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patlo's Reviews (1.32k)
What an uneven, poorly edited, poorly researched book... but still helpful. If you take it as ONE MAN'S RECOMMENDATIONS on barefoot running, it's good. If you take it as a well-grounded, well-researched book... not.
The first few chapters are new agey "connect with the magnetic fields of the earth" kind of hooey, but if you can wade through that (or skim fast), then the book gets pretty good. Its discussion of mechanics, exercises, how to build up your foot, injuries - all are good. The discussion of food and nutrition is very basic: eat organic, eat local; nothing different for a runner than for any other human need. The author makes goofy outlandish statements right and left that make a reader wonder if there's any truth to that phrase (hot peppers are a superfood! sugar is the only food that makes you want to eat more of it!) I stopped making notes for things I wanted to fact-check after a while - they all might be true, but the author doesn't support any of it, beyond a quasi-religious enthusiasm from his personal experience.
There's a decent little mini-chapter at the end about minimalist shoes, but you're better off visiting a barefoot/minimalist shoe store and asking for help. I'm very fortunate to have www.borntorun.com local to me in Seattle.
All in all... good resources, but take it as more of a memoir with some good details, rather than a well-researched resource.
The first few chapters are new agey "connect with the magnetic fields of the earth" kind of hooey, but if you can wade through that (or skim fast), then the book gets pretty good. Its discussion of mechanics, exercises, how to build up your foot, injuries - all are good. The discussion of food and nutrition is very basic: eat organic, eat local; nothing different for a runner than for any other human need. The author makes goofy outlandish statements right and left that make a reader wonder if there's any truth to that phrase (hot peppers are a superfood! sugar is the only food that makes you want to eat more of it!) I stopped making notes for things I wanted to fact-check after a while - they all might be true, but the author doesn't support any of it, beyond a quasi-religious enthusiasm from his personal experience.
There's a decent little mini-chapter at the end about minimalist shoes, but you're better off visiting a barefoot/minimalist shoe store and asking for help. I'm very fortunate to have www.borntorun.com local to me in Seattle.
All in all... good resources, but take it as more of a memoir with some good details, rather than a well-researched resource.
4.5 stars. Quick, breezy morality tale twisting through post/ww2 war crimes storytelling.
Lovely languid storytelling with a fantastic through-line about unconnecting love. Read the book through and then reread chapter 1 again.
I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could - it felt long by a quarter, but was well worth the time.
I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could - it felt long by a quarter, but was well worth the time.
When a highly hyped novel pulls it off, it's good. This is a collection of stories about an interconnected group of friends with a music and culture backdrop. It's sort of a novel, sort of a collection of short stories. It weaves its characters together the same kind of way Crash did on film, though Goon Squad moves back and forth in time, shows how people begin and end and begin, shifts point of view and narrator, and plays all kinds of funky tricks. Including, as you may have heard, a whole chapter written in Powerpoint slides - and that's the best chapter of the book.
By page 18, I was recommending the book around. It wasn't QUITE what I thought it would be, and it was really hard to keep track of who we had seen before (to the extent that I think I'll reread the book again very soon and keep notes on names and bands and places just to draw the map for myself). That epic confusion is a bit challenging, but also gloriously inviting.
In the end, it's a 4.5 star book, but easy to round up to 5.
By page 18, I was recommending the book around. It wasn't QUITE what I thought it would be, and it was really hard to keep track of who we had seen before (to the extent that I think I'll reread the book again very soon and keep notes on names and bands and places just to draw the map for myself). That epic confusion is a bit challenging, but also gloriously inviting.
In the end, it's a 4.5 star book, but easy to round up to 5.
This is the mesmerizing, powerful and vicious story of an alcoholic, abused housewife in Dublin. The depth of emotion in the story is impressive. The pace and dialogue were spot-on. I've known more than one battered woman, and the main character in this story captures the strength and the terror of that situation.
Very powerful novel, highly recommended, though it's not enjoyable due to its subject matter. It's not over-dramatized; it's simply in-your-face realism.
Very powerful novel, highly recommended, though it's not enjoyable due to its subject matter. It's not over-dramatized; it's simply in-your-face realism.
What if Jesus of Nazareth had grown up with a wisecracking buddy named Biff? And what if Biff were commissioned to write his own Gospel story and bring some levity to the Jesus story?
Christopher Moore writes very, very funny stuff. Many times over, laugh-out-loud funny stuff. It's madcap, goofy, and both respectful and well-researched as well as being a fun speculation that sticks-in-the-mud will find sacrilegious. Yet underneath the story, the reader is invited to consider, perhaps for the first time, the humanity of Jesus, the truly normal portion of who Jesus was, as a pre-teen, a teenager, a young adult who was on a mission that was extremely difficult and confusing.
The first third and last third are the strongest parts of the book. The middle is more slapstick and contain more stories that the author carefully and blatantly describes as speculation for the sake of a fun story.
As a novel, I loved this book and haven't laughed harder reading anything in a long, long time.
Christopher Moore writes very, very funny stuff. Many times over, laugh-out-loud funny stuff. It's madcap, goofy, and both respectful and well-researched as well as being a fun speculation that sticks-in-the-mud will find sacrilegious. Yet underneath the story, the reader is invited to consider, perhaps for the first time, the humanity of Jesus, the truly normal portion of who Jesus was, as a pre-teen, a teenager, a young adult who was on a mission that was extremely difficult and confusing.
The first third and last third are the strongest parts of the book. The middle is more slapstick and contain more stories that the author carefully and blatantly describes as speculation for the sake of a fun story.
As a novel, I loved this book and haven't laughed harder reading anything in a long, long time.