I expected laughs coming out of my butt and instead I got a relative dud. I did not see that coming!
I am a fan of Amy Schumer, yes warts and all*, andI expected laughs coming out of my butt and instead I got a relative dud. I did not see that coming!
I am a fan of Amy Schumer, yes warts and all*, and so I expected to love this book. Her show is hilarious, her stand-up is good stuff, and I really enjoyed her movie Trainwreck...or A Girl Without Complexes as it is known in Russia. This book, however, does not meet expectations.
The subject matter is hit and miss. I really enjoyed when she got on the topic of her show or movie. There was some snort-laugh-worthy material in her dating stories. I wasn't so interested in her stuffed animals, though, and didn't feel like they needed a full chapter of their own. There is a lot of time spent on her mom and dad, who are honestly more interesting people than Amy comes off as in this book.
She's just not a truly wild and crazy gal. While it didn't make for an exciting read, it was interesting to find out that she's actually an introvert of sorts who forces herself to perform. She'd be more at home spending most nights, well, at home. She's a movie-on-the-couch-in-PJs-with-a-bowl-of-brownie-mix kind of date night girl. And I don't hate on that! Hell, that sounds like heaven to me. Problem is, when you're writing an autobiography and that's the kind of a material you're working with, the book ain't gonna thrill ya.
Amy is also not a terribly dynamic reader. There isn't a lot of life in her reading voice. I chose to listen to this in audiobook format, because I feel like you should always read a comedian's book that way. They're writing about themselves, they're natural performers, this is right up their alley! Well, looks like I have to amend my "always" when it comes to comedians' audiobook narration. Schumer sounded like she was on valium a third of the time, bored to death during another third, and on top of things and engaged for the third third.
Now, I've bagged on this book for most of this review, but in fairness, it's not horrible. Yes, it did take more than a month to get through seven cds, which is an astronomical amount of time for such a short book. However, I have read worse and this doesn't come close. As a Schumer fan, let's just say I was let down. I expected a laugh-riot and was surprised when I didn't get it. That doesn't mean there isn't merit herein. It just means I set the bar too high.
* Mostly I'm talking about the few a-holes that have dug up her past and tried to throw it in her face. Others claim she's stealing jokes. I've looked into it, and to me this just sounds like jealousy and sour grapes. The rumors and accusations I've seen have all been from dudes and the ax they're grinding stinks of fear, as if they're afraid vaginas have invaded and will one day rule the world if dudes don't whip out their penises and beat them back!...more
Expecting a comedic Shit My Dad Says diversion? Keep moving. Not Becoming My Mother is not the book you're looking for.
Having read another of food criExpecting a comedic Shit My Dad Says diversion? Keep moving. Not Becoming My Mother is not the book you're looking for.
Having read another of food critic Ruth Reichl's books, I rashly assumed this too would be light-hearted and humorous. It's not. In fact, it's a rather depressing look at the repression that became the keystone of her mother's life. Instead of quirky-funny stories about a mad-capped mom as might be expected by the first few pages, the reader is treated to sad tales of psychotherapy and antidepressant drug addiction.
While not a hoot of a read by any means, this is an insightful cautionary tale, the sort to give any feminist the willies. Ruth's mother grew up in a time when American women fought for suffrage rights, were not allowed into the male-dominated business world, tasted the ironic freedom of hard labor during WWII, and then had it taken away and replaced with the surprising drudgery of doing absolutely nothing. A life of idle boredom was the spoils of war for middle class women in America, and the long, slow death of Ruth's once creative and ambitious mother.
Through discovered letters, Ruth pieces together her mother's past, learning the hows and whys behind her mother's odd behavior. Not Becoming My Mother is at times touching and heartbreaking. It is also short and feels a tad perfunctory, like a feature story Reichl the journalist extended beyond the normal allotted newspaper article word count. ...more
What the hell? This wasn't half as horrible as I thought it was going to be.
I read these naughty little things for the LOLs, but this one didn't make What the hell? This wasn't half as horrible as I thought it was going to be.
I read these naughty little things for the LOLs, but this one didn't make me laugh. And get this, I got a stiffy, too!
I think part of the problem stems from my own ignorance. I thought "BBW" meant this:
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But apparently it just refers to beautiful overweight women, which I enjoy, but not in the same way.
I wanted to read about large sassy black shewolf shapechangers. Instead what I got was a werewolf unaware of herself and having the wolf within her suppressed in a cruel way by her parents. SPOILER: She gets saved and satisfied by a male from a pack, who shows her the ways of lurve.
The fantasy part was a little weak. The writer keeps talking about how they're magical, but we never see magic. We don't get much werewolfing around in this episode either, but then again, it is the intro to the series.
We do however get a lot of sexing around. A LOT. About three fourths of the book describes a single sexual encounter. Granted it's the first time for the female, so it's a tender moment that needs the writer's TLC.
As for the writing, it could've been better, but overall it wasn't bad. So why the low rating? Well technically two stars means "it was okay" but you see the thing is, I can't give this a higher rating than what I gave, say, a Jane Austen book. This may not have been as horribly written as this things generally are, but honey, this ain't Shakespeare. ...more
This is the story of Highclere Castle at its prime. Specifically it focuses on Lady Almina, her husband Lord Carnarvon and their family.
As the subtitle suggests, Highclere is the impressive house better known to the world these days as Downton Abbey, and that is why this book exists.
There are marked similarities between what viewers of that hit television show will recognize and what actually happened at Highclere, especially during the Great War period, so DA fans will not be disappointed.
They may however be more bogged down with history than they expected. This is not a place you'll receive a full, erudite lecture upon Victorian and Edwardian England, but it is serviceable. In fact, the very beginning is somewhat hard to follow, what with the lords and ladies with their numerous names, often French or German in origin, that come out marble-mouthed, as if your tongue has been stewing in a vat of anesthesia. Those who relish pomp will delight in chapter one's description of a wedding and marriage that only money could buy. However, those same people are probably going to be exhausted by the history lesson, which is why they may not like this book and why I enjoyed it more than I expected.
I didn't have high hopes that there was going to be anything of substance herein. In fact, I'm surprised to be writing this review, never mind giving it 4 stars, because I figured I would've given the book up as a waste of time about halfway through. But I did read this smooth, yet workman-like book to the end and enjoyed its insights.
The Carnarvon family were aristocrats and part of me is sickened by their excesses...buuut then I remember I live in America, I recall the fairly privileged life I've led and it humbles me. Looking beyond the entitlement, you can't help but like these people for their charity, the part they played in the war, the many philanthropic efforts, etc etc. Yes, yes, they had plenty of money that they didn't "earn" so why shouldn't they should give it back. But not all of them did...or do. The way the system works, I guess we should be glad of the Bill Gateses of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26...).
Beyond all that, the family had long reaching contacts, not only in society and government, but in the world in general. There were fascinating connections to the Brideshead Revisited novelist Evelyn Waugh and the most incredible archaeological find of all time that made for interesting sidebars. I would've liked to have heard more about the building of the house and what it looks like on the inside, but then I suppose Fiona Carnarvon, the current lady of the house, didn't want to sap the tourism cash cow generated by visits to Highclere. Daily attendance must be through the roof lately!...more
At over 40, I thought I was finally mature enough to read Heather Has Two Mommies. I was wrong...
The whole time I was hoping Heather's mommies would mAt over 40, I thought I was finally mature enough to read Heather Has Two Mommies. I was wrong...
The whole time I was hoping Heather's mommies would make out. Hey, they're both milf material, especially if Mommie Kate lost that vest and mullet. But alas, no luck. This is such a safe book for the childrens. Sex hardly plays a part at all. There wasn't even any nudity, besides a little side-boob action when Mommie Jane went to the doctor's.
But it wasn't even good side boob like this... [image]
It had the arousal factor of side boob like this... [image]
No, Heather Has Two Mommies stays classy and sticks with the science. There's mention of the womb with a short description, for which I was thankful. Sperm is briefly alluded to, but what it is and where it comes from remain a mystery!
Look, I don't need a lesson in how babies are made. I received all the lesson I need when I was about 6 years old and my slightly older cousin explained to me, "The man puts his penis in the woman's vagina and pees." So yeah, I've got it all figured out...though why my wife never gets pregnant, I don't know. Maybe it's because of all those bladder infections. Anywhoodle, this book could've been a good deal more instructional and salacious!
The lesbian part is kind of glossed over. Obviously you can forget about any steamy, girl-on-girl action. But the fact that Heather is sans daddy, is touched upon in a way that basically says, hey that's just how it is and that's okay, and look, you've got two mommies, so how cool is that? Kids are adaptable, so telling them this is just how it is and not to worry about it is probably the best way to handle it. Loving, supportive parents are the important part.
Other than that, it's solid literature and the illustrations are fine. Well, I say "fine", but I do have a problem with the way Heather's dog is drawn. It looks more like a coyote than a house pet and so now that's the story I want to read, how Heather ended up with a coyote for a pet!...more
Strident yet understanding and always smart, Bottled Up is a thoughtful argument for chillaxing on the women that formula-feed their babies as opposedStrident yet understanding and always smart, Bottled Up is a thoughtful argument for chillaxing on the women that formula-feed their babies as opposed to breastfeeding them.
As the "Fearless Formula Feeders" blog master, Los Angeles Family Magazine Editor-in-Chief Suzanne Barston stands as a sort of champion for reluctant-but-proud bottle feeders and those women who wanted to breastfeed, but for whatever reason, can not. In Bottled Up she fights back - not against breastfeeding, but against the nonsense flung upon mothers who nourish their infants on formula, a product much maligned recently.
With Barston's own sad-but-humorously-relayed tale and those of others woven into the argument, the book is highly entertaining and more importantly, informative. In fact, the notes, reference and further reading section takes up nearly a fifth of this thoroughly researched book. The real life stories are suspenseful, hair-raising and even occasionally blood-chilling. In some instances, this hot topic has affected life and death situations. It's not all doom and gloom, however, as Barston interjects welcome wit and mood-lightening humor just enough to keep things from becoming too depressing.
As a baby-less, non-breastfeeding man, I can't say that I was too aware of the apparently vicious battle going on between the two camps. Certainly I knew that breastfeeding was considered the healthier choice, but having come from a time when pretty much all people my age (including myself I believe) were bottle-fed formula as infants, I didn't think it was such a big deal. IT IS! Holy Moses, there are some mean-ass ladies out there casting down condemnation and fiery vitriol upon women who would DARE feed their babies formula this day and age. Barston does a hell of a job countering their arguments with very valid reasons for why, in some circumstances, the correct choice is formula. I welcomed this informative look into a sub-world war, if you will, that someone in my position would normally not be privy to. ...more
Yeah, I'm reading a Maeve Binchy novel, what of it?! Seriously, why do I have this guilty/embarrassed feeling like *Currently reading* status update -
Yeah, I'm reading a Maeve Binchy novel, what of it?! Seriously, why do I have this guilty/embarrassed feeling like the time when my mom caught me looking at the lingerie section in the Sears catalogue?
*Read* review -
After hearing an author's name mentioned on the radio and seeing it pop up at shops and the library, there comes a point when I bow down to the coincidences of the world that are "telling me something" and finally read something by that author. Couple that with the fact that Maeve Binchy died just a month prior and if that's not enough to get one's attention, I don't know what is. I picked up Heart and Soul, it being the first thing handy. Well I can tell you, it was not the cozy Miss Marple mystery I was expecting from the things I'd heard.
It starts off with a headstrong woman taking over operations of a new heart clinic and the newly christened reader is led to believe that the plot will focus on the clinic's potential survival or failure. Not so, as the narrative soon shifts focus on to the relationships of an ensemble cast of characters and suddenly I felt like I was watching an episode of General Hospital. Will the charming doctor fall in love with the plucky nurse? Will the widower head-of-the-clinic settle for the boring guy or even relapse and take her cheating husband back? And what of that poor little ugly duckling/swan immigrant girl? Nothing too earth-shattering or even terribly titillating, but Binchy is a good enough writer to keep the reader's interest, mainly by keeping the story moving. Days and scenes pass within the brief mention of a sentence and that's just as well. No need to read the dull bits!
Will I be reading another Binchy novel? No. I have nothing against the relationship genre, but as the kids say, it's not my cup of tea....
This really makes you think...and wanna smoosh fuzzy faces!!! Yes, these cat-penned poems are structurally unsound (The iambic pentameter is a mess!),This really makes you think...and wanna smoosh fuzzy faces!!! Yes, these cat-penned poems are structurally unsound (The iambic pentameter is a mess!), but oh how ADORABLE! You really have to be quite impressed with their mastery of the English language, and did they dictate these or can they type as well? Oh the SQUEEE of it all!!!
Though perhaps this collection poses more questions than answers, it is thoroughly enjoyable. I mean, to see into the inner thoughts of a feline and really feel their true emotions is something special. But don't take my word for it...
"I Lick Your Nose"
I lick your nose I lick your nose again I drag my claws down your eyelids Oh, you're up? Feed me
The popular fame obtained by this book and its subsequent movie version starring Scarlett Johansson...
*two hours laI CAN'T SHOUT "MEH!" LOUD ENOUGH!!!
The popular fame obtained by this book and its subsequent movie version starring Scarlett Johansson...
*two hours later*
(Sorry, I was daydreaming)...had me expecting a tumultuous romance, a grab-ya and hold-ya reading experience. But this...I don't know what this was, but it wasn't exciting in the least.
Girl With a Pearl Earring is about a maid, who becomes a model, who gets her picture painted and attracts the notice of a few men. The painter is famous, so that's interesting. His patron is rich, of course, and expects to get what he wants, so there's your villain...kind of.
Really, our protagonist's main enemy is jealousy. But that enemy's effectiveness is quashed by another force: money. And that leaves us with a less dramatically, emotionally affecting book.
I read through to the end, expecting something bigger to happen the whole way, but even though it never did, I did still manage to get through it all, so there's something to be said for that.
In the end, however, this book has to say about as much as does a picture of a beautiful woman. Not much.
In related news... My overly sensitive and irrational wife would like me to take down my Johansson picture collage homage from the ceiling over our bed. But as I've explained, ScarJo needs the support of her #1 fan!
You've probably never heard of The Other Boleyn Girl. It's not very popular. I think a movie got made out of it, but I doubt anyone watched it.
Those aYou've probably never heard of The Other Boleyn Girl. It's not very popular. I think a movie got made out of it, but I doubt anyone watched it.
Those are the kind of lies, mistruths and distortions that one person can perpetuate when they don't check their facts or worse, intentionally distort the facts. But more on that later.
The Other Boleyn Girl is the story of Mary Boleyn, the could've-been-queen courtier during King Henry VIII's tumultuous reign.
Little is known about Mary, other than that she was the sister of one of the most well-known women in all of history. This is a historical fiction writer's DREAM! She is a malleable, yet important figure orbiting world-changing events. A crafty author can do a lot with just such a character.
Philippa Gregory decided to turn her into the tool of the Boleyns. Mary is offered up by her parents and pushed ahead like a pawn by her ambitious uncle in the Boleyn/Howard campaign for power. She is assisted by her brother and sister, who later set her aside after the king's done with her, in order to put Anne on the throne. Mary's portrait as painted by Gregory is a sympathetic one indeed.
Did Gregory charge her palette with true colors? It's said that she likes to do historical research. Me, I like historical fiction that's well researched. I don't like it when a writer does a little research, latches on to something like an archaic term or whatever, and then proceeds to use that thing in their novel like it's going out of bloody style! (If I ever hear the word stomacher again, it'll be too damn soon!) Simply adding the occasional period piece decor and nothing more does not make a good read in this genre.
I doubt that much historical accuracy was attended to in the making of this book. There are notable inaccuracies. I'll give you one. Mary was not the baby of the family as Gregory asserts, but rather the eldest of the three siblings.
But we've got to be honest with ourselves as readers. Factual history must sometimes be set aside, because that's not what's important in this genre. The Other Boleyn Girl isn't a textbook, it's a novel. It's meant to entice and titillate. Dramatic effect and setting the mood is more important than "getting it right". Taken for what it is, this book excels. At times, it's exciting and tense. At times, it pulls at the heart. There are moments when this is drama at its best.
However, taken as a whole, this is not Gregory's best work. The occasionally amateurish writing made me think it was her first published work, but it's not. I read something by her published ten years after this and her writing showed marked improvement, the nuggets from her historical research were inserted more smoothly and everything felt a good deal tighter. This mammoth book on the other hand feels ponderous. At one point I thought to myself, "I bet she wishes she could have a redo on this one," but that ain't gonna happen since everybody and their grandma has read it. ...more
Why read The Joy Luck Club? Because sometimes one needs to get in touch with his inner Chinese feminine side.
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Amy Tan's most famous book offereWhy read The Joy Luck Club? Because sometimes one needs to get in touch with his inner Chinese feminine side.
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Amy Tan's most famous book offered ample opportunity in that regard. The JLC is all about the relationships between Chinese moms and their daughters.
Honestly, I picked this up as part of my studies into Chinese culture. My brother has been teaching English over there for a few years now and I plan on visiting one day. As per usual, I like to read up on a place before the trip. Some people say that spoils the surprise, but I feel like I get more out of the visit that way. There always seems to be plenty of surprises when you travel to the other side of the world, regardless of the prep work.
Was this useful for Chinese studies? Not 100%. The stories herein, which are no doubt heavily indebted to Tan's personal experiences, are not only fictional, but they're also about the Chinese-American experience. A good deal of the book takes place in the U.S. There are many old world/home land stories and Tan does an excellent job including and describing Chinese customs and traditions. It's just that most of the time they are tainted or at least touched by the hand of the West.
The relationships themselves and how they play out is, for the most part, satisfying. Emotions sometimes run high and occasionally over. There are laughs to be had in everyday misunderstandings. The characters may be foreign to me, but were nevertheless utterly relatable. After all, most everyone has a parent-child relationship to relate to. My own relationship with my mother was, for better or worse, close. I may not be a woman or Chinese, but that hardly matters, as nothing was lost in Tan's translation of the mother-child bond.
Read it. Enjoyed it. Any day now I expect to be entirely swallowed up by my own home-grown vagina.
If you've read The Help, you don't need to read thiRead it. Enjoyed it. Any day now I expect to be entirely swallowed up by my own home-grown vagina.
If you've read The Help, you don't need to read this. One contemporary coming of age book about a white southern girl amongst black women discovering life in 1960s is plenty.
Sue Monk Kidd's explosively popular (I'm going to go out on a very sturdy limb and guess that this was an Oprah book) The Secret Life of Bees is a perfectly enjoyable read that any mother would love. Oh the imagery, the ambiance, the estrogen! Halfway through I wanted nothing more than to curl up in my cardy on the couch with a cuppa herbal something-or-other and sip the sweet nectar of these succulent words. They flowed like honey: sweet, warm, and slow…
Oh so slow at times. There are only two or three moments in the 300+ pages that woke me from the pleasant droning (get it? the bees?) that entrances, captivating the reader's mind and attention. The soft ideas about religion, love and the mother-daughter bond hum against your ears, the buzz of thought never going beyond a distant whirring zzzzzzzz....more
The Help turned out to be more compelling than I expected.
The knocks on it pointed towards a privileged-white-girl-saves-black-woman plot pandering tThe Help turned out to be more compelling than I expected.
The knocks on it pointed towards a privileged-white-girl-saves-black-woman plot pandering to the white need to feel better about USA's racial segregation issue right up until the recent past. That element is perhaps present, but more of Stockett's novel is told through the voice of black domestic servants. Their minds are freed to ponder their own form(s) of bondage. Their personal lives are developed, but it is mainly their interactions with the white women they serve that is the focus.
I wasn't counting, but at least I think more pages were spent on the black pov, rather than the white. That said, much of The Help is indeed about a privileged white girl. She's college educated and a more progressive thinker than her southern belle friends. Is this fair? No, but Stockett does mix in enough variations on the theme and in the characters, presenting the various intermittent shades between right and wrong thinking on the subject. Even so, is this stereotyping? Yes. Is that fair? Yes...but that's just my opinion.
Another knock on the book is that while (view spoiler)[bad things do happen, everything is tied up Disney-style with happy endings for all good-hearted folk, aside from a minor character or two the reader couldn't care less about. The baddies get their due and the good'uns live happily ever after. (hide spoiler)]
But even with all that, I still found The Help utterly readable. The descriptions are full of color and the language occasionally dabbing at poetic. As a whole, Stockett created a cake of a novel that is very sweet, difficult to stop consuming and enjoyable to the last. ...more
"I can not but think good horsemanship has a great deal to do with the mind." Jane Austen always did a great job of planting ridiculous declarations i"I can not but think good horsemanship has a great deal to do with the mind." Jane Austen always did a great job of planting ridiculous declarations in the mouths of characters she wished to discredit. Character was her strong suit and there's some good'uns here in.
Within Mansfield Park there are characterizations so delicate and actions of importance utterly unassuming. Some seem meaningless in their modesty. Excellent work by a diligent author. Dangerous pitfalls for the casual reader.
The whole novel overall moves along steadily with a dim flash of excitement here or a trying time there, never altering much above or below its middling pace. That's not a ringing endorsement, but nor is it condemnation. No, this is condemnation...
There is too much time taken up in mundane description: the planning of a play that never comes off, for one. Oh yes, certainly the play held importance in that it provided Austen a stage to showcase her principal players. But could that not have been accomplished with another scene, one that drives the narrative with more force?
Fanny Price, our heroine is too prudish to warm up to, and the main object of her - I'd say "desire," but that's putting it far stronger than Austen did - is a man setting himself up for a parson's life. They are both a couple of moral, goodie-two-shoes and you long for some mild vice to surface and show them to be human.
Heros and villains appear on the scene too obviously. Hovering halos and black hats are almost more than imaginary. Some 'gray area' is introduced in the main "villain," but it's slight and see-through. Intentionally so? Yes, but it could've been handled with more art and the skill Austen showed she possessed in other works.
The end is wrapped up all too quickly and with criminal simplicity tantamount to saying, "I don't like her after all, I like you, so let's get married!" An end which left this reader shrugging his shoulders at a pleasant enough diversion that he'd wished had more pride or even sensibility. ...more
Talk about persuasion! In Jane Austen's Persuasion our hero and heroine are neither interesting nor do they have an obvious magnetic attraction for onTalk about persuasion! In Jane Austen's Persuasion our hero and heroine are neither interesting nor do they have an obvious magnetic attraction for one another. As readers we always knew they'd get together in the end, and yet we're still glad they do. That's the power of Jane Austen's persuasion!
Unlike in some of Austen's better work, there is a twist, but not much of a triangle. And I felt the twist to be more Bronte-esque, as in the revealing of a horrible secret. Persuasion lacks a complicated plot, and what it does have doesn't come even remotely close to that of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. There's plenty of irritating busybodies, ala Emma, but Austen thankfully refrained from making them too irritating. No, here there is a good balance of silly characters and solid salts-of-the-earth.
On a personal note, I found it refreshing to read so much about the navy in this book. During the Napoleonic Wars, in which Britain fought France over two decades, their superior navy was an integral part of their eventual success. Some of Austen's books are meant to take place during this tumultuous time and yet the war is hardly ever mentioned. Occasionally the female characters will fawn over some officer or other, but that's about it. In Persuasion, a naval captain is our heroine's love interest, an admiral takes lodging at her stately home and numerous other gentlemen of the navy fill out the periphery. Heck, a ship or two is even referred by name! I don't demand, or even think a book whose focus is meant to be on women finding love should be all about what the men are doing during a war, but it's nice to see that the women at least realize their country is at war, as it's nice to see Austen was not completely insensible of it either. It is quite correct that she should devote the bulk of her work to describing the home front war women of her society fought...the war to conquer a suitable man. ...more
Being the older sibling, while growing up I often felt like I was shoved into the role of being the sensible one, the reasonable one, t Call me Elinor.
Being the older sibling, while growing up I often felt like I was shoved into the role of being the sensible one, the reasonable one, the responsible one. That is how I was seen. That is what people believed of me. Underneath the skin of the rational, reserved tut-tutter writhed an often non-sensical, unreasonable, irresponsible being. But it took the occurrence of extreme circumstances for others to see it.
Such is the life of Elinor Dashwood, the elder sister in a small, displaced family of all females. It is her younger, flightier sister Marianne who seems to grab life by the balls. By all outward appearances, Marianne is the feeling one.
Revealing the depths of the true feelings these two sisters experience, whether on their sleeves or behind seemingly impenetrable layers of veils, is the goal Jane Austen set herself in Sense and Sensibility, and she achieved it spectacularly. With alternately bold and subtle strokes, the author created a masterwork of intricate design. One criticism might be that the design is too delicate in places (a cracked block or two out of the many solid ones upon which the premiss is built or too much of a reliance on happenstance), but it is not enough to deter from the overall achievement: Austen's triumphant capture of human behavior and that odd incarnation of emotion in early 19th century Britain....more
In The Female Brain, neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine uses clinical research and the experience of counseling patients to examine how the many In The Female Brain, neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine uses clinical research and the experience of counseling patients to examine how the many various hormones flowing through a woman's body may affect their actions and behavior. It covers the emotional development and brain processes of women through the various stages of their lives, beginning at the beginning with childhood, moving through the tumultuous teens and the horror that is puberty and progress through womanhood into old age.
The use of science to dissect human behavior is tricky since our moods, reactions, etc are slippery little fish. Brizendine's use of animal research raises validity questions (I.E. rats are not humans, so how can it apply?), however she is the first to admit that none of this is 100% pure, unadulterated fact. Just the same, there are some insights within The Female Brain that appear to be highly probable cause-effect truths, and even if they're not, this whole subject is still very fascinating!
Hard science it is not. Not all the way through. This is a book for the layman. It's simplified and generalized. Sweeping statements are made about entire genders. Which is not to say the doctor believes "all" women do this or that. She just doesn't keep reminding the reader of the exceptions.
Regardless, I found the entire book entertaining and, admittedly, quite a bit of it to be enlightening, as I imagine it might be to most men. Even some women would do well to give this a read, because how often do you hear yourself say something like, "Sometimes I just don't understand my mother/daughter!"?...more
A Cinderella romance that unexpectedly swept me away! Memoirs of a Geisha is a very picturesque and dramatic tale of a young village girl taken from hA Cinderella romance that unexpectedly swept me away! Memoirs of a Geisha is a very picturesque and dramatic tale of a young village girl taken from her family and raised in Kyoto as a geisha.
Usually I don't go in for romance. Don't get me wrong, I love love. But I prefer my love stories to be true. There is something immensely powerful about real love. As far as I've been able to discover, much of this story is based on the actual events of the life of former geisha Mineko Iwasaki. Why do I think so? She sued Golden for defamation of character. Apparently he included details she'd told him during their interviews that were not meant for print. Well, that's good enough for me!
I was dazzled by the details and enchanted by the well-paced plot. It's not for everyone, but if you liked the movie version you shouldn't be disappointed by the book, being that the two are identical in most ways.
Around the time I read Memoirs... I got the chance to visit Kyoto and made a point, as many tourists do, of seeking out the Gion District. The preservation of the area makes it worth the effort and cost of traveling in Japan. Almost medieval in its narrowness, the main historical road is a delight to behold, with its architecture and decor stuck in time as it is and the occasional geisha shuffling to and from buildings. I highly encourage a visit. Go when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Go see a tea ceremony. Just go. You'll be glad you did....more
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