Table to contents here:
Amazon link I watched the Netflix series while sick with covid a while back and found it entertaining. While the general story line is the same, the book is very different how it progressive with the character development. Overall, it is an enjoying YA read and I will start the next book in the near future.
Amazon link Any book on womens health is always very insightful and one is always learning something new. This book in particular does a great overview of everything around PCOS and offers practical suggestions about how to improve with the condition. Its is also great to read a book that talk both about the 'natural' but scientifically proven aids for health (such as switiching to a plant based diet) as well as talking about the typical medication route. As some one who is already plant based, a lot of this information was not new but it was still great to actually read the research around this and how it can help long term.
An interesting read for sure. Personally I am not keen on the writing style-while I understand the use of the informal language, I think it is just a bit too 'brash' for me. It is a classic in the self-help reading list though so is worth a read. When in moments of self doubt, it is for sure worth a read.
A nice read that covers various aspects of reading. From the history of how we began to read, modern digitalisation of reading to reading difficulties in children. This book offers some great insights into the science of reading that increases in complexity as you go through the book. I particularly enjoyed the sections on multilingualism and how this can be a benefit for children but also a hindrance if not done in a supportive environment.
I would highly recommend this one if you are curious about language and reading but don't want to delve too deep into the science.
I actually really enjoy reading more popular science books about my area of science. It provides a different perspective and it helps me alot when I am thinking about how to explain things to non-scientists. The author here does a really good job of weaving together the science and the history, making it a really coherent story. I even learnt a lot from this book from the earlier chapters about the first computers to some different methods of quantum computing. Although slightly outdated (like anything that is published within a day), I like the focus on trapped ions (obviously very biased but still).
I thought I would try reading some more German books and seeing as stress was a topic in a recent German class, I thought this book would be a nice supplement. I was rather disappointed when reading this book. The author does explain at the beginning that he is not an expert/scientist on the topic of stress and that this book is just about his experience but the book contained very generic tips and which sometimes felt a bit of a ‘bro science’ story. It was definitely good on the practising my German reading front but it was still not what I expected and I wouldn’t really recommend this book.
I am a huge fan of Simon's work and have been a long term viewer of his Youtube channel. His book does not disappoint. I very much enjoy reading about the history of science and this book has such a nice evolution in its storytelling. Atmospheric physics was not something I studied in my degree but this book is very accessible and I would recommend it to physicists and non physicists alike.
I have never actually read this book to the amazement of some of my friends but now I do agree it is a must read. Beautiful imagery and a nice story. I initially thought it was just a kids book but I for sure enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed this book. Beautiful imagery! I read this book so quickly because I couldn’t put it down. The story is gripping and nicely paced. A reminder at how childhood trauma can come up on us at any point in our lives. The ballerina trope has been done a lot before but had lots of twists and turns. However, maybe it is just because I have read a lot of similar styles of books before that it seemed a bit familiar. Highly recommend this book, although it has a few adult scenes that I was not expecting.
I have read other amazing survival stories from Holocaust survivors but this ones is extra special. The story is based on Lale Sokolov survival in the camp and then a short while after. The writing style is very plain and it feels like you are just reading the story as the subject is describing. Naturally, the topic is very sad but the writing style doesn’t make me (as the reader) feel emotionally overwhelmed all the while reading the book and feels like more of a story of hope than loss. Hence, I would recommend it to anyone who would want to read a story about some incredibly strong people.
I saw this book on Penguin's list of banned books and thought it would be an interesting read. Indeed it was an interesting book but not one I would read again. It was not in my scope of books I usually enjoy but I am still glad I read it. Was dragged out a lot with rather upsetting visuals from the character (what to be expected admittedly) but was something I wanted to finish quickly.
Amazing book. I read this over four days as it was such a gripping and a well written, heart-wrenching story. I had never heard of Munchausen by Proxy before but it is truly a scary form of abuse that must be so hard to detect until you are aware that this is a thing. I wonder if the ‘age of information’ has made this kind of abuse that the author suffered more prevalent- the author’s mother would spend time looking through medical books to identify possible illnesses/symptoms; now it is very common for people to use symptom checkers online and I wonder how many abuse this resource in the same way (a bit of a stretch but I am curious at the change in information sources). The story is well paced and the writer does a good job at telling her life story in a way that builds the emotion page by page. While it is a difficult tale of abuse, the author does a good job at telling her story in an informative but also ‘entertaining’ way that makes the reader want to carry on and find out more. With that point though, I find it kind of sad that one googling the author to find more of her work or interview, there is very little online. The book is a best seller, and was published in 2004 so I expected there to be more additional content out there-which is something I really value after reading books like these. Overall though, I would recommend this book. The level of reading is not too difficult, only the content is for mature readers.
I really did not like this book. Which is honestly rare for me. The writing is almost childlike and the style is constantly changing- not very well throughout. The author doesn’t go into depth on any plot and characters are very blank which I think was one of the main selling points of this story. It is a real shame because on first glance, this book had so much potential. And for sure, there were a few pages of the book, where for a moment, the writing was really good and built some good imagery. Sadly, this was short lived. The only reason I finished this book was because it was so short.
Reading two books back to back that contain a lot about child abuse etc, is a bit heavy but this was another book that I have wanted to read for a long time. I think I first saw the movie about the same story “From homeless to Harvard” and the author has such an interesting story that I wanted to read more. This is a nicely written autobiography, which is a genre that I do not read often, but the author's ability to understand her younger self and share her reflections on her journey is written so nicely. She is very personal and vulnerable with her choice of words and I guess it reflects the emotions and change she went through. A real ‘rag to riches’ story, I would highly recommend to people who want to reflect on their own journey.
I loved this book! The story was original and so well written. The characters had depth and the author did a great job at building this hyper techy world. There is also strong messaging through the story which was greatly shown by the characters. I did not want the book to end and I hope that in the future the author will publish more similar adventures. I highly recommend this book!
I originally watched the film and thought that was really good but after reading the book, it was even better! Basically, the book just builds more of a world and a story around Mae and the Circle. I also enjoyed that, although this book was written in 2014 and technological advancements move so fast, this book felt relevant for the time. The tech used was not too far fetched or too outdated which made the book more relatable. I found myself constantly questioning my own reasoning and morals when learning more about the Circle and the company's ideology. I actually always fall back on the comfort of living in the EU and what that means for data privacy; however, it encouraged me to do more research into this area in order to see what information there really is out for access.
I don’t usually like self-help style books as they are often very generic. This book was ok. At first, a lot of the stuff seemed very basic but as I progressed, there were topic throughout the book which are areas I have never struggled with so never had too much thought about. This made it an interesting read and would be useful as the ‘toolbox’ kit that the author describes this book to be. I read the book straight through and didn't make any notes but I can see myself in the future going back to certain sections to review. The summaries at the end and the exercises throughout the book are what makes this book something that you want to go back to to complete. Something I do find interesting on COVID-19 published books is the very casual references to coronavirus pandemic so much so that it is assumed that everyone who reads the books knows exactly what this is in reference to and what happened. While this may seem obvious now, it makes me question the longevity of these books. Maybe a small paragraph about this time period would be beneficial for future generations who read this book and were either too young or not born yet to understand the impact of this time. It gives the impression of this fast track to publish a book that will only be popular for such a short period of time before the next one comes out but in reality, for something to be a good book, I feel that it needs to have a good standing in time. For science-based books, within minutes of publishing, the research could be out of date but I think it is therefore important to provide context at the time of publishing about the current landscape. Just a thought that I had while reading this as it was the second science based book that just made references to covid like it something as obvious and relevant as brushing our teeth everyday.
This was a great book to get me out of a reading slump. This book looked into the depth at what internet pornography can teach us about ourselves and our desires. I strangely felt a bit more respect for men after gaining an understanding about the basics of their sexual instincts and how that can affect behaviour. Overall, this book is built on lots of data (my favourite) and written in a fun but still informative way. Highly recommended. It would be good if there could be an update/part two for this book that is made with 2023 tech in mind but this book is still extremely relevant (even if it does have reference to MySpace).
Amazon Link Interesting book. I enjoyed reading this but I made the mistake of starting to watch the TV series at the same time as reading (side note though: the TV programme, although it strays far from the book content, is also very good). I occasionally got a bit lost with the narration as it would be difficult to tell when the narrator was jumping between memories but usually this is pretty clear. The topics themselves are extremely thought provoking and almost scary how such a toleration state could develop. It is also a weird book to read straight after a book on sexual desires and makes the content even more shocking.
Amazon Link I have mixed opinions about this book. On the one hand, this book gives a nice, general overview about the history, current industry and ethics around ‘sex robots’ but on the other hand the book doesn’t have a great list of references. The book reads more like a formalised blog with the author giving her strong opinions on certain topic areas without any evidence of her own to back up the ideas. Especially around these topics, the opinions are going to be highly political, which is fine but not the sort of book I wanted to read (to be clear, I was expecting a general overview of sex robot field and the current status around implementation in daily life). She is an expert in her field so for sure she is better than most to have an opinion on such but sometimes it feels too ‘informal’. After reading a Billion Wicked Thoughts (with its hundred of pages of bibliography), I have high expectations for any book that covers the topics of sex and research and sadly this book just wasn’t up to the same standard. Overall, I am glad I read it and I was engaged with the book 90% of the time but I finished it with the feeling of wanting more. Maybe I was not the intended reader, it's not clear but with such a niche topic, I am not sure who the audience should be or what the takeaway from this book should be.
Amazon Link I had high hopes for this book. Not only was it shortlisted for the Women's fiction prize but the author is a alumni from my previous university. The story is good and makes for a good discussion but I was very distracted by the use of English language throughout. The broken English, while it makes sense for the theme overall, is just too distracting for me and makes it hard to enjoy reading the book. I also think that I have read a few too many books on the importance of education and as such this book was not new or surprising to me. I would recommend this book however, to those who have not read much about the role of education in young girls' lives as the message is very clear and powerful.
Saw this book as a general recommendation from a few people. While I normally don’t enjoy ‘chick lit’ style literature, this was a comforting book. The combination of realism that this book has (based on three 30-something year olds struggling through life) and the fact that it is based in the UK, gives this book a familiar feel. The topics covered through the story are very realistic but written very well. It teaches a variety of topics from forgiveness and being true to yourself. It also made me reflect on my female friendships and how they might look in 10 years.
Amazon Link I honestly don’t normally enjoy reading about politics but this book was different. It was very well written. I appreciated the writing style as the author explained some complex areas. While this book is aimed at a general audience, there does seem to be a bit of assumed knowledge about western politics (something very common with covid-era written books) and while it was very accessible, there were some areas that could have had a bit more of a background. This should not deter future readers though. The honesty of the author was also admirable. I learned a lot from this book and I probably should have made notes as I read along. Sometimes the author's bias does come through but I think this bias is in line with the most likely reader of such books so it is to be expected.
Amazon link Saw this book on a youtube recommendation. The physical layout of the book made it nice to read. The topic was pretty sad but very realistic. I like to think the handling of such issues in the book are very different today than when the book was written (2015) due to more awareness around this issue but as someone not exposed to this sort of news, it is hard to tell. The monologue of this book felt very real and very raw but also not so crass to read. I would recommend this book to others. Despite its heavy topic, it is not difficult to read.
Surprisingly this was a very insightful book. The tips were actually useful and it wasn’t a generic self help book. I found the author's use of language really strange at times and so distracted me a bit from the writing. The last chapter on spirituality was also a bit strange and not something I would normally read about but was interesting for sure. I would recommend this book though to anyone, even if they don't consider themselves highly sensitive, as a way to better understand and communicate to those around them. I might have a look at the workbook that accompanies this book.
Amazon link German review link This book was actually very enjoyable and easy to read. If you have a base knowledge about climate change then this book will build upon that knowledge and provide a more ‘business’ insight into some solutions to climate change. Gates is obviously a billionaire so I went into this book having some bias that maybe this book won't be a particular breakthrough, but alas I really liked how he wrote the book and learnt a lot from it. I did find it funny how most of the introduction was this kind of ‘self checking’ where Gates acknowledges how wealthy he is but he is trying to reduce his impact with making ‘all his private jets carbon neutral’ (or something to that news). It was also a nice book because I didn’t finish it feeling completely deflated which is often the case when reading about climate news. Overall, I would recommend this book as it provides some great overview and actually offers some solutions.
With my recent move at work into the fabrication team, I thought this book would be a nice history lesson in the area. It was indeed a good history lesson and I learnt way too much (books like this remind me that I should start writing notes as I go along). The science of chip manufacturing was broken down very nicely so that you don’t have to have any prior knowledge about fabrication to know what is going on.I will say that the book is very, very dense - which is both good and bad. My only complaint is that the book is very American centric; which makes sense in this context as America is one of the main players in the fabrication process (Silicon Valley for example). But it would have been nice to have heard about other smaller countries and how they are coping with the increasing demand for chips. And of course, this was a covid-era book so some recent developments on how this pandemic affected the world was also included but not developed as much as I would have liked. I would recommend this book to people I work with or those who have an interest in trade/economics but I think it is a bit too specific to recommend to the average techie.
Amazon link In my quest to read more books by authors from around the world, I came across this book while browsing some other well-known Japanese authors. The story line is well paced and it is easy to imagine this dystopian society. The build up to the ending was well done but I would have liked to have a separate chapter at the end to really learn how this atmosphere in the society developed. Also the author's use of making a parallel by writing a story within the story is particularly impressive (I would have also loved to have read that as a whole book on its own). I would recommend this book to a friend, as it is a short read with great imagery and thinking points.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a book that brought different emotions. I was very interested in the science and history around the HeLa cells and the discussion of the ethics in research. I learnt a lot from this book. The concept of HeLa cells was completely new to me as someone who has not studied biology in years so it was also nice to get “the full story” of the origins of the cells (unlike most people at the time of development). The author really wanted to focus on the family of Henrietta Lacks, in particular her daughter and I think she did this successfully. However, the Lacks family are, unfortunately, a product of their circumstances and honestly, I did not enjoy reading about them. The book was a back and forth argument with different family members being angry at the situation and refusing to give details and then changing their mind. The family suffered a lot and why they have clearly tried to better themselves, I don’t think this book paints them in a very good light. But not to comment on someone else's personal life, overall, i just found this book a bit too over stretched (content wise). I think I would recommend it to someone who studies biology or ethics because it does make you reflect on the past but I don’t think this book is particularly entertaining (not that I think that was the goal of the author at all- the book was just a bit too dry for me).
Educated is a memoir of a young woman's life as she tries to understand her life and where it sits in regards to education and the strict reigns of her family's religion. The book is very much inspiring as we follow Tara from early childhood to being an independent, educated woman. She reveals some very personal memories throughout the book but she writes them in a way that is understandable to the reader and allows us to understand her thought pattern at the time. I did enjoy reading this book as the author clearly has a good hand at writing. I have, however, read a lot of similar stories this year (i.e. young girl grows up in a bad situation, gets and education and everything becomes a lot better) and while I do enjoy the genre, it did raise some questions.
All the books I have read from a similar genre have always received some sort of writing prize. What is it that contributes to a book winning an award? Obviously this depends on the award but I sometimes wonder if there is too much pressure for authors to reveal their deepest secrets to provide a shocking or revealing story all for the sake of entertaining the reader. It reminds me of a video I saw recently about how American high school kids are often encouraged to write ‘sob stories’ to get them into the college of their choice; revealing potentially deep traumas or other things that you wouldn't necessarily tell a stranger. A book is a bit different because the author does not often have any pressure to write a book but I wonder how much value we place on people who have a rag to riches story compared to those who do not. Clearly I am not a good writer as I am struggling to get my thoughts out on this topic but it is something that troubles me about the culture we live in. To summarise: the book was great; I would recommend it; the beginning few chapters were a bit slow but it picked up shortly after.
My gosh this book was boring! I almost did not finish this book simply but after hearing from several sources that this book is good and impactful, I decided to at least get to the end. I almost wish I didn’t. The book follows a young woman who is navigating her new life as a research assistant and then working in London. This book is exactly how I find talking to people, similar in age to me, about politics or life. I have no interest in politics, therefore, i do not pretend to be educated on it but the protagonist of this book is interested in politics but pretends to be educated on it. In defence of the author, she does highlight this contradiction as part of the book. But that is it. The book is simply about the protagonist complaining about everything despite her clearly having a good life and having no clear understanding about the issues she talks about. The character also does not like to even listen to opposing views to hers which makes her character insufferable and generally just irritating. I would not recommend this book.
This book discusses the events from the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine up to the publish date. The author is a journalist and was based in Russian and Ukraine throughout his career. It is clear that the author is a really good writer and this book very much reads as a novel rather than a fiction book. The focus of this book is on the people affected. Saying that I enjoyed reading this book feels weird but I like how this book was written and I learnt a lot about what has happened throughout the years. Of course, the war is still ongoing so it will be interesting to read books/news after it is over. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone. The only thing I did not like was that there was not really a bibliography. Therefore, it is hard to track some of the sources for the general information (obviously, we can only trust the author about the conversations he had with people in Ukraine). Especially because some of this is not general knowledge and if this book wants some longevity then I think it should have had a lot more sources to data or recorded interviews.
This book is written in German and has not been translated into English (from what I can see). It is also a kids book (pre-teens to teens). I read this as a recommendation from my German teacher after a discussion about personal finance. I actually enjoyed the book. The main lessons about money are split over the different chapters but the book reads like a novel. We follow the story of Kira and her new dog, Money as she tries to earn some money and manage it in a responsible way so that she can achieve her goals. As this is a children's book, the language is easy to understand; not just in terms of the book not being written in my mother tongue but also the explanations of various financial terms are clear. I think this book was a nice introduction to personal finance. Especially because of the demographic it is aimed for (people who just don’t know much about money); there is a lot to learn.
I enjoy reading controversial books. Despite some people thinking that it is better to ban or just not read books about ‘threatening’ topics, I think it is deeply important to get a better idea of the whole debate. I only heard about this book because of a new article about the author claiming she was very much ‘offensive’ and as a result, students were trying to block her from speaking at University events. I listened to her Oxford talk before reading the book although I definitely think it should be the other way round.
I do not claim to have much knowledge or even keep up with the latest issues with feminism, gender and social policy etc; which is why I like to read books like this that are written by professionals and who provide a large bibliography of source material for their work. This book in particular is focused on the issue of transgenderism in the UK (but it does make some references to other countries). It is very refreshing to see a book about these issues focused on the UK as the small amount of media I do tend to see is focused on the US (which, in my opinion, is a completely different world than the UK or Germany). I did not find this book to be hateful at all to any individual and found the author's reasoning pretty logical (both the logic was clearly explained and backed up with evidence). The only negative about this book is that it is written by a philosopher and the writing style is a bit more difficult; mainly because I think I am not used to this style of writing. I would say that the book is not meant for everyone as it is a bit more intellectually challenging but I also think that is the aim. This book made me question a lot of my own views and reasoning around the topics discussed. I can not imagine I would do more reading on this area but it does provide some food for thought and, probably, some interesting discussion points. I also never realised how deeply ingrained already certain charities are in UK politics (again I thought that concept was very American and not something in the UK). I would recommend this book to my friends; we all have different backgrounds and different experiences with gender identity so it would create an interesting conversation after we all read this book and discussed it.
The Digital Silk Road is an interesting and up-to-date book about the advancements in technology surrounding China and its relation to the ‘West’. This book is packed with interesting cases that gradually build on one another to bring it to the present day. With mentions of covid and Huawei. It speaks about some of the people and policies behind the advancements and what this could mean for different communities in America. I particularly found it interesting when the author was interviewing the rural areas in America and they did not really follow the uproar about using Huawei technology - something that is heavily policed now in 2023. The book contains a nice, big bibliography and is clearly well researched. Once again, it is heavily from a US perspective (it reads similar to Chip Wars, which I read earlier this year) but it is interesting nevertheless. Again, I wish I took notes while reading this but it was so dense that it would have been hard to know what to take notes on as all of it seemed relevant. I will probably refer back to this book soon and reread it. For a general audience, I would not recommend this book unless they are really interested in the interplay between politics and technology. I only say this because the chapters are very dense and, although well written, is not an easy read.
Amazon link - edition I brought Amazon link - full English version
I brought this book for a couple of euros from ebay after seeing a really good review. I did not, however, look at the edition I brought. I had brought a Penguin English reader text which I thought just meant there might be a few vocab explanations or chapter summary questions. So I read the book, all 98 pages of it, only to discover that actually this was a very shortened version of the book and the original is over 500 pages long with a lot more detail and story. Ignoring this fact, the book was nice and, somewhat obviously, was an easy short read. I do not know if I will go back and read the original now that I know what happens but maybe in the future.
This book has not been translated into English (from what I could find) which is sad because it serves as a useful guide for women with Adhd or for people who know women with Adhd. The book covers various aspects around adhd, involving: what it means for women who have adhd, why it is often missed in girls, what to do about certain traits, offers of therapies that might be suitable etc etc. This book offered a lot of breath over what it means to have adhd and what support there is for those who have it (or the parent of a child). I like the mention of how modern media can try to convince people of the ‘best ways to deal with adhd’ or that ‘adhd is only beneficial’ etc and break down what this means and how an individual can deal with this advice. Overall this book was very informative and I learnt a lot. I don’t personally know any women with adhd but I still wanted to read about it because it is now common knowledge how different medicine can be for women and men. The German language used was easy for me to understand; the few things I had to look up were purely because I did not know what they meant having translated it into English. But I would say the book is very accessible and I would recommend it.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I saw it online as being the ‘it’ book at the moment and thought it would be fun reading a fantasy book after so many non-fiction books. This book was fast paced and had lots of action and entertaining scenes. I usually do not like young adult books (and I especially don’t like romance books) but I could see the appeal of this genre - it is very easy to read and is just generally entertaining. The characters were not too young (as in some YA books) so it felt more real and less cringe than listening to teenage angst. I also never knew that rom-antasy is a book genre! However, the book was completely predictable. Everything that happened was super obvious but nevertheless, I will be reading the next book when it comes out. This book definitely doesn't rival popular fantasy like Game of Thrones etc but it is for a younger audience and I did read it quickly because I found it fun.
I think this book was originally written in English but I can not find the original version. At first glance, I thought this was a short, funny story. And it does start off that way but after a few chapters, it loses the rhythm it had at the beginning. The story is interesting as we follow the protagonist through her story but it was not what I was expecting from this book. The language is fairly easy to understand but I still think it is aimed at a tech based audience. The issue of certain technology only accepting goods from certain brands is also extremely relevant (my example: hp printers not accepting unofficial printer ink). I would recommend this book to someone who works in the tech space - it is a short read in which the premise is very relevant to modern life.
Amazon link This was a chonk of a book that discussed issues of past trauma and how it can affect every aspect of your life. At the beginning, I found this book really interesting; the studies on the effect of upbringing and even fertility rates. Then it went into women having autoimmune issues and how a lot of these can be caused or just made worse by keeping on to this past trauma. I also liked how at the beginning of the book, it very clearly explained what real trauma is and what it is not; giving a backhand to the overuse of the word in certain areas of media. However, near the end of the book my opinion greatly altered. While this book has a very lengthy bibliography (of which, I have not looked up many of the sources at the time of writing this), most of the claims seem logical and are backed up from research (plus many anecdotes). But by the end of the book, the author talked about a case where a woman cured her cancer by just dealing with her past trauma and then also the use of certain recreational drugs and meditation retreats to heal these wounds. While I am not saying this is impossible, it certainly made me cringe and made the book feel a lot less credible. It felt like the last few chapters were about these very controversial issues and the rest of the book was just a build up to what the author really wanted to say. After reading this, I am a lot more sceptical than I was at the beginning. I will have to do some more research into the legitimacy of this book and the author himself. Because of this, I would not recommend this book. I think there are many other books that take the main message of this book (i.e. working on past traumas important, meditation can help and avoiding unhealthy situations etc) without going into the depths of pseudoscience.
This was a great read. I really enjoyed seeing the author's knowledge of linguistics embedded into a historical fantasy story. The characters were really well thought out and for a stand alone fantasy book, it had a lot of depth to it. It was a very long book but I think it was needed to really flesh out the story and the history. I have also never really seen footnotes used in a fiction book before which were sometimes confusing because it was difficult to tell if it was just part of the story or genuine information. The fantasy element of the book was very unique and not something I have read before and it blended really nicely with the messaging of the book. Kuang writes really nicely about the different points of view of colonisation during the 1800 in a way that is appropriate for a fictional book. Very slow burn but worth it. I didn't feel the massive range of emotions that I saw some people online had but after finishing it, I remember thinking how much of a good book this is. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fantasy.
I really did not enjoy this book, for multiple reasons I will outline below:
The book reads like the author has got a load of pamphlets on mental health from the doctor and put them together. The writing is not consistent and it doesn’t really go beyond the surface levels of what codependency is or how to treat it. This is made even more apparent by the pages and pages of bullet points of notes. It felt that sometimes she was trying to fill a word count as a lot of information was repeated.
A heavy religious tone is used throughout this book. I should have assumed this when at the first mention of Alcoholics Anonymous and while for some, it should not be a problem, I don’t like reading psychology books where there is a too heavy emphasis on trusting ‘the higher power’.
The author's attitude to people who have various problems (not codependency but maybe alcohol addiction, anxiety, OCD, PTSD etc) is really negative and also very dismissive. While I understand that this book is to help those in the care of people with problems, the author really quickly dismisses the biggest problem that is there. Saying things like “they don’t love themselves” I think is a gross oversimplification (of which she doesn’t follow up with further clarification).
This book was said to be the revised edition of an old book but it honestly reads like something my grandma would read in the 90’s and maybe take one tip out of. The surface level of understanding that can be gained from this book is not something I enjoy. Maybe it is just because this book is not aimed at me but I think there are much better books on the market that can help with these issues. The book was very easy to read though and I can see that being a big benefit for those struggling with codependency. I would not recommend this book. I think the same information can come from a google search to the NHS website or something similar.
Amazon Link I usually never read romance books, simply because I do not find them interesting. I was recommended this author because she is an actual scientist and all her romance books are science themed. I am not sure what normal romance books are like but this was mildly entertaining. The romance itself was a bit over the top but the other themes throughout the book were fun (e.g. graduate admissions, employment bureaucracy etc). The ending was super far fetched and felt like the author needed something to just round up the story. I am glad I read it though and if it at least just normalises science based careers for young women then I am happy with it.
Amazon link This was a great read! I have not read a real fantasy book in some time and I forgot how much I enjoyed them. The world building and the characters are really in depth and now I am super invested into their story line. I will most likely start the next book this year and gradually read it throughout 2024. I very much enjoyed how the character is learning the rule of the tower of Babel just as the audience are. Also the idea of how human relationships are tested within the tower is very thought provoking. There are a few dry parts of the story but these are necessary for the build up. I would recommend this book.
A slightly dated book now but still equally interesting. I knew a lot of the information already because a lot of the propaganda around going vegan is about agriculture and its affect on the planet but actually learning the names of some of these companies and the wider impact it has on the economy was interesting. It also had me laughing at myself in various parts of the book because some of it felt so naive to me (as a vegan). For example, explaining how bad animal agriculture is for the environment and the people who work in these industries and yet only including a few lines about animal welfare/rights. All the while, the author still encourages us to eat local produce and that we should defund these major corporations… my reaction to this is just to not eat meat at all. But this book was 2008 and I appreciate that using labels like vegan is not the best way to get the message across or encourage people to eat less meat. Also the research in chapter on soya felt a bit dated and fear mongering in comparison to the other chapters. However, I still think this was a good read and is the first step for those who have no idea about the impact or history of food systems on people and the planet.
I didn't realise that this book is the follow up from another book and as such, don't think I got the full value out of it. Having said that, I did enjoy the message and ethos behind the ‘pirate’ way. This book was more of a case study from those who had read the first book and acted on its principles, which was very fun to read about. Very short and quick to read. I might go back and read the original next. A bit political at some points but I think you could guess that by the topic and themes in this book.
It's a pretty slow read. I will finish it at some point because the topic is new and interesting to me but I wanted to read more enjoyable books at the time of starting this one. 150/250 pages read.
Honestly, it is not that interesting. I was actually excited to read this book as I have only read good reviews but I found that most of the text was written in unnecessary metaphors that did not really add to the advice. Finished chapter 3
Interesting book but was just feeling something simpler at the time. Will continue shortly.
Very interesting book but also very dense. I am not used to reading such historical books so I think it is better to space this book out over time. About ⅓ through the book.
Interesting theme but also a very heavy topic when life is very busy. Will pick up shortly. Finished 1st section.
A fun small book. I pick it up when I want some useful procrastination. Wil finish eventually. Halfway finished.