The Horse Doc

Cozy AF

Revisado: 04-03-24

I venture into fiction very rarely these days, but back in the day I used to devour paperbacks all summer. This book reminds me of those days, sitting on the deck in the sun with my aunt, reading our used paperbacks.

The story is not a hard-hitter, there's no heavy revelation or life-changing quotes. You won't cry. The characters are likable, uniquely flawed, and they do interesting and believable things. I looked forward to my commute time to get to listen to this story. It'll win no awards, but it was cozy and interesting to listen to. For those reasons, I absolutely loved it.

The narration is good, with the exception that there is a Caribbean character that doesn't get a proper accent - but her Scot accent is on point! Absolutely LOVED the octopus's voice.

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The performance alone is the best

Revisado: 01-27-24

Full disclosure - I am a Star Trek fan. I loved this book. Just because of his age and background, it is a fascinating slice-of-life anyway, but even more fascinating when you consider who he is now. It gets a little dry in places if you are not into Shakespeare, and I would imagine the same would be said if you were not into Star Trek. Parts can be very sad, because so many people he has loved have passed on. The end of the book gets a bit boring and overly gushy over his newest wife, to the point that I wondered if she had written it.

However, the performance is A+. He keeps you engaged like it is the most exciting fiction book you've ever read. I can - and have - read many of these things in Wikipedia articles, but he brings it to life and I hung on every word. I genuinely couldn't imagine just reading the print version. His talent is unmatched. I have been recommending this audiobook to literally everyone I know.

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Prose mingled with poetry; beautiful and sad

Revisado: 11-10-23

Someone in a previous review said that this book is like an ocean, and the words just wash over you as you sit back. This is so accurate. It is prose intermingled with poetry with strong currents of sadness, desperation. The author's voice was difficult to hear in my noisy truck over road noise, but worth straining for. People saying that a voice actor would have done better are missing the raw emotion that peppers the story.

Indeed, it is a meandering "story," jumping sometimes across entire oceans in the same paragraph, but if you sit back and allow the words to enter you, touch you without trying to cling to a narrative - you'll see the author and see yourself. You'll see the thousands around you living some piece of this book. I'm sorry to the people that found it "sad" and "depressing," welcome to life.

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Not for me

Revisado: 09-08-23

Short review: This title just was not for me.

Long review: I think I was hoping this would be in the style of Robin Wall Kimmerer. Instead, it was more like having Twitter (or X, whatever you wanna call it) blasting through my speakers every morning. Like Twitter, there were some good moments, or lines, or lessons sprinkled in, but otherwise it was overwhelming with buzz words and steeped in social media references. I absolutely hate the "take a minute to think about your answer to this question" self-help workbook style, which doesn't help. A good book doesn't have to wack you over the head with what to think about. It's ham-handed.

I made it through the title, so interest was there, performance was good, and I lived for the good "nuggets" tossed in, but I will be returning it as I have zero desire to listen to it again. Just didn't hit right.

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Lacking modern explanations

Revisado: 12-29-19

I didn't connect with this book like I expected to, and like I usually do with medical books. I'm a veterinarian, so I have enough medical knowledge that I desire more in-depth explanations than "man I saw this weird guy one time." The anecdotes are interesting, but often there is no explanation/cause offered. I believe this may be because the book is so old. Many of the diagnostics that are commonplace now weren't readily available.

Might still be interesting for laypeople who just want to hear the myriad of ways that the brain can malfunction, but not if you want an explanation of how or why.

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Great book, wish it was a Southern narrator

Revisado: 05-27-19

I got this book to listen to to get hyped up about an upcoming class on herbalism I was taking. I have beginners knowledge of basic herbal use, and intermediate to advanced gardening/plant knowledge. The book was still very interesting and informative for me. Each section starts with anecdotes from the author's life growing up in Appalachia, and then dives into the well organized information. I'm also a veterinarian and have attempted to learn other folk medicine systems such as Chinese medicine, but as a hard science person, have never been able to decode the "sense" of the system. This is the first folk medicine that makes sense to me! Easy to understand and gives many examples that include very common herbs everyone knows, and then less common ones that stimulate your interest to learn more. Some of the stories also sparked some fun conversations with my mom (grew up in rural eastern North Carolina) about the "old days."

The only disappointing thing is the narration. She's a fine narrator, but given the subject matter and the anecdotes given, especially the ones involving "Mamma," - it REALLY loses something being conveyed in a matter-of-fact, minimal inflection manner. Wish they could have gotten a Southern narrator with a reasonable accent to read this book. I'd even buy it again for that change alone. Regardless, I would recommend it even as-is.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Fascinating and beautiful essays

Revisado: 03-28-19

This book and author are incredible. The author's voice and cadence are SO soothing, and she infuses nuance into her words as only the author can. The information is a beautiful mixture of scientific information, Native American teachings, and romantic language. I can't tell you how many deep Google searches this book inspired (and a couple of plants that will be gracing my yard soon). This is one of the rare audiobooks I know I'll listen to again. I immediately bought Robin Wall Kimmerer's other book, Gathering Moss, and will buy the heck out of anything else she releases. So beautiful, so informative - really makes you fall in love with books again.

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Wish I had known Jr didn't narrate the whole thing

Revisado: 11-11-18

First off, disclaimer: I am a member of the famed "Junior Nation." So, I am the definition of biased.

The only problem I had with this title was that I was very dismayed to find that after the first chapter, it was not narrated by Dale Jr. This did lead to some name mispronunciations that would only be obvious to watch-every-weekend fans such as myself, but otherwise did a good job with inflection and general "performance". Just disappointing.

The story is easy to follow, even if you are not a race fan, and reveals some really interesting info about concussions in general, not just for athletes. Really got me thinking about some of my own "hard hits," working in large animal veterinary medicine. Definitely a good listen for anyone looking for an easy, interesting listen, and a must for all NASCAR/motorsports fans.

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Needs a companion book...

Revisado: 10-12-18

I was going to originally give this book ~3 star, but thankfully time got away from me and I listened to another book that radically changed my thoughts about this book... and now I'll probably be re-listening at some point. The book was "How To Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan, and I'll tell you why that matters...

Listening to Radical Acceptance, I enjoyed it and it gave me some key takeaways that helped me and many interesting thoughts. However, I felt like it was scant on the Buddhist teachings I was interested in (I know nothing about Buddhism and my interest was peaked in listening to this, but not sated), and heavy on meditation instructions and descriptions of meditation journeys that, quite frankly, I called "BS" on. For one thing, I listen to audiobooks exclusively during my drive to work - which is not conducive to meditation - and for another, I am a "hard science and logic" type. I have dabbled in meditation but with zero guidance, so not very seriously. People describing how they meditated and envisioned themselves opening a door that led to some unexpected revelation or fighting a monster manifestation of their problems gives me the immediate response of, "what BS, they made that crap up in their head, this is absolutely ridiculous that the author bought that and is presenting it as expected."

Then I listen to Pollan's book which, while mostly focusing on psychedelics, touches on the fact that experienced meditators experience the same brain changes as a person tripping, with the studies and fMRIs to back it up... mind blown. It's NOT BS, I just haven't been able to contemplate that level of consciousness. I will likely need another listen just to catch all the things I rolled my eyes at and wrote off.

Despite all that, the only reason I deducted a star is that it gets a touch repetitive by the end. I will say, I was concerned reading the other reviews that said they returned it because they felt insulted as Christians by the way that religion was approached - and I feel those people are being overly sensitive. Seriously, give it a listen, and keep an open mind.

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Interesting insight

Revisado: 08-17-18

Really an interesting book. I thought it might end up being a laundry list of cases but it was much more. It truly moves through a week in the life of a Canadian psychiatrist. You hear his interaction with students, different duties within the hospital, his own family, as well as a variety of patients in varying stages of illness and care. The primary author also voices the audiobook, which is a nice touch, even if he did speak VERY slowly at times - I listened at 1.15x speed.

A variety of conditions are covered as well as external perceptions of people with mental illness - and the importance of recognizing mental illness as an "actual" illness. I great listen for anyone with mental illness or who knows someone that has struggled with mental illness.

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