Martha

Provocative

Reviewed: 10-20-20

Kudos to Ilgunas for having the insight and the perseverance to make it through his journey and write this book. Having had my own experiences with debt, I appreciate his struggle. He raises important questions both for individuals and society.
However, his obsession with not making use of an important tool is not freedom. He is often preachy, and he seems unaware that transferring basic expenses to someone else's bills or to a non-cash basis doesn't make them go away.
Community cooperation around the use of important resources is important, as is individual discipline with self-indulgent consumerism. Ilgunas raises these issues, but doesn't offer much in the way of moving us toward shared solutions.

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Just Simply Beautiful

Reviewed: 06-30-19

This is one of the ten most beautiful books I have ever read. While the first, "A River Runs Through It," the basis of the movie, is often referenced, the last one, "USFS 1919" totally blew me away. The language, the writing, the perception, insights into the natural world and human nature, and the way they are all interwoven, it is just simply astonishing. This is not a book to read once and then move on, it is one to savor and linger over, returning to time and time again. It is deep. It reminds me a lot of Annie Dillard, "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" -- if you liked one, you will love the other.

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9 people found this helpful

A Beautiful Book

Reviewed: 11-09-18

Explains the customs of Halloween in an engaging story. Stunning descriptions, vivid imagination, and an ending so beautiful it made me cry. Should be required reading for everyone who ever put on a costume. Suitable for children, though too long and conceptual for the very young.

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1 person found this helpful

Mostly Just Boring

Reviewed: 03-26-18

This book is mostly a collection of Post-It quotes with some rather thin connecting narrative. In themselves the quotes are interesting and can lead the mind down some great tangents, but the same material is available in better form elsewhere, like in self-help books and better popular science like Hawking and Sagan. The authors admit that the juxtapositions are somewhat random, and I find it very difficult to follow their train of thought, if in fact there one.

Most troubling to me are the omissions -- while they are almost totally negative toward Christianity and almost totally positive toward Eastern religions, they ignore Judaism and Islam, and they quote major Christian thinkers like Tillich and Aquinas without attribution. They reference quantum theory repeatedly (and their point seems to be cross-disciplinary fertilization), but they seem unaware of the existence of Paul Dirac, the physicist who provided much of the theoretical underpinning of such quantum concepts as black holes, string theory, and antimatter. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1933 (shared with Schrodinger, who is referenced repeatedly), Dirac's method involved the attempt to reconcile classical physics, general relativity, and observation of sub-atomic particles. Such glaring holes create a sense that the authors really have no idea what they are talking about.

Yes, there are major thought shifts going on right now and many fundamental assertions are being challenged. This happens every few hundred years, and that's what makes history so interesting. But understanding how people in other times and places think takes much more than a few insights, and reductionism is trivialization.

The greatest challenge of our age is opening our minds to these thought shifts while remaining passionately committed to truth. Without this commitment, we are subject to the political manipulation of alternative facts and fake news, all delivered in breathless Gee Whiz!!! pronouncements. Eventually I decided that this book just isn't worth my time.

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1 person found this helpful

If there is a point, I couldn't find it

Reviewed: 04-16-17

I tried a couple of times to get into this, but I couldn't get past the bizarre interpretation of the Serenity Prayer and the obviously false examples. No one with any skill in critical thinking reviewed this before it was published. The kind of book that gives self-help and motivational literature a bad name -- just a guy talking to himself.

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Narrator is unintelligible

Reviewed: 01-27-16

What disappointed you about Charlie?

The combination of the narrator's English accent and her attempt at Negro dialect (which she has obviously never heard) make the story unintelligible. I gave up 15 minutes into the story because I simply could not understand what the woman was trying to say. I am requesting a refund.

What could Kate Chopin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Unfortunately, Chopin is an excellent writer and I was looking forward to hearing the story.

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Beautifully written, but not worth telling

Reviewed: 09-28-15

What did you like best about Waiting for Snow in Havana? What did you like least?

His powers of description are amazing, and he can evoke an emotion like few others.

What else would you have wanted to know about Carlos Eire’s life?

Did he ever learn compassion for those beneath him on the social scale or did he stay the same spoiled self-absorbed snob forever?

Any additional comments?

He provides lots of insight into the tunnel vision of Cuban exiles in the 60s and 70s, and sadly still today.

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Fun if implausible

Reviewed: 11-06-14

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Perfect vehicle for Scott Brick -- his sardonic snarkiness suits the character perfectly.

Any additional comments?

Minus a star for setting a major action sequence in a small boat on the water during a hurricane. Strains credulity to the breaking point. Plus a star for keeping me engaged in spite of it.

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Not poetry. Not music. Not the human condition.

Reviewed: 08-16-13

Any additional comments?

The author seems to be very young, and her work lacks the reflective maturity demanded by such a title. Three-quarters of the poems are about falling in love or losing a love, and most of the rest are shallow (but pretty) metaphysics passing as religion. From the reading it is hard to tell whether the pieces are poetry or prose; while there are some intriguing phrases, there are no evocative images or metaphors. The "music" is just background accompaniment -- pleasant but possessing little character of its own. I prefer to be encouraging to young writers, but there really is very little to recommend this work.

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Not Great Literature

Reviewed: 04-15-13

Any additional comments?

This is the story of a woman with Alzheimer's. The focus is on the progression of the disease and the reactions of the family and friends. It is very good for helping people understand what this process is about.
It is not a typical story. Alice has early onset dementia, which occurs fairly young and progresses quite rapidly. Since she and her family are scientists, they are aware of what is happening and what to expect. There is little of the confusion, fear, denial and frustration (including violence) that are common. The family has resources, and they do not face the agonizing financial decisions of many.
The author/narrator sounds quite young, and her voice lacks the maturity needed to bring this story to life. Conversations that should be difficult and poignant sound chipper and trite -- giving the impression that while she may have witnessed this story, but she has not lived deeply into it.
That said, it is what it is: the story of a woman with Alzheimer's, and it presents many excellent insights into the lives of those who have this disease.

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