Personal stories, but often lacking
355074
Andy Rooney occasionally scores hits on 60 Minutes, but this book hits less frequently.  Readers will hear about his dislike for things Army, especially his training days, and his frequent lucky run-ins with notable media reporters of the day that helped him fine-tune his career as a journalist.  It's not bad; but the stories that show his comapssion such as those where he has been flying with bomber groups only to lose friends, or those where he is at the front and writing about people to send back home to their hometown papers are too rare.
Rooney is honest in his writing, and that is welcome, but we see more of his opinions than we do the better-known war story compendiums now available.  My War is defintiely about his.
1920549
I found this author and book via Instagram, and was a bit astounded when I did. She has lived through an experience eerily similar to my mothers--young wife of four young children loses husband to brain cancer. She is then remarried within a year's time to a fellow widower who himself has children.

Because of the similarities, I had to buy Jessica's book and read it.
While I was intrigued to read Jess's story because of the seemingly personal connection I have to it, I was not overly impressed with the actual writing.  Having read a handful of other memoirs in the last couple years, I have learned that I am drawn to a more poetic telling of one's life. And, while Jessica has some profound statements of lessons learned, wisdom gained, character forged sprinkled throughout the book, it is written more factually which is less appealing to me personally.

That said, I do think Jessica's story and this book would be incredibly meaningful and helpful to a number of people who have or are caring for children with chronic medical needs, people who have watched a spouse battle cancer and lost that spouse to cancer, people who have endured seasons of suffering upon suffering, bad news upon bad news.  Jessica has lived through quite a lot, and her willingness to write it all out for the potential that it might help someone else is commendable.
423348
Eli Gold's biography had the potential to reach a large audience; his down-to-earth demeanor and likeable approach are winners from square one. This is a story of a unique man with absolute passion for radio broadcasting. Tantalizing hints of his personal philosophy and background instead deteriorates into a cluttered memoir that lacks focus and clarity. Co-writer M.B. Roberts does not appear to have corralled the swath of memories and career changes into a cohesive, compelling story that would do Mr. Gold justice. My favorite parts of the story involves his memories of his father, and the tolerant understanding of his mother as he doggedly pursued his dream of broadcasting. Surely a man who shows such tenacity, passion, and enthusiasm deserved a more thoughtful telling of his life up to now. If you are a die-hard Crimson Tide or Nascar fan this book may well offer adequate compensation; for the more general reader, this is not something I could recommend. I know there is a more universal story that could still be told, though, and I'm sad about this misstep.
4246282
Some of the stories left me wanting more; others, not so much. It's not the worst I've ever read, just not one I would recommend.
4023142
"Fifteen Journeys:  Warsaw to London" by Jasia Reichardt, is the story of a young Polish Jewish girl living in Warsaw as World War II begins.  The story is told mostly through surviving letters, and the vague memories of the author.  While sad and heartbreaking, the story was weak.  A collection of letters and memories is the basis of a story, not the entire story, and that is where this book falls short.  That is unfortunate, as with those letters, I think a rather wonderful book could have been written as an homage to the murdered.  Instead, they remained just names on a page.
2421061
I didn't know what to expect when I opened the pages of Asian Shorts. This eclectic collection of short stories and personal essays didn't do much for me. I expected the authors to give me some insight into the culture and lifestyle of a part of the world I'm not familiar with. What I found between the covers of the book were recitations of personal experiences that could have happened to my next door neighbor. Mostly, I was disappointed in the lack of depth expressed by these various authors. One or two stories have remained with me...but most were read and passed by.
543627
A set of short stories - each of which has, as a backdrop, an issue or issues of far-reaching global implication - but which are told from a very narrow and personal perspective. Major conflicts - be it The Battle of Britain, the Vietnam War; the Civil War, Indian colonization or the Irish insurrection  - are seen through the eyes of participants who are, more often than not, simply a combatant. Whether it is the perceived slowing of time experienced by a RAF fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain or the surrealistic shift from surviving in Vietnam to surviving in a crime-ridden big city, we see not the wars and battles but rather the men involved and how they react to the events around them.

To be sure, all the stories are not gems. There's one about the making of a war flick that has the same staleness and disingenuity of 'Close-up.' My personal favorite is the story of the adventures and climb to power of an arms salemen in Latin America during the inter-war years. Taking the form of a letter to his former manager, the salesmen relates the events of his final months of employment for the arms firm and the opportunity he seized when it was presented. Overall, most of the stories are like this one and make acquiring this book well worthwhile.
1241734
A little dry and lacking personal stories which break up pure information. That being said, it has a lot of biblical truth
2797494
I have mixed feelings about this book.  I can't decide whether I like it or am just OK with it.  That ambivalence results in the 3 star rating.  What I like about it is the variety of bad stories we can find ourselves stuck in and the opportunity we have to make a new story out of our situation or our reaction to a situation that can't change.  Each chapter is illustrated with the life of a woman in the Bible as well as real life examples from the life of the author or people she knows.

What I found lacking was more practical application on how to move from a bad story into a new one.  The author too often made is sound like it was as easy as "just" changing your thinking, but that's often the hardest part.  There were a couple chapters where I thought -- this is me in that old story, how do I get myself to the new one.  But the author just moved on to another example of someone else who made that move without a lot of depth on how to do it. Even though I wanted more depth, I am going to loan it to someone in my Bible study who is in difficult life circumstances.  I hope it will give her the ability to see the different ways she can write a new story with her life.

The chapters (and illustrative Bible woman) are:  (1) Realize It's Time to Get a Life and Tell a New Story (Naomi), (2) Don't Be Held Hostage by the Past (Leah), (3) Ask Yourself the Good Questions Only You Can Ask (Rahab), (4) Change Your "I Can't" to "I Can" (Deborah), (5) Delete the Drama of the Day (Hannah), (6) Forget the What-might-have-beens (Anna), (7) Discover the Power of Wisdom and Courage Combined (Jehosheba), (8) Get Past the Resistance of Fear (Abigail), (9) Choose to Bounce Back (Naaman's servant girl), and (10) The Last Chapter Has Not Been Written Yet (Elizabeth).

At the end of each chapter, there are 8 questions of personal reflection and a journaling exercise.  For use in a group setting, there are also a number of group discussion questions.  The cover calls this a 10-week Bible study.  I'd call it a Christian book study, not a Bible study but my definition of a Bible study is something more like the Precept program or a Beth Moore Bible study where you really get into the Bible for the homework like&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Breaking-Free-The-Journey-The-Stories/dp/1415868026/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Breaking Free: The Journey, The Stories</a>.  That being said, it would be a good thing for a group of women to read and discuss.

I was given this book by the publisher for purposes of giving a review.  The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
1909369
I SELECTED THIS BOOK AS A LIGHTER READ AMONGST MY NORMALLY HEAVIER FARE.  I ANTICIPATED HUMOR, SET CLEANLY IN THE MIDST OF PENNY MARSHALL'S LIFE.  WHILE SOMEWHAT INTERESTING, THERE WAS A LACK OF SUBSTANCE I FOUND DISAPPOINTING.  HER STORY IS SOMETIMES FUNNY, SOMETIMES PAINFUL, SOMETIMES EXHILARATING, SOMETIMES BORING.  THERE ARE NONE OF THESE QUALITIES IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITY TO RESULT IN AN ENGAGING READ.  IT IS, HOWEVER, HONEST, RAW, AND REAL.
2141785
The stories didn't quite developed to their full potential and kind of loss focus along the way. Just ok for me
1024780
The stories told are interesting, but they don't grab you.  Certainly, the author captures a very interesting medical condition, but I found myself becoming bored after reading a few of the stories.  The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was just one story and frankly, anti-climactic for me after having heard about the story for many years, but not having read it.
4748010
If this focused more on a hand full of stories instead of one or a couple every 1-3 pages it would be 4 or 5 stars from me.
3939752
The psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz gives us very short excerpts of some case histories, each of which is supposed to teach us something about ourselves.  The book has had a huge number of five-star reviews, many of them extremely brief and failing to explain just what the reader saw in the book.  I cannot quite share their enthusiasm.

Psychoanalytic treatment is a lengthy and searching business, and it makes these snippets, often with an encouraging outcome, seem to me to be too concise.  In some of these short chapters Grosz even recounts bits of the stories of two or three of his patients to illustrate a single point.  And a few of his examples do not come from his patients, but from situations in novels, or from his fathers traumatic visit to the places in Hungary where he had lived before the Holocaust.

The lessons conveyed by some of these case histories are unexpected:  for example, the damage that can be done to a child by the wrong kind of praise; or that paranoid feelings may sometimes be a defence against the worse feeling of being ignored.

Others reflect not uncommon experiences: men feeling lonely and excluded after their wives have babies; how children often suffer when the arrival of another baby deflects attention from themselves; how parents sometimes see a child as a problem rather than themselves.

But many of the stories struck me as neither conveying an unexpected insight nor as reflecting the experiences that many of us have:  they are about neurotic behaviour that is so strange and so unique to a particular patient that I could draw no general conclusion from them, though they may be interesting in themselves (theres nowt so queer as folk).  One or two are moving, like that of the patient afflicted with AIDS who found comfort in spending entire sessions not speaking and even sleeping.

Grosz honestly describes the occasions when he had difficulties in clicking with his patients, when he felt at the end of a session that he and the patient have talked around rather than about the problems. He doesnt use the technical words transference and counter-transference, but he describes many situations in which they happened.  It is astonishing to me how he could tolerate some of the physical manifestations of it  in one case being regularly spat at by a young patient.

Perhaps I was expecting the wrong things from the book  more wise illuminations from a guru about common problems in life than Grosz was trying to offer.  Perhaps a more reliable title for the book would have been Stories from the Consulting Room.
4259133
Good book overall, but some of the stories felt incomplete and felt more like unfinished thoughts for novels - this isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but it definitely left you wanting more and KNOWING more could have been done. Still, stories like "Stationary Bike," "N.," "Ayana" and - God help me - "A Tight Place" make it worth the price of admission!
3485134
While some stories in the book are pretty good, most sound like the narratives one finds on medals recommendations; 'While I struggled to control the jet, my Co Pilot used extraordinary situational awareness to ensure... While the Gunner provided critical communications through SATCOM to ensure that Command...." One really doesn't get the 'flavor' or 'first hand' story.
2372023
the stories are interesting, some of them increadible, but the author could have been more detailist about how they see the aging process, or how they see age. Some histories are so interesting that they make the book worth reading.