Melanie

It spurred some conversation with my partner, at least, but overall I was disappointed. I think more point could be made. Some stats and info bits were interesting, but overall I'm just irked at his oversimplification of veganism. He picks one point of reason for it and tears it to pieces, glossing over legit reasons, and encourages dairy consumption because it doesn't kill... Which actually makes it one of the LEAST humane options. I would have liked to have seen this balanced by good reasoning and not just latching onto tropes. If one of his points is that life is complex, there's so much he could have done here.

I don't care that he ate a squirrel, I don't conceptually mind hunting. Factory farming is bad for the planet and for health. Sure, where is the cutoff for meat? Fine conversation. But he didn't even touch how comparable cannibalism might be, and I think most of us who have chosen this lifestyle have faced his line of questioning plenty of times. I was well aware of my hypocrisy as a vegetarian before going vegan. The conversation of values vs amount of sacrifice one is willing to make is relevant and interesting, why not go there?

Two things bother me most:
1) his big point is about how biased we are as humans, and yet on this topic he doesn't acknowledge his own bias. (Whether that is thinking veganism is stupid, or he just likes meat, I can't say).
2) I don't know how balanced he presented other topics, but this was the one place he seemed to be advocating for something, that I heard.. and it's a destructive thing for our planet, so I don't take kindly to that. And I'm so sick of the beaten to death a hundred times joke that vegetarians are plant slaughterers. You like numbers, Neil? It takes a third of the farmland to feed a vegetarian compared to an omnivore since we eat the plants directly and don't filter it through a cow. So we still kill fewer living things than you. See? It's not even “funny because it's true”.

I also question his conclusion about the LD ranking of glyphosate. Is salt more deadly per dose, maybe...but I'm pretty sure our bodies know how to process small doses of it, where maybe small doses of glyphosate build up in the body unprocessed, and then cause harm?

I didn't know what to expect picking this book up, other than “Ooh, NDT, this could be interesting”. But overall outside or being bugged by the oversimplifications, I just didn't find it that interesting. It won't be the Christmas gift for my parents I was hoping for.

Very engaging, easy to binge this one. While I can see how it ‘said what it needed to say' I could have also taken this one to be longer. I waited for the chapter with Dale becoming more ‘real' after he had been idealized for so long, and there was only snippet. I think I hoped for more evolution of Oona as well. It was there, but kind of subtle, a fairly partner-heavy focus of her life that seemed to maintain most of the book. The premise is interesting and I think the exploration could have gone a bit further. Definitely enjoyed it overall.

It took a turn from talking about interesting mouse studies, to bouncing between generational trauma and ‘heal with your parents'. I missed the connection between those. Do most of us have issues with parents? Sure. Is that the same as the generational trauma examples he gave? No. Some of my friends are extremely skeptical of those aspects. I tend toward open mindedness on it. I raise a big eyebrow is skepticism and roll my eyes at some of the suggestions in the end. While ‘fake it till you make it' is a workable solution for some things, applying this to parental relationships feels inauthentic and potentially downright personally neglectful. Don't force yourself to accept a painful parental love unless you're ready. He says regular therapy often ‘blames the parents' and that is a gross misunderstanding of the work I do. So many of us are taught to ignore our own feelings to make others (including our parents) happy. I think it's important to acknowledge OUR perspective. It doesn't mean we have to be mean toward our parent, but we are allowed to have feelings, feel betrayed or let down or angry. And I think sometimes this is even imperative to letting go and forgiving. We can't forgive a parent while we take the blame, and we can't forgive ourselves without recognizing the factors in our own narrative. He's trying to skip that part of the process and force feelings that aren't ready. And I think it may work for a while, but then be met with another major injury.

All that said...I have yet to locate the pdf, and while I still don't see healing parent relationship affecting older trauma, the questions might have value.

I appreciate the candor, although it definitely started to sound repetitive (more than necessary to get the point across, imo). The benefit of listening to the audiobook, my husband overheard parts so it's had some influences there as well!

My overall takeaway from this book is a reminder of Atomic Habits power, with a clean house focus. Ive figured out some of these pieces on my own, and others bits I don't fully relate to as I don't have kids, but the reminder was good, and she definitely caught me with the project mindset. Even though functionally I've shifted my efforts, the idea of adjusting the mindset also helps.

Weekend at Bernie's meets Crazy Rich Asians. I like the relationship with the aunties but I honestly found this painful to read at points. Why does Nathan have to be SO idealized instead of a real, complex character? Why do we have to be reminded of her pubescent heart flutter at every mention of him, even when serious ** is happening? It's a fantastical story but the overblown storytelling (or reading/audiobook?) made me think of a fourth grader over exaggerating when they're telling a joke you've only heard a hundred times but they think is novel.

A lot of this was familiar but a nice amalgamation of some other books. As an audiobook, I can't now tell you what the 3 gears are, I'll be looking up a synopsis or worksheets online to truly grok it more fully, but I've already started referring clients to this book because frequently things land better when read than me just telling them.

I had to LOL at the part where he talked about staying home with the cats as a distraction-free. My cats would never give me that luxury!

Not my thing. Perhaps biased by the ironically perfect delivery of the audio book format, perhaps I've bought in to the sense that perfection is all bad.. I'm cynical that teaching perfectionists how to do perfectionism more perfectly is helpful. Healthy perfectionism I can call ambition or achievement-minded, so justifying that some of perfection is ok feels like a level of denial or something I'm skeptical of.

A lot of this referenced the PDF, which...as a library read, I haven't yet seen. Maybe they are useful. Some of the exercises sound like things I've done with clients.. Values oriented is always a good thing, not specific to perfection.

Overall I think any helpfulness was obscured by the proposal of healthy perfectionism and it ended up feeling too fuzzy on how to really address the narratives that play into perfectionism. I'd love to have heard more about getting out of decision paralysis. He touched on this at the end regarding fun, and I definitely want to seek out those pdfs, as I see it a lot... Perhaps could have been discussed more.

Engaging right from the start and throughout. I learned a ton, got the ride of emotions..great read. I came into this one NOT as picking up a book of a celebrity, I've honestly only seen one 10 minute Youtube of Trevor speaking seriously about racism. Definitely interested to learn more about where his story goes from where this book leaves off.

When I heard about a book about the Great Smog I was intrigued and eager to read it. And yet I'm finding this book difficult to read. The smog is over...why am I supposed to care about a girl watching the coronation, how does it relate? Let's jump to politics and pretend that is a story... McLeod, Norman, Dodd... politicians, not characters fleshed out enough for me to care about or be able to differentiate who is who when it's reported fragmented between other bits. Debate across party lines...cut to the outcome. How any of this relates to the serial murders for these to be interspersed with each other, I don't get.

I've learned a bit, but it's not a grabbing read.