#readmore2018

Happiness can’t be controlled; it can only be let loose.

Ultimately, the key to more happiness is not more control; it is more surrender. It is only when you surrender your attachment to the superego, and surrender the chase for happiness, that you can be more spontaneous, more receptive, and more open to happiness that is already there. 

If you believe that you can only be happy if you are always positive and in control, you run the risk of trying to “fake it until you make it.” The problem with “faking it” is that you end up so dissociated from what you really feel that you never know if you have made it. Happiness is being honest and positive.

 Like pleasure, satisfaction also has some shortfalls. Firstly, it is the by-product of a “cause and effect” dance. No cause, no effect. Secondly, the effects of satisfaction are notoriously short-lived...because you adapt quickly to favorable circumstances. Thirdly, satisfaction exists in duality with dissatisfaction. Things that used to satisfy you in the past may no longer satisfy you now...Satisfaction is all too often bullied into submission by dissatisfaction and it’s two friends, called “expectations” and “comparison.” Fourthly, and finally, the problem with satisfaction is that it is wholly dependent on your mind and on the world—neither of which are particularly safe places to live. When you’re not in your right mind, you may overlook everything that you could appreciate. Also, when your life doesn’t look the way you want, and when not all the boxes are checked, your satisfaction may nose-dive and you may try to convince yourself that you are a victim of the world.

- Be Happy: release the power of happiness in YOU

Much of what is called “education” these days, even at the college level, is in fact more in the nature of job-training. A particular major is a ticket to a particular degree, which in turn is a ticket to a particular career...this relatively narrow, goal-oriented sort of learning is only one aspect of what education really means-and not the most important aspect, either. Life is what we make it, and if we want our lives to be rich and round and gratifying as possible, we should try to learn everything-not just what we need to know to make our livings, but all the innumerable subjects at the periphery of our specialties.

- Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment

Read More 2018 Book about Friendship

Nonfiction Just Kids by Patti Smith The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan Leonard by William Shatner

Fiction The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford The Other by David Guterson Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas The Space Between Us by Thrity N. Umrigar Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

Mystery Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Thriller In a dark, dark wood by Ruth Ware

Romance Best of my Love by Susan Mallery

Sci-Fi/Fantasy All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Anders

Horror The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Read More 2018 Book of Essays

Read More 2018 Frist in a Series

Fiction All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

Mystery Along Came a Spider by James Patterson The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith One for the Money by Janet Evanovich The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Thriller Killing Floor by Lee Child Livia Lone by Barry Eisler Patriot Games by Tom Clancy

Romance Dark Lover by J. R. Ward Stockyard Snatching by Barb Han The Bridegroom Wore Plaid by Grace Burrowes The Rogue not Taken by Sarah MacLean Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien Storm Front by Jim Butcher The Just City by Jo Walton

Horror Odd Thomas by Dean R. Koontz The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Western Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker Borden Chantry by Louis L'Amour

Read More 2018 Banned or Challenged Book

Nonfiction The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls Howl by Allen Ginsberg A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

Fiction The Bluest Eye a Novel by Toni Morrison City of Thieves by David Benioff The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 

Classics The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Catch-22 by Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Native Son by Richard Wright The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne