Melanie

Some good exercises for *everyone* but a decent, very accessible read about hypermobility issues. They cover more than physical therapy/movement pieces, which I initially thought it was. I appreciate the tone, so much of what I read about hypermobility is a chore to get through dismal or very clinical text.

Well written on extremely difficult topic. Perhaps not the best bedtime reading, but captured some very true psychological experiences, and I appreciate the validation. I kinda hate the town(sfolk), but love the HECK out of Ramona. I hope to see a lot more of her in the next books.

Reminded me in some senses of Dogville. Partner complained about lack of attention on goalies. I just worry a tad whether the book gives the sport in general a bit of bad reputation. (I play a lot and live in towns with leagues, but not too personally familiar with small towns or “clubs”. Write in sport of your choice, basically. Aside from touching on the expense of great for the sport, it was pretty light on hockey.

I will say, in looking it up on Goodreads I am quite surprised to see it say guided meditations. Meditation topics, sure, but..well, I guess because guided meditations are hard to follow in written format. Close your eyes...yes, then open them again to read the next prompt, I don't stay meditative. But the topic prompts were useful, had me thinking of things in renewed ways, and places I still have some work to do that I wasn't aware of. I love the overall concept of living in the mental space this would mean and would love to be more like that. Sounds very familiar to a lot of stuff a friend tells me about Course in Miracles but perhaps more accessible. The idea of justice being a stance of greater forgiveness, rather than punishment, definitely feels novel and needed in this society.

I can definitely see why people don't like this one as much as Four Agreements, and I probably won't recommend it as much, but it was definitely a useful read for me to staying connected to these topics/mentality and how to live it more consistently.

Links to the website videos didn't work. He says to go slow, 2 bars at a time, and then keeps talking about the next ones, with no indication where to actually find the bars I was supposed to be practicing before moving on. Finally found the sheet music at the end but that wasn't clear....maybe this works better as a physical book? The sheet music image was also super tiny, I had to take screen shots so I can expand enough to read it. There's also a sentence “And bankers.” (To pay attention to) with no definition what bankers are in a musical context. I searched the internet, my piano playing partner looked it up...just confusing.

He says hand placement is super important, which is partly why I wanted to start with a book. But he doesn't really talk about how to identify hand placement for any new pieces. A little orientation to bass clef was helpful but generally all I learned from this was a suggestion of a good piece of music to start my learning.

I appreciate the human approach and lots of information. I've tried more recipes online, haven't gotten too excited about the ones in the book, but the suggested meal plan seems like a cool idea. Not sure I have it in me to truly give the diet a try without my partner on board, but the information makes sense and sounds appealing.

Kinda painful. She starts out sounding like she's got some message, but ultimately it's at least half wordy CV. She comes across as quite pleased with herself without acknowledging privilege.

While she seemingly advocates for tech life balance, she also advocates for people to post more baby pictures so she can feel better about how many she posts. There's some interesting data drops, but despite her resume I'm not convinced she's the expert on the topic I'd want to take advice from. “I just started a production company! Time to post a baby photo!” What?

The only reason I finished reading it is because Goodreads doesn't handle DNF shelving well. She dreams of transparency on the internet, everyone going by real names with the hypothesis this would stop trolling. And oh by the way, I know this meme!

I picked this book up at random as available from the library. It claimed to be sci fi detective...ok. Not horribly engaging through the first half but I figured I'd finish it. Annoying they had to create sexual tension with the suspect but once it went rape porn I lost all interest and respect. A good story can withstand lack of sex, and good erotica can create sexual tension without a lack of consent. I don't normally rate a book I haven't finished, but our society could use more modeling for consent, not less.

I can't remember enjoying a book this much. The play with narrative reveal, witty, cynical humor, the commentary on life. I'm curious to see down the road how it holds for reread value, and I want to know what all my friends and family think of it. I'm definitely paying attention to other referrals from the person I heard about this from and will check out the author's other stuff as well.

This one has some info I definitely need to go back and consume visually. Some things seems outside the reach of possibility but I appreciate the extra validation on Buy Nothing and the benefits of it. Definitely had me thinking differently at some points, in terms of not just a platform/tool, but a “project”. I'm curious how many things are actually true outside the Bainbridge community (some of the recycling possibilities). Some privilege is evident, but I didn't feel there was anything condescending in this book like I've experienced in some others. The bits about ecology and sustainability hadn't really occurred to me before the read, and that resonates highly with my values, so I appreciated the inclusion.

Marshall is the Bob Ross of language. Makes it sound easy, compassion, soothing voice to listen to if you get the audiobook. NVC, while definitely not native language for me, makes sense, and I refer a lot of my clients to it. Reading the book affirms even more my appreciation. I appreciate his personal anecdotes and perspective about clinical psychology as validating to my holistic approach. The book felt relatively comprehensive, although reading it is not enough to make practicing it feel easy...and I would love to hear more about the self empathizing/being with that must be involved to look to connect with the other's pain in egregious and inflammatory interactions.

Even if you have no interest in learning about NVC, I'd recommend this audiobook if you have trouble sleeping. Let his voice tuck you in!

I read this as a client told me they found it useful. I see a lot of overlap/different languaging with codependency but I can see it as a useful framework especially for understanding some of the roots of codependency and perhaps a bit more...‘bite-size' in a way. I'm yet unsure whether it poses the work as more simplistic or if there's something I read into that from the audiobook reader's tones and inflection. Either way, it's nice to have another language for clients who may not resonate with codependency as much. Frequently there's benefit to hearing the same thing 10 different ways when it's something we need to grasp, and validating the experience. I do think the two work well hand in hand together, as one client told me her takeaway from this book was “create distance”...it can be more complex than that. This is one I will keep referring to clients, though.

This was an interesting read, vignettes of many different girls compared from 25 years prior. As a therapist and a former adolescent girl, there were definitely pieces that resonated with me and felt validating. My partner heard part of the book when I started reading and wanted to listen to the whole thing with me, and it inspired some good conversation. I think there's useful information here, although I would feel no more well prepared to be a parent to a teen girl than I was before. I would love to see a companion piece to this book for girls, around how to get the support they want and need.

A wealth of information that sent us down plenty of rabbit holes filling in gaps of historical knowledge. Some sentences left me rereading them 4-5 times to fully understand some pieces..perhaps room for improving clarity on those, but sometimes politics is just plain confusing like that. Overall I'm extremely glad I've read this book to fix my whitewashed, oversimplified, gappy education. It was fascinating learning the origins of racist ideas and he really challenges the idea of putting people in boxes, with showing the evolution of certain characters and their ways of thinking changing, sometimes good, sometimes bad.