Julia

Miss Andy Rooney? You will love this book

Revisado: 12-09-24

I'm probably the sort of person he wants to reach -- Conservative, but never Trumper. I love his funny take on the Constitution, I love his delivery, glad to share what we have in common. Can't say he persuaded me, but I am glad to share the country with him.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

About time

Revisado: 11-05-24

Absolutely painful listening to the sections on Gaza. More people need to read this book.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Almost a good book

Revisado: 10-19-24

The inner shifts the outer. "The one fact we know about a leprechaun in a workhouse is -- whatever she will do there, she will not work" In context I think that is what Scott Vaudrey means by "it takes two" but I was still sorry to see the comment, and more than once. That being said, though, if found it a solid book on how to get on in a family, especially if one/both of the adults are on the ADHD/Autism spectrum.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

What a Huge relief, so much history and science!

Revisado: 09-01-24

Part of me wishes this was four times as long, people need content like this to lay out how we got to the present stage of acceptance of (non) responsibility as well as what to do with the people who will always be with us -- just a part of human nature.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Exceeded my HIgh Expectations

Revisado: 09-01-24

Absolutely wonderful to hear from Dolly's people as well as hear Dolly speak about them -- I found the name of the sweet little yodel midway, it's happiness in audio form. Yes, you will hear clips of Dolly singing/performing as well as hear directly from Dolly and people she loves. Tennessee Homesick Blues -- lovely!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Glad I read it -- even though it's nightmare fuel.

Revisado: 06-12-24

For starters, the Milgram study is debunked. This is the account of a self-defined bully looking at the world, and the people who have been bullied need to know that going in. As much as she goes into great detail about the injustices in the world, and into great detail about a selection of what she herself has done, if the author has any self knowledge about what she seems like to the people observing her she does not choose to show that side of herself in this book. I'm glad for her that she understands that she is trolled hard; all I can say is -- I see why people would make that choice.

I really understand how she can work side by side with people whom she sees as highly intolerant, and I will read her work again after my brain has stopped boiling so very hard. The ending is particularly gripping if you have ever been the target of a bully.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Growing Up Informed by Christianity

Revisado: 05-21-24

No one wants to be constantly compared to a sibling, even a sibling faith. Reclaiming your heritage under the burden is a task that is long, long overdue and reads very well next to Amy-Jill Levine.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One out of twenty five People -- not Monsters

Revisado: 05-14-24

Starting out with the publisher's disclaimer saying in corporate "double and triple check any choices/changes you make based on what is written here" -- I've read a lot of books and honestly, some memoirs could use that disclaimer. Following with a chronological tale both of how the author experienced her own life as well as her recollections of how other people responded to her -- it's lonely, sad, and often (if you have had a loved one who acted the way the author did) nightmare fuel and disturbing memory reawakening.

I had to put the book down at several points to process feelings because, since the person in my life who acted as she did in my life is dead, I can't ever ask her, but finally, some sort of third-party explanation of illogical and disjointed memories. That, and in a strange way, with understanding of these events, also permission to love the rest of the person. I would give this six stars.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Have large family watch children raise each other?

Revisado: 04-01-24

I'm glad I read it, but what a painful read. I do have to wonder who was caring for the six surviving (one died as a baby) children of her husband while his first wife was dying of cancer and what lead to his dying wife picking out the undergrad for his next wife while he worked twelve hour days. Story after story followed of women whose children had the exact opposite of helicopter parents -- and not surprising when the ratio of adults to children is as low as pictured. Having large families is supposed to promote dying to self and learning to be unselfish. Particularly hard to read was the account of the disabled child whose medical care "flip him over!" was performed by his siblings for whom support staff were available but those added adults were waived off as unneeded.

What wasn't mentioned was starkly visible. Although there are accounts of disabled children, there is not one single tale of what to do when a child has a need because of giftedness. There is also little mention of father involvement, with the exception of a sole full-time dad of fifty five cases. There is next to no mention of supporting external activities, and none of group family activities.

This looks to be a life of suffering and extreme loneliness for the woman who is giving birth in the situation, especially since three or four children is seen to be "the hardest number" as the children all learn to depend on each other and the bulk of the actions that would be done by an alloparent, parent or other leader end up in the task list of the children. There's much conveyed on how we need more humans on the planet, but I truly fear living in a world made up of children raised by children in this way.

My friends reading this are probably very surprised by my review, because I picked this up because I wanted a very large family, many of my friends have succeeded in having large families, and especially if you include in the definition fostering and other alloparenting situations, many families (including mine) are far larger than the family groups portrayed.

This is how to do large families wrong, not what I wanted at all. It's more or less the flip side to Scary Little Gods. Yes, motherhood is lifelong but I would make a lot of changes if this was my blended family of 7+8 children total.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Jewish life keeps going after Jesus

Revisado: 03-15-24

Jesus didn't live during modern Jewish practice, not surprising when you think of it, Christianity long survived the Roman empire. Medieval Judaism lived alongside Christians, and the various communities impacted each other as we have grown, and often, grown apart. Orthodox Christians often are written out of the Christian story by Catholics, and Protestants don't tend to know much if anything about other practices. Though they often feel deeply that they do know, in the sense that what they do is the right and proper way and everyone else is doing worship wrong.

The idea that everyone in the past was stupid and now we people have it all figured out and that we completely understand their world whereas the people in the past could not possibly understand us is as unsupportable as the idea that the past is a golden age we should all try to return to or emulate and humanity is in a long decline and fall.

We all start out with ideas, and given that the starting point doesn't have our conventions of understanding such as capital letters to indicate names, vowels, and punctuation, it's not surprising that different groups would read differently into shared texts.

The radical idea of this book is that we can assume that other people come by their divergent understandings sincerely and we risk no harm to our own identity by working to sincerely understand what other people intuit, and they are going to continue to be different than us.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona