Constantin
Tara Westover's “Educated” meets J.D. Vance's “Hillbilly Elegy”. I actually quite enjoyed it, although I was expecting that it would make me sick to read about another fucked up life because of idiot parents. It's a story about how someone's beliefs makes them stand out and also, despite the cost of their beliefs, they're willing to keep them until they die.
3.5 stars
His life was definitely an interesting one, he made history and he was great at what he did, however he's not a great storyteller. This book would've been much better if it were written by a ghost writer, someone like Walter Isaacson.
There are good/valuable lessons for anyone working in stressful environments or is in a team leading position.
At times, very often in fact, he took the road to Rome from Paris via Tokyo. On the other hand, those extensive incursions in the history of the Middle East or the mess of the American healthcare system were actually interesting enough to keep going. What I liked about this book in particular is the ability to make it each chapter captivating, even if sometimes you have to go through 90% of the chapter filled with elaborate descriptions of some political mechanisms.
I enjoyed her writing style a lot. I think Maggie O'Farrell has her way with words. I remember vividly a few moments from the book, the way she describes the feeling of parting for instance, when you know you won't be seeing that person again, how your life's timeline splits into two and things are never the same, while the rest of the world carries on as if nothing has happened.
Other than her writing, I can't say I enjoyed anything else.
I wish I could give it more, but it just simply didn't leave me with anything (maybe except for one of the last points in the book where he talks about his career that has ended or the family house they sold, that they don't owe him anything. They have offered more that he could've asked for and that chapter is now over and you just have to be grateful and accept it).
He has had some of the best first 30 years of anyone's life, followed by some of the worst 30 years, he's managed to keep his wits and sense of humour and he's been blessed by having such a loving and supportive family.
I've enjoyed his acting in The Good Wife most of all, he's simply phenomenal there, but at the same time he remains one of the main characters ever played in time traveling movies.
I wish I would have some remarkable insight after reading the book, but I realise now that maybe that's what's remarkable about his memoir and his life: he's managed to find some sort of happiness in the little things, in all the things most of us take for granted. Too bad it was a disease like this that taught him this lesson.
For some reason I could see her and Charles Bukowski enjoying quite a few drinks together, having a good laugh, end up having lousy sex and then laugh it off.
Quite a life in terms of how fucked up it was, yet the book itself is not really a memoir, more of a long explanation of why she was ‘broken'.
The Force was not strong with this one.
Pop psychology addressed to Russians mostly (emphasizing situations with alcoholic aggressive husbands, addictions from an early age, housewives who have to do it all). Some advice is actually really good, mostly around relationships, like why you're ending up with the same type of people and what can you do to change that, but some advice comes as condescending and is very debatable. 3.5 stars
I have enjoyed the narrative quite a bit, his style of writing is quite exquisite, albeit too flawless. I would have enjoyed more if he didn't go into such already exhausted themes as young artists exploiting other well-established artists to achieve fame, liars protecting their lies at any cost, sociopaths who are quite likeable and so on. It did keep me reading and at times I have been very impressed with his style of writing. I'm giving it 4+ and I'll definitely keep on reading the other works.
I'm surprised by how much I already knew about him (well, maybe not the fact that he was a SharePoint administrator at one stage :) ). I would have like it to focus more on what prompted him to become a whistleblower (at a deeper, more philosophical level) and what could your average Joe do about fighting the system as well as the more important existential dilemma of trading privacy for convenience. At the same time, it's his life story, I applaud his courage and sacrifice and I hope that more people become aware of this less-known side of the internet and of the world we live in.
I wanted to give it more than one star, but there was too much religious fanaticism in the optimism half of the book. If you're a believer, go for it, might make you a bit more hopeful and maybe feel like you belong. For all the rest of us, it's just a reminder of some common truths that we might forget like: don't dwell in the past, stop ruminating, keep that sense of wonder you had as a kid, laugh more often and have hope that everything will turn out to be ok.
A well-written and equally entertaining combination of Ray Dalio's Principles and Phil Knight's Shoe dog. The book has a few essential lessons on leadership and life in general. He talks a great deal about humility, empathy, respect, innovation and luck, which explains most of his and Disney's success, however at times it's a bit difficult to believe that he's as humble and empathic as he thinks he is, a clear example of that being the way he disregarded George Lucas completely in the new Star Wars series (which are quite shit in my opinion and made me lose all interest in Star Wars, having been a fan previous to that). Also, being close friends with Steve Jobs, who is known for anything but humility or empathy, makes his character a bit questionable.
Although he mentioned he will not be running for POTUS, I can definitely see this book as being part of his pre-announcement campaign. I'm not saying that he would be a bad president, but the timing is curious and the ‘very democratic' vibe of the book would make one think he's seriously considering running.
One of those books I'm glad I didn't discard and kept on reading. It started as a remake (one I deemed to be very lousy) of Love's Executioner by Yrvin Yalom, as in “let me put in a book the interesting cases of my career”. Needles to say, Yalom's experience is not comparable Lori Gottlieb's and I realised only later in the book that it wasn't her intention by far to copy him in any way. There are actually plenty of references to Yalom's work in the book.
After the first few chapters I decided to keep on reading just because I like psychology and I'm curious to see how the cases she's describing evolve, similar to the way I watched season 3 of In Treatment, I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I was curious and kept on going.
But then.. the magic happened. It wasn't her personal story or her own revelations, it had to do with those patients, their story, the doctor-patient relationship and the conclusions each drew. Some of these stories, albeit very remote from mine, managed to strike a chord with me and the ending of the book was simply splendid. I've enjoyed it thoroughly, but I'm not sure I would recommend that to anyone. At this point in my life I have someone very dear to me in exactly the predicament of the patients in the book was in and I find it very hard to decide whether to recommend the book or not.
A most entertaining biography and a very interesting life, filled with a lot of grief and happiness. I was surprised to find out how many important figures at the time where either friends or good acquaintances with Charlie Chaplin, as well as how many things haven't changed since nearly a century ago. One could say he wasn't born at the right time, that in our time he would've accomplished more, without the censorship and the limitations of cinematography back in the day, but I think that exactly because of those he was able to create so many masterpieces and become the genius we all know. He would also, most definitely, suffer from some #MeToo backlash, given his numerous flings and relationships.
Mi-a pl??cut. E un jurnal de c??l??torie cu de toate care mi-a acutizat dorin??a de a hoin??ri prin Asia de Sud-Est. Mi-a?? fi dorit o introducere mai ampl?? ??n care s?? descrie cum a ajuns s-o cunoasc?? pe Onorica, cum au ajuns s?? lucreze ??mpreun?? ??n Bangladesh, cum era via??a ‘de dinainte' ??i o ??ncheiere ??n acela??i stil, cum a fost revenirea la rutin??, ce s-a schimbat ??n atitudine, ??n g??ndire, ??n percep??ii, ??n rela??ie. Sper cel pu??in c?? Sorin ??i Onorica apreciaz?? foarte mult aceast?? experien????, cu bune ??i rele.
Parts of the book were soul crushing, parts were disturbingly annoying. The story is great, the writing above average, I would give it 5 stars had it not been for the self-sabotaging behaviour of the main character. I get the traumatic past and all the demons that kept haunting him until the end, but the fact that none of his friends or family were doing something significant about it, that's what I don't get.