Reviews with TLC

I first ordered The 52 Lists Project: A Year of Weekly Journaling Inspiration by Moorea Seal last January after I read about it in an article I have long since forgotten. I liked the idea so much I sent copies to a few friends and my nieces. As stated it's a journal. The prompts are often thought-provoking without seeming overwhelming. They push journalers to look deeper inside and to examine the lives they live, the world around them, and the lives they wish they lived. Seal is on to something with this book. While I started it late and didn't really dedicate myself to it at first, when I finally did, I really enjoyed the vast majority of the prompts. There was the occasional prompt that just didn't apply to me personally, but even those gave me a reason to think about why they didn't apply to me. I did manage to finish it by the end of the year. I found the prompts intriguing and the exercise fulfilling. I imagine The 52 Lists Project: A Year of Weekly Journaling I...

2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses by Daniel Lacerda offers a way to better understand myriad yoga poses and the variations thereof. The photos of each pose are accompanied with information about each pose. The information sometimes feels a bit underdeveloped, but the photos are fantastic. I discovered ways to modify a couple of poses I'd been struggling to do correctly in ways that moved me closer to the pose I wanted to do. The variations and the illustrations are helpful. He even offers a pronunciation guide for the poses Sanskrit names. I enjoyed this book. In spite of it's length, it's a fairly quick read as much of the book is made up of photos. I think this is a book anyone who practices yoga would find value in. It's the kind of book I'll keep on my shelves as a reference book for whenever I'm struggling with a pose.

Sometimes a book comes along that makes you re-think your very existence, your history, everything you think you know about your place in the world. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz raised all those questions in my heart, mind, and soul. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States made me look at every history class I've ever taken through a different lens. Dunbar-Ortiz writes an engaging history that reminds us that whenever we declare people "enemy" we often strip them of their humanity in order to justify our own horrendous actions, from internment camps to genocide, while writing ourselves simultaneously as the victims and the heroes. I wish I had the power to make An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States required reading, but I'll have to settle for recommending it to everyone I know and even people I don't know.

I'm not sure what I expected when I started reading Leaves of Grass (1855 Edition) by Walt Whitman, but I found myself surprised as I read. His language was reflective of his time but felt a bit unrefined in places, which at times was refreshing and at others uncomfortable. His prejudices, in line with the times in which he lived, shined forth in some passages. His use of imagery and language to express the nature of life and living offers a sense of connection and contradiction that pushed me to think and to feel connected to the world he described even when I resisted. Whitman observed and recorded the world around him in a way that gives the reader a glimpse into that world as he saw it and moved through it in Leaves of Grass .

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt was recommended reading for a class I took on morality. After watching his Ted Talk, I was intrigued, so I decided to read the book. I hoped for insight to help me communicate better with those with whom I disagree about politics and religion... This book didn't provide that kind of guidance. Haidt's research is interesting. His conclusions less so. His writing is approachable, and he explains both his research and his conclusions well. However, I found his redefining of terms to better fit his research disheartening because it felt disconnected from reality. I found The Righteous Mind reminiscent of religious apologists only applied to politics. The vast majority of the book hones in on politics leaving little room for a discussion on religion. Honestly, I found The Righteous Mind frustrating and insulting while it re-enforced my disdain for labels even when it tried to achieve the ...

Shambhavi Sarasvati writes about her journey in the poems of No Retreat: Poems on the Way to Waking Up. Many of her poems investigate the intricacies of life and relationships with self and others. Sarasvati's poems contain a spiritual element but often feel grounded in the world Sarasvati inhabits. She explores her need and desire for a spiritual awakening in a way that is both endearing and frustrating. No Retreat: Poems on the Way to Waking Up offers the readers a glimpse into Sarasvati's process and invites the reader to join her not only in her journey but in embracing the reader's own journey.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr transported me into World War II in a way I didn't expect by showing me the war through the experiences of two characters as they were pulled into circumstances beyond their control by their abilities and their inabilities. Doerr creates a fictional world based on a real world event that pushes the reader to cheer when they don't want to and jeer when they don't want to because his characters are so easy to identify with. He humanizes people and shows how easily people can be manipulated to do things they find unimaginable and the all too real effects from committing acts that go against one's conscience. Doerr writes in a way that makes it easy to suspend one's disbelief in areas where the story takes on fantastical airs. His characters are so real, I hurt with them, laughed with them, and wished with them even as I grew frustrated with them, admonished them, and pushed them to make different decisions. All through Al...