101 Essays that will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest

 As the title suggests, this book contains 101 short essays about life, love, and emotional wellbeing.  Ms Wiest is influenced by Zen Buddhism, but this isn't a Buddhist text.  Instead it is just a collection of wise thoughts and aphorisms.  In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, almost all of the essays contain a list of "truths" or "instructions" on different topics.  Some of these lists are short, only 5 or 10 items, but some are fairly lengthy, like 50, or 100 aphorisms. Her main ideas are that we are responsible for our own lives, thoughts, and emotions, that every aspect of our lives are impermanent so we should embrace change, and that simplicity is more likely to bring contentment than amassing possessions or glory.

This book was very popular when it was first released, and has gone on to be translated into many languages.  I looked up Ms Wiest's bio, and she doesn't seem to have any specific training to produce this kind of a treatise. Her bachelor's degree was in literature and she doesn't have an advanced degree.  The nature of the book makes me think that maybe it is a compellation of blog posts? They are fairly repetitive, and the reader could get as much out of the book reading half of it as in reading the whole thing.  That being said, her ideas, if not definitively true, are at least thought provoking. I took the opportunity while listening to the book to stop a couple of times and do some self-examination, so in that respect, I found the book enlightening. (448 p. 2018)