Mercer
This book included a bunch of great helpful scripts for common situations that make many people anxious. I appreciated the reminders of ways to show up for myself and be a better friend to my loved ones. I will likely go back and reference this in moments of anxiety.
Love that SJM was like “you know what doesn't exist in books, and what we need more of? Christmas specials.” And then she just went and wrote it.
Edit: upon second reading when outside of the hormone soup of postpartum, I really enjoyed this book. I still agree that there are a lot of regurgitated tropes, but I also enjoyed it. What a difference a year can make!
Eh? I don't know. I know this is really well received, but it just seemed like the author took tropes and regurgitated them. I don't know that I'll read the others.
I'm surprised to give this book 5 stars. On reflection, I don't know that the craft of it is excellent, nor was the plot particularly interesting or filled with varying points. That said, I was truly brought into the universe—or at least fascinated by it. I cared about the main Character, similar in my mind to Quentin at the beginning of the magicians. I enjoyed the world that was built.
I consumed this book extremely quickly by my standards and found myself really enjoying it, but I really and honestly can't say why. Maybe I just enjoy magical school settings and surly main characters? Anyway, I'll probably recommend this to you.
Good. More a travel guide than something you read like a book, which I suppose should be known from the title. I liked the style the author used to delineate which were bourdain's words—they used direct quotes to enhance what was being said about each locale.
I wish there was more exposition rather than just guide, but will find this book helpful in planning vacations or trips in the future.
The dialogue here was less than great, but the premise and plot of the book itself was excellent. And what a cliffhanger to end on!!
This book added a lot of great tools to my anxiety tool kit. I will need to revisit the meditations after listening, but I'm glad to have them to come back to.
This book was recommended to me by a boss 5 or 6 years ago and I just got around to reading it. While I think this may be helpful for someone just starting on their leadership journey, or for folks who haven't put a lot of intentionality into their hiring, for me this was kind of redundant. The one thing I did like was setting aside 30 minutes a week to reach out and have a chat with someone that may be a dream hire for you in the future—love playing the long game in building relationships, and the idea of being more intentional about it sings to me.
Meh. I already know what it feels like to be burnt out. The only thing I got from this book is more anxiety as I listened to folks talk about how tired they are.
I just finished this and, as I did, actually whispered “ah, fuck? That's it? That's the end? Gahhhhhh.” I am so sad that it is over, but delighted to have partaken. What an amazing ending to an amazing series.
Delightful and strange, as expected. I find Murakami's treatment of female characters to be problematic, as usual, but still found the magic in this book exciting and unique. Also: this is the second book of his I have read and both reference the same Chekhov quote!
“As if reality is just an argument you can have with the world. Is the truth up for discussion? And if it is, what else is a lie?”
This is a poignant, moving book. As someone who got my master's in creative nonfiction and has written a memoir of my own, I was drawn in by the artistry in writing this one. It wasn't overwrought or overdone and, in fact, was even more astounding in its expressions of joy. I found myself caught up in Mikel's feelings, especially those of gratitude.
I'm hard on memoirs, as a rule, but this one is a standout in the category.
I'd rank this lower, but I know that my low ranking is due to me going into this book without reading the description. Shame on me.
While there is tons of useful information in this book about health, nutrition and diet it feels myopically scoped on something as a wonder cure that I'm just not sure about.
Would it be better for all of us to eat more fiber, less sugar and participate in intermittent fasting? Probably. Is that going to cure cancer? I'm not sure. Less fear mongering would have likely made this a better book.
This was good! Actionable, engaging, compelling. It helps that I am aligned with the idea of providing freedom and responsibility to team members already.
First business book in a whole that hasn't felt redundant.
What was most horrifying about this book was how easy it was to dismiss the humanity of the “heads.” So many amazing/terrifying turns in this book—like the irony of people being disgusted by slavery, but so excited to eat and hunt their fellow humans.
Cw for infant death.
Beautiful and profound messages in this book. The end was extremely heavy-handed which is the only reason why I gave this 4 stars instead of 5.
Good! Actionable! Insightful! Another text that is greatly enhanced by the case studies with which it abounds. I came away with a deeper sense of clarity than I expected.
In some places I'd give this a 5, and in some places I'd give it a 1–and so we have a 3.
I like the world that this is set in. I think the magic etc is interesting. However, nothing happened in this book except for realllllly bad dialogue and exposition. I think the whole 400 pages took place over a week? Two weeks? I'm not sure.
I will likely read this whole series in a similar way that I read 50 shades. Which is to say with equal horror and enjoyment.
I love a shitty book. I loved Twilight, 50 Shades. I love a series of garbage. This...was beyond even what I can enjoy. As I was listening to this and walking around my house, my partner thought I was angry at him because of the noises I was making.
The characters were shallow, and I'm surprised the main character wasn't named like, Belmione for how heavy handed this text was. Woof.