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Lord of the Ring author, J.R.R Tolkien typed the whole trilogy with just two fingers!

J.R.R Tolkien said writing the trilogy was ‘Exhausting’. That is no surprise. The Lord of The Rings trilogy is over 1200 pages. Tolkien said the only way he learned to type was with just two fingers.

📷 Bookshelf Humble Brag

📝 Note

📚 Staff Pick of the Week

Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman

Mindfulness promotes the kind of happiness and peace that gets into your bones. It seeps into everything you do and helps you meet the worst that life throws at you with new courage.

Based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), the book revolves around a straightforward form of mindfulness meditation which takes just a few minutes a day for the full benefits to be revealed. MBCT has been clinically proven to be at least as effective as drugs for depression and is widely recommended by US physicians and the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence—in other words, it works. More importantly it also works for people who are not depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world.

MBCT was developed by the book's author, Oxford professor Mark Williams, and his colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Toronto. By investing just 10 to 20 minutes each day, you can learn the simple mindfulness meditations at the heart of MBCT and fully reap their benefits. The book includes links to audio meditations to help guide you through the process. You'll be surprised by how quickly these techniques will have you enjoying life again.

🎥 Reading Talk's

Rising Quickly - Week of January 30, 2022

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.

🪄Most Talked About Fiction - Week of January 30, 2022

Victory City by Salman Rushdie

In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world.

Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing from a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry—with Pampa Kampana at its center.

⭐ A message from I Hate it Here

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HR professionals are expected to be the recruiter, the onboarding specialist, the mediator, the resident COVID expert, the Chief Culture Officer, and the CEO’s personal sounding board.

At the same time, the workplace is undergoing a monumental shift. With the so-called “future of work” comes the insane responsibility of rethinking the way that company culture is built.

I Hate It Here is a weekly safe space (newsletter) helping HR professionals navigate that shift

Every company is a loosely-functioning disaster, but yours doesn’t have to be.

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📚 Most Talked About Non-Fiction - Week of January 30, 2022

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

What does it mean to be truly alive?

At the age of 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again.

A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth.

🆕 New and Noteworthy

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.

But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.

As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.

👀 In Case You Missed It

✍️ Quote of the Week

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