Whenever You’re Ready, the debut by classical pianist Jeeyoon Kim, is something you should read whenever you’re ready for good advice

My rating: 5 of 5 stars (4.5 that I rounded up to a 5)

I listened to the audiobook version of Whenever You’re Ready: How to Compose the Life of Your Dreams, which was quite pleasantly narrated by the author and runs for about 7-1/2 hours. Jeeyoon Kim is an award-winning music educator and professional concert pianist who has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall. In the prelude, she notes “Whether we have piano keys before us or not, we all have a stage called life.”

I love that she structured the book like a classical concert: it begins with a prelude and then shifts to multiple separated movements (what she calls a group of chapters) which focus on different themes (like building and maintaining habits, achieving goals, and work/life balance). Each movement is followed by a quick intermission that the author uses to help the reader gain an appreciation of classical music. For example, the first intermission is about Frédéric Chopin. There’s also an encore at the end!

As a musician and performer myself, I appreciated hearing about her mental, emotional, and physical preparations before her concerts. It is so very important to be fully prepared for many things in life, like job interviews, public speaking, marathon training, or goal setting in general.

I really enjoyed her advice, and her tag line about her suggestions: “Something to think about, whenever you’re ready.”

I received an advanced audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley, but all opinions contained herein are my own.

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