I always enjoy Randall Munroe's books and prefer them in audio where I get to hear Wil Wheaton chuckle to himself as he reads. Though, I am one of thoI always enjoy Randall Munroe's books and prefer them in audio where I get to hear Wil Wheaton chuckle to himself as he reads. Though, I am one of those ADHD people who gets dopamine from learning things and so find a book with a little interesting tidbit and a lot of amusement to be a nice happy place for me....more
It is true that you can probably get all of this on James' YouTube channel, but you'd spend hours sifting through the content and Actually 3.5 stars.
It is true that you can probably get all of this on James' YouTube channel, but you'd spend hours sifting through the content and watching the ones you wanted and needed. I appreciate that it all got put into one handy reference.
Between this and the World Atlas, I preferred the Atlas which had a lot (though not all) the same information but also had fascinating info about coffee growing around the world. But if you just want a basic: Make great coffee at home reference then this is the one you want.
Again, the audio is less useful as a book you'll refer back to over and over, but I do love listening to James talk....more
This is an invaluable resource if you, like my husband, have recently found coffee to be a special interest (or current hyperfocus) and particularly iThis is an invaluable resource if you, like my husband, have recently found coffee to be a special interest (or current hyperfocus) and particularly if you'd like some guidance on how to buy great coffees that you're going to enjoy.
James' YouTube channel is pretty thorough but this is a great compliment for when buying your own specialty beans and what to look for (or avoid).
An old hat coffee enthusiast might enjoy the book as a display piece to flip through but it will for sure be appreciated by people newer to their coffee devotion.
p.s. It's not as useful for reference, but the audio book is read by Hoffmann himself and he is lovely to listen to while falling asleep....more
I have this in audio, and my only regret about that is I need to scrub back through it to catch all the artist names so I can start digging more into I have this in audio, and my only regret about that is I need to scrub back through it to catch all the artist names so I can start digging more into them.
I read this entire book in one sitting and spent the rest of that day thinking about art as resistance, and what that means and looks like for me, a chronically ill artist. I so appreciated this discussion....more
Basically, this is an essential read if you are autistic or love someone who is or even if you just want to do better for the ND peoI have no notes.
Basically, this is an essential read if you are autistic or love someone who is or even if you just want to do better for the ND people, clients, employees etc... in your daily life. Also if you suspect you might be autistic or have self identified as autistic - especially if you are deciding about pursuing diagnosis.
This is also a highly recommended read if you are ADHD (what Price refers to as a sibling condition) - love or know and ADHD person, suspect you are ADHD etc... as well as for other nuerodivergent peeps, it's about being autistic but will probably be interesting to others.
So, basically, if you have enough of a reason to be looking at and considering this book, the answer is yes, yes you should read it....more
I did not find this as engaging and captivating as I had hoped I would based on how I feel about her comedy. But as a late blooming queer person who iI did not find this as engaging and captivating as I had hoped I would based on how I feel about her comedy. But as a late blooming queer person who is also autistic and ADHD I so appreciated being invited into Hannah's personal journey and seeing both some of myself and someone unlike me too. I'm so grateful to Gadsby for being willing to lay her trauma bare like this so others could see and relate to it. I can't imagine being this brave.
I also really appreciate the lessons on queer history in Australia.
The book was sometimes hard to read and I took occasional mental health breaks as needed, but definitely worthwhile....more
As a non-binary, agender, trans peep I'm so grateful to Alok for writing this and having it put out in the world in a way that we can easily share. ItAs a non-binary, agender, trans peep I'm so grateful to Alok for writing this and having it put out in the world in a way that we can easily share. It was an interesting and engaging read for me (because not all trans people are a monolith and there's always room for me to learn and expand) and immediately upon finishing it I wanted to start handing it out to all the people I know.
Highly recommend both for members of the trans and enby community but particularly for people who know and love a trans and enby person. Or even just for parents of young children who could always benefit from learning to see beyond the stereotypes of the gender binary IMO....more
I really enjoyed the book and appreciated West's perspective and takes. I love her humour and spent as much time laughing as thinkActually 3.5 stars.
I really enjoyed the book and appreciated West's perspective and takes. I love her humour and spent as much time laughing as thinking and pondering while reading this and I'll absolutely be reading more of her work.
Really, my biggest problem is an exclusive to me issue: I just don't love books that are a collection of essays or short stories. The choppy nature of these kinds of collections doesn't work for my brain. But that's really just me and nothing to do with West's work....more
This is the first non-fiction book I've read in a long time and I'm so glad I followed through and read it.
I loved that Rubenhold decided to write a bThis is the first non-fiction book I've read in a long time and I'm so glad I followed through and read it.
I loved that Rubenhold decided to write a book about Jack the Ripper's victims that almost never mentions the man himself and definitely doesn't delve into the violence or goriness of what was done to them. I'm sad that this deep look into the realities of the system and the culture, as well as the reality of the lives of the victims themselves took so very long to come into being.
While I am *so* glad I read this, I will say it wasn't easy going. I listened to this one woman at a time and then needed to pause for a day or two which I spent ranting and raving at my husband about the pure misogyny and patriarchy and dehumanization of women before I could return to hear more about it.
When I finished my husband asked me how I felt about reading the book - because he had heard so much of my frustration but not my enjoyment - and I told him that my saddest take away is exactly how much of this has not changed. While we've progressed legally in many ways, socially we still leave single mothers to flounder as if it's their fault the men in their lives are shit heads, we still respond to addiction with more shame than compassion or understanding, and we are still perpetuating and supporting violence against sex workers. The laws are better, but as a community I think we may be even less supportive of women in need (I'm thinking specifically about the section where Rubenhold tells us that communities were often engaged in DV situations in various ways) as a community. It's heart breaking to see so many talking points that you can find on the internet today very little changed from their roots despite 150 years of "progress".
But nothing changes if it remains unexamined. I walked away from this book even more staunchly in support of sex workers and the decriminalization of their work, more furious with the patriarchy (who knew that was possibly) and its tentacles deep hold on our society, and very convinced that Jack the Ripper was no genius or amazing killer, he was just a random asshole who killed women in their sleep for the fun of it who might have been caught without the ridiculous sensationalizing of his crimes. Or if anyone at all actually cared about his victims....more
So this was very interesting - it was a combination of an exploration of the authors personal history with True Crime, a discussion Actually 3.5 stars
So this was very interesting - it was a combination of an exploration of the authors personal history with True Crime, a discussion of why true crime is so appealing to humans - and to woman (and AFAB) people in particular, some history of true crime as a genre and it's evolution, and includes the stories of some well known crime stories that were significant and impactful to the author themselves.
As someone who consumes a LOT of true crime (my husband calls it Murder Death Kill) it was really interesting to learn both the history of the genre and the theories about why we find it so fascinating - I was less interested in the personal story aspects but found the author told those bits with enough humour to keep them engaging. If you are into True Crime then I think this definitely has something in it for you.
I do have two provisos for that:
1. This book is by a cartoonist and done in cartoon (think New Yorker) style and not that of a typical graphic novel. I was fine with this and actually found a lot of the things she did to be creative and unique, but it may not be to everyone's taste.
2. It's long. I mean it's a LONG piece. It took me the bulk of one day to read but I was halfway through before I really realized just *how* long it was. You should know that going in.
Still totally worth the read and peppered with some great suggestions for movies, books, and podcasts you may or may not already have read. I *do* wish the author had made space to touch on the exploitive nature of this genre and talked a bit about how we as "murderinos" could and should be examining that for ourselves (because this is exactly what I'm trying to do myself right now) but I guess we aren't quite there en masse yet....more
This book was full of fascinating information (I love learning random facts), had us laughing, and at least 1 if not 1.5 of those stars belong exclusiThis book was full of fascinating information (I love learning random facts), had us laughing, and at least 1 if not 1.5 of those stars belong exclusively to Wil Wheaton as the reader (I don't normally comment on the audio exclusive aspects here - that's what audible is for - but really, listen to this in audio).
What's the one thing I'm taking away from this book? I sneeze at least two times as many times as the average person, maybe even three or four times. (It might be time for me to get some prescription allergy pills now that you mention it.)
Now have an overwhelming need to know if you sneeze the "average" amount in a year? Or have you ever wondered if you could cook a steak by dropping it from high enough up? (Who doesn't want to know that?) If you, like me, carry a back pack of useless/random facts that (if they were physically represented) would be bigger than your body and need more to cram into there, then you should read this book. But, get the audio....more
For me the most fascinating part was watching a friend come to the realization that he was guilty. It added a perspective we normalActually 3.5 Stars.
For me the most fascinating part was watching a friend come to the realization that he was guilty. It added a perspective we normally don't get to see and interesting insight into how friends and family members protect themselves from dissonance by simply not seeing guilt....more
I loved this book. I went out and bought highlighters just for this book. This is the kind of book you could read in on sitting, and then go back and I loved this book. I went out and bought highlighters just for this book. This is the kind of book you could read in on sitting, and then go back and read the next week. This was not a difficult or deep gender studies examination of our culture and feminism, rather it was a book full of practical realities and ideas, thoughts, and actions I can hold to and practice for myself in the face of those realities.
To me, this book felt like hope and I wish it could be handed it out on street corners....more
I read the first third of this book as if it was water and I'd been floundering in a desert for days, weeks even, without any. I *Actually 3.5 Stars.*
I read the first third of this book as if it was water and I'd been floundering in a desert for days, weeks even, without any. I loved how Klintworth came into the subject through a different path, that she didn't automatically start defining signs and house from the outset the way so many other astrology books do. I loved the picture she was building and how it slowly gathered steam and came together as an epiphany for me.
I loved the first third of this book. And if you are new to astrology, or have tried to learn astrology before and struggled then I would 100% recommend this book as an entry. I'd say read the first third and spend time working those pieces out for all the people you know and once you feel like you "Get It" come back and read more. There are 6-7 chapters in this book that absolutely make it worth the cost I paid to buy it and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it - with the caveats that follow that is.
The second third did not feel anything like the first third to me. In fact, the second third set me back on my heels and caused me to walk away from the book (which I was originally on track to read in two or three days I was liking it so much). I felt like the second third lost it's freshness and it also took on a lot more language and ideas from "love and light" spirituality where the first third had been a nice blend of practical and spiritual the second third started to lose me.
I felt, as I moved through chapters 6-9, that one of two things were happening. Either the ideas were too big for these tiny bite chapters + worksheet (in fact, there were many chapters where I would turn the page expecting a second work sheet to help us pull things together only to find the next chapter) or there was just not enough practical application information given in the chapter itself. A lot of the later worksheets were reduced to: just make a list of three of the key words that relate to that. But where earlier worksheets had you follow through into building coherent phrases etc... the later worksheets just leave you with keywords. This meant that there are a few chapters I really wanted to be able to extrapolate more for myself from, but found I felt like I just hadn't been given all the tools needed to do so. Klintworth herself tells us she's intentionally not spelling things out, but I feel like there are some easy and simple fixes that could have been added to the later worksheets to help with these bigger ideas.
Unfortunately these were both problems I found carried into the the last third of the book too, but this was salvaged for me by Kilntworth's return to interesting new territory I don't usually find in beginner astrology work. I did leave the Saturn chapter baffled about why we were recording our Natal Saturn quadrant if we weren't being given the tools to interpret it, but overall I liked this third much better than the second (but not as much as the first).
There were some specific places where I wished I had further clarification about possible circumstances. Like what if I have 2 power clusters, is that a thing? What about if I have three equally tied dominant archetypes, or evenly spread out elements in my current cycle? There were also little things where there was no room for me to write what was asked of me on the worksheet. And from the beginning I was baffled that neither the book, nor her website, had a blank set of worksheets. What if I make mistakes? Or want to use the exercises for my spouse or child?
Still, I sound like I hated the book, and I didn't. I'd say it's in my top two or three astrology books (almost exclusively for that first third). When she wasn't being all love and light in her language she had interesting new perspectives and ideas about applying astrology. I liked her perspective and take on most of the things in the book ad I loved how this was first and foremost a work book. All good things. Though there is one other thing, not astrology specific, that I feel like I need to address.
I was initially thrown that she chose to use Mother Theresa as an example in the early chapters, especially as an example of someone who "built homes to help humanity" when it is now known that Theresa actually did a lot of horrible things, chief among them denying pain medication and real medical treatment to the people in those "homes" because it suited her theology about pain being a cleanser (please feel free to Google, you'll find some solid sources online). I was thrown, but not so bothered because I'd only recently learnt this and I know it's not wide spread knowledge.
But in a later chapter when she used Woody Allen as an example I actually had to stop and breathe again. I went on reading hoping she'd address the whole of him, but no. She used him as an example of "brilliance" and talked about how the thing we were learning about in this chapter showed him to have mastery in Love/Relationships and Right Action and that he was learning about the "dark side of humanity" but his mastery in Right Actions meant he'd make good choices here. She talked about how all this showed in his movies. His movies. But she never talked about his life. His accusations by his daughter of pedophilia. By his ex of abuse. By his son of smearing said sexually abused daughter. Or of his marrying another daughter. I feel like you can't be Klintworth's age, and look into Woody's life enough to use him as an example, and NOT know. Partly this felt like just more of our culture holding up the genius and absolving him of his horrors because of it. But partly it also makes me distrust the teaching in this chapter. Woody Allen does NOT demonstrate a life where he has mastery over love, relationship and right action. The complete opposite in fact. Had Klintworth chosen to address these issue and talked about how or why that behaviour might be connected to the chapter's lesson (within my training/tradition I would explain this as saying that he carries a heavy charge/lot of energy in these areas therefore he could express them as mastery OR in twisted ways because of the amount of energy here) then I think I could have embraced the choice to use him as an example. But that's not what happened.
As I result I spent an entire night deciding if making the choices to use these examples in this way should change how I rated the book or not. I probably would have rated the book a 4 without the Woody Allen reference (or if it had been handled better) because I liked what I got from the book enough to over look the fiddly bits, but in truth I can't discount how problematic this choice feels. I know that this is not relevant to the astrological teaching as a whole (which is why I separated the topics) and I know for some people it won't matter at all (if that's you definitely buy the book). But I also know for other people this will matter and so I've chosen to include it in my review, do with it what you will.
p.s. For full disclosure I did not work through Chapter 11 because I am not currently interested in doing compatibility work. ...more
If you are looking for clear directions on how to get from A to B this book isn't it. If what you are hoping to find is something that spells out makiIf you are looking for clear directions on how to get from A to B this book isn't it. If what you are hoping to find is something that spells out making magic with tarot cards in much the way that a recipe books spells out how to turn tomatoes and onions into pasta sauce this is not the right book for you. But if you are seeking the Oracle, if you are the Oracle, then this might be exactly the book you need. The Oracle Travels Light reads exactly like it was written by the academic, literary, divination focused poet that it was written by.
Elias's prose reads like poetry; dense with layers of meaning and the promise of nutrients if you are willing to chew it out. I often had to re-read sections over and over again to chase the meaning and cohesion out of it or I'd have to stop and walk away from the book coming back after I'd had the chance to digest what I'd been reading. When I told Camelia that I was reading this book she congratulated me and then told me that a lot of people who read the book tell her that they struggled to understand it. I could totally see why that was.
This may sound like a criticism, and maybe for some people it is, but I never found it to be a deterrent and every time I came away from the book it was with depth of insight and more to sift through. Even now I feel like this is one of those books that I will re-read in five years and find that the meaning opens itself like a flower - ripening in exactly the right time.
In truth I'd say that The Oracle Travels Light reads like an oracle itself. This time I read it cover to cover, but I think that from now I'll flip through it following the rules of bibliomancy - trusting that where I land will be the exact piece of prose that I need to read in that moment to enhance both my divining and my magic. This is definitely not a book for someone brand new to magic or divination, but anyone else willing to delve into it for what it is is guaranteed to find treasure in its caves.
"I am come today, I am come. I am come to see and sing. I am come. I am come to see the omen. I am come to see the sign. Come sign, come omen. Come. I am come. I'm the sign, the omen. I am come." pg. 150-151...more
I'm not sure if it counts to say that I finished this book, because technically I skipped the section on the Daily Moon as I didn't feel I needed it (I'm not sure if it counts to say that I finished this book, because technically I skipped the section on the Daily Moon as I didn't feel I needed it (at the moment). And honestly, if you count all the sections I skimmed I probably read just under two thirds of the whole book.
And really, that tells you something.
I bought this book because I was looking forward to the moon specific information, I should have paid more attention to the write up because all the law of attraction, "new moon wishes" stuff was not what I was looking for. So I skimmed it. The fact that I felt like I was reading something written for someone in 8th grade, with the tone and language always making me feel like I was dumb, whenever she got to in depth explanations probably increased my desire to skim. That's the bad part, now the ugly (or is it just annoying).
I have several notes in my book that ask why the author insists on recommending the exact opposite of the energy that she just described. I.e.: Aries is impulsive, impetuous and energetic so this is the time to... sit down and plan the next 12 months? I... umm... No. Having finished reading the whole section I'd suggest you plan during Capricorn - which loves planning, control and is highly focused - or Virgo - which loves order and is perfectionistic and then do exactly what she says "infuse your plans with drive and determination" during Aries. This was not the only time where the advice went against the energy of the moon and I found this odd. It seems to me that the point of a tool like this is to learn to ride the current of the energy that IS not to teach you to try to force the energy into constraints. Maybe if there had been a section on what to constrain or watch out for (i.e. too impulsive in Aries, or overly controlling in Capricorn) as well as a section on what to nurture in each sign it would have been less grating, but the fact that some signs were all flow while others had these counter suggestions made me feel like we were seeing the author's own biases.
But what TRULY annoyed me (and in fact I skipped almost everything in the Full Moon section because of this) was the Full Moon advice. Full Moon is the peak, it is completion, it's the baby exploding into the world, it's people finally oohing and ahhing over what you built. Why, in the name of all that is holy, at this point would you be releasing, and wrapping things up?
Let's think about this cycle like sex. The New Moon is when you start waggling eye brows and making it super clear what you're interested in. The Waxing Moon is foreplay and getting into it. And Full Moon is the orgasm. No one, in the middle of an orgasm is like: Ok pull out and let's review how this went. No. First you enjoy the orgasm, you celebrate, you reveal in making crap happen. The whole release, review, forgive and gratitude those are all actions done during the Waning Moon. (A whole half cycle which our culture tends to overlook in a LOT of systems, btw.)
I theorize that you can't talk about the point in a cycle where plant seeds, and then talk about the point in the cycle where you get gorgeous flowers and get to celebrate what you grew and then... start the cycle over. The author knew she needed that coming down, but she doesn't mark another phase of the moon (though she does clearly explain all 8 phases in the beginning and you can see how she has the Full Moon repeating what goes with the last few phases there) so those things important to manifestation (forgiveness and gratitude) got shoved on to the Full Moon and we just skip celebration and sharing. Adding a section on something like the Dark Moon would have allowed the three natural points and processes - Planting, Celebrating, Releasing - to be marked in the book without any weird twisting and shaping.
But that said, I DO have a lot of highlights through out the books. I went through and made a reference table for myself on the moon in various signs and houses. I got some good astrological specific information from the book (like the fact that during the Full Moon the Sun and Moon are opposite each other in the chart). But I'm torn on who to recommend it to. Technically I think it should be recommended to people brand new to astrology because it's written directly to them and it's got some great basic information. But it also has somethings that are forced and wrong (ala Full Moon rant above) so then they'd go into their studies with errors. Likewise anyone who knows anything about the Law of Attraction is going to find this to be a basic primer and it might be a little too woo to someone completely new to it (though it is obviously written for them). Experienced astrologers will be annoyed by the little things that annoyed me. And in fact, I have a friend I wanted to recommend it to for the "when the moon is here" parts, but I didn't recommend it because I felt like I'd also need to send notes about what to ignore in it and how annoying is that?
So in the end while I did get some value out of it and it was worth what I paid for my ebook ($2) I can't say that I highly recommend it. Sadly, because I think a good basic book is exactly the thing I needed on my reference shelf. Oh well.
My husband asked me what I was reading and when I told him the title he stared at me blankly for a moment and then asked if that wasn't an oxymoron, wMy husband asked me what I was reading and when I told him the title he stared at me blankly for a moment and then asked if that wasn't an oxymoron, was the author trying to be funny. Having finished it I can tell you I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he meant.
The book is short, easy to read, and expressly to the point. Chapman has broken magic down to its most bare bones; if you want to know how to make magic happen you can literally toss out your library and just begin by following this formula over and over. And add the other books back in once you've mastered this philosophy. Even a beginner to magic will be able to completely grok and follow this book and make magic start happening.
But be aware this book is a complete deconstruction. If you are the type of person who likes the layers - history, theology, philosophy, symbols and smells and bells and whistles - you are going to detest this book. Chapman's main purpose is to strip away those layers and leave only the necessary scaffolding remaining. Consider yourself forewarned.
Despite this easy beginner approach I wouldn't recommend it to my friends and clients who are just dipping their toes into magic. Not because they couldn't learn from and work with it, but because I think they would miss out on a layer of purpose written into this book. (There are also some things that a true beginner who's read very little else will wonder what the hell he's talking about - not the practices he recommends but the ideas he's deconstructing.) Chapman's deconstruction perfectly works to strip down those layers of tradition and habit and thinking that can be passed on by other teachers and books simply because that's how they were told to do it or it doesn't feel like magic without it, etc... It seems to me that this book is meant to address you after you've ingested some of these other ideas and started forming your own habits and need to have your own magic and thinking taken back to bare bones again. Therefore, not for the beginner, but exactly for the person who is just now ready to begin moving from beginner magic into advanced magical work. A beginner at advanced magic is exactly who this book is ideally for.
So if you've already gotten started on magic and you are at the crossroads that Chapman describes in his book, that place where you feel the call to either "quit dabbling" and go do something serious with your life (though I personally find this option feels more like "it's cool to dabble and go do something real with the rest of your life") or "dedicate your life" to chasing magic. If you're at that crossroads (one of many of them in my experience) and you feel the latter branch calling you to move deeper then this book is exactly the next thing you should read. ...more
When I met Benebell she told me not to buy this book, she told me that as an experienced tarot reader I didn't really need her book. But after spendinWhen I met Benebell she told me not to buy this book, she told me that as an experienced tarot reader I didn't really need her book. But after spending some time with her and knowing how she teaches I couldn't not buy the book.
Oh my... I'm so glad I didn't listen to her. This is hands down the best Tarot book I've ever read. You really don't need any other book besides this one whether you are a beginner or, like me, are an experienced reader. As I've been reading I've added a handful of ideas from the book to the readings I'm doing and just those few techniques have made a wild difference in my readings. I definitely didn't need the whole book, but what I did get from it was well worth the investment of both time and money to sit with it.
I've been reading the book by scanning through the table of contents and reading what I want to know more about at the time, eating slowly through the whole book in a random order. And this is actually how I'd recommend reading it. A brand new beginner with tarot could learn from this book on the proviso that they don't attempt to read the whole book through. Instead a beginner should begin with the first third or so of the book and work with that material first going back to the book over and over as they're ready to expand their readings. While an experienced reader will probably jump in later in the book picking the ideas that are calling to them. It's definitely not the kind of book I'd set out to read from cover to cover in a few sittings.
I believe this is the only five star review I have given so far and this has easily become The Tarot Book I'll be recommending (except for newbies who are easily overwhelmed)....more
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