Christina
FFS - this is absolutely infuriating and sickening. It's great insight into a family, the pharmaceutical industry, and its impact (or even you can say the catalyst of the opium crisis). I like books that make you angry or sad so highly recommend if you want to learn about the darkest intersections of greed, egoism, and capitalism.
For those who didn't experience this time in their lives, it is absolutely imperative to read or listen to this. Oral histories are critical knowledge in understanding first hand how major events can leave a mark. Survivors, impacted family members, or those involved in response offer a gut wrenching account and also how we can come together as humans to help each other.
“We cannot, of course, expect every leader to possess the wisdom of Lincoln or Mandela's largeness of soul. But when we think about what questions might be most useful to ask, perhaps we should begin by discerning what our prospective leaders believe it worthwhile for us to hear.
Do they cater to our prejudices by suggesting that we treat people outside our ethnicity, race, creed or party as unworthy of dignity and respect?
Do they want us to nurture our anger toward those who we believe have done us wrong, rub raw our grievances and set our sights on revenge?
Do they encourage us to have contempt for our governing institutions and the electoral process?
Do they seek to destroy our faith in essential contributors to democracy, such as an independent press, and a professional judiciary?
Do they exploit the symbols of patriotism, the flag, the pledge in a conscious effort to turn us against one another?
If defeated at the polls, will they accept the verdict, or insist without evidence they have won?
Do they go beyond asking about our votes to brag about their ability to solve all problems put to rest all anxieties and satisfy every desire?
Do they solicit our cheers by speaking casually and with pumped up machismo about using violence to blow enemies away?
Do they echo the attitude of Musolini: “The crowd doesn't have to know, all they have to do is believe and submit to being shaped.”?
Or do they invite us to join with them in building and maintaining a healthy center for our society, a place where rights and duties are apportioned fairly, the social contract is honored, and all have room to dream and grow.
The answers to these questions will not tell us whether a prospective leader is left or right-wing, conservative or liberal, or, in the American context, a Democrat or a Republican. However, they will us much that we need to know about those wanting to lead us, and much also about ourselves.
For those who cherish freedom, the answers will provide grounds for reassurance, or, a warning we dare not ignore”
What a quote.
I felt disgusted the whole time reading this. I can't believe it took me so long to delete Instagram. These people are absolutely despicable. Sheryl absolutely shocked and disgusted me. Mark hides behind his ability to not know how to socialize but it in reality he is cruel and power drunk. The Facebook exposé is enough to rank this book high. I didn't mark it five starts since the author felt like it got a little off track with what appeared to be the intent of the book. I think understanding it was important. It just didn't draw me in. I think she is naive in her own impact but I also get that it was the idealism of Facebook prevented her from believing it.
I read this because I needed it. A short read or listen but if you want to know, this nails it.
“I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the best I have been, which is when I have been midly manic. When I am my present “normal” self, I am far removed from when I have been my liveliest, most productive, most intense, most outgoing and effervescent. In short, for myself, I am a hard act to follow.”
I am very picky with self-help books. While we know all of the advice and the amount of time we spend on our phones (specifically social media), I did appreciate the aspect of emotional mindfulness incorporated in the book. Why are you picking up your phone or what can you do instead? What are your body sensations before and after? Did it help? I didn't really get this from articles or “digital minimalist” books. One of my biggest struggles is losing contact with people. Do I get their cell phone number? Email? Is that weird? Why is that weird. Anyways provided some different insight and things to simmer on.
Finally got to the end. DBT was life saving for me and I don't think any other form of therapy would have been able to do what I so desperately needed. I was hoping to get more insight into Lineham by reading this. This didn't feel so much as a memoir and had more of a blend of the DBT handbook and high level anecdotes.
There are some mean reviews on here and I call BS on the level of hate. I'm curious what those people consider a 5 star. Was it perfect? No. Could it have gone more into depth? Yes. Given all of that, there was so much more that I loved. I would give this a 3.5 though. First off - the structure and concept was awesome. I hadn't read anything like this before and made this a page turner for me. I loved it - serial killer vs forensic pathologist. It was very binge-able. I thought this was a fun, dark, , easy read. Looking forward to reading the sequel!