hoguelikewoah's reviews
7 reviews

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences by Peter A. Levine

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

The majority of what I’ve read over the last year and a half have been works focused on educating about and healing from all things trauma. Everything that I’ve read has some connection to this book because its authorship was in the early 90s. Because of that, Levine speaks to triune brain model, whereas, contemporary, mental health professionals tend to acknowledge, working with the whole person and the biopsychosocial model. He touches on this somewhat with somatic experiencing. This is a fundamental read to gain some foundations and understanding how trauma impacts a person‘s daily living activities. The insight gained from this have been useful and improving therapy delivery outcomes and personal psychoeducation that can be used to heal and move forward from past hurts. 

You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself by David McRaney

funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.5

YANSS - Was a lot of fun to read.  It's effectively a primer on every known Cognitive Distortion (Bypassing, Overgeneralization, Blank and White Thinking, Magical Thinking, etc) along with historical societal impacts of all sizes where these every day thoughts have been fully on display.  That's part of the rub - normalizing how common it is for our brains to take shortcuts in ways that reinforce our self-protective negativity bias, and how important it is to be mindful of when these thought distortions occur, so that we don't use them to self-sabotage, damage relationships, outcomes our generally perpetuate discomfort.  It's a breeze to read and I look forward to reading David McRaney's next book about the science of persuasion, "How Minds Change." 

The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward by Britt Frank

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5.0

This was great!  Britt Frank is so relatable to me with some of her experiences (which she's transparent about) and achieved something I've wanted to see for a long time - a choose your own adventure version of a self-help book.  It's written so that you can access any chapter, and connect only with the content relevant to your needs.  Don't need input on relationship management or parenting?  Skip it.  Though, comprehensively, it's an excellent read on what - biologically and psychologically (it's all connected) - is happening for those who feel "stuck".  She offers multiple action plans for getting un-stuck, and recaps every chapter with a simplified breakdown of the core concepts in conjunction with an evidence-based exercise intended to be of benefit.  I would say this is a helpful read to anyone who identifies with symptoms of depression, anxiety, ADHD, stress, BURNOUT, and more.  Best of all - unlike so many books about managing stress and projects - there are no highly-detailed horrendously tragic case studies to have to process.  She does mention some client stories, semi-anecdotally, but it's all relevant and non-distressing.  Happy reading!  

The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky

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• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you're a lover of surrealism, science-fiction and a story so interesting that it's difficult to not complete in a single sitting - this may be added to your reading list.  My only complaint is that the hardcover gets so heavy over time, I was creating new ways to shift my hands and body - in bed or reclining - to manage reading for more than an hour at a time.  This won't take too many sittings in order to complete though.  The book precedes more graphic works like Game of Thrones, and there's a sense of where some of the sexuality and stylized violence for that and more may have derived.  It also often feels like an imagining of "what if Vonnegut steered more-so in the direction of Science-Fiction" - which is at times that doesn't always age well, can be as intelligent as it is campy, but overall so full of life and characters that you want to know more about.  In some pages - for my liking - there are some major character shifts and conflict resolutions that seem to occur in the matter of a couple of panels, rather than pages that may have served to create some sense of gestation for sometimes large scale events.  To juxtapose that - time passes in different ways across the later pages, so perhaps the changes are intentional or the characters really are able to make complex decisions on the fly because of what's at stake.

Overall - I'm very glad this was my first Graphic Novel and perhaps it can be yours too.  The art by Moebius alone is an absolute dreamscape on certain panels and pages.  It's not surprising that his style was looked upon for art direction in films like The Fifth Element.  

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

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4.5

Foo's ability to reflect on so many areas of adversity while balancing volunteering heavily-weighted (and heart-wrenching complex trauma) with moments of levity is something I'm unaccustomed to in Psychology focused works.  Her career as a skilled journalist lends to her storytelling ability in a way that invites the reader into some deeply personal moments, along with understandable behavioral changes throughout her development that negatively impacted her relationships - until she was able to connect with mental health resources that worked for her.  In that part of the journey - I feel it's encouraging to any audience to learn, from a psychoeducation scope, that there are multiple therapy modalities available to anyone motivated to heal from past hurts.  The encouragement comes with the acceptance that it's up to the person receiving the therapy to be good advocates/allies to themselves as they learn to feel comfortable working with a therapist, but also communicating to them when something isn't working, doesn't feel right or when to terminate services with them.  Despite inner-critics coming up for her she persists in finding a therapy modality that she does connect with and is able to move forward.  This is something that I hope others take away if they've ever felt discouraged by having sessions with a therapist feel off-kilter, and to realize there's always a benefit to mindfulness practices like looking inward with curiosity.  
For highly sensitive persons I would encourage keeping some soft tissues nearby.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, Oprah Winfrey

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

This takes the reader through clinical vignettes across Dr. Perry's timeline, in addition to personal trials experienced by Oprah - who muses about experiencing her own adversity and trauma in childhood.  Compared to books like "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog" or "The Body Keeps The Score", this read is much lighter in tone and quickly arrives to points that help add both insight into where trauma originates, how to look for it in others, and subtle notes on how to create a trauma-informed network around us all (to benefit from).  I read this one not too many weeks after completing Stephani Foo's, "What my Bones Know" and found it a welcome companion.  The audiobook is narrated by the authors, and I enjoyed this one enough that I was able to finish it in two days.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Child abuse, and Drug abuse

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam M. Grant

hopeful informative lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.25

It’s a relatively short and lighthearted read (for a Social Psychology Book) that does well to equip the reader with a template for having sometimes difficult conversations.  The author achieves this by bringing awareness to the variety of perspectives others may operate from, and an beckoning the those engaged to hold an inquiry-based means of move conversation forward rather than in-circles.