Charming but very damaging and unhealthy
346862
So Much More is a charming book written by two quite lively and  seemingly intelligent young ladies. I enjoyed their style. I didn't enjoy their message, as I believe it is damaging and very unhealthy to many young ladies.

I believe that their theology is way off base, which causes them to come to some weird conclusions. I believe it is damaging to young ladies to try to coerce them into doing things that the Bible does not demand of them in order to peddle a pet philosophy that works great for some who choose it, but not so much for the young ladies trapped in it. I also find the idea that a daughter needs to be a help meet to her father as disturbing and potentially abusive if the analogy is taken the whole way opens girls up to be abused by their fathers.

There were a few disturbing things in this book. Another was how much a daughters relationship with her father was elevated over her relationship with her mother, and how it was said she should be helping her father but with no regard to her mother.

Anna Sophia and Elizabeth also condone and encourage betrothal (with bride prices and all, selling girls as if they are property), girls not attending college (they don't think girls need an education because they are to be keepers at home and nothing else). There are many alarming things brought to light in this book.

As charming and endearing as this book is, it must be read with extreme caution if read at all. It really wasn't worth the money paid for it with all the error and the narrow minded, judgmental thinking going on.
723619
To me, this was a terribly disturbing book. Working closely with the psychiatric field, I see Jeannette Walls' book as a classic example of two very disturbed individuals whose intellectual brilliance did not excuse the egregious neglect of their children. I am amazed that the author talks about these emotionally abusive parents, particularly the mother, with a kind of serene detachment.

At first I was infuriated by the father's drinking and alcohol-induced reveries of a by-and-bye that never came, but at least he had emotions. It was the mother's total disregard for her children that sent me into apoplectic fits. In a recent interview the author forgives her mother's hoarding and surreptitously eating chocolate, withholding the only food in the house from her starving children, as the helpless antics of woman who never grew up. I saw it as a consummately selfish act. I would not excuse this selfish behavior in my own young children, much less condone it in a grown woman. Regardless of what the author says, I think the mother knew what she was doing, and this is what infuriates me.

Moreover, not only did she continually endanger her children by leaving them to their own devices, I would even venture to say that she had a hand in the death of the author's sister, Mary Charlene, which the mother cavalierly dismisses as "crib death." Since the research that made crib death a household word was done by a doctor whose subject was later convicted of suffocating nine of her children, I would say the ubiquitous crib death diagnosis could have been used to hide a much darker secret.

In any case, I see Rose Mary Walls' lack of emotion and empathy as a serious personality disorder. Perhaps the story might have gone differently if someone had been able to diagnose her condition and offered therapy. Realistically, though, I think she would have refused it, as she continually refused help from her grown and successful kids.

While the story of this family is initially fascinating, I could barely finish it because it was so monotonal. "Oh, boy," I'd think, turning the page to another chapter. "Here they go sliding into another disaster." Same story, different setting. Chapter after chapter bludgeoned me with its enormous miseries and failures.

During the process of coming to terms with the aftermath of growing up in this family the author surely must have gone through some intense anger. I wish she would have put some of it into the book. I don't mean Mommie Dearest-like diatribes, but some healthy transformative anger that lays the groundwork for redemption. There are hints of this anger, but nothing to suggest the justifiable outrage she must surely have felt towards these damaged parents.

In the end, I get the impression that the author, despite the awesome descriptions of the family's destitution, skimmed through these troughs in her life, emerging whole and successful at journey's end. There is an undefineable abstraction to the story, and perhaps it is this detachment that I find upsetting. It is this that makes this otherwise brilliant memoir read like a broken record. Yes, the kids escaped and made a life for themselves, but these chapters also read like the first ones. Recitation of facts. I realize that Jeannette Wells took a huge risk in writing this memior, but my opinion is that she didn't go far enough.

We saw her life, but we didn't see her heart.
3373264
This book would have been great if it hadn't been for a few insensitive plot twists. Being gay and having a mental illness are things that are treated as scandalous and shocking. This perpetuates stigmas against these groups of people. Furthermore, the gay character is publicly outed against his will, which can be potentially triggering to LGBTQIA+ readers, and the depressed character is literally a terrorist. Sensationalizing people identities and exploiting mental illness for entertainment are tired tropes that should've been left in a bad 2003 teen movie. Can't believe something this irresponsible and damaging got past a publishing team in 2017. Be cautious before picking this up if you would be hurt by this rep.
2791004
The best part of Toxic Psychiatry was the material Breggin covered in some of his previous works-- Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain, and Electroshock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects. Breggin really shines when he is presenting the long-term negative effects of neuroleptics (tardive dyskenesia, diminished cognitive ability, etc), as well as the more serious side effects of ECT. While his cautionary message concerning the more radical psychiatric treatments is well taken (and certainly any treatment with a possible side effect of "death" must be considered radical), Breggin seems to fall completely apart when advocating his alternative methods.

According to Breggin (and The Beatles), "love is all you need."  Unfortunately, those who are mired in deep depression, or suffering from delusions, hallucinations, or the wild swings of bi-polar disorder cannot be cured with love and compassion. By denying any organic etiology for these (and other) conditions, Breggin, like many therapists, reduces his own position to idiocy. The simple fact is that you cannot talk someone out of clinical depression (or schizophrenia) no matter how nice you are. These sorts of disorders have roots that are long and deep, and causes that are too varied for simple explanations of any kind.

Even when Breggin was writing this book, there was ample evidence that many disorders formerly thought to have psychogenic origins are, in fact, caused by microbes and other environmental factors. Schizophrenia, always a highly subjective diagnosis at best, has been linked to neurotoxic viruses and protozoa--herpes, t. gondi, and bornavirus. Delusions and various "mental" aberrations can be caused by heavy metal poisoning, ergot and so on.  Bacterial rickettsial infections, such as Lyme, are neurotoxic. (Rickettsiae have an affinity for endothelial cells, those cells that help form the blood brain barrier.) The list of organic causes for what have been classified as "psychological" disturbances is very long. Given the notorious inaccuracies of psychiatric opinions (in the absence of any objective tests, the word "diagnosis" is a misnomer), one must really question both Breggin's "talking cure" as well as the destructive methods he criticizes. (In fact, a clever South African M.D., Dr. Bottero, did just that. After testing his long-term "schizophrenic", "bi-polar",  and "depressed" patients for rickettsial infections, he cured most of those who tested positive with a course of antibiotics.)

If you are interested in a good overview of the drawbacks of neuroleptics, ECT and lobotomy (now resurrected as "cingulotomy"), this book will provide you with everything you need. Just don't take Breggin's simplistic alternative too seriously.
195941
I thought this would be a fantastic deodorant that would really make me smell good to my husband, who adores Crystal hot sauce, and I was RIGHT!  He found me to be very appealing, calling me his "Hot Mama"... until I started sobbing in pain.  This stuff really burns like you wouldn't believe, and I had to wash my pits with copious amounts of milk to get the stinging to subside.  Afterward, my pits had burns on them that matched the red stains left on my clothes by this deodorant.  I guess it's supposed to test who the TRUE hot sauce lovers are, weeding out anyone who really can't take the heat. I'm thrilled about it making my husband so interested, though.  Maybe the burns are worth it if you're masochistic enough, and you can use the red armpit staining as evidence of how hot you are - that you even sweat fire.
1397046
Romance novels that perpetuate antiquated, destructive attitudes regarding serious mental health issues are damaging and dangerous. Helen Brookss romance novel features a heroine, Willow, who is coping with post-traumatic stress from an abusive marriage. Instead of having Willow in counseling, she struggles on her own and tells herself that occasionally the memory of that last terrible night in their apartment would take over despite all her efforts to keep it at bay. Maybe Beth [her sister] was right. Perhaps she should have seen a counsellor and talked things through with someone trained to help in such cases, but she had been determined to rise above the tag of victim. She still was. Getting professional help is not wallowing in victimhood. Willow is not going to ever have a functioning, healthy relationship with another manno matter how kindly caringuntil she gets help for herself. This author is perpetuating a dangerous idea that love with the right man will save this young woman. It wont. Using serious medical issues as a plot device is wrong. Just because this is a romance novel doesnt mean it has to be shallow and poorly researched.
439626
So sad that people actually ingest these.  And give them to their children.  This isn't food.  Food is fresh - made by nature.  Apples, oranges, avocados, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, kiwis... beautiful, delicious real food.

This is man-made chemicals with addictive and toxic flavorings.  I remember that my grandparents gave these to me when I was a child.  I don't think they knew any better.  It just makes me really sad that people think it's okay to give this garbage to children.  It's one thing to abuse your own body by ingesting stuff like this.  But a whole other thing to feed it to children.

May as well just give them drugs or alcohol, because you're setting them up for a lifetime of food addiction, dysfunctional eating patterns and all sorts of problems.  I wish my grandparents had given me cigarettes instead of Oreos.  It would've been much less damaging in the long run.
183925
This is not just a bad review; this is strong advice to not read this book, for your own good. This book is dangerous because it convinces people in relationships that they can learn to manage the narcissist's behaviors. If you really do believe the person in your life has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, you should get resources to leave the relationship as soon as feasible and get help to recover from the damage that's already been done before you've been hurt more. Moreover, the advice wouldn't even work because it requires confronting them about how their behavior hurts you, and narcissists can't handle that. This book asks you to consider what about YOU triggers these reactions in you when the narcissistic acts in erratic and hurtful ways. No. Anyone would react like that to this systematic pattern of damaging behavior. Other reviews here are totally accurate when they say it is victim blaming, but when I was still in the situation I was willing to blame myself just like the narcissist I was dating did constantly. I regret having read this book because I stayed in a relationship based on its advice and now I have suffered for much longer than I needed to. I started re-reading it recently, now that I understand the behavior better, and realized what terrible advice this is and how this advice kept me in a damaging situation thinking I had some power when I didn't. If you are considering getting this book, instead pick one about how to recover from breaking up with or divorcing a narcissist. Also, I would be willing to bet you are keeping secret from your friends how bad the person's behavior really is in order to protect them or so you won't be embarrassed. Write an honest email to your friends telling them what you've been going through and asking for their support. They will be there for you more than you know. I promise you that staying is worse than you think right now and that leaving now is so much better than you realize. Please don't even read this book. I do not want you coming back in six months or a year saying how the advice in this book gave you false hope that things could be alright if you tried hard enough to deal with the narcissist's volatile behavior. When I bought this book I thought I needed to make it work, but I was wrong. I needed to protect myself and this book will give you the opposite advice. The dangerous part is that after the narcissist already has manipulated your thinking, you will believe that there is hope like the book says but at best it will prolong the crash and burn ending, with untold nights of wondering what you could do better between now and then. Other reviews said this and I thought I would be able to handle it better, but once the narcissist had already begun to affect me, this book just pulled me deeper in to thinking there was logic behind his pathology.
2263449
The love story was cute and charming ; the use of a child being lured by a pedophile was disgusting. I couldn't have been more turned off from finishing this story.
657165
Quite a bit of this book is charming, scrumptious, and fun to read. Reese is feisty, kind-hearted, and sexually adventurous. She is so many delightful, lovely things .... until she becomes tedious and shrewish.

Then there is Tony. He is WIDE OPEN. And I mean WIDE OPEN. He's wealthy, he's generous, and his idea of solving a problem is to pay what it takes to get the job done. Giving of himself - his heart, his time - isn't something he's accustomed to doing, so when Reese accuses him of being the worst possible man for her because all he knows how to do is spend money, Tony is flummoxed. His way works, after all. When given time to think about what she's saying, though, he recognizes that sometimes he needs to give of himself and not just his checkbook.

These two have sizzling chemistry, and they can rock that headboard. Some of the best scenes in this book take place between the two of them when they are engaging in the sexy times. That's when they are open with each other and can see the truth in each other. Reese knows that Tony isn't lying when he says he loves her, and he can see her fears and reluctance. In fact, I wish there had been more of that in the book. Not just because I'm a big fat perv (which I am), but the parts of the book that dragged (see below) could have been off-set some with more hot headboard rockin'.

The problem is that Reese's issues - what stops her from fully committing to Tony - become almost impossible to understand. That would be okay if they weren't repeated and repeated and repeated. She can't see that her rationale for ending their relationship - Tony's reliance on spending money to fix things - is flimsy at best. Yes, we understand her fears. But GOOD GRIEF. It feels as if you're stuck in an endless cycle of her whining and whinging about Tony's money.

I started to wonder if he wasn't better off without her.

If you could somehow excise the parts where Reese is caterwauling about Tony's money, this would be a fantastic, hot book. But that seemingly endless vortex of her complaints drags it down.

Published on VoxLibris.net
@VoxLibris
4395960
I downloaded this MP3 after hearing some really positive things about Comfortable for You. Download was speedy enough, and the song itself is certainly worth the listen (and by extension the $0.99), but it was after I installed the thing onto my iPhone that things got... messy.

Like many people, I compulsively listen to a new song right after acquisition. I was doing just that, via the *fabulous* speakers that came built into my iPhone (/snarl), when my pregnant wife miscarried, my grandmother had a heart attack, and my 9 year-old nephew suddenly developed psoriasis. At first, I didn't make the connection. Shortly afterward though, my iPhone slammed itself into the couch at what must have been 80-90 mph, promptly killing my cat.

Terrified, I ran outside and set my iPhone on the driveway (which was kinda hard; it stuck to my skin). BIG mistake! Do NOT use Happy Fun Ball on concrete (resurfacing is going to cost $2200, and the HOA is LIVID).

All the while, the catchy tune kept playing from my phone (I had it on repeat, you see, and its earlier impact was greatly absorbed by the late Tigger). It was right around this point that I started feeling REALLY messed up: I was itchy all over, I couldn't keep my balance, the world felt like it was spinning. My fingers and toes were tingling, I couldn't walk a straight line, and my words were coming out slurred - like I was drunk or something. Then, the worst: my heart started skipping beats, I began pouring sweat, and I had black spots all over my vision!

As all this was taking place, my next-door neighbor walked up, and started to laugh. I whipped around, aghast at his seeming enjoyment of my discomfort. He giggled again, and pointed at my iPhone.

"Not only were you dumb enough to by an Apple product," he said, "but the POS is glowing green and smoking too!?"

I spun back around; sure enough, it was. What happened next is something of a blur. My neighbor started to say something about the song itself... something taunting like, "And what is that crap you're listenin-"

There was a bright green flash, and when my vision cleared, only his left shoe remained, smoking slightly. There was a smell of bitter almonds mixed with burning feathers. The song itself had stopped, and moreover, it was no longer in my playlist on my iPhone.

Please, PLEASE, do NOT taunt Happy Fun Ball. I'm still trying to explain to his wife and kids what happened. You really, REALLY don't want to taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Anyway, with all that said: Great Song! 5 Stars! Would listen again.
3892988
I'm very glad that I purchased Blue Jean Baby as a Kindle book, and that saved me from the temptation to throw this against the wall a number of times. Not because it is a bad autobiography, but because the situations were so often beyond horrifying I could barely stand it any longer. My God! What kind of mother is this? How helplessly weak was this poor excuse for a father that he would allow this to be done to his daughter (and grandchild) out of fear of his wife?

The author went from innocent baby-boomer kid to running in the streets wild in search of love and admiration from musicians in order to feel the importance her own parents should have showered on her, and deservedly so. I am not a violent person, but for two cents, I'd slap that so-called father till his head snapped off his neck. The mother was understandable in that she was desperately mentally ill, to the point that she put scissors against Sally's neck threatening to kill her after cutting off her beautiful hair. Sigmund Freud would have a field day with this family. Clearly, this woman would have been placed in a locked ward if the proper reports had been made.

The ultimate sadness is in the time spent in social situations so far beneath this girl -- living in squalor, victim of violence -- all because of that abuse and failure to find the real recognition that she deserves.

More than a story of the music scene of the 60's, this is a woman's story that should be read by the new generation of girls who have no idea how women's lives were so placed in jeopardy by irresponsible, moralistic and paternalistic society. Highly recommended!
4672600
This is a really dangerous book for anyone suffering an eating disorder. If you have issues with food, please, as a mental health professional I urge you to seek the help of a qualified psychologist and steer well clear of anything produced by his clearly confused young woman who is very likely still suffering from an ED, but is using a public platform to validate its current manifestation with a slew of nonsensical "positive" thinking cliches. Eating disorders are serious issues requiring serious treatment. Jordan, I highly recommend you seek help from a professional and commit yourself to doing much deeper work in yourself before misguiding others. A very damaging approach by a young girl who has clearly resolved very few of her core issues. Pleas see your GP and talk about getting a referral to a psychologist if you are concerned about your approach to eating. This book will not help at all.
2193199
Everyone pretty much expressed the beauty and fabulousness of those dolls and I totally agree, I think all had been said so now something that I think every parent who bought this doll for an older then 3 child and has younger children at home should absolutely know before making the purchase:

And this is coming from a parent who absolutely adore those dolls !...

So.. beware! each of the dolls comes with stud earrings! and the most surpisingly the studs are just .. stucked into the ears without anything holding them in place. They sit pretty tight I have to admit but.. it took my 5 year old one split second to remove them from the doll without any effort.

What came out was rather scary.. a sharp stud earring small and pointy.

I can not immagine horror of a mother who's little baby or toddler comes in contact with this doll and manages to pull EASILY the earrings from the ears and insert in to the mouth.

Since we rearly live in vacume and have our children and their toys isolated from younger siblings therefore parents at least should know that this doll comes with major safety issue when younger siblings are concerned.

We all know that toy manufacturers put all those chocking hazard warnnings on everything smaller then 2 inches and we all have seen many children under 3 playing with them this way or the other and most of them still have very minimal chocking hazard. However this doll series seemingly safe should never be left unsupervised around a young infant or a toddler because of the earrings issue.

I don't know if there is any part of the doll that could be hazardous to a child so a parent inspecting the doll might miss this issue but this seem rather major hazard as this is not only chocking hazard but also health hazard as even if a child won't chocke on the earring, it might cause some damage to the throath, or other organs not to mention unknown make up of the material in the earring iteslf and it's hazard to the blood system.

This could have been so simple if the maker would only made those earrings permanently implemented into the ears.

Again, I absolutely love the way the dolls look and we have all of them, however since my child surely will be playing with other younger children around first thing I did was to negotiate the removal of the earrings and luckily to full understanding and cooperation of the little owner. I still would never leave a child under 3 unsupervised for a moment with this doll but I am sure that now it is much less challenging task if a youngster comes about.
732882
I am all for the idea of being more positive and I believe that being positive can bring better things into your life, and it can improve your health.  I even believe that attitude has the ability to determine whether or not someone recovers from an accident or illness.....to a point.  However, this woman believes that wrong thinking causes things like baldness, MS and cancer, all diseases really.  Hmmm, so when someone gets the flu it's not germs that are making them sick, they had bad thinking.  Cancer patients, according to this book, your cancer is your fault too.  I'm sorry, but I don't buy into this blaming the victim bosh.  I cannot imagine ever letting my friend who has MS see this book and get told that her disorder is a result of her thinking.
Bad things happen to optimists too.  If you want to improve your life through positive thinking, look elsewhere.  This book has a horrible ideas for those who are suffering.
4042077
I agree with a reviewer - these sunflower seeds are mixed with very hard bits that could break teeth, and these bits are visually hard to tell from the seeds, but your teeth will for sure tell you when they've got one. It's outright dangerous for people of any age, even if there are "just" a few in each bag. The seeds themselves are fresh and tasty, but not worth taking the risk. These packages should not be allowed to put on the shelf until this problem is resolved.
1113774
In most respects this latest Fancy Nancy book is just as excellent as all its precedents. The story is beautifully written, includes a positive message about forgiveness for the little ones, and the illustrations are just as fantastic as ever. Nonetheless, I rated this book only 2 stars because of the negative message it conveys about baldness. I must confess that I never gave this issue any consideration, until I read other reviews by parents of children who suffer from alopecia secondary to cancer treatment. That's when I became aware, that yes, this book does give an extremely negative message about alopecia.

The truly sad part is that right up until the very last two sentences of the story, the book is excellent. In this story, Nancy's little sister, JoJo, is driving Nancy crazy with her mischievous ways. JoJo's latest prank is to give Nancy's favorite doll, Marabelle, a "tattoo", using a permanent marker no less. Nancy, of course, is devastated by the fact that Marabelle's beauty has been marred. Furthermore, she is furious with JoJo to whom she is determined to never again speak.

When Nancy attends a doll tea party, Marabelle gets mixed up with another, identical doll. Nancy first discovers the fact that she has the wrong doll, when she notices that there is something strange about the doll she has in her possession and that the doll is missing lots of hair in the back. When she confirms the absence of a tattoo an announcement is made asking that everyone please check to see if they have a doll with a tattoo. Marabelle is found and both little girls are overjoyed to get back their own doll--after all, a favorite doll is no more interchangeable to a little girl, than a child is to a parent.

In any event, the story is a beautiful one, and by the end Nancy learns an important lesson about forgiveness. The message of loving someone--or in this case something, as in the dolls--no matter his/her perceived flaws is also evident by the fact that Nancy loves Marabelle, even though her beauty is now marred by a tattoo and the other little girl--whose doll Nancy had by mistake--loved her doll even though she, the doll, was bald and had a poked out eye. Unfortunately, the story ends on a very negative note, when Nancy thinks to herself "After all, it could have been worse. At least Marabelle isn't bald."

Under the circumstances, I can completely understand why one would not want to read this book to a child who has alopecia. The next time I read this story to my children I will be sure to discuss the issue with them...I absolutely don't want them to have any negative view of people who are bald.  I'm sure this is an untended message by the author.  Ms. O'Connor typically writes beautiful children's stories...unfortunately, intended or not, this story sends the message that baldness is a negative thing.

[UPDATE 11/25/14]  This book has now been updated and the last sentences in the story have been removed.  Consequently, this story no longer sends the negative message about baldness, and is now just as perfect as the other Fancy Nancy stories that have preceded it.  A five star story all around!