Man. This was hard to read, but Krakauer did an effective job of laying out the facts, transcripts, etc. that show what can happen to sexual assault victims when they try to seek justice--especially if their attacker was a "non-stranger." You've got everything including:

--police officers and detectives who haven't been trained in the psychology and mental processes of rape victims (which leads them to disbelieve the victim's accounts & question their actions)
--district attorneys offices who decline to prosecute (even when handed eye-witnesses and confessions from the attackers),
--public shaming and character attacks from friends and community members ("He's a handsome, popular football player. He doesn't need to rape people. You're just a slut who wants attention.")

As a result, women choose not to come forward and subject themselves to a flawed system & public opinion (instead suffering anxiety, depression, and PTSD), and their attackers walk away with the confidence to re-offend (which they frequently do, sometimes not even classifying what they are doing as "rape.").

One of the things that was eye-opening for me was learning about the range of ways victims may react during & after being assaulted, especially if it's by someone they know & trust. Because rape is so profoundly traumatic, the reaction to that trauma could include terror, confusion, denial (trying to "undo" it, maybe even by staying on good terms with their attacker), and self-blame. So behaviors or statements that would seem "counter-intuitive or paradoxical" to a person watching from the outside could be completely understandable from the context of a victim.

I needed something light(ish) to get back into the reading groove, and this fit the bill!

I could not even with this book. Grabbed it from the free paperback collection at my local library (which is awesome). But this heroine drove me up the wall. Not sure how I'm meant to root for anyone that selfish and clueless and (impossibly) socially awkward.

Not really practical with 3 kids, but I can dream...Maybe once we are empty nesters--I just need to spend the next 25 years convincing Cortney!

Started listening to the audiobook, then got a copy on my iPad and inhaled the thing in almost one sitting. I'm not a video game person but this sucked me right in. It's set in a future where reality is so awful (war, disease, energy shortages) that people spend most of their lives plugged in to an alternate reality program.

Did anybody else think that the OASIS schools sounded kind of awesome?

At first I didn't think I was that into this book, but then I found myself thinking about what I'd read quite a lot & talking with other people about it and thinking about how to apply her tips to the things I'm working on.

This isn't a one-size-fits-all, "here's how to form a habit" manual. It's more about understanding and working with your personality type, getting clarity about what you value and how your habits do or do not reflect that, and being aware of what may help or undermine you.

I especially enjoyed these sections:
the problem with rewards and goals (hint: you quit)
treat yo'self (self-care rather than rewards)
Abstainers vs Moderators (which are you?)
Convenience (making good habits convenient and bad habits inconvenient)