en-US Fri, 02 May 2025 16:08:12 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9379728278 Fri, 02 May 2025 16:08:12 -0700 /review/show/7537848841 Joe is currently reading Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
]]> ReadStatus9320046961 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:44:20 -0700 /review/show/7496345692 Joe is currently reading Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
]]> Review7469962332 Wed, 16 Apr 2025 19:36:23 -0700 /review/show/7469962332 Joe gave 2 stars to Awakening in Time : The Journey from Codependence to Co-Creation (Paperback) by Jacquelyn Small
There is value to this book, but it's undermined by a tendency to grandiosity and a lack of scrutiny about its sources and information. It also feels significantly outdated.

I actually ended up liking the author, who seems like a very emotionally mature, loving, and intelligent person. I think the book is written well. She is full of valuable insights about human growth and relationships. I like her boundaries and rules for a heart-centered relationship. In some parts, she takes the time to shed light on tricks we play with one another and ourselves that result in toxic relationships and how to move away from them.

I also love the general thrust and premise of the book, which is that overcoming addictive relationships requires more than anything a profound affirmation of one's own value and potential. She says this often gets lost in the over-determined, dehumanizing, deconstructive takes that therapeutic communities often get lost in, and I heartily agree. It's because these takes are so dominant that I've been going back to books from the 90s or earlier for different perspectives.

However, most of the book consists of glib, grandiose promises of the benefits of spiritual exercises, which are not very clearly defined or delineated from one another and seem to exist on an overloaded buffet plate. She carelessly lumps together entire continents of spiritual tradition, mixing them together with quotes from dubious occult sources. She has obsolete faith in the inevitable affirmation of chakras by Western society. This is nothing new; this sort of optimism that the spiritual branding of the 70s and 80s is entirely on track and is just around the corner of reaching a singularity point is definitely of its time. I don't fault her for that directly, but it makes the book harder to accept.

I think my most specific criticism along these lines is how her endless optimism of these practices - her belief in the relative ease in which they work - really does set the stage for spiritual bypassing. And this is a book where spiritual bypassing is mentioned constantly. She seems to understand the concept and be aware of it, but she doesn't recognize it, when she says over and over again how performing various inner work paradigms and spiritual practices tap you into supreme wisdom and make you a superior person. This was how it was the whole time, but I think now even mainstream advocates of inner work and meditation and the like acknowledge that these are serious, disciplined commitments to oneself, that ground you in who you are and last your entire lifetime, not processes you can perform in a weekend workshop that make you a better person. There seems to be some cognitive dissonance there.

I would recommend this book for people (like me) using their baleens to scour the landscape for as much information on relationships and codependence as they can find, but I would advise anyone else not to bother.

For people interested in a relatively holistic, somewhat spiritually inflected book from the same era, I recommend Margaret Paul's "Inner Bonding." It makes similar points but in a much more grounded and directly useful way. ]]> Review7423288771 Mon, 07 Apr 2025 12:26:24 -0700 /review/show/7423288771 Joe gave 4 stars to Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern, #1) by Anne McCaffrey
Damn, this book's great. The world's so imaginative and entertaining to learn about, I'm surprised it's not more mainstream.

I can totally see this book not being for everyone. The rhythm of the story is a little jagged, with smooth action being followed sometimes by confusing and elliptical conversation scenes. The writing is a little overwrought and can be unclear sometimes. And the machismo strays away from being charming (which it mostly is) into being revolting sometimes, mainly in the quite dominating primary romantic relationship.

But life on Pern is definitely interesting. It's one of those worlds full of rhythms and rituals and rules that are delicious to read and discover. And they do keep coming, up to the end of the book.

I love the dragons and their relationship to the riders; somewhere between cat and dog, independent and loyal. Their personalities slip off the page, and the way the bonds are described is actually very moving and kind of intoxicating to consider. If only all our relationships could be that telepathic, that unconditional.

This one feels obligatory for curious fantasy or sci-fi fans, unless they imagine they can't stomach all the ways it's outdated. (Technically, it's sci-fi, but the story is essentially a fantasy story). ]]> ReadStatus9281812064 Mon, 07 Apr 2025 08:59:02 -0700 /review/show/7469962332 Joe is currently reading Awakening in Time : The Journey from Codependence to Co-Creation by Jacquelyn Small
]]> Review7423288771 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 14:35:30 -0700 /review/show/7423288771 Joe gave 4 stars to Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern, #1) by Anne McCaffrey
Damn, this book's great. The world's so imaginative and entertaining to learn about, I'm surprised it's not more mainstream.

I can totally see this book not being for everyone. The rhythm of the story is a little jagged, with smooth action being followed sometimes by confusing and elliptical conversation scenes. The writing is a little overwrought and can be unclear sometimes. And the machismo strays away from being charming (which it mostly is) into being revolting sometimes, mainly in the quite dominating primary romantic relationship.

But life on Pern is definitely interesting. It's one of those worlds full of rhythms and rituals and rules that are delicious to read and discover. And they do keep coming, up to the end of the book.

I love the dragons and their relationship to the riders; somewhere between cat and dog, independent and loyal. Their personalities slip off the page, and the way the bonds are described is actually very moving and kind of intoxicating to consider. If only all our relationships could be that telepathic, that unconditional.

This one feels obligatory for curious fantasy or sci-fi fans, unless they imagine they can't stomach all the ways it's outdated. (Technically, it's sci-fi, but the story is essentially a fantasy story). ]]> Review7372526431 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:16:03 -0700 /review/show/7372526431 Joe gave 3 stars to Binti: The Complete Trilogy (Kindle Edition) by Nnedi Okorafor
The Binti trilogy is impressively imaginative and full of heart, but the execution is uneven.

The first novella is compact, potent, mythical, and inspiring. It's a story about humility, and how your personal and cultural identity can be both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness. Binti survives because of her ability (as a master harmonizer) to both harbor deep respect for her background and community ties and - at the same time - to maintain an open mind that allows her identity to evolve and grow. It's beautiful, and I recommend it to everyone.

But I kinda wish it had ended there. The rest of the installments - the short story and the later novellas - I would rate 2 stars, maybe 3 for "Binti: Home." There are some great moments and fascinating ideas, and I appreciate where the story went, but overall the story loses its momentum and tends to meander. In particular, I found the ending to be a bit too long and diffuse, with even the quality of the prose beginning to show signs of fatigue. (There are some awkward phrases, run-on sentences, and I find Binti's voice as narrator to be inconsistent and underdeveloped.)

Based on this volume, I'd say the author has a unique and impressively vivid imagination but is inconsistent in her narrative structure and prose style. I have a feeling that her editors / readers might have been (understandably) too awed by her vision to question some of her technical decisions. I'd love to read a more aggressively edited version of the same story. ]]> Review7336084626 Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:09:10 -0800 /review/show/7336084626 Joe gave 3 stars to Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men (Paperback) by Leonard Crow Dog
This is a 3-star book about a 5-star human being. Leonard Crow Dog was an important figure in 20th century struggle for indigenous rights. His compassionate heart and profound vision of the past, present and future led him to become a leader for his own tribe, for the Lakota, for all indigenous Americans, and even beyond that. This character, his love for his way of life and determination to protect it, pour out of this book.

There are many interesting stories here about Leonard's ancestors and about the main passion of his life: his people's traditions and rituals. However, it's not totally coherent or enlightening as a book. I mean no offense -it's just what he had available. I don't think he would be offended - he was not deeply connected with the literary realm. I'm glad I read it, and my appreciation comes from the I feel like I was in the presence of someone truly worthy of my respect and time. Like many people I admire, he is as full of his own biases, grudges, and chauvinism as he is of insight and inspiration.

The last portion of the book is about Crow Dog's involvement of the AIM movement of the early and mid-1970s. His story is of course very important in a broader understanding these events. But it's clear that he's recounting them from a perspective of anger and pain, so I don't think it's possible to view it as the full story. It's part of a bigger tapestry. I'm left wanting to learn more. ]]> ReadStatus9142401415 Mon, 03 Mar 2025 13:01:19 -0800 /review/show/7372526431 Joe is currently reading Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
]]> Review7336084626 Mon, 03 Mar 2025 07:03:54 -0800 /review/show/7336084626 Joe gave 3 stars to Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men (Paperback) by Leonard Crow Dog
This is a 3-star book about a 5-star human being. Leonard Crow Dog was an important figure in 20th century struggle for indigenous rights. His compassionate heart and profound vision of the past, present and future led him to become a leader for his own tribe, for the Lakota, for all indigenous Americans, and even beyond that. This character, his love for his way of life and determination to protect it, pour out of this book.

There are many interesting stories here about Leonard's ancestors and about the main passion of his life: his people's traditions and rituals. However, it's not totally coherent or enlightening as a book. I mean no offense -it's just what he had available. I don't think he would be offended - he was not deeply connected with the literary realm. I'm glad I read it, and my appreciation comes from the I feel like I was in the presence of someone truly worthy of my respect and time. Like many people I admire, he is as full of his own biases, grudges, and chauvinism as he is of insight and inspiration.

The last portion of the book is about Crow Dog's involvement of the AIM movement of the early and mid-1970s. His story is of course very important in a broader understanding these events. But it's clear that he's recounting them from a perspective of anger and pain, so I don't think it's possible to view it as the full story. It's part of a bigger tapestry. I'm left wanting to learn more. ]]>