Review: This is It: And Other Essays on Zen & Spiritual Experience

This is It: And Other Essays on Zen & Spiritual Experience by Alan W. Watts
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Having read the many positive reviews here, I suspect that my listening to the audiobook, without the benefits of reading and reflecting as I would with a physical book, was not a good thing. I found a lot of long-winded sentences that were difficult to follow on audio. With a book you could easily re-read. While driving and listening, no way. I will possibly try another...

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Review: A World Lost: A Novel

A World Lost: A Novel by Wendell Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Follows a boy who loses a beloved, freewheeling uncle to murder through his life before and after the murder, and years later when he starts to question to find out what actually happened. You are in the boys head all throughout the short book, and you see how he thinks as he learns that some stories and some storytellers can't be trusted. It all happens in the bucolic country, and slowly as a typical Southern story.

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Review: The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this to keep up with an online book club. I found the story interesting. What starts as a archeology adventure story with some mysteries becomes something else quite different at the end. I enjoyed that change the most. it was like reading two or three very different books. Kept my interest all along.

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Review: Sabine Spring

Sabine Spring by James Lee Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've read almost all of Burke's books, so this one from early in his career was a nice reminder of his writing but in a very different setting, much more an old Western than his more typical mysteries or later historical fiction. His description in the early part of the book of prison life and escape was very well described and memorable. I didn't find the rest of the book, with a lot of chasing and running, as well drawn. Burke's writings from the last couple of decades have a heavy dose of the supernatural and/or superhuman characters. This one didn't, and it was good to see his style of writing working without resorting to that plot crutch. Of course, this one was shorter without that stuff.... Altogether, it was nice to read and recall why I started reading Burke's books, with great setting description, typical Western heroes, and some interesting action.

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Review: The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher


I listened to this audiobook 7 months ago and can't remember a single thing it said. I believe that provides some affirming evidence of one of the points he makes about social media ruining your memory. But I think it also makes the point that this kind of story isn't new, it's something I read about often, in other books and in the media and from internet sources. Problem yes, solution??

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Review: Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions

Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions by Temple Grandin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I loved the initial concept that there are visual thinkers and verbal thinkers and a set of folks that combine the both. The details, analysis, and conjectures about the meaning of this got a bit boring, though. Trimming would make this better.

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Review: The Kentucky Thoroughbred

The Kentucky Thoroughbred by Kent Hollingsworth
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this up after recently reading Geraldine Brook's "Horse", and was surprised to find one of the horses highlighted here with its own chapter was Lexington, the focus of the Brooks book. It was nice to get a quick read on the real life Lexington and to see where the novel differed from real life. Overall, this book was just OK, with a lot of pro-Kentucky boosterism built into the writing. Nice for a quick horsey read.

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