Activity timeline
January 5, 2010
Phenomenal book. I may be a sucker for books about the Royal Navy of Napoleonic and Victorian pedigree but this is wonderful. As the description notes, it's the story of the Beagle surveying voyages, one of which included Charles Darwin's visit to the Galapagos. Written closely to history but with a personalized narrative, it is immersive in the events and people involved. There are many great elements but a standout (for me) is the gradual revelation of what we understand to be geologic time. Imagine being one of the first people on earth to look at a rock and understand you're looking backward millions of years. For that alone, I'll always love this book.
Tiff added This Thing of Darkness to her library.
Tiff added The Commodore to her library.
April 24, 2009
Tiff added Predictably Irrational to her library.
So good. The edge of Hardy's darkness (a la "Tess") but the humor of Dickens. Rollicking, as the kids say.
March 15, 2009
January 15, 2009
(Cross-posting review to LibraryThing, too)
There is a ominous note to depictions of psychologists in pop culture, where shrinks are all-knowing, perfectly adjusted oracular judges of mere mortals' day-to-day dramas. We instinctively know that dispassion is a facade, but the field of psychotherapy itself does not discuss openly what happens when therapists does more harm than healing. Ms. Roger's book is one of the few to discuss it in crystal-clear terms—in this case of her own history as a psychotherapist wrestling with a major breakdown brought on while working with a traumatized child. It would be easy to dismiss the book as dark memoir if it weren't for the exhortation for psychotherapy to address its dark side The post-word is one of the most sincere and compelling calls for change I've read in a long time, and I hope it hit its mark.
The story weaves ...
