Monthly Archives: April 2021

The People Code & The Character Code Book Review

The People Code & The Character Code by Taylor Hartman Ph.D.

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As an author, psychologist, and leadership coach, Dr. Taylor Hartman offers an incisive system for improving your understanding of yourself and others and strengthening your day-to-day relationships. In first The People Code and then The Character Code, Dr. Hartman introduces the Color Code Personality Profile, explaining why people do what they do by identifying four basic personality types and showing you how to use “color profiles” to cultivate rich and balanced character and relationships.

All people, reveals Dr. Hartman, possess one of four driving “core motives,” classified by color: Red (“power wielders”), Blue (“do-gooders”), White (“peacekeepers”), and Yellow (“fun lovers”). Once you understand your color code—and the color codes of others—you can analyze your own innate personality and use that knowledge to balance your relationships, both personal and professional.

The essence of character is the ability to enhance not only your own life, but the lives of others as well. Together, The People Code and The Character Code provide a universal message, simple and profound: life is about relationships.

This book was given to me as a gift and a year or two later, I finally read it. I won’t lie, it took me a long time to read this book because there was a lot of information in here. At first I felt like I was reading a textbook but as I read on I learned more about myself and the people around me. The book explains personalities in four different colours which I won’t explain here, I’ll let you read to find out more. It’s the first time I read something where I was bored at the beginning and super interested afterwards.

This book taught me a lot about my personality and my limitations as well as the people around me. First you take a quiz to find out what colour you are and then you read all about yourself and your relationships and limitations. I found it to be quite interesting and it gave me a lot to think about. If this sounds like something interesting to you, I recommend giving it a read. I wasn’t convinced at first but after finishing it, I was glad I read it.

The Henna Artist – Book Review

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

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Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…

Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.

Genre: Historical Fiction

This book is a historical fiction novel which I don’t normal read. This was the third book we read in my book club. The thing about book club is that we can go out of our comfort zone and read things you wouldn’t normally read. This book was beautifully written, the author did a wonderful job. The book took me to a place I’ve never been to, Jaipur, and it felt like I was there. The story was interesting and all the characters were well developed but I found the main character Lakshmi really annoying. I think it was because she cared so much about what her wealthy clients thought of her instead of taking care of her family. Thankfully the story evolved and eventually I was able to tolerate her and be happy about the choices that she was making.

I rated this book three stars because while it was good I didn’t find the story very captivating. During our book club meeting about the book, I found out that this is the first book in a series. The other books aren’t out yet but it makes much more sense now and this new fact made me appreciate the book even more. I do recommend it though and I cannot wait to read the second book!