Summary: Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? is an allegorical tale about how to think about and respond to change. It tells the story of four characters who live in a large Maze and must explore the Maze to find cheese. There are two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two littlepeople, Hem and Haw. They […]
The night I learnedthat the cinema in our townwas closing,I wept. I sifted memories, turned back timetrying to reclaim all those momentsof awesadnessexhilarationjoysitting in shadow with folksjust plain Americansin our nothing special, sometimes faulty cinemait’s janky but it’s ours. We lost ourselves in that third spacehappily together but each in our separate worldsthe dark, the […]
In recent weeks, I have joined millions of my fellow Americans who are trying to understand and cope with the overwhelming changes that are sweeping through our sociopolitical landscape. As I pinball between moments of despair, confusion, curiosity, and the occasional glimmer of hope, one of the questions that keeps coming back around is: Who […]
Summary: Robert Masters’s To Be a Man is a passionate text that challenges men to grow and heal in ways that will generate what Masters calls “true masculine power.” Focusing on the topics of shame, anger, aggression, relational intimacy, and sex, Masters explores the dysfunctional patterns that pervade modern models of masculinity, offering alternative frameworks […]
I first read The Way of Kings, the opening book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, way back in 2015. I had a mixed reaction and decided not to continue with the series. Then, as Sanderson published subsequent installments over the next decade, several friends whose reading preferences overlap strongly with mine began to rave about […]
Summary: Like all his previous books, Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus deploys the lens of history to sharpen our view of the present. Focusing on the historical trends and current states of global information networks, Harari demonstrates the dangerous half-truths that arise from flawed theories of information. He also presents his own theory that information networks […]
Moonlight on the Ōyodo RiverDances same as moonlight on any morningOn any waterThe early cold, breath becomes fogAnd disappears Footsteps on the Ōyodo RiverFall same as footsteps on any eveningOn any pathThe late warmth, day becomes nightAnd disappears The sounds of the Ōyodo RiverFlow same as sounds on any dayOn any riverThe midday heat, sweat […]
Back to Bookishness Among other things, 2024 has been a year of professional accomplishments for me. I graduated with my MA in Counseling Psychology in July, and my Associate Marriage and Family Therapist license was issued in August. After deciding to become a psychotherapist four years ago, I can now celebrate having turned that dream […]
Summary: Laura van Dernoot Lipsky’s Trauma Stewardship seeks to support helping professionals in their efforts to address and cope with the effects of “secondary” or “vicarious” trauma. Lipsky argues that the “trauma exposure response” often experienced by helping professionals is neither well understood nor properly dealt with by many individuals and organizations. As a result, the helping […]
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Paul Cody’s Walk the Dark is a slow, strange novel that unfolds through two alternating sequences. The protagonist and narrator, Oliver Curtain, tells his life story via a series of chronological flashbacks, starting from early childhood and terminating in late […]