Five books to wind down the year

The end of the year is usually a time of introspection, looking back and seeing that your plan for the year 2016 was achieved. Did you go to that school you planned to go? Did you have enough savings to buy that house? Were you a good parent to your children? Do you know where […]

The end of the year is usually a time of introspection, looking back and seeing that your plan for the year 2016 was achieved. Did you go to that school you planned to go? Did you have enough savings to buy that house? Were you a good parent to your children? Do you know where you children are? Were you able to stop that habit like smoking, womanizing and like my friend will say manizing? Did you spend all your money on frivolities like buying lace for N250,000 when your monthly salary is  N20,000; like buying a ticket for a girlfriend to go to London when you cannot pay your children’s school fees?

As 2016 comes to an end, we need to take stock, we need to reflect. We need to pray that we are kept safe in this ember months and that 2017 will be a better year.

This is the time to plan your 2017 and properly exit 2016 without debt, without rancour and with peace of mind.

When last did you have a health check? For those of you who are estranged from members of your family, it is time to make peace. Forgive that brother who is a fool; forgive that sister who always says hurtful things to you.

Go and look for your mother if you haven’t seen her in a year or more. Visit your Dad no matter how difficult he is. This is the year for you to make up your mind that you will not see yourself as a junior partner in a friendship. Friendships are about equal partnerships and as the year comes to an end release yourself from that friendship that adds no value to your life, emotion and future.

Friendship is shared. Do not let anyone tell you that you are not beautiful. Do not let anyone tell you that you are not capable. No one has a right over your life.

Here are the five books to inspire you as the year comes to an end.

1) Grace by Max Lucado
This is a book that one can never finish reading. You read it at the beginning of the year; you read it at the end of the year, you read it when you are happy and you read it when there are storms.
People say they believe in grace. Oh it is the grace. People say Oh the grace of God is enough for me. My favourite prayer is “we thank God for mercy and his grace”. I say it like a hundred times a day. We talk as though we understand the word. The seedy politician falls from grace.
Max Lucado asks a deeper question: have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by the nape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace?
God’s grace has a drenching about it; a wilderness about it, white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it.  Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then give us the power to pull it off. Max Lucado ensures in this book that you learn about grace as part of your end of the year lesson.

2) 1001 Books you must read before you die by Peter Boxall:
This is a fat book that I bought many years ago at half price in London. Everybody must get a copy of this book. Young people consider reading as old fashion; they are therefore mostly uneducated. They live in their tweets, half sentences of meaninglessness and they write official letter in shorthand because of their hurried text messages.
1001 books you must read before you die edited by Peter Boxall is a book that guides you to go out there and buy iconic contemporary books and classics.
This 1001 book speaks to us, educates us, amuses us and gives us food for thought. This year I promised myself that I will read some of the Russian classics embedded in this book and I did.

 3) Hope on a tight rope by Cornel West:
This is one of my favourite books on race relations. Educator and philosopher Cornel West is one of America’s most gifted provocative and public intellectuals. He is also the author of Race Matters on the course of American dialogue on race. He has over 20 honorary degrees. Hope on a tightrope by Cornel West is one of my five recommended books because as you know, Donald Trump won the American presidency and we are not sure what his race policy will be but we remember all his campaign comments on race matters. I hear from friends in the United States that redneck and white supremacists have been asking black people to return to Africa in the wake of Donald Trump’s win. This is the book for all black people worldwide to read. I serve you with a quote from this incredible book.
“You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.”

4) What did you do this year that you truly enjoyed?
What have you done for yourself not for others as the year winds down? Look back and see that there is also what  you can still do for yourself this year. Go for a massage if you have never had one before, go skydiving if you have the stomach for it. Set out an Easel and paint nature even if you are not a painter. Buy a puppy and try to look after it. Take a holiday. Go for a spa treatment. Make yourself a really expensive dress because you deserve it. You work hard. I say this because an artist and a sculptor decided to go in search of the origin of the tool of her trade, Porcelain and took a historical tour around the world in search of different types of Porcelain. Edmund de de Waal went from China to Italy to Ireland. He went in search of it. His book , The white Road, A pilgrimage of sorts is the story of his journey. This is his gift of passion to the world. What is your passion? Find it.