As expected, this book was very thought provoking. Clearly, Mo is a very smart guy and wants to understand Life, the Universe and Everything. He makes many valid observations and lots of interesting ideas. However, overall I was disappointed, as I felt that his Two Big Ideas were flawed.
I was attracted by his idea that life is not limited to our physical existence on Earth. He says life has always been there and always will. His justification for this assertion involved quantum mechanics and relates to the fact that measuring/observing something influences it. He extends the idea to the conclusion that, if something is not observed, it cannot happen. So, life in some form must have observed the Big Bang. I believe that this is an erroneous interpretation of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle etc.
He also talks about Intelligent Design. Although I have felt for a long time that the Universe as a whole [laws of physics, mathematics etc.] seems too complex [and maybe too beautiful] to be the result of chance/accident, I strongly support Darwinian evolution. Mo seems to think that evolution is all about chance, which results in the numbers not adding up. This is incorrect.
My conclusion is that, although the book is not a waste of time, it does fail to convince me on these key issues.
This was a very enjoyable read, despite my reservations about the format. The essays are quite varied, but many of them are very personal and some quite emotional [spoiler: keep tissues on hand for the Epilogue]. Her quality of writing is outstanding. If she wrote a manual for a microwave oven, it would be a page turner.
First off, this is not a fantasy book at all. It is left to the reader to decide exactly what it is, but no suspension of belief is really needed. Phew!
It was a very enjoyable read - amusing and entertaining in places, but always thought provoking. The quality of writing kept me engaged and the story made me keep turning the pages.
I look forward to reading more of this author’s work.
As I was expecting, this book was a great read. Very honest and straightforward. The author continues to be an inspiration. I feel that I need to seek out her earlier memoirs.
When I read a fiction book, part from [hopefully] being entertained, I like to feel that I might learn something. I was interested in the fact that this book features a main protagonist who has MS, as does the author. I hope to be a little more educated on this topic.
The book is really two parallel stories on different timelines, organized so that the reader is never confused. I found that this structure gave good pace to the book. I guess it could be dismissed as “chick lit”, as there is a romantic thread, but I think that would be unfair and I don’t really like categorization of books anyway.
Overall, a very good read which kept me turning that pages - particularly towards the end.
No book about events during the holocaust can be anything less than shocking and this is no exception. The story is well structured and paced and written in very straightforward prose. I enjoy having read it and feel that I have learned more about this appalling time in history. I was surprised to read that the story is based on a true memoir.
As I expected, this book was a good read - entertaining, often amusing and thought provoking. It has a very honest ring to it, which is what I hope for in an autobiography.
I have started Black Vodka: Ten Stories by Deborah Levy. I am not generally a fan of short stories - I like to get my teeth stuck into a good book - but it’s good to have a change and this author comes recommended. Here’s the blurb:
Kissing you is like new paint and old pain. It is like coffee and car alarms and a dim stairway and a stain and it's like smoke.' ('Placing a Call') How does love change us? And how do we change ourselves for love - or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man; in London gardens, birds sing in computer start-up sounds; in ad-land, a sleek copywriter becomes a kind of shaman. These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.
I very rarely give up on a book, but, with this one, I came close. My main gripe was repetition, as with many American self-help books, the author has some great ideas but bangs on about them repetitively. She also claims to be a feminist, but initially I found her writing very sexist. I decided to give it a fair chance and make the call at 100 pages.
When I got that far, two things had changed. Firstly, she seemed to finally admit that many things that she had seen as challenges that only women experience are not really that gender specific. Second, she started talking a lot more about her life and experiences, which I found much more interesting.
Overall, I still feel that there is a great 125 page book in here. I think that her insights and ideas will stay with me.
I have started Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living by Glennon Doyle. Time for non-fiction again and this book came recommended and looked interesting. Here’s the blurb:
Part inspiration, part memoir, Untamed explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet the expectations of the world, and instead dare to listen to and trust in the voice deep inside us. From the beloved New York Times bestselling author, speaker and activist Glennon Doyle.
For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There. She. Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high but soon she realised they had come to her from within. This was the voice she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions and social conditioning. Glennon decided to let go of the world's expectations of her and reclaim her true untamed self.
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanising wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is also the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honour our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts.
Like most of this author’s work, this book is quite complex, with many intertwined threads. We are given the immediate hint that something dramatic occurred at a BBQ party. For a couple of hundred pages, we don’t know what the incident actually was, but we learn about the lead up to it and implications afterwards. Once we do know what happened, we gradually learn more nuances of the event and see them from different points of view. The twists and surprises continue right up until the end.
All in all, a great read that will attract me back to the author’s books.
I enjoy autobiographies and memoirs, but I am always on the lookout for ghost-writing - I want to hear the genuine voice. In the case of this book, I was left in no doubt that the author is writing from the heart. There is a great honesty to the writing - no hole barred! It made me smile a lot, but also gave me pause for thought. I even took a cooking tip [making matzo flour to fry fish] from a self-confessed non-cook! All in all, a great read.
