MG Wray Samans

Well narrated but deeply flawed.

Revisado: 01-20-24

By Episode 5, Ash records messages almost constantly. Nothing in the story is a surprise, because he is narrating all of his plans in transmissions to Weyland-Yutani. Why? No one can say. From there, Ash begins to exhibit knowledge and objectives that make no sense: he supposes the presence of a Queen, even though he has no reason to think one exists; he obsesses over the idea of getting an egg, even though that the Alien eggs are to be found in a derelict spacecraft on LV-426 was presumably sent to the Company long ago, and in any case, he has already sent it to them in this story. that the special order is to report knowledge of any noteworthy alien life, Ash places no interest on the presence of a derelict chip created by a space bearing alien species. instead, he is seniorly focused on retrieving what amounts to a particularly hostile ant.

good the story was never made into a movie. in every way, it's inferior to "Aliens" but would foreshadow or give away every plot point of that movie. Worse, since any reader knows that "Aliens" follows -- and specifically, that Ripley arrives at Gateway Station alone -- we are not left to wonder whether the crew we are following will survive. The result is a well-acted but entirely derivative and predictable series of tropes, slap dashed into packaging that makes it seem original.

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An approachable orientation to modern socialism.

Revisado: 12-03-21

Socialism is undergoing an intellectual renaissance, and readers new to the topic might easily wonder where to begin. For those inclined to start with Marx, is it relevant to today read "The Communist Manifesto," or realistic to dive into the three volumes of "Capital?" Does one seek out the writings of Leon Trotsky, now a century deceased?

In "Socialism... Seriously," Danny Katch offers a new option, delivering an approachable "orientation" to modern socialism. Katch's book is light on economic theory and heavy on ideals, which fits with her theme that allies can and should argue over methods in pursuit of common cause. She provides a degree of historical context with references to the Paris Commune and a brief look into the origins and early structure of the Soviet Union, and she paints a reasonable picture of what life might look like under socialism in the future. Technical terminology is rendered a minimum, and while readers will be reminded that the word "socialism" pre-dates Marx, Katch makes clear that it is Marxism she advocates, not earlier Utopian ideals of the sort advanced by Robert Owen. Katch also readily denounces the horrors of Stalinism, and argues that that bleak, authoritarian reality of Soviet life after the consolidation of power in the 1930s was not only not socialism at all but also totally unlike the freedom that preceded it under early Bolshevik ideology.

The case is uncompelling, but it is not meant to be. Katch is seeking to inspire people today to look to the future with an appreciation for the lessons of the past. Few today deny Stalin was a monster or that his "socialism in one country" was a terror state; Katch's insight is that Stalinism shared its worst traits with capitalist history, and that we need to be conscious of the true costs of a world driven by and for profit. She gives limited attention to cooperative business and points out the flaws in democratic systems clearly subordinated to capital interest. To her, reform is a dead end, and revolution is a necessity, although mass violence is not necessarily the form of a successful revolution. The goal of the book seems as much to inspire as to educate, and on that level, it works reasonably well. I recommend this book to those interested in the subject, with the caveat that it is best for those who are newcomers.

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Worthwhile Ideas in the Wrong Packaging for Me

Revisado: 10-24-21

No doubt, there is a natural audience for this book. It consists of those who are profoundly immersed in the minutiae of modern socialist for anti-capitalist scholarship, readers for whom casual references to Deleuze and Guattari or a desire to move away from revisiting Krundstadt draw nods of knowing assent. For those in the relative mainstream, however, rading this book is likely to be an exercise in partial frustration. Giants or not, the author is standing on someone's shoulders, and if you don't have a similar vantage point -- if X is meant to follow from some other author's Y or Z, and you have not deeply understood their work -- you may not be able to decipher what the author is trying to say at many points in the text. That was my experience as a listener.

There are some fascinating ideas here, but the author's assumption that readers understand the deeper nuances of, say, the contrast between neoliberalism and capitalist realism, makes those ideas difficult to extract. Only a few short sentences are shared in the closing comments on the book towards what might actually be DONE. Ironically, this is the part of the book someone is most likely to be able to understand without deep scholarship: the problem with capitalism is that it is increasingly reliant on managerial bureaucracy and is creating a world that people no longer find appealing. Alas, it goes no further. The author is content to answer the book's Boolean question ("Yes") and leave it to others to properly explore that topic.

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Valuable insight, presented pretty well.

Revisado: 07-08-21

This is an important book. As the author points out, and most of us already know, finding and holding on to love tends to be the most important thing in life. Career achievement, wealth, and social recognition take up much of our time, along with the pursuit of sex, but people widely acknowledge pertaining any or all of these things without meaningful connections in our lives leaves us feeling despondent rather than successful. Even health, which is legitimately precious, matters to many of us mostly because of our desire to spend more and better time with loved ones. Reading this book in the wake of the 2020 global pandemic is especially interesting, since so many of us are coming out of a period of profound restriction and even isolation. face with returning to the pre-pandemic status quo, many millions of people (especially Americans, who are perennially overworked) are considering abandoning their careers entirely in favor of doing something that allows them more time with family.

My wife and I communicate pretty well. Our life together has experienced some profound changes, and we noticed over the last year or so did all that we remained close, we were getting into more fights. Often, the subject of these fights would be something trivial, but they could come out of nowhere and would often expand into substantial arguments in the emotional sense, with each of us feeling deeply frustrated and resentful. We decided to try couples therapy, and our therapist recommended "Hold Me Tight." I opted for the audio book because it's my tradition to listen to audiobooks instead of music when I run in the morning.

The core of Dr. Johnson's presentation is simple but profound: adult humans need connection as desperately as infants. Adult love is modified from infant love by the influences of sexuality, but the "healthy dependence" of knowing a partner will be there when needed is as strong as a child seeking a parent. Denied or cut off from such support, people will go through the same behaviors as adults that they would have children, demanding attention by acting out or sullenly withdrawing into themselves. This may seem obvious, but from a scientific perspective, it has only recently been given any credit; in fact, as Johnson lays outx it's been less than a century since Western science conceded that love even mattered for infants. In making that admission, science double down on the notion that adults did not need love, preferring to see relationships as negotiations between rational actors. That claim is false: humans are defined by emotion. Only after our amygdalas feel do our prefrontal cortexes she can understand what we are feeling through rational thought.

From this book, I have already gained some substantial insights into why I behave the way I do when I hear certain things my wife says. I am more aware of the fears, jealousies, and concerns that underwrite some of my less anticipated responses. She is reading this book separately from me, and I can't speak to what she might take away from it. There are also limits to the audiobook form when trying to do some of the exercises Dr. Johnson recommends, and it might be there a written copy would have been more helpful for those activties. (On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have been just reading it yet.)

"Hold Me Tight" doesn't have all the answers. Every couple's interactions are unique, and everyone is dealing with his or her own situation. what does provides a framework through which to understand yourself in your interactions more easily. readers will benefit from tools that can use to consider their own responses, channel their perspectives into understanding their true needs, and put in the hard work involved in maintaining a healthy, successful human relationships.

I highly recommend this book.

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Tolerable though disappointing.

Revisado: 06-15-21

The Handmaid's Tale was a very good book set in a dystopia made more terrifying by its plausibility. The Testaments is a tolerable sequel set in a caricature of that dystopia, familiar in description but rendered practically buffoonish for the sake of the plot.

Unlike its predecessor, which focused on the experiences and perspective of a single character, this book divides its narrative between three different people. This is not a bad idea, because different people see the world differently based on their vantage points. Many of the questions readers had when they finished the Handmaid's Tale were left unresolved because Offred didn't have the answers to share with us; indeed, the theocratic state in which she existed was so strongly established that, all that would have risen around her in her own recent lifetime, she knew practically nothing about it. In this book, the testament of Aunt Lydia gives us some of the answers we seek. Previously introduced as a supporting character interchangeable with others, Aunt Lydia is here revealed as a key member of the regime, not only aware of but principally responsible for many of the rules that govern female behavior in Gilead. The strongest elements of the story arise within Lydia's tale, which is adult in both perspective and tone.

Unfortunately, Aunt Lydia's testament is poorly balanced by the tales of Agnes and Daisy. Both of these others enter our presence as children, and it IS Interesting to get a contrast between childhood as viewed through the eyes of a girl in Gilead and a girl in Canada. However, in order to create the plot, the behaviors of these two girls and the responses y the world around them rapidly take on a juvenille simplicity that defies acceptance. Agnes seems to be the product not of Offred's all-pervasive theocracy but rather an adherent of a restrictive religious sect within contemporary American society: she certainly comes across as shaped by religion but regularly draws conclusions requiring information she should not have and displaying awareness of (and even appreciation for) values other than those she's been taught. Her tale isis frustrating, but Daisy's is infuriating. That a Canadian teen could be a rebellious, spoiled brat is entirely believable, but Daisy retains this attitude without experiencing any corrective consequence either among her backers or within Gilead. Adults must constantly humor her, and even the terror state itself must be rendered inexplicably tolerant, or else Daisy's tale could not continue. This weakens the story while advancing the plot, remaking Gilead as a young-adult setting and not the suitable theocratic counterpart to Orwell's 1984 that it was in the prior book. The conclusion that we reach as the storylines intersect in convenient ways is never more than semi-plausible and comes with no growth in Daisy's character.

If you liked The Handmaid's Tale, you will probably want to read The Testaments. I caution you, however, that you will not find in this book nearly so much introspection or creativity as that story held. You may wish that you had limited yourself to Aunt Lydia's historical accounts, and let your own imagination fill in the rest.

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She does go ON but so what? She's entitled.

Revisado: 08-11-18

I laughed so hard listening to this in the car that I had to pull over a few times. The last part about Eddie Fisher gets really long winded but taken individually every sentence is gold. so I guess its like Versailles. Eventually you go, "Oh my God Carrie Fisher, shut up already! " but then its over and you're like, "Oh, you're done?" And you wish there was more.

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Surprisingly excellent.

Revisado: 08-14-17

This book offers really great insights and ideas for how business can be done differently. The first section is an outline of what will covered, and I suggest you skip it, because listening to an outline can be tedious. From there, it gets much more interesting.

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Different and Worthwhile

Revisado: 05-18-17

Thoroughly pleasant, made less believable by glossing over any tensions. Some worthwhile insights despite the flaws.

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A rarely discussed part of American history.

Revisado: 03-11-17

Fantastic insights into the challenges, triumphs, shortcomings, and lessons of cooperative business in the 1900s.

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A tedious book with some important information.

Revisado: 03-04-17

Woven through the tiresome repetition are facts critical to understanding the situation in American education. Slog through it.

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