Liz Earle's new book Skin was released a couple of weeks ago and it's a great read if you are looking for sensible, no nonsense tips on how to look after your skin. I've always loved Liz's books and I can't recommend them highly enough if you want to really understand how your skin works and how to properly look after your skin, without the nonsense the media churn out in an effort to get you to buy more products. I can honestly say that after following the advice of Liz and Caroline Hirons (read her blog here) my skin has never looked better and I've been doing less to it than I was before.

I used to really have issues with acne (especially those horrible red lingering mountains that never come to a proper head and just live on your face for weeks before disappearing) and from Liz I've learnt that actually using less in the way of products, looking at what I was eating and being careful of stress will do more than any product ever could.

The first part of the book is a 6 week plan to get you making small changes to your skincare routine gradually so you are more likely to keep on doing them.

The second half of the book then builds on the first and has some amazing recipes in it to get you feeding your skin from the inside. I can't wait to try the Cinnamon-toasted Oats with Yogurt and Summer Fruit recipe below, it looks absolutely delicious!

I've just finished reading Chris Hadfield's An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth and its one of the first books in a long time thats genuinely made me think.

Its full of brilliant advice on how to succeed and really shows the importance of teamwork and how far a supportive environment with colleagues really can take you. Sure, in our daily lives, a colleague's actions couldn't cause or save us from death, but it really was a great insight into how fostering an environment of support amongst peers can take you all further than if you had all pitted yourself against the other from the off.

Its also full of gems like "aim to be a zero".  I love this idea and Chris explains it brilliantly. The idea is everyone is ranked as +1 (contributes positively to the team), a 0 (doesn't add but equally doesn't take away from the team) or -1 (a nightmare and makes everyones life harder). He says that people come in pitching straight for +1 but end up being -1 as they usually don't have the knowledge and experience and bumble in thinking they know more than everyone and in doing so usually make it all harder for everyone else, especially if silly mistakes are made. In a new situation, aim to be a 0, accept you don't know it all and are there to learn and in doing so, you won't make it harder for everyone else and will actually take it all on. Eventually, when you do have that knowledge and experience you will be a +1. I think this is great advice and I'll definitely try this!