Lauryl A. Smith

Essential Reading

Revisado: 01-30-23

I read this as a mother and as a nurse, but as someone who came to both motherhood and nursing somewhat later in life, it strikes me as absolutely essential reading for anyone who provides care, including care for themselves. In other words, for everyone. I’m a ravenous reader, but this, more than any other book, from bell hooks to Brené Brown to Thomas Merton, is the book I most wish I could have presented to my 20-, or even 30-, year old self.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Essential reading for everyone, especially those who work with children and families

Revisado: 01-10-23

This is a beautiful review of recent literature on brain changes in people who parent — not phrased that way out of political correctness but because it is increasingly clear that sex doesn’t influence the brain changes of nurturance so much as pregnancy, proximity and involvement. Men identified as male at birth also face a crisis — even if it’s a good crisis! — when their sons and daughters; nieces and nephews are born. Every new baby is an opportunity to explode old frameworks and build new ones. Why? How? Conaboy explores the physiologic brain changes that underlie the changes in a brain affected by pregnancy as well as brains impacted by child rearing, and considers how parenting and “alloparenting” create more empathetic societies.

If you work with families this is absolutely essential reading. If you love Winnicott and Brazelton, distrust Sears, and can’t figure out why Ainsworth and Bowlby sit funny with you, this is the read to understand why.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Disappointing

Revisado: 11-20-21

Given Tata’s academic status, and her choice of title, I’d hoped for something to rival Campbell’s work in its scope and depth. Honestly, I’d hoped for something even better.

Unfortunately, with very rare exceptions, Tata clings even more to the old Central European tales and myths than Campbell. She may briefly reference some other tradition, but never leaves the trajectory of Proto Indo Europeans. Worse, we never even hear from any extra-colonial sources. Her source texts are all delivered to us by the same group of people - colonial men, whether they come to us from Greece, Germany, Persia or Santa Barbara. There is no interrogation of text itself as a tool of oppression. The closest we come to a legitimate oral source is a discussion of contemporary Disney films.

This is a long, depressing review of the flat features of women in stories translated into texts by white European men. There is not even an ounce of discussion given to ways in which the brothers Grimm, translators of the Arabian nights, or even writers at Disney blanketed much wilder tales with their own moral fears and shame.

I was hoping for a wider world of women’s and femme stories as women and femmes have long told them, and instead got Ovid and Bluebeard and Nancy Drew.

The epilogue alone is somewhat redeeming. Here she finally begins to reveal that other canons exist; that tales and storyways exist that can show us very different kinds of heroes, heroines and tricksters. If the book had just started as it ended, it might have redeemed itself. As it is, sadly, I can’t recommend it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas