Alex's bookshelf: all

Alex's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 24 Mar 2025 08:50:11 -0700 60 Alex's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Existential Psychotherapy 21032 544 Irvin D. Yalom 0465021476 Alex 0 to-read 4.43 1980

author: Irvin D. Yalom
name: Alex
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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]]> Man and His Symbols 123632 Man and His Symbols owes its existence to one of Jung's own dreams. The great psychologist dreamed that his work was understood by a wide public, rather than just by psychiatrists, and therefore he agreed to write and edit this fascinating book. Here, Jung examines the full world of the unconscious, whose language he believed to be the symbols constantly revealed in dreams. Convinced that dreams offer practical advice, sent from the unconscious to the conscious self, Jung felt that self-understanding would lead to a full and productive life. Thus, the reader will gain new insights into himself from this thoughtful volume, which also illustrates symbols throughout history. Completed just before his death by Jung and his associates, it is clearly addressed to the general reader.]]> 415 C.G. Jung 0440351839 Alex 2
1. borderline incoherent, pseudoscientific mysticism derived from a biased review of anthropological evidence and affirmed through confirmation bias with clinical examples

and

2. some genuine insights into human psychology.

It is a dangerous colloid of truth and nonsense varnished with obfuscation that excuses itself with the argument that the universal truths of nature are pre-linguistic, then we are given a convenient key—based in pure fiction—to deciphering the nebulous material.

It is a precursor to the post-truth era in which squirrely metanarratives (promulgated by the likes of Jordan Peterson, not coincidentally a big Jung fan) go toe-to-toe with evidence-based and/or theoretically sound arguments because they refuse to follow the same logic as everyone else but won’t admit that their alternate reality is a lens that confirms itself but does not comport with the reality we all actually live in.

There is something interesting in the idea that the function of dreams is to compensate for inaccuracies in our conscious perceptions of the world, e.g., the arrogant person dreams of being humiliated as a way of the unconscious saying “humble yourself!�� thus reconciling the person’s inaccurate self-concept with external feedback that challenges that view (this is a cognitive slant on the argument he makes).

Through an integrated lens, I do not believe dreams are inherently meaningful, but I believe we are drawn to narratives that seem to have some personal significance, and there is some utility to Jung’s view here, as this can be used to better align a patient’s views of themselves with the world’s view of them or better align their self-concept or behavior with their values. What the person projects onto the ambiguous stimulus—what their mind latches onto and elaborates—reveals their deeper thoughts and worries. That does not make the ambiguous stimulus a mystical symbol full of hidden, universal meaning that was evolutionarily passed down to all of us. (He does stress that the individual significance of the symbol is the key to understanding the person’s dreams, and he was against dream dictionaries for this reason, but he can’t really have it both ways…it’s universal or it isn’t). It’s all what you make of it, and Jung makes a huge mistake in making more of that than what it is.

At best, Jung’s work can be seen as a kind of literary criticism applied to human history and thought, where symbols are assigned meaning, and extreme liberties are taken in deriving universal truth from them.

Scoreboard:

Freud: 1
Jung: 0]]> 4.19 1964 Man and His Symbols

author: C.G. Jung
name: Alex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1964
rating: 2
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date added: 2025/03/12
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A mixture of

1. borderline incoherent, pseudoscientific mysticism derived from a biased review of anthropological evidence and affirmed through confirmation bias with clinical examples

and

2. some genuine insights into human psychology.

It is a dangerous colloid of truth and nonsense varnished with obfuscation that excuses itself with the argument that the universal truths of nature are pre-linguistic, then we are given a convenient key—based in pure fiction—to deciphering the nebulous material.

It is a precursor to the post-truth era in which squirrely metanarratives (promulgated by the likes of Jordan Peterson, not coincidentally a big Jung fan) go toe-to-toe with evidence-based and/or theoretically sound arguments because they refuse to follow the same logic as everyone else but won’t admit that their alternate reality is a lens that confirms itself but does not comport with the reality we all actually live in.

There is something interesting in the idea that the function of dreams is to compensate for inaccuracies in our conscious perceptions of the world, e.g., the arrogant person dreams of being humiliated as a way of the unconscious saying “humble yourself!�� thus reconciling the person’s inaccurate self-concept with external feedback that challenges that view (this is a cognitive slant on the argument he makes).

Through an integrated lens, I do not believe dreams are inherently meaningful, but I believe we are drawn to narratives that seem to have some personal significance, and there is some utility to Jung’s view here, as this can be used to better align a patient’s views of themselves with the world’s view of them or better align their self-concept or behavior with their values. What the person projects onto the ambiguous stimulus—what their mind latches onto and elaborates—reveals their deeper thoughts and worries. That does not make the ambiguous stimulus a mystical symbol full of hidden, universal meaning that was evolutionarily passed down to all of us. (He does stress that the individual significance of the symbol is the key to understanding the person’s dreams, and he was against dream dictionaries for this reason, but he can’t really have it both ways…it’s universal or it isn’t). It’s all what you make of it, and Jung makes a huge mistake in making more of that than what it is.

At best, Jung’s work can be seen as a kind of literary criticism applied to human history and thought, where symbols are assigned meaning, and extreme liberties are taken in deriving universal truth from them.

Scoreboard:

Freud: 1
Jung: 0
]]> Last Exit to Brooklyn 50275 Last Exit to Brooklyn, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting.

Described by various reviewers as hellish and obscene, Last Exit to Brooklyn tells the stories of New Yorkers who at every turn confront the worst excesses in human nature. Yet there are moments of exquisite tenderness in these troubled lives. Georgette, the transvestite who falls in love with a callous hoodlum; Tralala, the conniving prostitute who plumbs the depths of sexual degradation; and Harry, the strike leader who hides his true desires behind a boorish masculinity, are unforgettable creations. Last Exit to Brooklyn was banned by British courts in 1967, a decision that was reversed the following year with the help of a number of writers and critics including Anthony Burgess and Frank Kermode.

Hubert Selby, Jr. (1928-2004) was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and went to sea with the merchant marines. While at sea he was diagnosed with lung disease. With no other way to make a living, he decided to try writing: 'I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.' In 1964 he completed his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, which has since become a cult classic. In 1966, it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK. His other books include The Room, The Demon, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. In 2000, Requiem for a Dream was adapted into a film starring Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn, and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

'Last Exit to Brooklyn will explode like a rusty hellish bombshell over America, and still be eagerly read in 100 years'
Allen Ginsberg

'An urgent tickertape from hell'
Spectator]]> 290 Hubert Selby Jr. 0747549923 Alex 4 3.94 1964 Last Exit to Brooklyn

author: Hubert Selby Jr.
name: Alex
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1964
rating: 4
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Razor-sharp, brutally realistic, transgressive fiction. Don’t know if it’s a voyeuristic tale about moral decay from a conservative perspective (let’s just say without spoilers that gays are buried), a punk polemic on what happens when people are marginalized and abandoned by the State, a Hobbesian tale about human nature, or some combination. But I am guilty of consuming it voraciously, anyhow.
]]> Playing and Reality 361284 214 D.W. Winnicott 0415345464 Alex 3 4.22 1971

author: D.W. Winnicott
name: Alex
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1971
rating: 3
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A formative text on child psychology. Helped me enter into the mind of a developing infant and understand what shapes its personality and which conditions do so optimally. Very much a repackaging of ideas expressed by thinkers who came before him plus a few unique contributions. Not always the clearest writer. Poorly organized, meandering. Ideas are illustrated, never directly explained, which works in cinema but is unfailingly a downside in educational texts. Had to listen to the audiobook twice to really internalize the concepts, and some nuance probably still escapes me. Still worth it.
]]> <![CDATA[The White Coat Investor: A Doctor's Guide to Personal Finance and Investing (The White Coat Investor Series)]]> 20799512 �� Written by a practicing emergency physician, The White Coat Investor is a high-yield manual that specifically deals with the financial issues facing medical students, residents, physicians, dentists, and similar high-income professionals. Doctors are highly-educated and extensively trained at making difficult diagnoses and performing life saving procedures. However, they receive little to no training in business, personal finance, investing, insurance, taxes, estate planning, and asset protection.

�� This book fills in the gaps and will teach you to use your high income to escape from your student loans, provide for your family, build wealth, and stop getting ripped off by unscrupulous financial professionals. Straight talk and clear explanations allow the book to be easily digested by a novice to the subject matter yet the book also contains advanced concepts specific to physicians you won’t find in other financial books.

This book will teach you how to:

Graduate from medical school with as little debt as possible
Escape from student loans within two to five years of residency graduation
Purchase the right types and amounts of insurance
Decide when to buy a house and how much to spend on it
Learn to invest in a sensible, low-cost and effective manner with or without the assistance of an advisor
Avoid investments which are designed to be sold, not bought
Select advisors who give great service and advice at a fair price
Become a millionaire within five to ten years of residency graduation
Use a “Backdoor Roth IRA�� and “Stealth IRA�� to boost your retirement funds and decrease your taxes
Protect your hard-won assets from professional and personal lawsuits
Avoid estate taxes, avoid probate, and ensure your children and your money go where you want when you die
Minimize your tax burden, keeping more of your hard-earned money
Decide between an employee job and an independent contractor job
Choose between sole proprietorship, Limited Liability Company, S Corporation, and C Corporation

Take a look at the first pages of the book by clicking on the Look Inside feature

Praise For The White Coat Investor

“Much of my financial planning practice is helping doctors to correct mistakes that reading this book would have avoided in the first place.�� Allan S. Roth, MBA, CPA, CFP®, Author of How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street

“Jim Dahle has done a lot of thinking about the peculiar financial problems facing physicians, and you, lucky reader, are about to reap the bounty of both his experience and his research.�� William J. Bernstein, MD, Author of The Investor’s Manifesto and seven other investing books

“This book should be in every career counselor’s office and delivered with every medical degree.

]]> 225 James M. Dahle Alex 0 currently-reading 4.40 2014 The White Coat Investor: A Doctor's Guide to Personal Finance and Investing (The White Coat Investor Series)

The White Coat Investor: A Doctor's Guide to Personal Finance and Investing (The White Coat Investor Series)

author: James M. Dahle
name: Alex
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> The Idiot 12505 667 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0679642420 Alex 0 to-read 4.22 1869

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Alex
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1869
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[I Never Promised You a Rose Garden]]> 137289443 0 Joanne Greenberg Alex 0 currently-reading 4.00 1964

author: Joanne Greenberg
name: Alex
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]]> 18693771 A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]> 464 Bessel van der Kolk 0670785938 Alex 0 currently-reading 4.36 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: Alex
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> Dead Souls 28381 Dead Souls, Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.

In his introduction to this new translation, Robert A. Maguire discusses Gogol's life and literary career, his depiction of Russian society, and the language and narrative techniques employed in Dead Souls. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, a glossary, map and notes.]]> 464 Nikolai Gogol 0140448071 Alex 0 currently-reading 4.00 1842

author: Nikolai Gogol
name: Alex
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1842
rating: 0
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Alex 0 to-read 4.46 2022

author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Alex
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> Carol: The Price of Salt 27971708 0 Claire Morgan 1504647556 Alex 0 to-read 3.78 1952

author: Claire Morgan
name: Alex
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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]]> Lolita 7604 Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141182537.

Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.]]> 368 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723161 Alex 0 currently-reading 3.87 1955 Lolita

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Alex
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> A Country Doctor's Notebook 897363
With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of freezing rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice �� on the eve of Revolution�� is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.]]> 158 Mikhail Bulgakov 1860461654 Alex 3 4.35 1925 A Country Doctor's Notebook

author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Alex
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1925
rating: 3
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Sharply written, funny and heartening in parts. Subjectively true to the life of a doctor, plus the wonders of going back in time. Quick and easy read. Would read again to revisit the wild medical adventures, class dynamics, sympathetic narrator, heartbreaking text journey through addiction, and other things. It’s hard to accurately summarize something that’s fairly linear and kind of a short story anthology with chapters that vary in impact.
]]> First Love 1648769 First Love. It was written by Beckett in 1946, unreleased until the 1970 French edition, and followed by this first English translation by Beckett in 1973. Though it can be found in many collected works, this has nothing to do with the various errata those usually saddle it amidst.]]> 64 Samuel Beckett 0714509655 Alex 4 3.46 1970 First Love

author: Samuel Beckett
name: Alex
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1970
rating: 4
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One of the most intriguing, absurd, and darkly funny short stories I’ve ever read.
]]> Women in Love 9784 Women in Love is both a lucid account of English society before the First World War, and a brilliant evocation of the inexorable power of human desire.

Women in Love continues where The Rainbow left off, with the third generation of Brangwens: Ursula Brangwen, now a teacher at Beldover, a mining town in the Midlands, and her sister Gudrun, who has returned from art school in London. The focus of the novel is primarily on their relationships, Ursula's with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector, and Gudrun's with industrialist Gerald Crich, and later with a sculptor, Loerke. Quintessentially modernist, Women in Love is one of Lawrence's most extraordinary, innovative and unsettling works.]]> 416 D.H. Lawrence 0486424588 Alex 0 currently-reading 3.68 1920

author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Alex
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1920
rating: 0
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]]> Wuthering Heights 6185 You can find the redesigned cover of this edition HERE.

At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff - recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.

This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations.

New to the fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronte's letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham's insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind the beloved work.

Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights's problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role of Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel's romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights.

A Chronology and updated Selected Bibliography are also included.]]> 464 Emily Brontë Alex 0 currently-reading 3.89 1847

author: Emily Brontë
name: Alex
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1847
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Martin the Warrior (Redwall, #6)]]> 201345 376 Brian Jacques 0441001866 Alex 0 childhood-favorites 4.16 1993

author: Brian Jacques
name: Alex
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Bringing Up Baby: The Psychoanalytic Infant Comes of Age]]> 17066667 400 Dianna T. Kenny 1781811717 Alex 3 3.60 2012

Bringing Up Baby: The Psychoanalytic Infant Comes of Age

author: Dianna T. Kenny
name: Alex
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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]]> The Rainbow 31491 The Rainbow, follows the lives and loves of three generations of the Brangwen family between 1840 and 1905. Their tempestuous relationships are played out against a backdrop of change as they witness the arrival of industrialization - the only constant being their unending attempts to grasp a higher form of existence symbolized by the persistent, unifying motif of the "rainbow". Lawrence's fourth novel, a prequel to Women in Love, is an invigorating, absorbing tale about the undying determination of the human soul.]]> 544 D.H. Lawrence 0451530306 Alex 0 currently-reading 3.71 1915 The Rainbow

author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Alex
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1915
rating: 0
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]]> Notes from Underground 49455 Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.]]> 136 Fyodor Dostoevsky 067973452X Alex 5 4.21 1864 Notes from Underground

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Alex
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1864
rating: 5
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4.5 stars. My favorite thing about Dostoyevsky: he says the quiet parts (contents of the unconscious) out loud. The forward focuses a lot on his critiques of specific authors contemporary to his time and of rational egoism, utilitarianism, and related Enlightenment values. The underground man is a humorous illustration of some of these principles taken to the extreme. But I’m not sure that’s the level on which this really works for me. Where it works is the place where Dostoyevsky explores the interiority of a deeply flawed person who constantly performs his defenses as a last resort to retain any sense of dignity and then abruptly undermines these efforts as if the defense itself were more humiliating than just accepting the badness within. It is an absolute delight to witness his mental and emotional acrobatics, the perils of self-imposed solitude. He is a pathetic and loathsome character and an example of just how three-dimensional every author should aspire to make their own characters.
]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Alex 4
This book masterfully explores the relationships between poverty and crime (particularly in young, white, ambitious, intelligent, aimless men, with unfortunately great relevance to today’s youth e.g., rising fascism and so on), the subjugation of women and the poor, the psychology of a murderer, the impacts of addiction on families, the powers of denial and rationalization, the physical manifestations of mental conflict, and many other aspects of human psychology that are taken as true now but were prescient in Dostoyevsky’s time.

Even after reading this lengthy novel, I still felt that I didn’t really *know* Raskolnikov, though the same can be said of real people, and this book goes much further than most. He’s not likable or relatable, but I don’t care at all, as he’s fascinating to read about.

There are still so many questions on my mind, like: why did Raskolnikov turn himself in? Many speak of his remorse about the crime tearing him apart, but it is also said that he never once feels pity for the pawnbroker. He is an incredibly complex character, which is refreshing but also means he is full of contradictions. He subscribes to many tenets of conventional morality and does many good deeds. It’s not clear whether that’s because he is a uniquely good person with a strong moral compass or moreso out of grandiosity, as he is psychopathically cold in other instances, not so much as shedding a tear when his devoted (though coddling) mother dies. He aspires to be a Great Man, but his actions of refusing love and help (that he actually wants) from everyone and calling himself a scoundrel suggest that he feels he doesn’t deserve it. The same seems suggested by his willingness to be punished. There may be in some of that the desire of a fascistic thinker to submit to what he views as the greater authority. Finding himself not to be a Great Man, he realizes he has been bested by the investigator and is compelled to submit to the law, despite his seemingly unchanged convictions.

Why did he assent to living in squalor, to being unable to study any longer? Pride? Was it really his care for his family? If so, why didn’t he tell them sooner that he quit school? Why was he content to be viewed as a low being if he believed himself superior? Why not try, as his foil did, to utilize his talents and make the best of it? If he was angry with the system, why did he only target one person who was symptomatic of its deeper issues? Why was he cold and arrogant to some people but heroic to others? Why were some forms of delinquency reprehensible and others perfectly justificable if a Great Man thought so? He is certainly a perplexing person, speaking to Dostoyevsky’s uncanny ability to write *real* people.

Things I didn’t like:

There are many characters who remain one-dimensional, such as Sonia, and it’s a shame that we don’t ever get to see them as more than simple poster children and plot devices. On that note, the way certain events proceed feels way too convenient and reminds you that you are dealing with an artificially constructed story that has to fit together neatly.

There’s an awful lot of fluff in the characters�� long speeches (though I haven’t yet found a Russian novel in which this is not the case), and the pacing is uneven, making the book feel like a drag despite all the rewards of slogging through it.

Typical histrionic female characters, engaging in melodramatic flourishes, which most of the time feels unserious at the time. But I’ll be damned, it does always end up ripping my heart out, and Dostoyevsky pulls off the horror of high tragedy better than most.

I wanted to know more about Raskolnikov’s upbringing, what he was like as a boy, and his father, which would be heavily featured in any serious psychological profile but is strangely glossed over here. To me, the perfect Crime & Punishment would be an epic novel beginning at Raskolnikov’s birth and ending when he is arrested or when he eventually redeems himself, if he does. There’s so much missing from his origin story it’s hard to fully understand why he is how he is now. And I thought the epilogue was weak.

I found it cheap that Dostoyevsky hinted at the chance of Raskolnikov’s redemption through a woman’s love and Christianity, not through honest reckoning with his ideology, his concerning lack of remorse, and all his internal conflict through a process like psychoanalysis or introspection. This is true to life in some cases but kind of a cliche in classic literature, which relies heavily on the trope of a self-sacrificing woman and/or religion accepting all of the main character’s flaws but inspiring him to become better, subjugating himself to the higher power of God or their love or both. This same process takes place in Anna Karenina with Levin, but it’s fully earned and triumphant even if you’re an atheist who prefers three-dimensional characters of all genders, partly because personal responsibility, appreciation of the little things, and the love of productive work are also framed as major redeeming factors for him. There’s a hell of a lot of nuance in Levin’s transformation from angsty youngish single man to self-actualized husband. Dostoyevsky addresses this in saying that a whole other novel would be required to tell that part of Raskolnikov’s story, but the fact that he implies that it all takes place makes it feel like a weirdly rushed happy ending that has none of the nuance of the book preceding it.

This might be a cultural difference, but my opinion as a psychiatry resident is that in the US today, Raskolnikov would not be considered insane in a court of law. If he had to be diagnosed with something, he would most likely be said to have characterological traits of a mixed personality disorder (primarily antisocial and narcissistic—probably also some avoidant and schizoid), which is not considered an excuse for criminal acts. By all accounts, he understood that his actions were illegal and considered morally wrong in his society, although he did not agree on ideological grounds. His reasoning was irrationally motivated but logically structured, and has been used many times throughout history to justify immoral acts. He planned the crime meticulously, except the unpredictable elements to which he reacted instinctively out of self-preservation. He did not demonstrate any bizarre delusions, he was not compelled by any voices or visions, and overall he did not demonstrate characteristics of any mental disorder that would impair his ability to understand what he was doing. So here and now, I think he would’ve been given a *much* harsher sentence.

Finally, for the most part, Dostoyevsky writes like a filmmaker, showing more than telling, and like a forensic psychologist, clinical in his observations, and rarely sentimental. This is my first book of his, so it could be that the main character’s personality affected the tone, but I still felt like the material could’ve been approached in a more empathic way than it was. I knew I was going to think, and that aspect was satisfactory, but I also wanted to feel. When I did, it was intense, but it took tragedy to get me there. The rest of the time, I was in cold, clinical observation mode.

It could be a mark of what a good novel this is that I find myself dwelling on details and still wanting to know more about main character’s psychology. As deep as it was, I kind of wish it would’ve gone deeper into emotions, motivations, and realizations. I will definitely have to re-read this one to more fully understand all that it has to offer.]]> 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Alex
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves:
review:
4.4/5

This book masterfully explores the relationships between poverty and crime (particularly in young, white, ambitious, intelligent, aimless men, with unfortunately great relevance to today’s youth e.g., rising fascism and so on), the subjugation of women and the poor, the psychology of a murderer, the impacts of addiction on families, the powers of denial and rationalization, the physical manifestations of mental conflict, and many other aspects of human psychology that are taken as true now but were prescient in Dostoyevsky’s time.

Even after reading this lengthy novel, I still felt that I didn’t really *know* Raskolnikov, though the same can be said of real people, and this book goes much further than most. He’s not likable or relatable, but I don’t care at all, as he’s fascinating to read about.

There are still so many questions on my mind, like: why did Raskolnikov turn himself in? Many speak of his remorse about the crime tearing him apart, but it is also said that he never once feels pity for the pawnbroker. He is an incredibly complex character, which is refreshing but also means he is full of contradictions. He subscribes to many tenets of conventional morality and does many good deeds. It’s not clear whether that’s because he is a uniquely good person with a strong moral compass or moreso out of grandiosity, as he is psychopathically cold in other instances, not so much as shedding a tear when his devoted (though coddling) mother dies. He aspires to be a Great Man, but his actions of refusing love and help (that he actually wants) from everyone and calling himself a scoundrel suggest that he feels he doesn’t deserve it. The same seems suggested by his willingness to be punished. There may be in some of that the desire of a fascistic thinker to submit to what he views as the greater authority. Finding himself not to be a Great Man, he realizes he has been bested by the investigator and is compelled to submit to the law, despite his seemingly unchanged convictions.

Why did he assent to living in squalor, to being unable to study any longer? Pride? Was it really his care for his family? If so, why didn’t he tell them sooner that he quit school? Why was he content to be viewed as a low being if he believed himself superior? Why not try, as his foil did, to utilize his talents and make the best of it? If he was angry with the system, why did he only target one person who was symptomatic of its deeper issues? Why was he cold and arrogant to some people but heroic to others? Why were some forms of delinquency reprehensible and others perfectly justificable if a Great Man thought so? He is certainly a perplexing person, speaking to Dostoyevsky’s uncanny ability to write *real* people.

Things I didn’t like:

There are many characters who remain one-dimensional, such as Sonia, and it’s a shame that we don’t ever get to see them as more than simple poster children and plot devices. On that note, the way certain events proceed feels way too convenient and reminds you that you are dealing with an artificially constructed story that has to fit together neatly.

There’s an awful lot of fluff in the characters�� long speeches (though I haven’t yet found a Russian novel in which this is not the case), and the pacing is uneven, making the book feel like a drag despite all the rewards of slogging through it.

Typical histrionic female characters, engaging in melodramatic flourishes, which most of the time feels unserious at the time. But I’ll be damned, it does always end up ripping my heart out, and Dostoyevsky pulls off the horror of high tragedy better than most.

I wanted to know more about Raskolnikov’s upbringing, what he was like as a boy, and his father, which would be heavily featured in any serious psychological profile but is strangely glossed over here. To me, the perfect Crime & Punishment would be an epic novel beginning at Raskolnikov’s birth and ending when he is arrested or when he eventually redeems himself, if he does. There’s so much missing from his origin story it’s hard to fully understand why he is how he is now. And I thought the epilogue was weak.

I found it cheap that Dostoyevsky hinted at the chance of Raskolnikov’s redemption through a woman’s love and Christianity, not through honest reckoning with his ideology, his concerning lack of remorse, and all his internal conflict through a process like psychoanalysis or introspection. This is true to life in some cases but kind of a cliche in classic literature, which relies heavily on the trope of a self-sacrificing woman and/or religion accepting all of the main character’s flaws but inspiring him to become better, subjugating himself to the higher power of God or their love or both. This same process takes place in Anna Karenina with Levin, but it’s fully earned and triumphant even if you’re an atheist who prefers three-dimensional characters of all genders, partly because personal responsibility, appreciation of the little things, and the love of productive work are also framed as major redeeming factors for him. There’s a hell of a lot of nuance in Levin’s transformation from angsty youngish single man to self-actualized husband. Dostoyevsky addresses this in saying that a whole other novel would be required to tell that part of Raskolnikov’s story, but the fact that he implies that it all takes place makes it feel like a weirdly rushed happy ending that has none of the nuance of the book preceding it.

This might be a cultural difference, but my opinion as a psychiatry resident is that in the US today, Raskolnikov would not be considered insane in a court of law. If he had to be diagnosed with something, he would most likely be said to have characterological traits of a mixed personality disorder (primarily antisocial and narcissistic—probably also some avoidant and schizoid), which is not considered an excuse for criminal acts. By all accounts, he understood that his actions were illegal and considered morally wrong in his society, although he did not agree on ideological grounds. His reasoning was irrationally motivated but logically structured, and has been used many times throughout history to justify immoral acts. He planned the crime meticulously, except the unpredictable elements to which he reacted instinctively out of self-preservation. He did not demonstrate any bizarre delusions, he was not compelled by any voices or visions, and overall he did not demonstrate characteristics of any mental disorder that would impair his ability to understand what he was doing. So here and now, I think he would’ve been given a *much* harsher sentence.

Finally, for the most part, Dostoyevsky writes like a filmmaker, showing more than telling, and like a forensic psychologist, clinical in his observations, and rarely sentimental. This is my first book of his, so it could be that the main character’s personality affected the tone, but I still felt like the material could’ve been approached in a more empathic way than it was. I knew I was going to think, and that aspect was satisfactory, but I also wanted to feel. When I did, it was intense, but it took tragedy to get me there. The rest of the time, I was in cold, clinical observation mode.

It could be a mark of what a good novel this is that I find myself dwelling on details and still wanting to know more about main character’s psychology. As deep as it was, I kind of wish it would’ve gone deeper into emotions, motivations, and realizations. I will definitely have to re-read this one to more fully understand all that it has to offer.
]]> Tess of the D’Urbervilles 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin�� Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]> 518 Thomas Hardy Alex 5 3.83 1891 Tess of the D’Urbervilles

author: Thomas Hardy
name: Alex
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves:
review:
Tess is a tragic heroine from a semi-bygone era (good riddance to the formal structures that once reinforced these norms in the West, but let us not forget those that wish to reinstate them today and perpetuate them culturally, and besides that, all of the instances in which terrible things happen to good people for no reason at all or because of the Nature of Things, now and forever). She is kind, self-motivated, virtuous, and naively wants many of the same things most people want today (love, purpose, the wellbeing of her loved ones). Damn the language in this book is gorgeous, the story’s pacing and structure are excellent (I would think influential of many dramas to follow—another favorite heartbreaker, Lars Von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark�� comes to mind), and every action has consequences and makes sense within the world constructed. There are some very *chef’s kiss* extended metaphors, and the lengthy descriptions of nature etc. are all rich with contextual meaning rather than mere decoration. The characters feel real, irrational but predictable, three-dimensional and interesting. The ending breaks your heart but comes as no surprise. It is bleak but beautiful and true for too many in different ways. Tess is the voice of many women and others who cannot catch a break because of their unfortunate circumstances, who try earnestly, fail time and time again, eventually snap, and are treated without pity. I loved this book fully. Not much else to say.
]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts]]> 34146782
In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. It offers a step-by-step solution—a healing process—in addition to incisive social commentary.

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.]]> 300 Resmaa Menakem 1942094477 Alex 0 to-read 4.38 2017 My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

author: Resmaa Menakem
name: Alex
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma]]> 58214328 A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life.

"Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.

In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.

Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.]]> 352 Stephanie Foo 0593238109 Alex 0 to-read 4.50 2022 What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

author: Stephanie Foo
name: Alex
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dibbs in Search of Self 92511319 0 Virginia M. Axline Alex 4 4.38 1964

author: Virginia M. Axline
name: Alex
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1964
rating: 4
read at: 2014/05/14
date added: 2024/05/14
shelves:
review:
I read this in my play therapy course years ago. It is a beautiful story that illustrates the potential for a caring hand to alter the course of a traumatized child’s life. Easy to read. Filled with wisdom and hope. Recommend for anyone who works in mental health or works with children.
]]> The Iliac Crest 34552743 On a dark and stormy night, two mysterious women invade an unnamed narrator’s house, where they proceed to ruthlessly question their host’s identity. The women are strangely intimate―even inventing together an incomprehensible, fluid language―and harass the narrator by repeatedly claiming that they know his greatest that he is, in fact, a woman. As the increasingly frantic protagonist fails to defend his supposed masculinity, he eventually finds himself in a sanatorium.
Published for the first time in English, this Gothic tale is “utterly weird yet deeply resonant in its portrayal of gendered violence�� ( The Millions ). Through layered and haunting prose, Cristina Rivera Garza unravels the cultural and political histories of Mexico, probing at the misogyny that fuels the disappearance of women in literature and in real life. ��
��
"Astounding and thought-provoking." �� Publishers Weekly �� (starred review)
“An intelligent, beautiful story about bodies disguised as a story about language disguised as a story about night terrors. Cristina Rivera Garza does not respect what is expected of a writer, of a novel, of language. She is an agitator.”��—Yuri Herrera, author of�� Kingdom Cons]]> 200 Cristina Rivera Garza 1936932067 Alex 4 3.64 2002 The Iliac Crest

author: Cristina Rivera Garza
name: Alex
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
Opaque, surrealistic psychosexual horror that (seemingly) explores the relationships between language, history, meaning, and identity. Hard to connect the actual book to the author’s explanation related to disappearing women and the erasure of their identities unless you’ve read the forward (aside: I hate when the forward spoils major plot points or excessively colors the reading experience, so I’ve taken to reading it after the main text), but it makes sense in retrospect. Overall, strange, confusing, stunning, and affecting. A bad dream well illustrated.
]]> <![CDATA[The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)]]> 41637836
The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer.

When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once.

Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld �� Cittàgazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky.

But she is not without allies: twelve-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another's, has also stumbled into this strange new realm.

On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power.

And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat �� and the shattering truth of their own destiny.]]> 370 Philip Pullman Alex 3
Lots of world-building and fantasy stuff. Layers upon layers of all that. Refreshingly unpredictable plot, can be hard to follow until the big beats slap you in the face. For me, most effective when it’s true to life and emotionally complex. The religious takedown stuff is interesting, but it’s not clear how all the dots connect yet between religion and physics and fantasy, and when you’ve been nonreligious all your life, it packs less of a punch.

Looking forward to finishing the next one.]]> 4.23 1997 The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

author: Philip Pullman
name: Alex
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
Poor Lyra. Poor Will. Growing up so fast with so little support from the ones who were supposed to care for you, yet you are strong and capable in your own ways. You will be called upon to sacrifice even more, and it will hurt.

Lots of world-building and fantasy stuff. Layers upon layers of all that. Refreshingly unpredictable plot, can be hard to follow until the big beats slap you in the face. For me, most effective when it’s true to life and emotionally complex. The religious takedown stuff is interesting, but it’s not clear how all the dots connect yet between religion and physics and fantasy, and when you’ve been nonreligious all your life, it packs less of a punch.

Looking forward to finishing the next one.
]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 Alex 3 4.02 1995 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)

author: Philip Pullman
name: Alex
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
I don’t love this genre, but this is a very smart, layered book and a great example of the unique possibilities sci-fi and fantasy possess in exploring the troubles of our own society.
]]> Les Misérables 24280 1463 Victor Hugo 0451525264 Alex 5 4.19 1862

author: Victor Hugo
name: Alex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1862
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
The gold standard of epic novels with redemption arcs. A treat from beginning to end.
]]> Flowers for Algernon 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
��
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence �� a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X Alex 5 4.19 1966 Flowers for Algernon

author: Daniel Keyes
name: Alex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2012/07/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
I think about this book sometimes when I feel stupid, and it makes me glad that I am not a genius. More broadly, it can be understood that every trait a person can possess is good, bad, or neutral for different reasons and in different settings, so the argument for radical self-acceptance is compelling. The style is a real triumph—fresh, effective, and heartbreaking as the plot unfurls. It’s easy to read, extremely easy to sympathize with the main character, and deeply meaningful w/r/t intelligence, humanity, and how we treat people with disabilities. It’s an excellent book for so many reasons.
]]> Anna Karenina 15823480 Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.

Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, 'He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.]]> 964 Leo Tolstoy 0345803922 Alex 5 4.11 1878 Anna Karenina

author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Alex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1878
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/06
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:
As close to a perfect novel as I have ever read. The characters live and breathe as we do. Each one learns, grows, and suffers. The pacing is immaculate. Outside of criticisms that apply to the setting in which this novel was written, I can’t say a single negative thing. I can’t wait to reread it and fall in love with it all over again one day.
]]> <![CDATA[Another Bullshit Night in Suck City]]> 386 Another Bullshit Night in Suck City tells the story of the trajectory that led Nick and his father onto the streets, into that shelter, and finally to each other. .]]> 347 Nick Flynn 0393329402 Alex 0 to-read 3.82 2004

author: Nick Flynn
name: Alex
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Alex 4 4.04 1942 The Stranger

author: Albert Camus
name: Alex
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
Simple, engaging writing style, almost cinematic. An ordinary kind of plot on the surface with rich philosophical implications. Camus doing Hemingway (and I prefer the imitation to the real thing). I probably need to reread this to fully “get�� it. But it was quite good. There’s something in here about morality, nihilism, and freedom, all the “should”s we bear that aren’t programmed into us by God, fate, or DNA but by society, and how it might look for there to be a man who just couldn’t be arsed about any of that, embodying the meaninglessness of the universe. Of course, I do believe that life is meaningful, that individual life is valuable, and that Mersault is not a very good person based on his actions that harm others, but…much of what we live by is artificial, and not everything happens for a reason, so I think Mr. Camus was onto something.
]]> The Depressed Person 11334386 Harper's Magazine, January 1998.]]> 8 David Foster Wallace Alex 5 4.32 1998

author: David Foster Wallace
name: Alex
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
An absolute masterpiece of a short story. Something I frequently find myself recalling when I think about depression as a psychiatric provider.
]]> Stardust 16793 Alternate cover edition can be found here

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.]]> 248 Neil Gaiman 0061142026 Alex 2 - Due to lack of character and/or relationship development, this was not the moving parable about true love/friendship/loving oneself that I was looking for.
- Characters were shallow and not relatable.
- Odd combination of children’s fairytale style with adult content.
- Plot was predictable yet oddly paced. Did not keep me engaged.

Overall, it was a fine audiobook to fall asleep to. I am not a big fantasy genre person and likely not a big Neil Gaiman person if much of his work is like this.]]> 4.11 1999 Stardust

author: Neil Gaiman
name: Alex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
- His name should’ve just been “Tristan�� without the extra “r.��
- Due to lack of character and/or relationship development, this was not the moving parable about true love/friendship/loving oneself that I was looking for.
- Characters were shallow and not relatable.
- Odd combination of children’s fairytale style with adult content.
- Plot was predictable yet oddly paced. Did not keep me engaged.

Overall, it was a fine audiobook to fall asleep to. I am not a big fantasy genre person and likely not a big Neil Gaiman person if much of his work is like this.
]]> <![CDATA[Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology: Caring for the Treatment-Resistant Patient]]> 61621846 295 David Mintz MD 1615371524 Alex 5 4.71

Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology: Caring for the Treatment-Resistant Patient

author: David Mintz MD
name: Alex
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
Every psychiatrist and trainee should read this book. It holds a magnifying glass to the underbelly of clinical interactions (particularly with regard to treatment-resistant conditions) and provides a valuable framework as well as practical methods for practicing the kind of psychiatry I think most of us imagined we would be trained to do: truly person-centered, holistic, and getting at What’s Really Going On in the interest of maybe actually helping some hard-to-help people, applying the psychodynamic lens and psychotherapy skills to psychopharmacology.
]]> The Vulnerables 125930473
Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez’s ninth novel. The Vulnerables offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past.

Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. The Vulnerables reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another’s distress. A search for understanding about some of the most critical matters of our time, Nunez’s new novel is also an inquiry into the nature and purpose of writing itself.]]> 256 Sigrid Nunez 0593715519 Alex 2
1) Pandemic book, feels passé since we were all inundated with related content for 2+ years (not the author’s fault, probably my fault for not skimming more of the book before purchasing, but can’t be discerned from the back, so maybe intentional obfuscation?)

2) Constant, seemingly random quotes from higher-brow authors—I think my English teacher once said something about the use of quotes suggesting the writer has nothing better to say (although I wish I remembered this particular quote, as it keeps coming up)

3) Writer writing (partly) about writing during a time when she has writer’s block (see the second point)

4) Scattered, heedless organization, bouncing around between ideas that don’t seem intuitively connected, with a thin linear plot underneath (see the third point), non-non-fiction with a non-story, semi-autobiographical crap that makes you really crave something good, something that means something, fills you up, changes your mind, speaks quiet truths, etc.

5) Felt like the premise was wasted—I definitely could’ve enjoyed a book about a lonely woman who befriends a parrot and a ne’er-do-well, a book that is *actually* about disconnection in contemporary culture, but as this one seemed to be shackled to the confines of reality, it went nowhere

6) I did not find the author to be likable, relatable, or the third (and most interesting) option, a real-life complex anti-hero—just someone whose voice I wasn’t really interested in hearing, who shared scattered things in a confident way

It’s a shame this book sucked so bad, because it’s easy to see the author is a very good writer. But if you don’t have anything to say, if the novel is obsolete (not something I agree with but a recurrent point this book makes), if self-expression is trivial and self-indulgent in the shadow of all the horrible things happening in the world now, if you have writer’s block, why write anything at all, or publish what you do? Why not wait until inspiration really strikes, when what you have to share is worth sharing?]]> 3.59 2023 The Vulnerables

author: Sigrid Nunez
name: Alex
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:
I did not enjoy this book.

1) Pandemic book, feels passé since we were all inundated with related content for 2+ years (not the author’s fault, probably my fault for not skimming more of the book before purchasing, but can’t be discerned from the back, so maybe intentional obfuscation?)

2) Constant, seemingly random quotes from higher-brow authors—I think my English teacher once said something about the use of quotes suggesting the writer has nothing better to say (although I wish I remembered this particular quote, as it keeps coming up)

3) Writer writing (partly) about writing during a time when she has writer’s block (see the second point)

4) Scattered, heedless organization, bouncing around between ideas that don’t seem intuitively connected, with a thin linear plot underneath (see the third point), non-non-fiction with a non-story, semi-autobiographical crap that makes you really crave something good, something that means something, fills you up, changes your mind, speaks quiet truths, etc.

5) Felt like the premise was wasted—I definitely could’ve enjoyed a book about a lonely woman who befriends a parrot and a ne’er-do-well, a book that is *actually* about disconnection in contemporary culture, but as this one seemed to be shackled to the confines of reality, it went nowhere

6) I did not find the author to be likable, relatable, or the third (and most interesting) option, a real-life complex anti-hero—just someone whose voice I wasn’t really interested in hearing, who shared scattered things in a confident way

It’s a shame this book sucked so bad, because it’s easy to see the author is a very good writer. But if you don’t have anything to say, if the novel is obsolete (not something I agree with but a recurrent point this book makes), if self-expression is trivial and self-indulgent in the shadow of all the horrible things happening in the world now, if you have writer’s block, why write anything at all, or publish what you do? Why not wait until inspiration really strikes, when what you have to share is worth sharing?
]]> Recitatif 34842610 A beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison—the only one she ever wrote—about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.]]> 19 Toni Morrison Alex 3
Pertaining to this story, it would be a fun exercise to reread it while consciously trying to make opposite assumptions about the characters and see how my perspective changes. Given the centralization of race in this story, it provides a special opportunity to examine self and society through a critical lens.

Things I didn’t like: Dialogue felt unrealistic. Writing style felt cheesy and overly straightforward, though there were some innovative devices like describing silence in terms of how far it extends. The plot was paper-thin. The characters weren’t well fleshed-out in terms of their personalities and interests—pretty much all we know about them is name, age, family structure, socioeconomic class, and a couple of details about each of their mothers.

I tend to think the ending is the most important part of a story, often informing the reader of The Point. In this case, it fell flat for me. It was not clear what the author’s take was on the relevance of race in the abuse of a disabled woman—from an intersectional perspective, we know it is relevant. But the ending almost seemed like a punchline, like the author was asking, “Why should Roberta be so concerned with this detail? What does it matter?�� which would be more of an argument for colorblindness, and I really doubt that’s what she was trying to do. My take on The Point was that we are over-reliant on racial signifiers and/or stereotypes in coming to conclusions about people. But without any knowledge of a character’s race, we can’t accurately interpret things that are motivated by racism, which is challenging when thinking about things like segregation and hate crimes.

It may well be that this was more of a postmodern exercise meant to encourage reflection on what details we use to fill in the blanks about race without making an argument as such. Which, again, I think is brilliant. But I felt like I was missing something at times with the way the idea was executed. Maybe I am missing something. But I liked the concept more than I liked the actual story.]]> 4.31 1983 Recitatif

author: Toni Morrison
name: Alex
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves:
review:
I thought the concept was brilliant. I’d like to read more stories in which settings and signifiers are never explained so readers can project their unconscious conceptualizations and participate in world-building, then examine the world they have helped to build and wonder at why it looks the way it does.

Pertaining to this story, it would be a fun exercise to reread it while consciously trying to make opposite assumptions about the characters and see how my perspective changes. Given the centralization of race in this story, it provides a special opportunity to examine self and society through a critical lens.

Things I didn’t like: Dialogue felt unrealistic. Writing style felt cheesy and overly straightforward, though there were some innovative devices like describing silence in terms of how far it extends. The plot was paper-thin. The characters weren’t well fleshed-out in terms of their personalities and interests—pretty much all we know about them is name, age, family structure, socioeconomic class, and a couple of details about each of their mothers.

I tend to think the ending is the most important part of a story, often informing the reader of The Point. In this case, it fell flat for me. It was not clear what the author’s take was on the relevance of race in the abuse of a disabled woman—from an intersectional perspective, we know it is relevant. But the ending almost seemed like a punchline, like the author was asking, “Why should Roberta be so concerned with this detail? What does it matter?�� which would be more of an argument for colorblindness, and I really doubt that’s what she was trying to do. My take on The Point was that we are over-reliant on racial signifiers and/or stereotypes in coming to conclusions about people. But without any knowledge of a character’s race, we can’t accurately interpret things that are motivated by racism, which is challenging when thinking about things like segregation and hate crimes.

It may well be that this was more of a postmodern exercise meant to encourage reflection on what details we use to fill in the blanks about race without making an argument as such. Which, again, I think is brilliant. But I felt like I was missing something at times with the way the idea was executed. Maybe I am missing something. But I liked the concept more than I liked the actual story.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hero's Adventure: Power of Myth 1]]> 234894
"There is a typical hero sequence of actions which can be detected in stories from all over the world and from the many, many periods of history. It is essentially the one deed done by many, many different people. The hero or heroine is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself.... Losing yourself, giving yourself to another, that's a trial in itself, is it not? There is a big transformation of consciousness that's concerned. And what all the myths have to deal with is the transformation of consciousness--that you're thinking in this way, and you have now to think in that way."
"Well, how is the consciousness transformed?"
"By trials."
"The tests that the hero undergoes?"
"Tests or certain illuminating revelations. Trials and revelations are what it's all about."]]> 60 Joseph Campbell 0942110935 Alex 2
Draws on interesting parallels in the storytelling of numerous cultures since the dawn of man, but…most of it is extremely vague and presented in disconnected tangents with a smug air of expansiveness. At times it feels like he is hiding a lack of coherency in cryptic language. Most of the advice he gives is pretty empty, amounting to “follow your heart�� and “eternity is in the here and now,�� etc. Moreover, his arguments suffer from major internal inconsistencies. It seems much of his personal ideology is sampled conveniently from numerous traditions without consideration of how they may contradict each other. It ends up sounding like generic New Age spirituality but even more squirrelly, as if being explained in the basement of a really stoned friend who has been watching too much Ancient Aliens, and when you ask him to clarify something, he starts telling you a random story that he read on Yahoo Answers.

I was hoping for a more cogent exploration of symbols with examples of where each concept can be found and how it has varied between places and times. But this was too disorganized to really be educational. A lot of Jungian thinkers (I’m looking at you, Jordan Peterson) seem to speak in a similarly scattered and opaque manner, perhaps reflecting their belief that what they so love discussing cannot be adequately communicated in words. Well, it’s probably worth a real try with some semblance of structure, with rambling and random transitions between topics kept to a minimum. What is neatly organized and delineated can be neatly critiqued, and I get the feeling that is a big part of the appeal for these mystical types.

It’s a shame, because I’d still like to read the kind of book that I was hoping this would be.]]> 4.37 1992 The Hero's Adventure: Power of Myth 1

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:
Review for Books 1-6:

Draws on interesting parallels in the storytelling of numerous cultures since the dawn of man, but…most of it is extremely vague and presented in disconnected tangents with a smug air of expansiveness. At times it feels like he is hiding a lack of coherency in cryptic language. Most of the advice he gives is pretty empty, amounting to “follow your heart�� and “eternity is in the here and now,�� etc. Moreover, his arguments suffer from major internal inconsistencies. It seems much of his personal ideology is sampled conveniently from numerous traditions without consideration of how they may contradict each other. It ends up sounding like generic New Age spirituality but even more squirrelly, as if being explained in the basement of a really stoned friend who has been watching too much Ancient Aliens, and when you ask him to clarify something, he starts telling you a random story that he read on Yahoo Answers.

I was hoping for a more cogent exploration of symbols with examples of where each concept can be found and how it has varied between places and times. But this was too disorganized to really be educational. A lot of Jungian thinkers (I’m looking at you, Jordan Peterson) seem to speak in a similarly scattered and opaque manner, perhaps reflecting their belief that what they so love discussing cannot be adequately communicated in words. Well, it’s probably worth a real try with some semblance of structure, with rambling and random transitions between topics kept to a minimum. What is neatly organized and delineated can be neatly critiqued, and I get the feeling that is a big part of the appeal for these mystical types.

It’s a shame, because I’d still like to read the kind of book that I was hoping this would be.
]]> The Power of Myth 35519 293 Joseph Campbell 0385418868 Alex 2 4.26 1988

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:
The Emperor’s New Clothes phenomenon illustrated.
]]> <![CDATA[Love and the Goddess: Power of Myth 5]]> 787575 Moyers: " "In the middle ages amour was celebrated by wandering minstrels who sang of what the eyes have made welcome to the heart. It helped create a distinctive Western consciousness that exalted the individual experience of men and woman over the authority and traditions of the church and state.""
Campbell: " "Virgin birth is the birth of spiritual man out of animal man.... When you are awakened at the level of the heart to compassion and suffering with the other person, that is the beginning of humanity.... It is the suffering that evokes the humanity of the human heart. Love, you might say, is the burning point of life and since all is sorrowful, so is love. And the stronger the love, the more that pain"-"that love bears all things. Love itself is a pain, you might say"-"that is, the pain of being truly alive.""]]> 60 Joseph Campbell 0942110978 Alex 2 4.51 Love and the Goddess: Power of Myth 5

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Masks of Eternity: Power of Myth 6]]> 584260 Moyers: " "The Images of God are many. Joseph Campbell called them the masks of eternity and said that they both cover and reveal the face of glory.""
Campbell: " "A myth is a mask of god, a metaphor for what lies behind the visible world... the realization of wonder and also the experience of tremendous power which people living in the world of nature are experiencing all the time. The way in most Oriental thinking, and I think what we call primitive thinking, is that God is the manifestation of the energy--not the source.""
Moyers: " "But is divinity just what we think?""
Campbell: " "Yes.""
Moyers: " "What does that do to faith?""
Campbell: " "I don't have to have faith. I have experience.""]]> 60 Joseph Campbell 0942110986 Alex 2 4.49 1990 Masks of Eternity: Power of Myth 6

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sacrifice and Bliss: Power of Myth 4]]> 787588 Campbell: " "Going to your sacrifice as the winning stroke of your life was the essence of the early sacrificial idea... when you go to your death that way, as a god, you are going to eternal life, what's sad about that?... The realization of your bliss, your true being, comes when you have put aside what might be called passing moment with its terror and with its temptations and its statement of requirements of life that you should live this way.... I always tell my students to follow their bliss--where the deep sense of being is from, and where your body and soul want to go. When you have that feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off. I say don't be afraid to follow your bliss and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.""]]> 60 Joseph Campbell 094211096X Alex 2 4.54 1990 Sacrifice and Bliss: Power of Myth 4

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The First Storytellers: Power of Myth 3]]> 234895 Campbell: " "The ancient myths were designed to harmonize the mind and the body. The mind can ramble off in strange ways and want things that the body does not want. The myths and the rites were means of putting the mind in accord with the body and the way of life accord with the way nature dictates.""
Moyers: " "So these old stories live in us?""
Campbell: " "They do indeed. The stages of human development are the same today as they were in the ancient times. As a child, you are brought up in a world of discipline, of obedience, and you are dependent on others. All this has to be transcended when you come to maturity, so that you can live not in dependency but with self-responsible authority.""]]> 60 Joseph Campbell 0942110951 Alex 2 4.50 The First Storytellers: Power of Myth 3

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Message of the Myth: Power of Myth 2]]> 281192 0 Joseph Campbell 1561760161 Alex 2 4.38 1990

The Message of the Myth: Power of Myth 2

author: Joseph Campbell
name: Alex
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Psychiatric Management and Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Clinician's Guide to Integration and Stepped Care]]> 59061909 193 Edited by Anne K.I. Sonley 1615373411 Alex 4 4.50

Good Psychiatric Management and Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Clinician's Guide to Integration and Stepped Care

author: Edited by Anne K.I. Sonley
name: Alex
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves:
review:
A great resource for understanding the basics of the theory and practice of DBT and GPM. The first several chapters are dry, explaining the process of trying generalist treatments first and then working up to specialist modalities and titrating treatments based on efficacy (the opposite way you’d expect, but it makes sense in the context of BPD treatment as to not positively reinforce TIBs and persist in treatment that is not demonstrating itself to be effective, wasting resources). It was hard to get through those chapters, but those delving into DBT and GPM made it worth it, and the book is short overall. I would recommend this book to all psychiatry residents, psychology and counseling students, etc. who have any interest in BPD.
]]> Welcome to the Monkey House 4985 Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.

Alternative cover edition here ]]> 331 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385333501 Alex 0 to-read 4.14 1968 Welcome to the Monkey House

author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Alex
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Name Is Red 2517 My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.

The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed. The ruling elite therefore mustn’t know the full scope or nature of the project, and panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears. The only clue to the mystery–or crime? –lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex and power.]]> 417 Orhan Pamuk Alex 0 to-read 3.87 1998

author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Alex
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Alex 3 3.70 1954

author: William Golding
name: Alex
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves:
review:
Too many descriptions of cliffs and whatnot, and Golding’s introductory statement explaining that only boys are on the island because only a group of boys can be a microcosm of society is bullshit. But the ending is brilliant, and the central statement about human nature is on point.
]]> Veronika Decides to Die 1431 The Alchemist addresses the fundamental questions asked by millions: What am I doing here today? and Why do I go on living?

Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for: youth and beauty, plenty of attractive boyfriends, a fulfilling job, and a loving family. Yet something is lacking in her life. Inside her is a void so deep that nothing could possibly ever fill it. So, on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up.

Naturally Veronika is stunned when she does wake up at Villete, a local mental hospital, where the staff informs her that she has, in fact, partially succeeded in achieving her goal. While the overdose didn't kill Veronika immediately, the medication has damaged her heart so severely that she has only days to live.

The story follows Veronika through the intense week of self-discovery that ensues. To her surprise, Veronika finds herself drawn to the confinement of Villete and its patients, who, each in his or her individual way, reflect the heart of human experience. In the heightened state of life's final moments, Veronika discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love, and sexual awakening. She finds that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying, and at the eleventh hour emerges more open to life than ever before.

In Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho takes the reader on a distinctly modern quest to find meaning in a culture overshadowed by angst, soulless routine, and pervasive conformity. Based on events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Poignant and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.

]]> 285 Paulo Coelho Alex 0 to-read 3.75 1998 Veronika Decides to Die

author: Paulo Coelho
name: Alex
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity]]> 821914
Is infinity a valid mathematical property or a meaningless abstraction? The nineteenth-century mathematical genius Georg Cantor's answer to this question not only surprised him but also shook the very foundations upon which math had been built. Cantor's counterintuitive discovery of a progression of larger and larger infinities created controversy in his time and may have hastened his mental breakdown, but it also helped lead to the development of set theory, analytic philosophy, and even computer technology.

Smart, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding, Wallace's tour de force brings immediate and high-profile recognition to the bizarre and fascinating world of higher mathematics.]]> 319 David Foster Wallace 0393003388 Alex 0 currently-reading 3.72 2003 Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity

Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity

author: David Foster Wallace
name: Alex
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good]]> 40549668
Drawing on the black feminist tradition, including Audre Lourde’s invitation to use the erotic as power and Toni Cade Bambara’s exhortation that we make the revolution irresistible, the contributors to this volume take up the challenge to rethink the ground rules of activism. Writers including Cara Page of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice, Sonya Renee Taylor, founder of This Body Is Not an Apology, and author Alexis Pauline Gumbs cover a wide array of subjects�� from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—creating new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.

Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!]]> 441 Adrienne Maree Brown 1849353263 Alex 0 to-read 4.24 2019 Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

author: Adrienne Maree Brown
name: Alex
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity]]> 58169 Where do ideas come from?

In Catching the Big Fish, internationally acclaimed filmmaker David Lynch provides a rare window into his methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Lynch describes the experience of "diving within" and "catching" ideas like fish - and then preparing them for television or movie screens, and other mediums in which he works, such as painting, music, and design. Lynch writes for the first time about his more than three-decade commitment to Transcendental Meditation and the difference it has made in his creative process.

In brief chapters, Lynch explains the development of his ideas - where they came from, how he grasps them, and which ones appeal to him the most. He specifically discusses how he puts his thoughts into action and how he engages with others around him. Finally, he considers the self and the surrounding world - and how the process of "diving within" that has so deeply affected his own work can directly benefit others.

Catching the Big Fish comes as a revelation to the legion of fans who have longed to better understand Lynch's personal vision. And it is equally intriguing to those who wonder how they can nurture their own creativity.]]> 181 David Lynch 1585425400 Alex 3 3.78 2006 Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

author: David Lynch
name: Alex
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves:
review:
“I’m not always good with words…but cinema is its own language.�� Lynch is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, but I’m not sure the written word is his forte (and neither is he, evinced by the above quote). The effect is that this book is a lot more frivolous than I expected. To me, Lynch’s most striking contradiction is that he’s kind of an old-fashioned, simple, cheerful guy with something of a direct link to his unconscious mind, which is teeming with monsters and mysteries. It’s basically an extreme form of projection, which leaves the projector free of responsibility for the things he thinks and feels. There’s an incongruence beneath it that makes it feel not entirely true. Lynch addresses the question of how he can be such a pure and carefree person who makes the kind of art that he does by saying there’s a lot of darkness in our world, alleging he isn’t In It and it’s not really coming from him. But later, he expresses that the world is nothing but a projection of the Self. This incongruence has an unsettling effect. Somehow, it works for Lynch’s special brand of surrealist art, but I feel so many of my other favorite artists are great because they are In It and let themselves be In It. I don’t buy that a person needs to be detached from the human experience or wrapped in this Unified Field blanket to make great art. I’m not sure it would be beneficial for most, given that it allegedly has the effect of cleansing a person of the kind of suffering, obsessive mindset and attachment to worldly pleasures that most great art is made of. But once you drink the Kool-Aid and see everyone as nothing but an extension of yourself, you commit the fallacy that what works for you could work for everyone. I’m glad Lynch is exactly the way he is, but I don’t feel this book has a lot of translational potential. I was kind of hoping to be inspired after reading this, but I guess true inspiration can only come from within
]]> Fleishman Is in Trouble 46263479 If you could do it all over again, would you? Should you? One man finds out in this finely observed, compulsively readable, and occasionally raunchy novel of marriage, sex, and dating for readers of Jonathan Franzen, Lauren Groff, and Tom Perrotta.

Recently separated Toby Fleischman is suddenly, somehow--and at age forty-one, short as ever--surrounded by women who want him: women who are self-actualized, women who are smart and interesting, women who don't mind his height, women who are eager to take him for a test drive with just the swipe of an app. Toby doesn't mind being used in this way; it's a welcome change from the thirteen years he spent as a married man, the thirteen years of emotional neglect and contempt he's just endured. Anthropologically speaking, it's like nothing he ever experienced before, particularly back in the 1990s, when he first began dating and became used to swimming in the murky waters of rejection.

But Toby's new life--liver specialist by day, kids every other weekend, rabid somewhat anonymous sex at night--is interrupted when his ex-wife suddenly disappears. Either on a vision quest or a nervous breakdown, Toby doesn't know--she won't answer his texts or calls.

Is Toby's ex just angry, like always? Is she punishing him, yet again, for not being the bread winner she was? As he desperately searches for her while juggling his job and parenting their two unraveling children, Toby is forced to reckon with the real reasons his marriage fell apart, and to ask if the story he has been telling himself all this time is true.]]> Taffy Brodesser-Akner Alex 3
My gripes:

- Immature writing style and humor despite being about middle-aged professionals and parents.

- The depictions of New York high society were fascinating, but the narrator was steeped in it herself so that no critique ran all the way through. It felt very out of touch with the average middle-class and working-class experience to the point of frivolity. It desperately needed a narrator or major character from outside of the charmed life, someone who works two or three jobs and rolls their eyes at the privileged problems given center stage. Honestly just someone, anyone, to acknowledge what a weird fishbowl that is the society depicted here. The weirdness did make it interesting to read, but it would’ve been great if the narrator seemed to be in on the joke.

- Some other aspects felt unrealistic, like how women were just throwing themselves at Toby left and right despite him being a 5��5�� forty-something. And the fact that they were still regularly having sex after separating, and numerous characters had sex just to appease each other despite the lack of any emotional intimacy and so on just felt so much more like an HBO show than real life.

- I think we have seen enough of the “this is the book the writer in the book is writing�� cliché to last a few lifetimes. Third-person objective narration could’ve been equally illuminating and much less annoying.

- It was hard not to take sides. Even worse, I found myself rooting for the people the novel didn’t seem to want me to root for. The way pretty much everyone ignored the children’s well-being and had questionable values other than Toby made him much more sympathetic than the other characters, weakening the “things aren’t what they seem—women have it worse�� argument (and I’m saying this as a feminist and someone who believes women are still at an overall disadvantage today). His flaws were mostly just things that make people human—he hates being judged for superficial flaws but frequently judges others, he would sometimes snap at people and displace his rage onto them when feeling overwhelmed, he’s extremely horny and insecure, etc. In spite of these flaws, he was still a good father and a good doctor with good intentions. He was verbally crueler to Rachel than was excusable, but his anger was understandable re: the lack of intimacy+equality in his relationship, not being accepted+admired by his partner, and her dishonest and flippant behavior. They were both at fault for their poor communication, but the fact that she wasn’t willing to engage meaningfully in couples�� therapy, valued material things and appearances more than just about anything else in life (stemming from a desire to be accepted, but this is still not an admirable trait), wanted him to compromise on his values and capitulate to hers, her ruthlessness in the divorce, and her cruelty to her employees made her a shitty person, not just a flawed one. I won’t spoil the ending, but while Rachel’s behavior is somewhat understandable given her circumstances, it’s not really excusable. Rachel is unlikable for the exact same reasons a man in her position would be unlikable, just with the asterisk that having had the childhood she did and having felt punished by the double-standards placed on women, she is more sympathetic than the hypothetical parallel male whose story is mostly the same. We’re supposed to admire her for being ambitious and successful when we don’t admire any of the other ambitious/successful/greedy/self-centered characters because their values suck, too. And I felt bad for Adam being the passive and stable husband during Libby’s everywoman midlife crisis. He was almost a cardboard cutout of a sympathetic husband, and Libby, while being sympathetic for the reasons all women are sympathetic in a patriarchal world, wasn’t likable because she didn’t have a lot of distinguishing characteristics or one thing she really stood for. She just kind of waffled about in existential crises without really diving deep into them, mostly parroting feminist truths I already agree with.

Things I liked:

- Some of it was truly funny, like waitresses not getting Seth’s jokes and his overall out-of-touchness
- The moments of Franzen-esque realism showing how deeply flawed people can be
- Mostly accurate insights into marriage, divorce, dating, gender relations, parenting, work, greed, and high society]]> 3.50 2019 Fleishman Is in Trouble

author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
name: Alex
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
It was a real page-turner that left me wanting more, but I felt it to be of approximately the same caliber as a well-written fanfic. Admirable for a first novel, but I don’t really understand the widespread praise. Perhaps people saw something in it that I failed to see.

My gripes:

- Immature writing style and humor despite being about middle-aged professionals and parents.

- The depictions of New York high society were fascinating, but the narrator was steeped in it herself so that no critique ran all the way through. It felt very out of touch with the average middle-class and working-class experience to the point of frivolity. It desperately needed a narrator or major character from outside of the charmed life, someone who works two or three jobs and rolls their eyes at the privileged problems given center stage. Honestly just someone, anyone, to acknowledge what a weird fishbowl that is the society depicted here. The weirdness did make it interesting to read, but it would’ve been great if the narrator seemed to be in on the joke.

- Some other aspects felt unrealistic, like how women were just throwing themselves at Toby left and right despite him being a 5��5�� forty-something. And the fact that they were still regularly having sex after separating, and numerous characters had sex just to appease each other despite the lack of any emotional intimacy and so on just felt so much more like an HBO show than real life.

- I think we have seen enough of the “this is the book the writer in the book is writing�� cliché to last a few lifetimes. Third-person objective narration could’ve been equally illuminating and much less annoying.

- It was hard not to take sides. Even worse, I found myself rooting for the people the novel didn’t seem to want me to root for. The way pretty much everyone ignored the children’s well-being and had questionable values other than Toby made him much more sympathetic than the other characters, weakening the “things aren’t what they seem—women have it worse�� argument (and I’m saying this as a feminist and someone who believes women are still at an overall disadvantage today). His flaws were mostly just things that make people human—he hates being judged for superficial flaws but frequently judges others, he would sometimes snap at people and displace his rage onto them when feeling overwhelmed, he’s extremely horny and insecure, etc. In spite of these flaws, he was still a good father and a good doctor with good intentions. He was verbally crueler to Rachel than was excusable, but his anger was understandable re: the lack of intimacy+equality in his relationship, not being accepted+admired by his partner, and her dishonest and flippant behavior. They were both at fault for their poor communication, but the fact that she wasn’t willing to engage meaningfully in couples�� therapy, valued material things and appearances more than just about anything else in life (stemming from a desire to be accepted, but this is still not an admirable trait), wanted him to compromise on his values and capitulate to hers, her ruthlessness in the divorce, and her cruelty to her employees made her a shitty person, not just a flawed one. I won’t spoil the ending, but while Rachel’s behavior is somewhat understandable given her circumstances, it’s not really excusable. Rachel is unlikable for the exact same reasons a man in her position would be unlikable, just with the asterisk that having had the childhood she did and having felt punished by the double-standards placed on women, she is more sympathetic than the hypothetical parallel male whose story is mostly the same. We’re supposed to admire her for being ambitious and successful when we don’t admire any of the other ambitious/successful/greedy/self-centered characters because their values suck, too. And I felt bad for Adam being the passive and stable husband during Libby’s everywoman midlife crisis. He was almost a cardboard cutout of a sympathetic husband, and Libby, while being sympathetic for the reasons all women are sympathetic in a patriarchal world, wasn’t likable because she didn’t have a lot of distinguishing characteristics or one thing she really stood for. She just kind of waffled about in existential crises without really diving deep into them, mostly parroting feminist truths I already agree with.

Things I liked:

- Some of it was truly funny, like waitresses not getting Seth’s jokes and his overall out-of-touchness
- The moments of Franzen-esque realism showing how deeply flawed people can be
- Mostly accurate insights into marriage, divorce, dating, gender relations, parenting, work, greed, and high society
]]> Portnoy's Complaint 18303411 Portnoy’s Complaint was an immediate bestseller upon its publication in 1969, and is perhaps Roth’s best-known book.

Portnoy's Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933-)] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. 'The Puzzled Penis', Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) it is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.]]> 309 Philip Roth Alex 0 to-read 3.76 1969 Portnoy's Complaint

author: Philip Roth
name: Alex
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Corrections 21098754 After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, "The Corrections" brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and globalised greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.]]> 653 Jonathan Franzen 0007413017 Alex 0 to-read 3.75 2001 The Corrections

author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Alex
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crossroads (A Key to All Mythologies)]]> 55918462
Universally recognized as the leading novelist of his generation, Jonathan Franzen is often described as a teller of family stories. Only now, though, in Crossroads, has he given us a novel in which a family, in all the intricacy of its workings, is truly at the center.

By turns comic and harrowing, a tour-de-force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, Crossroads is the first volume of a trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, that will span three generations and trace the inner life of our culture through the present day. Complete in itself, set in a historical moment of moral crisis, and reaching back to the early twentieth century, Crossroads serves as a foundation for a sweeping investigation of human mythologies, as the Hildebrandt family navigates the political, intellectual, and social crosscurrents of the past fifty years.

Jonathan Franzen's gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads.]]> 592 Jonathan Franzen 0385693745 Alex 4 4.05 2021 Crossroads (A Key to All Mythologies)

author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Alex
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars. The psychological realism was incredible, the characters and their relationships were beautifully intricate, and I couldn’t put the book down during Russ�� and Marion’s chapters. Perry’s were somewhat interesting as he grappled with what it means to try to be a good person even when you are Machiavellian by nature and also believe you are bad deep down (true of so many people in general but especially those with powerful religious guilt complexes, whether the positive aspects of religion are internalized or not). As someone who works in mental health, I can say Perry’s descent triggered by the knowledge his mother shared with him felt quite accurate. The psychoactive substance segments were more realistic than any I’ve read elsewhere, showing the impacts of drugs on thought processes. Otherwise, I didn’t always enjoy how the third-person took on first-person characteristics when switching perspectives (e.g., Perry’s was rife with obnoxious SAT vocab collages reflecting his intellectual superiority to most his age but also betraying his emotional immaturity). I also didn’t really care about Becky (wasn’t that deep of a mind to spend time in) or Clem (I found him annoyingly self-righteous and dramatic, and his relationship to his sister was really creepy). I’m not someone who requires characters to be likable (Russ and Marion certainly aren’t much of the time), but I do require them to be interesting. That said, I thought the book was a beautiful exploration of the moral wrestling people do inside and how delusions, religion, avoidance and escapism help shield them from the pain of their many failures and contradictions. The ending felt like an arbitrary pause, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]> 422 Margaret Atwood Alex 0 to-read 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)

The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)

author: Margaret Atwood
name: Alex
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know]]> 49380940 The highly anticipated new book from Malcolm Gladwell, No.1 international bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and David and Goliath

In July 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in rural Texas. Minutes later she was arrested and jailed. Three days later, she committed suicide in her cell. What went wrong? Talking to Strangers is all about what happens when we encounter people we don't know, why it often goes awry, and what it says about us.

How do we make sense of the unfamiliar? Why are we so bad at judging someone, reading a face, or detecting a lie? Why do we so often fail to 'get' other people?

Through a series of puzzles, encounters and misunderstandings, from little-known stories to infamous legal cases, Gladwell takes us on a journey through the unexpected. You will read about the spy who spent years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the man who saw through the fraudster Bernie Madoff, the suicide of the poet Sylvia Plath and the false conviction of Amanda Knox. You will discover that strangers are never simple.

No one shows us who we are like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he sets out to understand why we act the way we do, and how we all might know a little more about those we don't.]]> 9 Malcolm Gladwell 1549100033 Alex 0 to-read 3.84 2019 Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Alex
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It]]> 123857637 A former FBI hostage negotiator offers a new, field-tested approach to negotiating �� effective in any situation.

After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a kidnapping negotiator brought him face-to-face with bank robbers, gang leaders, and terrorists. Never Split the Difference takes you inside his world of high-stakes negotiations, revealing the nine key principles that helped Voss and his colleagues succeed when it mattered the most �� when people’s lives were at stake.

Rooted in the real-life experiences of an intelligence professional at the top of his game, Never Split the Difference will give you the competitive edge in any discussion.]]> 288 Chris Voss 1847941494 Alex 0 to-read 4.33 2016 Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

author: Chris Voss
name: Alex
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tipping the Velvet 25104465 472 Sarah Waters Alex 4 4.12 1998

author: Sarah Waters
name: Alex
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2010/12/03
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Vanishing Half 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Alex 3 4.11 2020 The Vanishing Half

author: Brit Bennett
name: Alex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/23
date added: 2023/05/23
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. A breeze to read but smart and complicated. No easy answers here. Refreshingly realistic in some ways; characters make tough choices in an unjust world, and nothing is resolved so much as it becomes another determinant in the chain of history. A little predictable in terms of having no major plot twists but tidily schemed, difficult for books with the third-person changing protagonist format to accomplish, making it a successful exercise in empathy (imo, The Point of any good book—what imbues reading with pleasure and the ability to change lives). Equal parts thinkpiece and mothers�� book club melodrama with some heartening funny moments. This author definitely understands People. The melodramatic aspect (in execution—the narrative is that of a bona fide tragedy), sometimes one-dimensional characterizations and farfetched plot points made it feel like a very casual read and not necessarily classic literature, but still important. Would make for a good high school reading assignment to encourage curiosity and discussion about race, class, family, and identity.
]]> Escape from Freedom 25491 Escape from Freedom, a landmark work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time, and a book that is as timely now as when first published in 1941. Few books have thrown such light upon the forces that shape modern society or penetrated so deeply into the causes of authoritarian systems. If the rise of democracy set some people free, at the same time it gave birth to a society in which the individual feels alienated and dehumanized. Using the insights of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Fromm's work analyzes the illness of contemporary civilization as witnessed by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule.]]> 301 Erich Fromm 0805031499 Alex 5 ]]> 4.29 1941 Escape from Freedom

author: Erich Fromm
name: Alex
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1941
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/22
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
Probably the most life-changing book I have read in a while and a solid framework for understanding many of the unfortunate movements of our day despite being written several decades ago. My takeaways: the freedom afforded by modern socioeconomic structures and technology (usually negative freedom—freedom *from* rather than freedom *to*) leads to widespread isolation and alienation, particularly for those lacking economic opportunity and affiliation with institutions that once provided people with meaning and purpose. Those institutions were not without fault as the price of security was absolute self-effacement and conformity, but the [post-post]modern individual in the absence of these connections is primarily motivated by a desire to return to a community that consumes their individual identity, to conform and to find outwardly visible success (outcome-oriented in a very culturally determined way—not all people throughout history and geography have valued self-sacrifice for work as we do in the Western tradition), in the process sacrificing much of their individuality and losing out on the opportunity to truly know and express their self, which renders people unaware of who they truly are and unable to achieve their innate potential, leaving them feeling frustrated and alone for reasons they don’t quite understand. They engage in conspicuous consumption to fill the inner void and continue to chase the moving goalposts of success and happiness. The fear and sense of meaningless they carry with them attracts them to movements which promise them a sense of belonging and purpose, returning to the pre-individual state of infancy when they were not tasked to grapple with problems of identity and meaning on their own. To escape this cycle of freedom leading to isolation leading to submission (to hateful ideology and so on) then eventually resentment and rebellion, we must encourage self-awareness, re-engage with the world and find purpose in spontaneous activity, which both forms and affirms the individual, who otherwise lacking opportunity for self-discovery and expression is drawn to destructive impulses and to submit to dangerous causes.

]]> <![CDATA[Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake]]> 138269
Known by the police of 26 foreign countries and all 50 US states as 'The Skywayman', Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the run - until the law finally caught up with him. Now recognized as America's leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapes, including one from an aeroplane, make 'Catch Me if You Can' an irresistible tale of deceit.]]> 224 Frank W. Abagnale 1840187166 Alex 3
Despite my interest as a student of behavioral health, I hesitate to give the book a higher rating (and I borrowed the book from a friend rather than buying it) because I am not in favor of Hollywood’s glorification of figures who complete extraordinary tasks with little-to-no regard for other humans�� feelings. I believe these people need treatment above all else—least of all praise for their capitalistic ingenuity—yet I also believe there is a productive place in society for most people and am glad Frank ended up using his powers for the common good, even if it’s just because that was the only way he could sustainably achieve the great fame, wealth, and praise he always sought.

Moving away from the narrator, the plot is objectively interesting and serves as a chilling reminder that contemporary society is infinitely less trusting of (yet not necessarily better-prepared for) white-collar criminals. The book also raises intriguing questions about culpability. Within the age range when a young man’s neural centers of ethics, empathy, and sound decision-making aren’t fully developed, how many ordinary men wouldn’t do what Frank did if they could get away with it? And if sociopaths and psychopaths are respectively made and born that way (though it’s more than likely something in between), should they even be blamed for their actions?

One thing I can certainly say about this book is that I haven’t been able to get it off my mind since I began reading it. I hate to contribute to the ever-growing pit of Abagnale fandom but all in all can’t deny the appeal of a truly unusual and thought-provoking story—especially one that is primarily true.]]> 4.03 1980 Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

author: Frank W. Abagnale
name: Alex
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
When considered as a first-person study of a veritable sociopath, it is an entertaining read. The subject is seemingly unaware of the impacts of his actions on others and is easily comforted by his one identifiable ethic of not specifically scamming individuals. Indeed, much of the book focuses on painting Frank’s remorseless actions in a glamorously scandalous light rather than examining the man himself, whose smug tales of scams, parties and womanizing read like an exaggerated, self-aggrandizing speech, which, if delivered in person, would challenge even the best of bluffers not to raise a brow.

Despite my interest as a student of behavioral health, I hesitate to give the book a higher rating (and I borrowed the book from a friend rather than buying it) because I am not in favor of Hollywood’s glorification of figures who complete extraordinary tasks with little-to-no regard for other humans�� feelings. I believe these people need treatment above all else—least of all praise for their capitalistic ingenuity—yet I also believe there is a productive place in society for most people and am glad Frank ended up using his powers for the common good, even if it’s just because that was the only way he could sustainably achieve the great fame, wealth, and praise he always sought.

Moving away from the narrator, the plot is objectively interesting and serves as a chilling reminder that contemporary society is infinitely less trusting of (yet not necessarily better-prepared for) white-collar criminals. The book also raises intriguing questions about culpability. Within the age range when a young man’s neural centers of ethics, empathy, and sound decision-making aren’t fully developed, how many ordinary men wouldn’t do what Frank did if they could get away with it? And if sociopaths and psychopaths are respectively made and born that way (though it’s more than likely something in between), should they even be blamed for their actions?

One thing I can certainly say about this book is that I haven’t been able to get it off my mind since I began reading it. I hate to contribute to the ever-growing pit of Abagnale fandom but all in all can’t deny the appeal of a truly unusual and thought-provoking story—especially one that is primarily true.
]]> The Art of War Sun Tsu 992337 128 Alfredo Tucci 8485269888 Alex 3 4.01 2001

author: Alfredo Tucci
name: Alex
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/20
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
With this being a classic, I expected timeless wisdom in its pages. If I were a military general, I am sure that would be my opinion—there is a lot of practical knowledge here. But the more generally applicable wisdom equates to familiar ideas like (paraphrased) “be prepared,�� “surprise your enemy,�� “only fight battles you are guaranteed to win,�� etc. Overall, an hour well spent, but not a particularly life-changing read.
]]> <![CDATA[Civilization and Its Discontents]]> 357636 127 Sigmund Freud 0393301583 Alex 5 to-read 3.79 1930

author: Sigmund Freud
name: Alex
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1930
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/20
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Long Day’s Journey into Night 12083
The play is autobiographical, and O'Neill draws his drug-addicted mother, his close-fisted father, his drunken and degenerate elder brother, and his tormented self, with terrifying veracity.]]> 179 Eugene O'Neill 0300093055 Alex 4 4.05 1956 Long Day’s Journey into Night

author: Eugene O'Neill
name: Alex
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/30
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]> All About Love: New Visions 17607 All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.

Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

For readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another.]]> 240 bell hooks 0688168442 Alex 2
Generally, I found it to be vague, sanctimonious, and spiritually focused to an extent that surprised me given hooks�� influence in feminist thought (though essentially of a more second-wave character than I think most members of my generation can get behind). And there were a LOT of quotes, too many of which that did not necessarily result from or meaningfully build on the preceding idea. This might just be a stylistic preference, but it was irritating. An English teacher once told me that employing quotations suggests that the author has nothing better to say, and I have had trouble shaking this.

Despite its relatively short length, I found it extremely difficult to complete this book. There just wasn’t much to tempt me in it, and I have been obsessed with Tolstoy recently, so it has nothing to do with seeking cheap thrills, concision, or the like, but originality and clarity and completeness of thought. Also, Tolstoy was very Christian, but his work still manages to hold my attention because, at its heart, it depicts humanity in a truthful light. This book paints a one-sided view of human nature that I find a little too convenient and ultimately dishonest. hooks very infrequently questioned the validity of her own assumptions or considered alternate views, and I always find that suspect.

We should be able to acknowledge the darkness in human nature, look it in the eye and accept it while choosing goodness in the end. To simply criticize it and try to distance oneself from it in the tradition of religion engenders shame and is unhelpful in the process of getting to know oneself and humankind. To discourage violence in the media, video games, art, and so on would deprive us of healthy outlets for human aggression and pain, and to suggest that the emphasis on safety in our culture only results from a delusional mistrust of others and is in no way rational based on the material conditions of our world is itself a delusion. We should normalize loving relationships and generosity of course and structure society around compassion, but it is as if hooks�� wishes to whitewash the human drives toward aggression and self-preservation by totally reprogramming society—to eliminate the death instinct, so to speak.

I do not think willing it away would eliminate it, and I’m not even sure that would be a good thing. We have seen what repression does to the human soul and how it eats away at the self and community despite it being done in the interest of maintaining superficial harmony. We all have the capacity to love and hate and both at the same time. We can be honest about that while striving to be more loving, more generous and more forgiving, without needing to be born again or become completely different people—something more likely to be an act of self-deception than a real transformation. The idea that love doesn’t coexist with fear just isn’t true—to be courageous is to acknowledge fear and live with it in the pursuit of goodness and love. Just telling people to look within and learn how to love properly and peacefully doesn’t really accomplish much, especially when tied to the promise of salvation in religion, which does not so much provide real answers to human problems but instill the individual with a sense of security in spite of not having the answers. There is value in that, but it is not an answer in itself.

The foundational idea that love should be reconceptualized as a verb (as opposed to a noun) and should guide the structure of our relationships to others and of society originated from Erich Fromm’s Art of Loving, and I would recommend sticking to the original sources, reading that and anything by Rilke over this book.]]> 4.06 1999 All About Love: New Visions

author: bell hooks
name: Alex
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2023/01/22
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
I have a lot of respect for bell hooks but found this book to be surprisingly empty—rife with platitudes and bold assumptions and a lot of “inspirational�� talk that fell flat. Some ideas I could completely get behind, like the value of structuring society around a love ethic, how capitalism and patriarchy operate in opposition to this, and how many people wounded in childhood recreate dysfunctional relationships because they find comfort in familiarity. But these gems were scattered throughout the book rather than revealing themselves in a logical or well-organized fashion.

Generally, I found it to be vague, sanctimonious, and spiritually focused to an extent that surprised me given hooks�� influence in feminist thought (though essentially of a more second-wave character than I think most members of my generation can get behind). And there were a LOT of quotes, too many of which that did not necessarily result from or meaningfully build on the preceding idea. This might just be a stylistic preference, but it was irritating. An English teacher once told me that employing quotations suggests that the author has nothing better to say, and I have had trouble shaking this.

Despite its relatively short length, I found it extremely difficult to complete this book. There just wasn’t much to tempt me in it, and I have been obsessed with Tolstoy recently, so it has nothing to do with seeking cheap thrills, concision, or the like, but originality and clarity and completeness of thought. Also, Tolstoy was very Christian, but his work still manages to hold my attention because, at its heart, it depicts humanity in a truthful light. This book paints a one-sided view of human nature that I find a little too convenient and ultimately dishonest. hooks very infrequently questioned the validity of her own assumptions or considered alternate views, and I always find that suspect.

We should be able to acknowledge the darkness in human nature, look it in the eye and accept it while choosing goodness in the end. To simply criticize it and try to distance oneself from it in the tradition of religion engenders shame and is unhelpful in the process of getting to know oneself and humankind. To discourage violence in the media, video games, art, and so on would deprive us of healthy outlets for human aggression and pain, and to suggest that the emphasis on safety in our culture only results from a delusional mistrust of others and is in no way rational based on the material conditions of our world is itself a delusion. We should normalize loving relationships and generosity of course and structure society around compassion, but it is as if hooks�� wishes to whitewash the human drives toward aggression and self-preservation by totally reprogramming society—to eliminate the death instinct, so to speak.

I do not think willing it away would eliminate it, and I’m not even sure that would be a good thing. We have seen what repression does to the human soul and how it eats away at the self and community despite it being done in the interest of maintaining superficial harmony. We all have the capacity to love and hate and both at the same time. We can be honest about that while striving to be more loving, more generous and more forgiving, without needing to be born again or become completely different people—something more likely to be an act of self-deception than a real transformation. The idea that love doesn’t coexist with fear just isn’t true—to be courageous is to acknowledge fear and live with it in the pursuit of goodness and love. Just telling people to look within and learn how to love properly and peacefully doesn’t really accomplish much, especially when tied to the promise of salvation in religion, which does not so much provide real answers to human problems but instill the individual with a sense of security in spite of not having the answers. There is value in that, but it is not an answer in itself.

The foundational idea that love should be reconceptualized as a verb (as opposed to a noun) and should guide the structure of our relationships to others and of society originated from Erich Fromm’s Art of Loving, and I would recommend sticking to the original sources, reading that and anything by Rilke over this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Love Is a Story: A New Theory of Relationships]]> 110612 What draws us so strongly to some people and repels us from others? What makes some relationships work so smoothly and others burst into flames? Sternberg gives us new answers to these questions by showing that the kind of relationship we create depends on the kind of love stories we carry inside us. Drawing on extensive research and fascinating examples of real couples, Sternberg identifies 26 types of love story--including the fantasy story, the business story, the collector story, the horror story, and many others--each with its distinctive advantages and pitfalls, and many of which are clashingly incompatible. These are the largely unconscious preconceptions that guide our romantic choices, and it is only by becoming aware of the kind of story we have about love that we gain the freedom to create more fulfilling and lasting relationships. As long as we remain oblivious to the role our stories play, we are likely to repeat the same mistakes again and again. But the enlivening
good news this book brings us is that though our stories drive us, we can revise them and learn to choose partners whose stories are more compatible with our own.
Quizzes in each chapter help you to see which stories you identify with most strongly and which apply to your partner. Are you a traveler, a gardener, a teacher, or something else entirely? Love is a Story shows you how to find out.]]> 256 Robert J. Sternberg 0195131029 Alex 5
Wake me when there's a better explanation--I'll wait. For now, I'm going with Love Is a Story.]]> 3.76 1998 Love Is a Story: A New Theory of Relationships

Love Is a Story: A New Theory of Relationships

author: Robert J. Sternberg
name: Alex
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/25
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
I have never encountered a more realistic, insightful explanation of how and why people choose the partners they do and why the specific flavors of relationship issues vary so much between couples. I would love to see more externally-funded psychological research on the validity of the stories, but they ring intuitively true to a degree that is unusual for academic theories. It isn't as black and white as the Triangular Theory, and I can understand why Sternberg felt the latter to be an insufficient framework.

Wake me when there's a better explanation--I'll wait. For now, I'm going with Love Is a Story.
]]> Meditations 30659 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.]]> 254 Marcus Aurelius 0140449337 Alex 3
It was hard to see the real man behind the ideals. The expression “heavy is the head that wears the crown�� came to mind. Psychologically, it read as a ginormous superego masking an ashamed id. I’m less interested in how someone might live their life if they have resolved the deep and dark things (and the idea that those things are ever fully resolved is a bit naive) than I am in how someone goes about grappling with them and then coming to some sort of measured conclusion. As it is, much of it reads as the identification of undesirable things (like anger) and desirable things (like…not being angry, or not acting angry). There’s a lot missing in between. Sort of like if a weight loss book said “eat less, move more, work out every day�� without addressing challenges or psychological factors. What if we want things that are bad for us? Is it helpful to tell ourselves not to want them? For me, the answer is no, especially when the inevitability of death and smallness of our being would more logically lend itself to hedonism. As a mentor in the field of mental health once told me, “‘Should�� is one of the most damaging words in the English language.�� Let us rather reckon with what IS, try to understand it, accept it, and set some realistic goals if we want to lead better lives.

With that said, just because I’m more interested in what he didn’t say than what he did say, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to completely disregard the value of his approach. The man appealed to our intuitive senses of what is good for us, and I appreciate the stoic perspective for the way it frees us from the obligation to participate blindly in the capitalist rat race and prioritization of pleasure and minimization of pain above all other things. There is certainly wisdom in trying not to be a slave to your desires and questioning the validity of those desires in the first place, and self-discipline does make for a better and easier life for most of us. Someone who internalizes Marcus�� maxims without suffering from a reflexive shame may well benefit from them. More power to those people—there are plenty of ways to be happy, and I don’t at all fault those who have found the blueprint to their own contentment in this book.

*this is not a criticism of Marcus but just goes to show that we are all fallible creatures, and oftentimes those of us who are the most dogmatic about how our lives should be led are the least acquainted with our true selves and desires, or otherwise the most ashamed]]> 4.29 180 Meditations

author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Alex
average rating: 4.29
book published: 180
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/09
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
As another reviewer astutely said, “Stoicism is a kind of play acting.�� It is a way of asserting a false superiority over the things that make us human due to a deep discomfort about addressing them outright. This book, the diaries of a man desperately trying to convince himself* of its content, came off as aspirational more than realistic, and the thing about aspirations is they are comforting to people who want something to look up to, but conversely they bring a lot of shame to those same people who cannot measure up (and honestly, who, including Marcus, could measure up to the stringent standards of moral rightness and asceticism he established here?)

It was hard to see the real man behind the ideals. The expression “heavy is the head that wears the crown�� came to mind. Psychologically, it read as a ginormous superego masking an ashamed id. I’m less interested in how someone might live their life if they have resolved the deep and dark things (and the idea that those things are ever fully resolved is a bit naive) than I am in how someone goes about grappling with them and then coming to some sort of measured conclusion. As it is, much of it reads as the identification of undesirable things (like anger) and desirable things (like…not being angry, or not acting angry). There’s a lot missing in between. Sort of like if a weight loss book said “eat less, move more, work out every day�� without addressing challenges or psychological factors. What if we want things that are bad for us? Is it helpful to tell ourselves not to want them? For me, the answer is no, especially when the inevitability of death and smallness of our being would more logically lend itself to hedonism. As a mentor in the field of mental health once told me, “‘Should�� is one of the most damaging words in the English language.�� Let us rather reckon with what IS, try to understand it, accept it, and set some realistic goals if we want to lead better lives.

With that said, just because I’m more interested in what he didn’t say than what he did say, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to completely disregard the value of his approach. The man appealed to our intuitive senses of what is good for us, and I appreciate the stoic perspective for the way it frees us from the obligation to participate blindly in the capitalist rat race and prioritization of pleasure and minimization of pain above all other things. There is certainly wisdom in trying not to be a slave to your desires and questioning the validity of those desires in the first place, and self-discipline does make for a better and easier life for most of us. Someone who internalizes Marcus�� maxims without suffering from a reflexive shame may well benefit from them. More power to those people—there are plenty of ways to be happy, and I don’t at all fault those who have found the blueprint to their own contentment in this book.

*this is not a criticism of Marcus but just goes to show that we are all fallible creatures, and oftentimes those of us who are the most dogmatic about how our lives should be led are the least acquainted with our true selves and desires, or otherwise the most ashamed
]]> <![CDATA[The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy]]> 21029

Hailed by Jerome Frank as "the best book that exists on the subject," Irvin D. Yalom's The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy has been the standard text in the field for decades.

In this completely revised and updated fifth edition, Dr. Yalom and his collaborator Dr. Molyn Leszcz expand the book to include the most recent developments in the field, drawing on nearly a decade of new research as well as their broad clinical wisdom and expertise.
New topics include: online therapy, specialized groups, ethnocultural diversity, trauma and managed care.

At once scholarly and lively, this is the most up-to-date, incisive, and comprehensive text available on group psychotherapy.]]> 688 Irvin D. Yalom 0465092845 Alex 5 4.19 1967 The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

author: Irvin D. Yalom
name: Alex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/01
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Secret Life of Bees 37435 The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.]]> 302 Sue Monk Kidd 0142001740 Alex 4 4.10 2001 The Secret Life of Bees

author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Alex
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/12
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. A sweet and simple book about coping with loss, letting love in and loving others despite the world’s ugliness. The prose was lovely and lean, the pacing was good, and there was some legitimate wisdom scattered about. It’s actually really solid writing, obviously by a talented author and went through appropriate rounds of editing before publishing. Being written from the perspective of a 14-year-old might excuse it from engaging with the central topics with much depth. Unfortunately the magical negro trope is present in August, who does not seem to have any identifiable flaws. The other black characters do have identifiable strengths and weaknesses, so perhaps this reflects the way the narrator sees August as a savior of sorts. But it’s important to recognize all the same. I also found the bee facts at the beginning of each chapter to be a bit hokey, and, interestingly, I felt the story would have been the same even if the extended metaphor were something completely unrelated to bees, suggesting it was a bit of a gimmick. And I found the way one character’s death was handled to be insensitive, as it was treated as basically just a catalyst for the growth of other characters, and it was described as maybe just being this person’s “time.�� I guess mental health treatment wasn’t a thing back then…But overall the [audio]book was a nice companion to my road trip along the southeast.
]]> White 41429819 272 Bret Easton Ellis Alex 3 3.44 2019 White

author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Alex
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/13
date added: 2023/05/13
shelves:
review:
I have complicated feelings about this book. On the one hand, Ellis�� analyses of media and culture prior to the age of Trump are sharp, witty, and at the best of times complex with flavors only he can offer. My “American Gigolo��-watching experience was very much enriched by his reflections, for one. Aside from that, there is a lot of shallow commentary that is sometimes entertaining but sometimes so far up the writer’s ass as to be indiscernible in its entertainment value to anyone but him. There is a lot of Boomerific tone-deaf ranting, probably a reflection of the fact that when an iconoclastic punk becomes a card-carrying member of the privileged class, he still knows nothing but how to rebel, and he comes to feel offended that rebellion-qua-rebellion isn’t cool or cute anymore, so he doubles down on the strategy and turns on the side he feels turned on him. It’s a regressive strategy that shows his age and his unwillingness to adapt to the changing values of his audience (his prerogative, sure, but not an effective PR move and usually not particularly insightful given that his rebellion has taken the shape of canned conservative media talking points that mask their own contradictions and hypocrisies with, ironically, a completely unearned victim narrative that doesn’t care about the truth). But Ellis�� argument that political correctness represents the corporatization of human thought is compelling. I do fear the loss of authenticity entailed therein and the walls we have built around ourselves. I think the “cult of likability�� as he describes it is ultimately a harmful cultural paradigm, although it probably accounts for the improved comfort of the oppressed at the expense of the discomfort of bigots, which I can get behind. Then again, when people feel they cannot express their horrid opinions, it only further emboldens them, partially explaining the rise of Trump as the de facto champion of people who felt left out of the new “woke�� world. But more than that, justifiably, I fear the loss of our rights to those same corporations and worse vocal minorities who aren’t just annoying but truly dangerous. Ellis�� greatest fault is that he cares exclusively about optics. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that the leftists and liberals are right, regardless of how annoying and hypocritical they can be in advocating for what really is the best way out of this mess we’re in.
]]> Bright Lights, Big City 86147 Bright Lights, Big City in 1984, Jay McInerney became a literary sensation, heralded as the voice of a generation. The novel follows a young man, living in Manhattan as if he owned it, through nightclubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, and loft parties as he attempts to outstrip mortality and the recurring approach of dawn. With nothing but goodwill, controlled substances, and wit to sustain him in this anti-quest, he runs until he reaches his reckoning point, where he is forced to acknowledge loss and, possibly, to rediscover his better instincts. This remarkable novel of youth and New York remains one of the most beloved, imitated, and iconic novels in America.]]> 208 Jay McInerney Alex 0 to-read 3.80 1984 Bright Lights, Big City

author: Jay McInerney
name: Alex
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Handmaid's Tale 45864574
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.
--hmhbooks.com]]> 311 Margaret Atwood Alex 3
Usually books contain more details, lore and imagery, but the show provides so much more incredible subtext and decoration—Elizabeth Moss is Offred as far as I’m concerned. So I kind of wish I would’ve read the book first. The show was almost too good as to render the book redundant. A really good show or movie illustrates the limitations of the written word (and a really good book does the converse), and that’s pretty much what happened here.]]> 4.11 1985 The Handmaid's Tale

author: Margaret Atwood
name: Alex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/07
date added: 2023/05/08
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. One of few cases I can think of in which the show far surpassed the book. I realize it was revolutionary at its time of publishing, and I think often, uncomfortably, about parallels between today’s creeping authoritarianism and Atwood’s vision of dystopia. But for me, the book was a little too disjointed and freewheeling in style (making the pacing feel off), and the narrator was just an ordinary, flawed person who didn’t really reflect on her flaws much or grow throughout the novel (a smart choice to the effect of It Could Happen To Anyone, and accurate since Gilead is not exactly a place that would be conducive to personal growth…but it wasn’t that interesting to spend time in her head specifically), so I did not voraciously consume this book like I assumed I would. Everything I didn’t like about it, I can think of a reason Atwood might have chosen to do it that way, but it didn’t make me appreciate it more, just recognize Atwood’s talent and leave it at that. For example, the disjointed nature probably mirrored the mouse-in-a-maze powerlessness Offred felt, but it still wasn’t that fun to read. There were YA vibes that made me wonder if maybe I should’ve read it as a teenager, if it would’ve felt Deeper to me then. The social observation was fantastic, though, describing the oppressive customs and all the ways and reasons people eventually bent. It all felt shockingly realistic, the plot points were by no means cliche or predictable even by today’s standards and they drove the point home without coddling the reader, and the world she built was intricate without being described at length (I might’ve actually had trouble visualizing some of it without the show). Overall, after watching the show, the book didn’t feel as well fleshed out, and the ending felt rushed and a little over-dramatic (weird because the scene was, in fact, dramatic in an earned way, but the narrator’s emotional response was kind of infantile…again, probably because of her pressure cooker circumstances, but her way of describing it was a letdown). And the premise of the epilogue was hilariously dark and meta but basically just served as an excuse for exposition from what I can gather.

Usually books contain more details, lore and imagery, but the show provides so much more incredible subtext and decoration—Elizabeth Moss is Offred as far as I’m concerned. So I kind of wish I would’ve read the book first. The show was almost too good as to render the book redundant. A really good show or movie illustrates the limitations of the written word (and a really good book does the converse), and that’s pretty much what happened here.
]]> <![CDATA[Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]> 248 André Aciman 1786495252 Alex 4 4.08 2007 Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)

Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)

author: André Aciman
name: Alex
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/08
date added: 2023/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Girl, Interrupted 68783
Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.]]> 169 Susanna Kaysen 0679746048 Alex 3 3.95 1993

author: Susanna Kaysen
name: Alex
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2007/05/08
date added: 2023/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Rules of Attraction 9912 From the bestselling author of American Psycho comes this satirical black comedy about the death of romance.

Set at an affluent liberal arts college during the height of the Reagan eighties, The Rules of Attraction follows a handful of rowdy, spoiled, sexually promiscuous students with no plans for the future—or even the present. Three of them—Sean, Paul, and Lauren—become involved in a love triangle of sorts within a sequence of drug runs, "Dressed to Get Screwed" parties, and "End of the World" parties.

As Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at the self-consciously bohemian Camden College, treating their sexual posturing and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion, he exposes the moral vacuum at the center of their lives.]]> 283 Bret Easton Ellis 067978148X Alex 0 to-read 3.74 1987 The Rules of Attraction

author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Alex
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> An Abundance of Katherines 49750 Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.]]> 229 John Green 0525476881 Alex 2 3.54 2006 An Abundance of Katherines

author: John Green
name: Alex
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2011/05/05
date added: 2023/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)]]> 375802
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.]]> 324 Orson Scott Card 0812550706 Alex 4 4.31 1985 Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)

author: Orson Scott Card
name: Alex
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2006/05/04
date added: 2023/05/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dilemma of Psychology: A Psychologist Looks at His Troubled Profession]]> 2068931 224 Lawrence LeShan 1581152515 Alex 4 4.00 1990

The Dilemma of Psychology: A Psychologist Looks at His Troubled Profession

author: Lawrence LeShan
name: Alex
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/08
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
Makes a good point about what psychology has lost in trying to approximate the precision of a fundamentally different kind of science like chemistry in the search for greater prestige and acceptance.
]]> War and Peace 656
War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.

As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.

Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this translation, published here in a new single volume edition, which includes an introduction by Henry Gifford, and Tolstoy's important essay `Some Words about War and Peace'.]]> 1392 Leo Tolstoy 0192833987 Alex 4
He really shoved the main point down the readers�� throats, though. I get it, Tolstoy, everything is deterministically linked and not simply the result of the actions of “great men,�� yet your explanation for this is that they are linked by the ultimate Great Man, the Lord��..nevertheless, the shift from the singular hero as a serious subject to phenomenological storytelling placing the perspectives of every citizen on equal ground, even more noble than the lambasted Great Men, was a real triumph.]]> 4.14 1869 War and Peace

author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Alex
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1869
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
I loved occupying the minds of Tolstoy’s wonderfully fleshed out characters and patiently observing their character arcs unfold (moralistic along old-fashioned lines, but enjoyable all the same). The battle scenes were not as engaging and for me made the book much more of a slog fest than Anna Karenina, but probably would be savored by more logistically minded folks.

He really shoved the main point down the readers�� throats, though. I get it, Tolstoy, everything is deterministically linked and not simply the result of the actions of “great men,�� yet your explanation for this is that they are linked by the ultimate Great Man, the Lord��..nevertheless, the shift from the singular hero as a serious subject to phenomenological storytelling placing the perspectives of every citizen on equal ground, even more noble than the lambasted Great Men, was a real triumph.
]]> The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Alex 4 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles

author: Madeline Miller
name: Alex
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
Not as good as Circe, but the ending still ripped my heart out in a good way. It was certainly very imaginative despite not being as lean or well-rounded as her later work.
]]> Crying in H Mart 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band �� and meeting the man who would become her husband �� her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Alex 3
I’m not a foodie at all, so I didn’t get much out of all the Food Is Love content, which was supposed to be central to the story but felt like filler. Although cooking was described as coping—the kitchen a place where cutting and frying and gnashing teeth somehow, ostensibly, served the same purpose that therapy would have done—for me, it all felt a bit beside the point, an avoidance of the real issues rather than a way of dealing with them. I was happy for her connecting with her remaining family through food, happy for her channeling her grief into music (and I like Japanese Breakfast), but again there was so much unsaid, lost in the fog of the unexplored unconscious. And at the end of the day, books and relationships are made of words. The words used here were concise, sometimes pretty, overall evocative and good for a first book, dragging at times and feeling more like a Vanity Fair article written by a scrappy young twentysomething than a novel written by a pro. And they did not convey strong enough self-awareness or depth of analysis to make this a good read for me.]]> 4.25 2021 Crying in H Mart

author: Michelle Zauner
name: Alex
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
There are some genuine tearjerker moments, but overall, it’s a memoir in which there isn’t enough hindsight for 20/20 vision. My main qualm is the blind spot regarding the author’s relationship with her mother. If I had to describe it with a faux Smiths song title, I would call it: “Now I Know When My Mother Was Cruel, That Actually Meant That She Loved Me.�� This could have been an interesting saga, but rather than exploring this problematic dynamic three-dimensionally, we are given a series of memories and a unilateral effort to understand and internalize the mother’s culture through cooking. “Show, don’t tell�� is usually good advice, but in the case of processing familial trauma, I kind of think some in-depth, explicit, verbal analysis is important. Otherwise you risk moving forward in your life—and writing, for that matter—without really knowing what’s happening.

I’m not a foodie at all, so I didn’t get much out of all the Food Is Love content, which was supposed to be central to the story but felt like filler. Although cooking was described as coping—the kitchen a place where cutting and frying and gnashing teeth somehow, ostensibly, served the same purpose that therapy would have done—for me, it all felt a bit beside the point, an avoidance of the real issues rather than a way of dealing with them. I was happy for her connecting with her remaining family through food, happy for her channeling her grief into music (and I like Japanese Breakfast), but again there was so much unsaid, lost in the fog of the unexplored unconscious. And at the end of the day, books and relationships are made of words. The words used here were concise, sometimes pretty, overall evocative and good for a first book, dragging at times and feeling more like a Vanity Fair article written by a scrappy young twentysomething than a novel written by a pro. And they did not convey strong enough self-awareness or depth of analysis to make this a good read for me.
]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales]]> 63697 243 Oliver Sacks Alex 0 to-read 4.08 1985

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

author: Oliver Sacks
name: Alex
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wild Analysis (Modern Classics)]]> 19425040 230 Sigmund Freud 0141937548 Alex 0 to-read 0.0 1910

author: Sigmund Freud
name: Alex
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1910
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wonder of Being Human: Our Brain and Our Mind]]> 2560027 192 John C. Eccles 0029088607 Alex 0 to-read 3.92 1984

The Wonder of Being Human: Our Brain and Our Mind

author: John C. Eccles
name: Alex
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics]]> 168484 123 bell hooks 0896086283 Alex 0 to-read 4.16 2000

Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

author: bell hooks
name: Alex
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Awakenings / A Leg to Stand On / The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat / Seeing Voices]]> 2637129 Awakenings
A Leg to Stand On
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Seeing Voices

From the back cover:
This special Quality Paperback Book Club edition collects four superb books by Oliver Sacks that, as the author says in his preface, "form a sort of series, or evolution." They also form a canon of the most fascinating, enlightening, and inspiring medical writing of our age.]]> 1097 Oliver Sacks Alex 0 to-read 4.32 1990 Awakenings / A Leg to Stand On / The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat / Seeing Voices

Awakenings / A Leg to Stand On / The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat / Seeing Voices

author: Oliver Sacks
name: Alex
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays]]> 11987 212 Albert Camus Alex 0 to-read 4.23 1942

author: Albert Camus
name: Alex
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Poet Lore: A 2nd Century of New Writing]]> 25378381 165 Jody Boltz Alex 0 to-read 2.50 2015

author: Jody Boltz
name: Alex
average rating: 2.50
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Psychiatry in Trouble: Narrative from a Damaged Profession]]> 56475661 430 James C Beck 1949093670 Alex 0 to-read 1.00

Psychiatry in Trouble: Narrative from a Damaged Profession

author: James C Beck
name: Alex
average rating: 1.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ]]> 26329
Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our “two minds”—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.

Drawing on groundbreaking brain and behavioral research, Goleman shows the factors at work when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well. These factors, which include self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy, add up to a different way of being smart—and they aren’t fixed at birth. Although shaped by childhood experiences, emotional intelligence can be nurtured and strengthened throughout our adulthood—with immediate benefits to our health, our relationships, and our work.��
��
The twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Emotional Intelligence could not come at a better time—we spend so much of our time online, more and more jobs are becoming automated and digitized, and our children are picking up new technology faster than we ever imagined. With a new introduction from the author, the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition prepares readers, now more than ever, to reach their fullest potential and stand out from the pack with the help of EI.]]> 352 Daniel Goleman 055380491X Alex 0 to-read 4.07 1995 Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

author: Daniel Goleman
name: Alex
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes]]> 15820014
It does not have to shorten your life span or result in high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, or other life-threatening ailments. In fact, most diabetics can get off medication and become 100 percent healthy in just a few simple steps. In The End of Diabetes, Dr. Joel Fuhrman shows how you can prevent and reverse diabetes and its related symptoms and lose weight in the process.

The End of Diabetes is a radical idea wrapped in a simple plan: Eat Better, End Diabetes. While the established medical protocol aims to control diabetes by limiting your carbohydrate intake, monitoring glucose levels, and prescribing bottomless doses of medicine, Dr. Fuhrman believes this long-standing approach to fighting diabetes is wrong—and possibly fatal.

Designed for anyone ready to enjoy a healthier and longer life, Dr. Fuhrman's plan is based on a single formula: Your Health Future (H) = Nutrients (N) / Calories (C). Foods with a high nutrient density, according to Dr. Fuhrman, turn our bodies into the miraculous, self-healing machines they can be, which results in significant weight loss, improved health, and, ultimately, the end of diabetes and other diseases.

In engaging, direct, and easy-to-follow language, The End of Diabetes supplies the science and clinical evidence to prove that diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure are not inevitable consequences of aging. They are reversible and preventable. This simple and effective plan offers great food, starts working right away, and puts you on a direct path to a longer, better, fuller, disease-free life.]]> 336 Joel Fuhrman 0062219995 Alex 0 to-read 3.99 2012 The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes

The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes

author: Joel Fuhrman
name: Alex
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]]> 6753
Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person', a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World', which reveals a woman's agonised consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men', a dark, hilarious series of portraits of men whose fear of women renders them grotesque. Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many different guises. Thought-provoking and playful, this collection confirms David Foster Wallace as one of the most imaginative young writers around. Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the ironic, the surprising and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will delight his growing number of fans, and provide a perfect introduction for new readers.]]> 273 David Foster Wallace 034911188X Alex 4
��

The great stuff is truly masterful, but it does feel self-consciously fictional and cringey at times, and sometimes cuts too deep for comfort. In this book, DFW offers insights into the more nihilistic, depraved and self-unaware flavors of the male psyche in brainy, clownish parades of deception and rationalization. It’s sort of like skeevy psychological horror for Mensa members, if such a thing could be said to exist. But sometimes the literary tricks are too transparent for their own good, and for me, it was not altogether a very pleasant experience—unfortunately less attributable to the subject matter than its fishy, cold tone, which was effective at building suspense and unease but sometimes beyond the point of entertainment.

Part of the pain of this book comes from being raised as a woman and not often privy to these kinds of locker room discussions, but overhearing enough of them to know how true to [some corners of] life they are in their objectification and denigration of women. Something as simple as a teenage boy enjoying a day at a pool casually referring to a heavy woman as a disgusting whale stung deeply, knowing how common these privately cruel thoughts are, while many men continue to have so much more power than they know (or care) to exercise gently. It was a brilliant piece, nearly perfect, and deserving of great praise in its depiction of the timeless infinity of such a day. But it hurt almost enviously to imagine such an upbringing without judgment, with so much freedom to judge, and think, and do. I know that in some ways, in opposition to the trend of increased awareness and progress, boys have a comparatively raw deal now, with little to no positive representation, no idea of what it means to be a man (not that I know what that means, either) but the pressure to be it, and too often turn to nefarious influences. And they were missing out then, too, on the rich emotional lives that girls were raised to have and participate in. Many of them still suffer for it now, and many don’t even know it—perhaps the saddest thing of all. But on the other side, hearing this, I felt envious. There was and is a pain that goes along with being raised and/or seen as a girl that boys did not understand, and their own pain, buried deep inside, reared its head in other ways. This book served as a jumping-off point for that kind of reflection, but it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed or really learned much from.

Aside from that, the order of the stories feels pretty arbitrary. I do not demand linearity from books, especially collections of essays or short stories. But with it being a work of quasi-realistic fiction, it would have been nice to have felt some kind of natural progression between ideas. I might be able to make an argument for it being sort of a concept album with there being a progression from the dawn of manhood to ignorantly living in it, to criticizing it while falling victim to many of its traps, to struggling with and breaking down about its limitations, to seeing oneself exaggerated in the face of another and only then realizing how absurd and shameful one is. But…it also feels like I’m reading into it there, giving it too much credit. At the time of listening, it seemed to just be a disconnected collection of self-conscious speeches and slices of life. (I do wonder if the unabridged version is more cohesive, but it doesn’t seem to be going for cohesion regardless).

There’s also just something really unpalatable about literary exercises in cruelty (regarding topics like r*pe in particular), even when the author sides with the reader in his assessment of it. I’ve said this in other reviews, but in the 90s there was something attractive about explorations of taboo topics as being exposés into little-known corners of the world and new lenses through which to view our own society. Now we know our world is ugly enough on its own—ugly enough for me to put this book back on the shelf feeling no more enriched by it than by the news. In my heart this book was a two, but because I’ve rated much less masterfully written stuff much better, I feel obliged to give it a four and call it a (kind of uncomfortable) day.]]> 3.88 1999 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

author: David Foster Wallace
name: Alex
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
Note: The following review is meant for the text of the abridged audiobook version. It seems there were many good segments left out of it, which is a shame. I will eventually, maybe, make a point to buy the unabridged book so I can evaluate it in its entirety.

��

The great stuff is truly masterful, but it does feel self-consciously fictional and cringey at times, and sometimes cuts too deep for comfort. In this book, DFW offers insights into the more nihilistic, depraved and self-unaware flavors of the male psyche in brainy, clownish parades of deception and rationalization. It’s sort of like skeevy psychological horror for Mensa members, if such a thing could be said to exist. But sometimes the literary tricks are too transparent for their own good, and for me, it was not altogether a very pleasant experience—unfortunately less attributable to the subject matter than its fishy, cold tone, which was effective at building suspense and unease but sometimes beyond the point of entertainment.

Part of the pain of this book comes from being raised as a woman and not often privy to these kinds of locker room discussions, but overhearing enough of them to know how true to [some corners of] life they are in their objectification and denigration of women. Something as simple as a teenage boy enjoying a day at a pool casually referring to a heavy woman as a disgusting whale stung deeply, knowing how common these privately cruel thoughts are, while many men continue to have so much more power than they know (or care) to exercise gently. It was a brilliant piece, nearly perfect, and deserving of great praise in its depiction of the timeless infinity of such a day. But it hurt almost enviously to imagine such an upbringing without judgment, with so much freedom to judge, and think, and do. I know that in some ways, in opposition to the trend of increased awareness and progress, boys have a comparatively raw deal now, with little to no positive representation, no idea of what it means to be a man (not that I know what that means, either) but the pressure to be it, and too often turn to nefarious influences. And they were missing out then, too, on the rich emotional lives that girls were raised to have and participate in. Many of them still suffer for it now, and many don’t even know it—perhaps the saddest thing of all. But on the other side, hearing this, I felt envious. There was and is a pain that goes along with being raised and/or seen as a girl that boys did not understand, and their own pain, buried deep inside, reared its head in other ways. This book served as a jumping-off point for that kind of reflection, but it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed or really learned much from.

Aside from that, the order of the stories feels pretty arbitrary. I do not demand linearity from books, especially collections of essays or short stories. But with it being a work of quasi-realistic fiction, it would have been nice to have felt some kind of natural progression between ideas. I might be able to make an argument for it being sort of a concept album with there being a progression from the dawn of manhood to ignorantly living in it, to criticizing it while falling victim to many of its traps, to struggling with and breaking down about its limitations, to seeing oneself exaggerated in the face of another and only then realizing how absurd and shameful one is. But…it also feels like I’m reading into it there, giving it too much credit. At the time of listening, it seemed to just be a disconnected collection of self-conscious speeches and slices of life. (I do wonder if the unabridged version is more cohesive, but it doesn’t seem to be going for cohesion regardless).

There’s also just something really unpalatable about literary exercises in cruelty (regarding topics like r*pe in particular), even when the author sides with the reader in his assessment of it. I’ve said this in other reviews, but in the 90s there was something attractive about explorations of taboo topics as being exposés into little-known corners of the world and new lenses through which to view our own society. Now we know our world is ugly enough on its own—ugly enough for me to put this book back on the shelf feeling no more enriched by it than by the news. In my heart this book was a two, but because I’ve rated much less masterfully written stuff much better, I feel obliged to give it a four and call it a (kind of uncomfortable) day.
]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Alex 0 to-read 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)

My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)

author: Elena Ferrante
name: Alex
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)]]> 48727813 Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner
Astounding Award Winner
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Hugo Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
Otherwise Award Finalist

"Magnificent in every way."—Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

"A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…��

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness��

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother's abandoned greatness.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 Shelley Parker-Chan 1250621798 Alex 0 to-read 3.87 2021 She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

author: Shelley Parker-Chan
name: Alex
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim]]> 10176 --davidsedarisbooks.com]]> 257 David Sedaris 0965904830 Alex 5 4.12 2004

author: David Sedaris
name: Alex
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/16
date added: 2023/04/16
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars. Brilliant and hilarious with a big scoop of can’t-look-away cringe (if you’re into that sort of thing). I first read it when I was 15 but decided revisit it over a decade later as my main source of entertainment for when I’m playing repetitive video games or doing chores. I like to keep my mind busy, the wheels in my head turning while my eyes and hands do something else, and this was the perfect book to that end. It’s brought such a spirit of dark whimsy to my ordinary life and made me look at so many things with fresh, twinkling eyes. There are times when it drags and times when you rightfully wonder if he’s gone too far (the early 2000s context is relevant here, but unfortunately, not all of his too-sharp edges have dulled with time). But he’s a master of his NPR-after-dark style of humor—a master of observation, scene-setting, pacing, comedic timing, dialogue, and containing multitudes in precise, snippy prose, even if he sometimes nicks you with it. More than anything, his vulnerability makes it a privilege to spend time in his well-curated, aesthetically pleasing and somehow deeply, painfully, liberatingly honest world.
]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Alex 5 4.22 2018 Circe

author: Madeline Miller
name: Alex
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/04/12
shelves:
review:
It was horribly sad and beautiful and I liked it very much in the way that a person likes fanfiction, sort of gleefully indulgent, and done expertly enough to justify that kind of binge. 4.5/5 stars.
]]> <![CDATA[A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020]]> 57190774 ��
If it’s navel-gazing you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leaping to his death. There’s a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party—lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs.
��
These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was just a harmless laughingstock, at least on French TV. Time marches on, and Sedaris, at his desk or on planes, in hotel dining rooms and odd Japanese inns, records it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background—new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can’t by the end. At its best, A Carnival of Snackery is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin.]]> 576 David Sedaris 0316558796 Alex 4 4.17 2021 A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020

A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020

author: David Sedaris
name: Alex
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/11
date added: 2023/04/11
shelves:
review:
David Sedaris is remarkable in that he continues to be successful at being both liberal and edgy, which at this point in history seems impossible for anyone else. That he often manages to be funny while straddling this steep line and maintains probably one of the most distinctive voices in our culture is a feat unto itself, even if his brand of edgy liberal humor is irreconcilably linked to his status as a privileged, elder, American, gay, white man in a way that reeks of looming irrelevancy and does uncomfortably push our buttons at times. On the contrary, I hope we see *more* edgy liberals willing to state their true beliefs in the future, including those of which they are ashamed, during this time when we threaten to tear ourselves apart because we refuse to accept imperfection or look at what makes us uncomfortable, preferring rightness to authenticity even if it means our own political and creative deaths.
]]>