My latest book purchases

Reviews coming soon!

Purchase Summary

Arcadia Falls

Written by: Carol Goodman

Narrated by: Jen Taylor

LISTEN NOW

What Every BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People

Written by: Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins

Narrated by: Paul Costanzo

LISTEN NOW

Body Language for Dummies

Written by: Elizabeth Kuhnke

Narrated by: Kate Harper

LISTEN NOW

Effective Communication Skills

Written by: The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Dalton Kehoe

LISTEN NOW

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

Written by: The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Steven Novella

LISTEN NOW

Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior

Written by: The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Mark Leary

LISTEN NOW

Quote: The Four Brothers of the Spirit

The Four Brothers of Spirit

“The child is taught from earliest consciousness that she has these four brothers with her in the world wherever she goes, and that they will always look after her. The brothers inhabit the four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength and poetry. The brothers can be called upon in any critical situation for rescue and assistance. When you die, your four spirit brothers collect your soul and bring you to heaven.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Quote: A Soul without Wisdom and Little Grace

A Soul Without Wisdom

“I filled the song with everything I wished I could teach him about life. I tried to reassure him with every line about how the world is hard and unfair sometimes, but that it's all OK beacuse he is so loved. He is surrounded by souls who would do anything to help him. And not only that- he has wisdom and patience of his own, buried deep inside his being, which will only reveal themselves over time and will always carry him through any trial. He is a gift from God to all of us.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Quote: The Tempest

The Tempest

“Go back to bed so that, when the tempest comes, you'll be strong enough to deal with it. And the tempest is coming, dear one. Very soon. But not tonight.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Books: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Mein Kampf

Mein Kampf is an autobiographical manifesto by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in which he outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 192 5 and Volume 2 in 1926. Someone recently recommended I read Mein Kampf. I have not read it. I did however, study propaganda in relation to art, design, and advertising in college and remember discussing this book (maybe I did read it then, if so it would have been over a decade ago).

I do not have a lot of useful information to convey on this book. I'm open to starting a discussion on this book if anyone else is interested, then I will read it and reopen this review at that time. I'm disinclined to read this, even the reviews are a little disturbing (scroll down to book description or Amazon.com Review).

BOOK REVIEW: Listening Is an Act of Love by Dave Isay

"Fantastic makes me want to be involved"

Overall

Performance

Story

Would you listen to Listening Is an Act of Love again? Why?

This is touching. I loved hearing other people's life stories. You laugh and could cry with this book. It's short and I just want to hear more. It's fantastic.

Book Review: Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

Entertaining and Educational Botany

Learn All About the History of Poisonous Plants

Overall

Performance

Story

Wicked Plants is an educational book about poisonous and insidious plants. It's written more like the story or life of a plant, how it's been mis-used, and as a cautionary tale. The audio version is interesting but fast passed and hard to take notes. I have a large garden and am always afraid I will run into something and not know it's side effect on myself or my puppy.

Highly recommend this book for any gardener, horticulturist, botanist, essential oils fanatic, or just someone curious about poisonous plants.

Book Description

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants,

BOOK REVIEW: Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Emotional Balance and Compassion by Paul Ekman, Dalai Lama

Emotional Awareness

"Educationally Interested but a tough Listen"

Paul Ekman

Overall

Performance

Story

Would you try another book from Paul Ekman and Dalai Lama and/or Richard Gere?

I adore Richard Gere and enjoy studying Paul Ekman's work but this was rather hard to listen to. It's very solitary not funny and remnant of sitting in a monotone college lecture.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

More antidotes, a story line that can bring you in to make an analogy of the science behind the work. It just needs something to pull you in. It's very hard to understand the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman talking but interesting to hear their world views. I was hoping to learn more about Paul Ekman's work and how it works.

BOOK REVIEW: Fresh Air NONE by Terry Gross

"Educational book...Judging Facial Expressions"

Overall

Performance

Story

What did you love best about Fresh Air?

I enjoyed Fresh Air as an education about how people judge each other and use facial expressions.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Don't know.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be? This would have a hard time being a film, unless it was a documentary but I'd tag it research on human expressions.

Book Review: How Not to Write a Book Review & Puritans. Opinions. Book Burning.

Warning a few cursory spoiler alerts for Kaffir Boy, Fifty Shades of Grey, and To Kill a Mockingbird

No one is perfect

How not to Write a Book Review

Overall

Performance

Story

No man or woman is perfect. Anastasia Steele didn't set out to fix Christian Grey. She didn't even know all of his demons when she met him. Do you know all of your demons? How long did it take you to get to know your mate? In this article, I would like to once again discuss the impractical views that are being expressed on the internet, including my own. We've discussed the extremists who want to riot and burn books, the women who just think nothing is wrong with Fifty Shades of Grey, the women who think *Shut the H%$# up it's just a book* and then there is me. I'm somewhere in between the religious types and the Shut #$^*#$^(#! up group. Why? I liked the book, it's a book and while I see how our experiences influence our thoughts and actions (which is why some women think we may all start going out and... ??) - I think that Fifty Shades, like any book or movie is a learning experience. I spend a lot of my time reading or listening to books, all kinds of books (mostly fantasy and educational books), and like to think all books have value. My primary pet peeve is in zealot acts of naive unwavering opinions.  No, this is not my first time on the internet. Yes, I've heard of trolling.