Cloudy

Ugh

Revisado: 10-06-23

I got this because I had read a few Maas books and thoughts man the stories are interesting but the writing is so lousy and elementary. Maybe this author will be better….nope. The erotica is really tacky and the writing is awful. Why do people like this and how can anyone categorize it as fantasy? It’s not erotica either because that’s disgraceful to erotica. It’s just…bad. But apparently people like it. In the age of ghostwritten bestsellers replacing well written indie authors and real talent I’m not that surprised that this drivel would be praised.

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Good for a self help book

Revisado: 09-25-23

I enjoyed this. The narrator also has a fun voice. She sounds like someone with a great sense of humor.
Imo the pros: not your average self-help or pop psych book aka. doesn’t repeat the title 5,000 times and call it a book. Some great insights on getting unstuck and many ideas that are useful and can be applied right away without a therapist. I really liked the first part of the book and the way she uses humor and her own experiences to connect with the reader/listener.
Cons: Way too many lists. I don’t think Frank knows enough about chess to use it as a metaphor like this. And she is way too trigger happy about pharmaceuticals. WAY too trigger happy. Overall though I liked it.

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Refreshing and inspiring

Revisado: 09-12-23

I loved every bit of this. I’m from TX originally, have masturbated to depressing poetry , have traveled a lot, studied abroad with a weird family, and had my own sketchy one night jail experience so I related to a lot of this haha. The energy and performance by McConaughey (I can finally spell it) was obviously great but the substance was what made me swallow it up in less than 24 hours. And this is right after reading a book by a celebrity who had a ghostwriter. Most do and in the middle of that book I googled “did McConaughey write his own book” because I was curious about it but sick of the ghostwriters. Turns out he did, and he went into a long exile to do it, none of which surprised me. I’d always seen him as a witty, charming, charismatic person but also a bit of an outlier from the norm. Someone who beat to his own drum (quite literally) and listening to this I was not only right but I was inspired by all the confidence and positivity he radiated doing it. He has this gift that I think is too rare these days of always learning, evolving, “turning the page”, but he also values the importance of moments in pursuit and adventure balanced by moments of contemplation to process and learn. He also made me laugh. I wonder if the peculiar family in Australia have read his memoir and I wonder if he will ever consider vegetarianism again (I hope so).

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Developing like a fine wine

Revisado: 09-06-23

Man these armchair critics with their reviews “worst narrator” how entitled can you be? The narration, honestly, is better that one and two. I found a few annoying mispronunciations and awkward squeaky sing songy episodes in the last narration so yeah I personally prefer this. The female and male voices are more believable and less annoying. I also like how the story is getting more depth. Book two was terrific. One was alright. This continues with the layers of two. Not my usual genre but I’m loving it.

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Hmmm

Revisado: 09-04-23

It isn’t terrible or great. It is well written and Harry has a charming accent. What I liked at first— his seemingly honest and raw account of growing up without his mom, dealing with the paparazzi who basically ended her, dealing with trauma, and the pressure of being a “spare” in the royal family all starts to become monotonous, never-ending gripe about his brother, his dad, his mother-in-law, and the media (the media deserve it but it is tedious how every page is a gripe). I enjoyed the stories from his childhood and was touched by the accounts in war, then here comes Megan and he puts her on a pedestal while dogging everyone else who has ever known him, it’s bizarre. I wonder at what point he and Megan will turn on each other with their constant criticism. The last section (not really a spoiler but if you are extremely new to the royal family and feel this could be a spoiler then stop here) is well written and the ending is sweet, as he visits his mom’s grave and speaks about his last conversation with his grandma, Queen Elizabeth, just before her death, but it feels a bit forced to induce sympathy. Kind of like the story of the hummingbird and the little queen trinket. It sounds…oddly cold and calculated? The whole book, after a time, feels like Harry against the world, except this isn’t a comic book, it’s how he sees the world. And I wonder if he ever once considered his family or the fact that his brother— kind of a villain here— might have even more pressure than him as heir to the throne. The main reason I feel pretty lenient with three stars is that Harry didn’t even write it, which is pretty typical with celeb “autobiographies” now, but the fact that he’s paid a ghostwriter 1 mil to be making 20 mil off a 4 book deal to kind of raise a fist at the people who question his intellect, then admitting he never reads in a book he doesn’t write is pretty ironic. I’m excited to wash this down with Matthew McConaughey’s book, which he wrote himself after a self-imposed exile for 52 days in a desert. Now that’s worth my time.

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Disappointing

Revisado: 02-15-22

Lost me when she started talking about nutrition and the idea that meat heals. As someone who was vegetarian, but not super healthy, then ate meat, then got sick and went vegan? I’ve done A LOT of research on nutrition and to say meat heals because your experience eating as a vegetarian included lots of dairy and crap then to preach about meat “healing” from a limited experience is like saying you’re a great chef when you eat McDonald’s every day. What is sad about this is there is great wfpb research by real doctors like Dr Greger, and Dr Campbell and yet this is what becomes a bestseller and it taints the rest of her holistic message which is also really a big mashup of other cliche self help books I’ve read.

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Just as good as the Shining if not better

Revisado: 02-05-20

Just want to briefly say that Stephen King is a brilliant writer, one of a kind. I love his creativity and intuitive ability to reach into the minds of so many diverse characters and being them to life. I love to write. I love the process of creating stories and to returning to my own life and processing it on paper BUT I cannot imagine being able to generate all of these different voices and lives and stories the way King does. From reading “It” in middle school to now finally reading Doctor Sleep at 37, some books I love more than others but all are brilliant.

Anyway, Doctor Sleep doesn’t require anymore plot summaries. It’s a sequel to The Shining following Danny as an adult and another child with his gifts of telepathy and “shining”. Danny is an alcoholic and there’s a lot of time dedicated to explaining- very well I might add- the mindset of a dry drunk vs a sober person working the steps. I enjoyed the fantastical elements but also just the very real look at addiction, shame, guilt, attachment and courage. Now to watch the film (it’s Stephen King, of course there’s a film).

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Beautiful jazzy surprise

Revisado: 11-09-19

Wow! I loved this. The story was great. The performances were exceptional. I liked the New Orleans style, the clever mystery, the jazz music. I hope my daughter gets into this as she gets older and understands stories so we can listen to it again and again together.

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Beautiful crafted, fascinating story of the Apollo program.

Revisado: 11-21-18

Chaikin spent 8 years preparing and writing this book and it’s evident in the compelling thoroughness and heart with which he fills every page. He gives every single astronaut of the Apollo program, as well as members from flight control and he scientific community a part in telling this extraordinary tale. I’m just mystified how the public and government have become so apathetic towards exploration once the basic task of “conquering” the moon took place. I hope in my lifetime I get to see the trip to Mars or equal space exploration that mirrors the passion that existed in the 60s, almost as Chaikin says like a decade spliced from the 21st century.

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Bold, honest, introspective tour de force

Revisado: 07-25-18

I just wrote a review and it disappeared but I loved this book so much I’ll go ahead and type up another with my thumbs on my little old phone... so I “read” the first 90% of this book in a day and then, busy from life, had to put it down for two days. The whole time I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Tara Westover is refreshingly honest, bold and introspective in her memoir about growing up in a conservative, Mormon family. This is about her childhood in this survivalist family of rural Idaho- a family that entirely shunned the public school system and “Illuminati” government to the point of dismissing birth certificates all together. This is also about learning to think for yourself in an environment that glorifies conformity and tradition over independent, rational thought. Westover used her curiosity and stubbornness to take one step after the other, from singing to taking the ACTs, to attending a university and eventually receiving a doctorate, and learn that what she understood to be reality was not in fact what her parents had always forced her to believe. This is a story about understanding rational thought in the face of abuse- physical, mental and emotional- which can be almost impossible when you’re experiencing it, especially from someone you love.

Honestly, every page of this book is steeped in meaning, and that is an enormous relief after having read an 800-page academic book that could have been edited down to 200 pages and had an ounce of the insight I found in this memoir. What it has, and what so many books today seem to lack, is an entirely original mind, with clear, independent thinking and I suppose that came specifically from creating her mind out of the enchanting, powerful, and yet ignorant fabric of a fear-fueled society. I’ll be thinking about- and talking about- this book for many years to come.

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