alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

If your humor style is "baby boomer complaining about things that aren't actually problems; you're just an asshole" then you might find this book funny. I gave this book a solid 35% read, and never even got close to cracking a smile.

Apesar que eu desistisse, esta conta seria gostoso de ler com crianças. :)

I read The Attention Merchants after reading the excellent essay "You Are the Product" by John Lanchester, published in the London Review of Books. I've read that essay several times and I highly recommend taking 30 minutes to immerse yourself in it. If you are at a point where you are questioning why you spend time using social media sites that end up making you feel worse than if you hadn't logged in at all, you are contemplating a "digital sabath", or are drawn to practicing meditation, the essay will probably add more fuel to your mental fire.

I majored in visual communications, and so I took many classes on the history of graphic design and advertising. The two are inseparable. Much of this book was a review of what I studied in college, so much so that I could even mentally recall specific images or ads mentioned. I didn't learn many new things, but if you are wanting to become a more literate consumer this book will point you in the right direction to begin thinking more critically about ads and how they affect your thoughts and feelings. Honestly, I would skip the book and just read the essay. It is that good.

A key takeaway is that social media sites use free labor to make money. When you post on Instagram, you are creating content that draws more people to use the site. As Instagram makes money by showing ads to its users, that means it is making money by using your time and your creativity. As a graphic designer, I don't work for free. Why are we so willing to work for free for Instagram, Facebook, etc? You may say that the benefits (being inspired, keeping up with friends) are worth the payment. But realize that with cookies and data trafficking, you are giving up much more than your snapshots. Add the psychological burden that many feel by using social media (there are studies that show that even seeing positive things on social media causes a net negative effect on our psyche), and you have to wonder what the cost is. If "our lives are the sum of what we paid attention to", is it really worth the trade?

I am going to delete my instagram account pretty soon, I use Twitter because it is the best news source on the planet, I keep facebook because I don't have all the emails of those contacts and it's the best way to get in touch with someone you haven't talked to in years, LinkedIn really is useful for job hunting, and Goodreads provides an outstanding service to me. But after logging on to Instagram only once in the past month, I have noticed that I am much more mentally healthy, more satisfied with my life and current possessions, and yeah, I like seeing my friends photos but I think that it stalls natural conversation. I don't ask, "What did you do this weekend?" if I already saw everything on Instagram. So I prefer to be in the dark and send a message or ask friends for status updates IRL.

These changes, added with some adopting some monastic spiritual practices, have made me more considerate and deliberate in my daily life, and have created the mental silence that I need even though I live in the center of one of the world's largest metropolises.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls for an Islamic reformation and draws connections to the Protestant Reformation -- urbanization, technological advances, and the best interest of European political leaders primed the Protestant Reformation and Muslim-majority nations are now in the same position. She posits 5 theses for an Islamic reformation, but so far she hasn't mentioned some of the glaring differences between the PR and a possible IR.

I would like to point out that the PR returned Christianity to a fundamentalist practice "Just the facts, ma'am," getting rid of all unnecessary and additional religious doctrine in favor of following what the Bible alone says. This would be the equivalent of tossing out the hadith and all fatwas and returning to practice solely what the Koran teaches. However, the author quotes various passages from the Koran that center around violence for seemingly small/ambiguous offenses, hellfire, and calls to warfare. This is a part of the DNA of the Koran, so returning to the fundamentals of the Koran would not reform Islam in the way that returning to the fundamentals of the Bible reformed Christianity.

I'm not saying that similar passages are not in the Bible, they are. But it is pretty clearly delineated where Israel as a political entity stops and where being a member of the chosen people is no longer defined by a physical condition but a spiritual position. Israel as a political nation was consumed with defining who was an infidel (deserving of death, slavery, fire and brimstone) and who was a member of God's chosen people and thus deserving of God's blessing and prosperity. In fact, Jewish people seeing the long-awaited Messiah as a political leader was one of the reasons they rejected Jesus's claims to be the Messiah--he himself rejected the calls to be a political leader in favor of being a spiritual leader.

The problem that Christianity has with fundamentalist Christians is the same one that Islam has with fundamentalist Muslims--applying spiritual practice to political structure. The difference seems to be that the New Testament of the Bible clearly states that "our battle is not against flesh and blood", that "our citizenship is in heaven" and not of this world. So it is easy to refute fundamentalist Christian practice using the Bible itself. But can the same be done with the Koran? Indeed, it would be a much easier struggle if there was a New Testament, a reforming Messiah in the Koran.

Good overview of the history, vocabulary, and major beliefs of Islam. The focus is much more on history than theology or faith system.

Concise and straightforward. This book is more like a long essay than a full book.

I was struck by the parallels between resisting tyranny and actively living a Christian lifestyle. I don't know why I was so surprised by that; I shouldn't have been. Even the author connects these dots. I'm reading Celebration of Discipline right now, and the overlapping material is unmistakable.

I'm not into ball sports, but I love individual/endurance sports. And what I follow outside of olympic season is cheating scandals. Tour de France, the documentary Icarus about Russian doping, Project Oregon... it leaves me with a squeamish weight in my stomach about the depravity of humanity.

I was still pretty young when all of the Lance Armstrong news broke, but even I had seen that coming. 7 Tours in a row? Come on. But I was too young to pay attention to all the details. Reading this book shocked me. Tyler Hamilton, Armstrong's former US Postal teammember, lays out everything they did and comes completely clean. The story builds from Hamilton's early career, his time learning from the pro about how pro's did it, leaving US Postal, getting so tired of living a complete sham of a life, to the breaking point when he told all to US federal investigators (who, sadly, dropped their case against Armstrong... the announcement was followed by sizable donations from the Livestrong foundation to govt agencies but we already knew he's a slimeball).

Throughout the book, Hamilton asks the reader if we wouldn't make the same decisions that he did, if we had been in his place. It's true, we probably would have. I have such a strong phobia of needles that if I had to choose between the career of my dreams + needles and a different career, I would choose a different career. But if I didn't have that phobia, I would be Hamilton. His choice to tell the truth, walk a path of forgiveness and honesty, and then slip away into a remote life in Montana, is what I would have chosen as well. I have so much respect for this man.

Armstrong on the other hand.... the man is a sociopath. Zero empathy, zero regrets, zero loyalty. Never forgets a perceived slight and goes to extreme attempts to repay them. Everyone who is not him is a "F--ing loser". Sound like another internationally known sociopath to you? That's funny, because Hamilton and his former wife jokingly compare Trump and Armstrong, and this book was published in 2012. Because Hamilton left US Postal before Lance's final Tours, we may never know the full extent of what Lance was doing to cheat, but he was obviously doing something a little more than everyone else. That doesn't disgust me as much as his bold lies to fellow teammates, his need to control everything and everyone around him, his arrogance, and complete disregard for his friends (it was this that ultimately lead to his undoing). Amazingly, Hamilton doesn't come across as bitter when he describes his sour history with Armstrong. He has more grace than I would.

Ultimately this book is the embodiment of "The truth shall set you free." You can feel the weight lift from your shoulders when it reaches the truth-telling part; imagine how free and light Hamilton must feel now.

I listened to the audiobook and it was good. But the book has 2 authors and one narrating voice, and it was impossible to tell whose perspective was being told at the moment.

Has the disctint taste of being ghostwritten but still a very interesting story.

Being married to someone who has bipolar disorder must be very difficult; imagine if that person is undiagnosed, or in Suzy’s case, misdiagnosed. She was treated for depression with Zoloft, which can have very bad effects on ppl with bipolar disorder. That is what led to her sex addiction and living as if there was no consequences for anything she did. Major props to Suzy’s husband, who remained married to her through all of that craziness! I can’t imagine.

The audiobook narrator sounds almost exactly like Suzy. Since suzy reads the intro and afterward, you can compare the two. I was impressed.

This book is sweet and short. The audio is even sweeter as it has full length recorded songs.

Blade is the son of a wild rockstar—family tensions are high when your dad seems to live to please paparazzi. Then Blade learns that he was adopted, and sets off to track down his birth mom in Ghana. A fresh perspective on life and family awaits him there.

Like I said, this book is short. So much more nuance could have been developed, but the author’s natural voice was great for this length. Meaning, he doesn’t have a lot of description and gets straight to the plot point of each scene.

Interesting that this book was published by Blink, a YA imprint of Zondervan. I guess I just wasn’t aware that there were such good fiction titles being published by Christian publishers. Call me biased, but this type of thing did not exist when I was younger. The only church link in this book is Blade’s ex gf’s dad is a pastor with strict morals about who his daughter is and is not allowed to see. So, interesting.

This is the funniest book I have ever read.

There are some pre-reqs to gain access to this level of laugh-out-loud hilariousness:
1. You absolutely must watch The Room before reading.
2. The audiobook is narrated by Greg Sestero, and he imitates Tommy's voice puuurr-FECT-ly.

Audio gold right here.

PS, it's going to be a movie so request it now before the waitlist gets really long!