Our Joyful Family

Repetitive

Revisado: 12-15-24

Women are often plagued by self-doubt in real life. Especially young women. In romance books, it's easy to slip into repetitive inner dialogue: female characters spend much of their time thinking about their insecurities, hoping they are worthy of romantic love, outwardly acting like they don't care. The inner dialogue gets tiresome after awhile. Repetitive. Oh, so dramatically repetitive! This is often fixed by the love of a good man. A soulmate.

How boring!

I'd much rather spend more time hearing about the fascinating character of Violet or a discussion about how the names were chosen at the end. What are the neighbors saying about the activities on the castle grounds? What's happening in the yurts that Sam needs to deal with? More dynamic lives, more about Rose's sensory experience with food and why she loves it. There's so much potential here for a fuller story and richer lives. Not just pretty titles and covers cranked out quickly. More fun, less repetition—these interesting characters in their marvelous setting are just itching for more!

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Unreliable Narrator

Revisado: 07-07-24

When someone speaks very fast, using many uncommon words, and makes claims about medical healing using crystals, and has a super long biography on Amazon filled with unfamiliar words, names, organizations and honorifics, my theological antenna goes up and starts beeping.

When his bio includes this statement, alarm bells ring: "...he was blessed by two of the most prominent spiritual personages in all of India, each having spiritual authority over more than 150 million people..."

"Spiritual authority" is a term that can lead to significant differences in power, making the student or congregant especially vulnerable. Proceed cautiously.

This man's fast speech, and subtle slipping of words and ideas into his statements, reminds me of a salesman for a mid-level marketing organization. I don't mean to be disrespectful. Just take care out there, folks. Don't give away your autonomy. It's a treasure that belongs to you and only you.

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Angry Narration

Revisado: 12-27-23

This is a cute series and I love inclusion of other holiday traditions, but could Audible producers work with male narrators on their emotional tone? This guy is taking lines like "I should have prevented her from walking away" sound like he wants to kill the female lead.

These should be fun, lighthearted rom-coms, not sounding like Julia Roberts' husband in the 1991 suspense-thriller Sleeping with the Enemy. Someone like Zachary Webber could get this tone right.

We could also use more diversity in the pool of narrators, Audible. Thanks!

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Sedated?

Revisado: 08-21-23

Jessica Chastain sounds sleepy, like she was not into this performance, which is strange since she was an executive producer. Her character did not strike me as a Pulitzer Prize-winning psychiatrist. (Maybe pick a more likely award for this type of scientific writing?) I have worked with neuroscientists and the description of what happens in typical brains was goofy, let alone what was changing in some brains ...

One thing that didn't bother me were the f-bombs. The first episode indicates this is a show for adults. If you're an adult who is offended by vulgarity, well, good luck in this world. Some people talk like that. It's a dumb and misleading reason to give a podcast one star ...

Ambiguous endings don't typically bother me, but I was left wondering what was the point of this series? Is this story supposed to be prescriptive? Teach us a lesson? Just fun, sci-fi entertainment? It was unsuccessful in achieving most of those goals in my experience. But hey! YOU might like it! A lot of people have! Maybe it's your thing, too. Try an episode. Just don't expect the emotional tone to change much.

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A Thrilling Find

Revisado: 07-26-23

After reading The Rumi Prescription by Melody Moezzi, I am thrilled to discover a podcast featuring Professor Omid Safi, the man in her book who led Melody Moezzi's family on a tour that included Rumi's home land and gravesite. Omid Safi is filled in both mind and heart with love and knowledge of mystics. This first episode is gorgeous. I'm overjoyed to discover his teachings are available here. Thank you and may peace be with you.

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Good ... but outdated

Revisado: 06-22-23

I love Tara Brach and have listened to lots of her books & podcasts. She's one of my favorite spiritual teachers. In this case, the example she uses to describe how we distract ourselves from feeling shame includes addiction - to substances (alcohol and cocaine are mentioned) and overeating. She mentions overeating several times.

Current wisdom would likely refer to issues with food, including a wide range of disordered eating. I was playing this with my teens in the room and her repeated example isn't how I've taught them to think about food. In the future I'll play some of her more recent works instead.

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Incredible

Revisado: 04-19-23

I heard so many good things about this book & hesitated because I thought it would be depressing.

This book is not depressing.

Stephanie Foo's book is thoughtful, compelling and informative. The narrative is SO well-crafted, which makes perfect sense since the author has been an audio journalist, producer and writer for programs including This American Life. I listened for hours at a time.

The book would benefit people across the constellations of gender expression and identity, and as a woman who has been misdiagnosed and dismissed for years - decades, really - the information about how trauma affects our bodies, particularly the reproductive system, endometriosis, fibroids and chronic pain, had me literally yelling out loud, "No! Way! Are you KIDDING me?!" I WAS put into early menopause by my doctor. If only I'd read this sooner.

Women's healthcare should be researched as much as men's has been - and we have a LOT of catching up to do.

I found the audio clips of actual therapy sessions fascinating. I only wish there were more. I appreciate knowing that the author, therapist and his clinical department took care to ensure the recordings were done ethically with the author's full agency over the material.

If I could, I would make this mandatory reading for psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, general practitioners, OB/GYN docs, etc. It's that helpful and informative.

If I could, I would give this book all the stars.

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All the Feels and Diversity

Revisado: 12-02-22

Wonderful performances of a Hallmark-type Christmas story without centering the "white gaze". Loved it! Bravo, Audible!

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Shockingly Bad

Revisado: 04-10-22

Authors who have internalized misogyny and instill that in their characters are normalizing toxic, shallow relationships. The man chooses the woman. The woman hopes she gets chosen. The man is rating the woman's hotness. The woman is hoping he finds her hot enough. Relationships like this are based on convenience, lust, and the belief that being in a relationship makes us whole or worthy.

These characters don't really know each other or themselves. They're shallow: all we know is based on a couple events that happened to them.

And marriage does not change gross behavior. A wedding doesn't solve anything: but a good therapist can. A sleazy dude will still be a sleazy dude the day after your wedding. He needs therapy, but that's his job. You can't make him go and you cannot fix him. You deserve better than Kennedy Riley, friends.

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A Little Jewel from Quarantine

Revisado: 06-14-21

My vision isn't what it used to be. I listen to books and podcasts more than reading with my eyes. What a delight, then, to discover the option of listening to one of my favorite essayists share new work here.

Debbie Millman (Design Matters) mentioned this essay during a recent podcast interview with Susan Orlean. Debbie refers to Susan's work as taking "what appears to be ordinary corners of everyday life—and brings them to the page with startling wonderment and wit". A lovely description. I love the way Susan Orlean can lead us into curiosity about the history of nearly anything by writing through the lens of her experience. More please! A+

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