Daniel Mulhern Inc

Real + Inpiring

Reviewed: 07-19-24

There's almost nothing in here that will surprise you about Barack Obama. It's very likely that you'll read this because you already like him, And after listening to the stories, you'll like him even more. What's amazing about the book is that though each person's story is a very positive story and traces very similar story lines with the others, each story is unique. In this way it's a story of america. The last chapter is specifically about immigration, and that chapter lays a perfect capstone for the rest of the story that's been built.
The book really could have been called E Pluribus Unum, because it's really about the dream of America, the promise of America and that anybody can end up in the White House. And, yes, Obama did! And so did these remarkable people, each doing their small part to make democracy work. I'm not a sappy guy at all, and I'm white and old and straight and Christian, but I'm not too much of any of those things not to have been incredibly inspired by these young "diverse" people. I especially loved hearing them read their own stories. Literally hearing them find their voices! and our inspiring New American voices. God bless them all.

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how a biologist can be an incredible philologist

Reviewed: 07-16-24

What is not to like? With so many phenomenal books, and audible crediting me once a month, it's so tempting not to finish a book. But not finishing this would have been like not finishing a year. How could you do that? How would you do that? And why would you do that?
I am decidedly not a scientist, but I can hardly have been more fascinated than through this tour of ecology and biology and physiology. this was just a wonderful trip through Gardens and woods and all kinds of places that I know nothing about, but I felt like I smell the smells, got the dirt under my fingernails, and gingerly pull that some things that were kind of like roots.
My only regret is not being able to tell this gentleman to his face how grateful I am for all the work he did with woods and words and worldwide webs and wood wild webs. wonderful!

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more Steve more Steve! (less Adam)

Reviewed: 11-16-23

I really did not know the incredible range of Steve Martin's artistic life period I enjoyed hearing that a lot. if you listen to this, expect to hear at least as much of the interviewer as of steve. I felt this a little bit even when the Great Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paul Simon for that audiobook. let the guy tell his story. it just feels a little weird when somebody is interpreting at the very moment that the subject can explain themselves to you. why is somebody telling me what Paul Simon thinks or what Steve Martin thinks, when they're sitting right there? call me old-fashioned, but I think the interview is the frame, and in this case it gets way into the portrait itself.

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1 person found this helpful

Deep and beautiful

Reviewed: 10-26-23

the voice in 95% of the book belongs to Mirabai Bush. she tells the story beautifully and quotes Ram Dass in well over half of the book. it is both shared and sharing: wisdom, love, and a lot of laughter. mirabai does a wonderful job of reading it so that you feel like you're in the room with the two of them and with their other friends who come in and out. her voice, both literally and figuratively, is quite wonderful: light, humble, belying the profundity of her own thought, and always both so respectful and tender toward her friend teacher and fellow learner. altogether wonderful.

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a great month of listening

Reviewed: 01-23-23

this is an amazing look into the life , thought and feelings of a psychological profit. it's remarkable how independent Young's thinking was, how extraordinarily personal, and yet how we used it to draw extraordinary connections to what binds us together as people. his ideas were incredibly radical for his time, but they pre-saged so much of what guides us now.
the relationship with Freud is also just so incredibly interesting. it's so personal and one more demonstration of how truth is more amazing than fiction.
the reader is fantastic. perhaps too good! one wishes they could hear Carl Gustav Jung's own voice. but one is never bored listening to this narrator. and he does an amazing job with writing that is beautiful yet also difficult.

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a great month of listening

Reviewed: 01-23-23

this is an amazing look into the life , thought and feelings of a psychological profit. it's remarkable how independent Young's thinking was, how extraordinarily personal, and yet how we used it to draw extraordinary connections to what binds us together as people. his ideas were incredibly radical for his time, but they pre-saged so much of what guides us now.
the relationship with Freud is also just so incredibly interesting. it's so personal and one more demonstration of how truth is more amazing than fiction.
the reader is fantastic. perhaps too good! one wishes they could hear Carl Gustav Jung's own voice. but one is never bored listening to this narrator. and he does an amazing job with writing that is beautiful yet also difficult.

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Rarely does a book keep getting better

Reviewed: 07-24-22

This is an exceptional book for what he calls "strivers" or we might call "over-achievers.." This is a deep dude, and the book keeps deepening.
I'm going to send it to about 10 men - and perhaps a couple women - because it speaks so powerfully to the ways in which a society that drove us to excel set us up for marginalization.
The best book I've read in years.

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Men: get through the first few chapters!

Reviewed: 07-01-22

I thoroughly loved this book. as someone who is both in therapy and in a mentoring role as a coach and a professor, I found enormous value in the parallel stories she threads together. the title of my review has to do with the fact that the first couple chapters feel like a whole lot of girl talk. I have no trouble with women talking to other women! I grew up with three sisters all within 2 years of me in age and I love them dearly. but women speak differently to women often than they do to men. I'm so glad I got past this. there's a lot here for men for women, for parents, for those in grief or in sickness. ( I wonder if Miss Pressley who reads the book feels like she's reading it to men as well as women. Perhaps that's what triggered my wanting to put it down. anyway, maybe it's just my problem and I'm glad I got through that discomfort. )

Ms Gottlieb does a wonderful job of telling a lively story, like a great TV series. at times I proverbially did not want to put it down. but I also enjoyed the pleasure of casually stretching it over a few weeks of reading. it's not taxing. yet she invites you into some deeper themes andthe character(s') development was convincing and kept me coming back. I'll buy it for friends and family, for those in therapy, those who are therapists and those who are both.

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Beware the dark tale

Reviewed: 10-08-21

Styron reports his gruesome struggle with the disease in a voice that mirrors it. This is a somber read. It feels mostly lifeless, despite an ending (which I shall not share so as not to spoil it), that offers some light. The writing is honest. Clinical at times. Perhaps a bit dated in terms of pharmacology and Psychotherapy.
Although he repeatedly shares that each of us experiences depression in vastly different ways, if one is feeling down when reading this book, you can expect to go further down. I felt he shined SOME light into some of my own struggles, but the book is largely IN the Darkness. What does it mean to make Darkness visible? ...as the title professes? it feels more accurate to say that this is a stumble through the darkness. There's a lot of tripping, banging into walls, and just giving up.
In my own struggles with depression and in my escapes from its darkest stretches, it's passion that made - and continues to makes the difference. Experiencing the broken heart, crying the wracking tears oh, and being held. Styron gives so little of this, making you wonder if it was even present. in the end, he writes as though he has escaped the darkness, the kind of once and for all. To me it seems unbelievable. Is there a PostScript? He lived another 17 years. Did he write more about depression? Did it never return? needless to say, he leaves you with a lot of questions.

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1 person found this helpful

Great range - loses momentum

Reviewed: 09-17-21

This book has a great range - pun intended - of research, stories and applications. The strength is the central theme, which is fascinating. Three domains are especially well-covered. These include a searing critique of parents. And very thought provoking challenges to academic and research organizations. The third group- more frequently covered by others is creativity and innovation.
Although I finished the book, it ran out of steam. Not unlike most popular books the last third or 70 pages are marginally useful.
He might have shared a bit more of the limits to his thinking. Because it is so sweeping, we are left with little sense of the limits to his thesis (golf and chess examples, notwithstanding.

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