian (maybe even international) businesses. It emphasizes that marketing is an investment and not a cost, and you are not your customer.

As far as my volunteer role goes it only had one chapter on social media so it didn’t go quite as deep as I wanted. However, it did highlight the fact that social media is a great platform for two way communication that builds and strengthens relationships. This is my focus and what I continue to work on for the Guild’s social media channels.

If you are a small business looking into marketing I highly recommend it. But be warned, towards the end of the book it gave me the impression that they were trying to get you to use the services of a marketing agency, exactly what the author runs.

I am always in the process of trying to work out what I should do with my life which lead me to this book.

Martha N Beck defines your North Star as your internal compass. It guides you on your true path. You will lose sight of it at times. People around you want to distract you from it. So you need to continually re-assess yourself, your body, your emotions, your history, your intuition, people around you, and see if you are still heading in the right direction. If not, change.

Change is hard. Martha has outlined a technique on how to navigate change, called The Change Cycle. The is initiated by a catalytic event which is either a shock, opportunity or a transition. The steps are Death and Rebirth, Dreaming and Scheming, The Hero’s Saga and finally the Promised Land. This is a cycle that continues to repeat.

The book contains lots of exercises to get to know yourself better which I haven’t done yet. But now that I have digested the information I will re-read it and complete the exercises.