Judy
When I try to describe this book to others, it always sounds like I'm relating some soap-opera drama, but the experience of reading it is so much richer than most anything I've ever read. I only picked it because a reading challenge task required me to choose a book with a character with a first or last name that is the same middle name as one of my parents, and so “Larry Darrell” showed up in a search for “Darrell”. How serendipitous!
Larry Darrell's life is followed by the narrator, who is Maugham, the author, but it is a fictional story. Larry ends up searching out questions about life through experience and travel, and many of his answers are found in the practice of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy. But, the other characters in the novel are also fully realized and lived through the narrative and it was simply a very satisfying experience to read. I will definitely but Maugham's other novels on my TBR list.
Worthwhile read. I've listened to the author's podcasts for over a year, but there was still new information to digest. Well-organized into chapters that cover his principled approach to self-development. Truth-Love-Power. Found myself using the concepts immediately.
Compelling, provocative arguments about our decline into complacency and disengagement as a society. We seek and protect security, avoid change and disruption....then find that we need resets and shake-ups to grow. Cyclic nature of history is more true to reality than a constant march of upward progress. The first half of the book was pretty dry with statistics and data, but the second half presented the arguments quite simply and logically. Will be reading his other books soon.
Lots of layers to this book beyond the simple plot of two social misfits – one a 54 year old French concierge in an upper-class apartment building, the other the precocious 12 year old daughter of one of the families in the building – discovering each other for the first time and finding themselves kindred souls.
Renee, the concierge, has gone to incredible lengths to hide her true intelligence and gifts in order to fit into the world around her. Paloma, the young girl, is the ‘black sheep' in her Paris bourgeois family, extremely intelligent and witty, yet also a master of the art of self-preservation behind the mask of oddness and mediocrity.
The plot shifts from Renee's humorous, witty, satirical descriptions of the families in the building and the social dynamics playing out between them, to Paloma's journal entries on her plans to end her life on her 13th birthday because the futility of the social drama she sees played out around her seems too much to bear. Her journal is her attempt to record her profound thoughts and find a reason the world isn't as hopeless as it seems.
I was captivated by Renee's dissection of the social “theater” she sees every day, her explanations and philosophical arguments applied to art, literature, and the world. Paloma's journal hits the mark, too. Her journal entries can be both hilarious and sad at the same time. I found myself re-reading whole passages of this book because the insights were so accurate, yet put in a fresh, succinct perspective. Both characters have rational, philosophical views and I was often struck by their deep understanding of ideas and life.
I also categorized this book as armchair-travel because the description of French life and culture is so prevalent. I felt like I was visiting a real part of Paris, yet having my questions about the culture answered along the way. The language and voice of the book flows in such a beautiful way that it makes me wish I could read this book in the original French language.
This book reads like a fable, and I know I will be re-reading it to see what else I might uncover.
Enjoyed the linguistic stream of philosophy, mathematics, history, and all the things coming at a speed I've never experienced before...but also found myself overwhelmed in too many spots with that same dump of words. I can appreciate the innovative experiments the author was making with the writing, yet I ended up feeling dissatisfied with the wrap-up of the novel.
Great example of well-written historical fiction. Characters and story engaging from the beginning and finished the book with a driving desire to know more about Vermeer and his art.
Enjoyed reading this book because of the new information and tree research explained, but it lacked a cohesive structure to follow. More like a collection of magazine articles instead of a narrative line of exploration and explanation. I would have appreciated more of the author's presence in the work, showing how he does his research and anecdotes of what it is like to manage a forest, etc. I'm glad I read the book but felt less than satisfied when I was finished.
This novel just wasn't for me as a reader who needs a plot to follow, or at least a character narrative that progresses from a beginning to end. While there were passages that were beautifully written, I felt like the time I spent reading wasn't satisfying. It might have worked better as a collection of poems for a reader to dip into, rather than expecting a story and not finding it.
A somewhat repetitive collection of case studies and essays on how past engineering failures become a driving force for innovation and invention, not events to avoid or hide.
I appreciated the emphasis on failure as a fact of life and that creativity is an iterative process driven by failures. “An engineer will always know more what not to do than what to do.” pg.105
The case studies give interesting tidbits about engineering concepts and terminology, but it isn't a book about engineering as a profession or what an engineer does on a day-to-day basis. It was more focused on bringing out the nuances and complexities a designer might face when trying out new ideas or visions.
A final chapter warns of the loss of experiential wisdom by rapid technological change. Relying on computer models that perform all the right calculations and spit out the perfect blueprint is no substitute for an experienced designer who can bring real-world knowledge to the design problem.
In general, a nice little book to learn about the history of some noteworthy engineering design failures and see the connections between failures and progress in engineering designs.
Entertaining book with lots of historical/scientific detail, which I really enjoy in historical fiction. Emilie, the protagonist, is raised as an experiment in nature vs nurture by her father, a widowed natural philosopher/alchemist outside London in the 1700s. Told from Emilie's point of view, the story follows her carefully controlled upbringing focused on complete immersion in an atmosphere of learning, science and the experimental method. The main subject of the father/daughter reasearch team is into the nature and composition of fire and air, but the father is also using alchemy in hopes of finding a way to bring dead objects back to life.Despite her father's strict attention to the experiment, Emilie fails to live up to her father's expectations once she is introduced to the world and the variety of people in it. But, Emilie ends up growing a great deal after several “real-life” dilemmas and disasters force her to change her self-centeredness and have more realistic assumptions about human nature.Predictability of the plot and too much focus on the romantic and morality themes keep this book from having a stonger response from me. The narrator for this book, [a:Justine Eyre 1144378 Justine Eyre http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg], was an excellent choice for the voice of Emilie. Her narration fit the book's atmosphere without being a distraction.
An in-depth exploration of the seven specific virtues advocated by Ayn Rand's egoism philosophy and the value basis of rational self-interest.
I thought the book was extremely well-written and organized. The author took care to bring up counter-arguments and ways Rand's philosophy is misunderstood in relation to these virtues, then proceeds to logically defend Rand's ideas with clear references to what Rand actually wrote or said.
Reading the book has made me much more aware of how I define ethics and values for myself. I'm encouraged to become less reliant on “pithy” generalizations and oversimplification that seem to be prevalent these days in the media. I made lots of notes while reading this book because I was surprised at how little I had really thought about just what a value or a virtue is, or what justice means, for example.
The book is an example to me of good writing in philosophy. I plan on reading more of this author's books and looking up the sources she used.
One of those rare books that I wanted to start reading again as soon as I turned the last page.
Such wonderfully drawn characters and surprising turns of phrase give the book a warm, unique voice that had me gasping out loud. Used up a whole stack of post-it flags marking the bits I want to remember. The author used an interesting frame for telling the story, using taped interviews and lists as a way to tell backstory in alternating chapters, yet keeping you moving through the story's plot and connected to the characters.
A book that makes you feel good after reading it and start noticing the people around you who are lonely or struggling or just human, and recognizing they have more to them than you know.
An unconventional story that carries you along with the thoughts and emotions of a woman taking off into a schizophrenic-like flight from herself. The author's lovely and evocative writing made me feel inside the experience of the characters and their different levels of coping and disassociation. Somewhat frustrated by the uncertain closure of the novel, but I suppose that is what keeps it in my mind even after I've finished reading.
Enjoying this series of “Introducing....: A Graphic Guide” overviews on a variety of topics. I appreciated how the fundamental theories, principles and terms were explained, with the amount of detail just about right. I'm reading some heavy philosophy of language books right now, with no background in semiotics or linguistics, and this book has helped me with unfamiliar concepts and people behind the theories.
I usually have a special affinity for dystopian novels with a literary style rather than a thriller plot, but this one just didn't work for me. The structure of jumping from pre-collapse to post-collapse was distracting and kept me from getting into the characters enough to keep their plot lines straight. There were some very beautiful, lyrical passages, but I was expecting more after all the buzz online surrounding this novel. It wouldn't be my first choice if I were asked for a recommendation of a good dystopian novel.
“You can't control what you see, but you can control what you're looking for.”
Good book for a basic explanation of how depressive, negative thoughts and behaviors interact to start the downward spiral into depression. The bulk of the book retells the various studies and experimental results in neuroscience that explain how depression might work, in a more accessible way for the general reader. If this is the first book you've picked up on neuroscience/depression, it's a good introduction.
I picked the book up because a reviewer of the fantasy novel “Babel” by R.F. Kuang suggested that a reader who enjoyed this YA fiction novel might be inspired to read this nonfiction book that deals with the same time period and the 19th century war capitalism effects on a global scale.
Babel by R.F. Kuang - Classics of Science Fiction
I skipped the YA novel and went right to this book and I'm pleased with my random path to this book. It was insightful and clear about the connections that evolve as a commodity becomes part of a system of trade, beginning with local subsistence production to a nation-based medium of exchange and eventually a global force for war capitalism, colonization, slavery, and eventually decolonization.
It's written with an interested general reader in mind, yet has enough extended examples, research and interpretation to be included on a course syllabus. This author will be on my list of ones to watch watch when I'm looking for good economic history reads.
A book you finish and want to share with everyone you know. Amazing use of language and style to capture the idea of words being “live” things that can help as well as harm. If you are a book lover, you'll love the way reading, books and writing become almost human in this story. At first, I struggled to get used to the idea of “Death” being the narrator, and the time-shifting in the story, but soon it became simply the “way” this story had to be told. And it works beautifully—I imagine there are thousands of quotes and “likes” from this book circulating in the Goodreads community. It is definitely well worth reading by anyone, not just “young adults”. I also think it would make a good companion read to a nonfiction account of the Holocaust, like [bc:The Diary of a Young Girl 48855 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358276407s/48855.jpg 3532896]by [ai:Anne Frank 3720 Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1343271406p2/3720.jpg][a:Anne Frank 3720 Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1343271406p2/3720.jpg].
Had no idea what this book was about, just hooked onto it because I'd never read any books by Virginia Woolf and the description mentioned this book as one of her more “accessible” works. Hmmm.... so it hit me like a brick when all of a sudden the male main character is transformed into a woman. It was a shock, and then I was somewhat disappointed because my beginning effort at getting into the book and becoming attached to Orlando and the wonderful rhythm of the language felt yanked out of my grasp. I had to go read some background on the novel to feel like it was “okay” to keep reading–that Woolf had probably based Orlando on a woman Woolf had a “crush” on, etc. I guess I just didn't have enough connection to Orlando as a main character to suspend my disbelief about his sudden gender-switching.
A basic survey of popular neuroscience and applications to everyday life. Interesting information on dealing with medical decision-making and critical thinking in general. I can't say that anything new or surprising was revealed in the book, though.
A book that makes me want to visit Istanbul just to walk around and see the sights that Pamuk describes and develops in this book. Reading his prose is an experience of “painterly” writing, where you cannot help but have a vivid image in your head of the surroundings and atmosphere conjured up with the words. But it is also a portrait of a sensitive young boy coming of age in a place and time where the borders between worlds are unpredictable. Not only are the Western and Eastern worlds in conflict, but also the world of family secrets and respectability.
This was my introduction to the author's writing and he's jumped onto my favorite author list as a result. I'm anticipating reading his other books, especially his fiction.
A short little compilation of essays by creative entrepreneurs writing about what works for them in doing their creative work. I'm a junkie for all things productivity and “life-hacking,” so I can't say I read anything really new or unusual. A good motivational read for times when you're lacking the drive to create or make a contribution towards your work. “Key Takeaways” at the end of each section was a nice touch to make the book more useful.
I'm attached to this story of Elena and Lila just as if I were watching it unfold on an HBO series. As soon as I finished this second installment, I picked up the next to keep the story going. Deep and powerfully-drawn characters that move through the setting of Naples and other cities of Italy in the middle to late 1960s, with a strong theme of poverty and social justice as a backdrop, have made this unfamiliar place and time real to me.
I've enjoyed diving deep into Elena's character and her striving with academic and intellectual goals, while struggling against “imposter syndrome”. She is succeeding in this strange academic world, but her inner critic constantly shoots her down with harsh judgments. I'm inspired by her devotion to learning, but I also recognize the real risk she faces as she tries to step out of her family's known world. I love the way this author can make that conflict so concrete in this book.
Looking forward to continuing the story in the third book, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.
A cozy historical novel that follows a young, just-graduated medical student to his first apprenticeship with a general practitioner in Ballybucklebo, Ireland. This is the first book in a series that follows Dr. Barry Laverty in his medical mentorship and the ways of Irish country life in the mid-1960s. I especially liked the detailed descriptions of rural doctoring and diagnosing as practiced during this era.
I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator did all the accents and pronunciations with a believable Irish voice. I think this made the book more enjoyable for me because I would have stumbled over all the unfamiliar Irish speech and spellings. I'll probably look for the rest in the series in audiobook for this reason.