leviofmichigan's reviews
299 reviews

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg

medium-paced

3.0

A little bit rambling, and the audio is atrocious, maybe because it was recorded so long ago. I do love when Goldberg laughs at her taping bloopers, though. 

The Writing Life: Ideas and Inspiration for Anyone Who Wants to Write by Julia Cameron

challenging funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

I mostly really appreciated hearing the perspectives shared, especially where the two artists differed in ways of thinking. However, there was this moment, right at the end, where Cameron gets the last word, and essentially says, "No, I don't really see things as impermanent, I think everything lasts." But if Goldberg had been able to respond, I think she would have pointed out that Buddhism, yes, is full of Dharma on impermanence, but that's only because our society is more on the side of permanence. The deeper truth that Buddhism always points to is non-duality, which means, for this topic, that the world is not permanent OR impermanent, but there is some balance between the two, both can be true at the same time. Even just the examples that Cameron shares, ie her ancestors living through her, are types of things I've heard in Dharma talks. Buddhism can sound very heady and philosophical, but one of the things I think Buddhism seeks to do is teach us how to see the world like children, and the difficult thing is staying in that pose, not getting to it, or wrapping your mind around enough concepts to become enlightened. 

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

I don’t read too many books on writing, but this is easily the best book on writing I’ve ever read, and in the top 3 of best Zen books I’ve read. I feel like going back and reading it all again.

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.

Thought the first story was tremendously boring, couldn't get into it. Skipped the second chapter once that became boring. Got into another story, but same thing. Maybe the rest of the stories are fantastic :/ I'm just bored of it for now, maybe I'll pick it up later.

Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy by Whitney Goodman

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

Laziness Does Not Exist taught me to use mindfulness and compassion to probe my own ideas behind a pretty stigmatized label like laziness, whether I’m putting it on myself or someone else. In that book, Price battles against the Calvinist, Puritan, basically old Christian dogma, to show that laziness, for one, doesn’t really exist, and two, is so much more complicated than we pretend. 

This book teaches the reader to use, once again, mindfulness and compassion, to find the balance between toxic positivity and the negative attitudes toxic positivity is out to condemn. The author shows how, historically, toxic positivity was a pushback against the negative views of the Calvinists, that has now gone too far. When I talk about the mindfulness and compassion, I’m talking about asking someone who is complaining, “Do you want advice, or do you just need to get this off your chest?” Goodman never asks us to be toxically negative, to assume the worst, to insist others listen to our complaining, or anything of that sort. Instead, she guides us to a happy medium. Or, maybe, just a value-driven medium. In any case, this is a fantastic book, and I’m adding it to my “Social Justice Expansion” tag. 

Traveling Mercies by

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

There were parts that certainly haven't aged particularly well. I'm thinking of, "it felt presumptuous to appropriate a Black style for my own liberation," when she talks about her dreadlocks. I'm not saying she shouldn't have dreadlocks, I mean, the person who suggested her to do it was Black, so that certainly means something. However, she makes it worse by comparing the Black women rolling her hair into dreads with animals grooming each other. It's like, hmm, maybe just delete that line.

Generally, though, very raw and honest and good, and helped broaden my view of many spiritual things.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

medium-paced

2.0

I guess this book would have been helpful if I had never been given any advice or watched a TED Talk regarding habit formation. I know anecdotes at the beginning of chapters is like the THING with self-help books, but wow, these were particularly mediocre. As an aside, I'd like to politely ask everyone to stop writing self-help books in which every third example for improvement is weight-loss or fitness related, and quit using the word "obesity" when you're just looking for a word that signals you're fatphobic but "it's only because of health!" yeah, I'm sure. (Here's a specific example. To prove a point about masochism, I guess, the author shares an example of how a man signed a paper saying he would do x, y, and z if he didn't go to the gym or eat the proper macronutrients or whatever. Does the author give a disclaimer on how this behavior could be symptoms of an eating disorder for a lot of people? Nope.)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Eating disorder

The book just generally sucks!

The Novice: A Story of True Love by Thích Nhất Hạnh

hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

An encouraging and interesting take on the Bodhisattva Guanyin/Avalokiteshvara. 

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

A fantastic meditation/exploration of what faith means to a person after deconstruction. 

The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village by Samuel R. Delany

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

One of the best memoirs I have ever read. It's lengthy, at 19.5 hours on audio, but the narrator's voice is lovely and the stories simply engrossing. Huge content warning for particularly explicit descriptions of sex. I would recommend this to other queer men who want a first-hand account of a very specific moment in American gay history. Fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Rape, and Sexual harassment