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Karen

Maple Ridge, BC | Member Since 2005

HELPFUL VOTES

16 reviews
27 ratings
238 titles in library
21 purchased in 2013

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FOLLOWERS

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

UNABRIDGED
- by Cheryl Strayed
- Narrated by Cheryl Strayed , Steve Almond
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 41 mins)

By Cheryl Strayed

Narrated By Cheryl Strayed, Steve Almond

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(68)
Performance
(55)
Story
(58)

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills. And it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the best-selling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice. Tiny Beautiful Things gathers the best of "Dear Sugar" in one place and includes never-before-published columns.
Melinda says: "A Spoonful of Sugar"
"Spectacular!"

Overall
Performance
Story

This is a book I will go back to (or "to which I will go back," for grammar snoots)...it's filled with wisdom and humanity, and leavened with humour and profanity, all of which make for an experience to be treasured.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism

UNABRIDGED
- by Ha-Joon Chang
- Narrated by Joe Barrett
23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism

UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 58 mins)

By Ha-Joon Chang

Narrated By Joe Barrett

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(451)
Performance
(331)
Story
(329)

If you've wondered how we did not see the economic collapse coming, Ha-Joon Chang knows the answer: We didn't ask what they didn't tell us about capitalism. This is a lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behind the dogma and sheer hype that the dominant school of neoliberal economists-the apostles of the freemarket-have spun since the Age of Reagan.
Karen says: "Balanced and informative"
"Balanced and informative"

Overall
Performance
Story

I love the fact that I can listen to a capitalist who can distinguish between reality (humans are not necessarily rational and the market will not necessarily create the best outcomes if left alone) and fantasy (free markets are the ultimate moral force). I now have a much clearer understanding of where the economy has gone wrong, and what can be done about it. Excellent!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

UNABRIDGED
- by Gretchen Rubin
- Narrated by Kathe Mazur
Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 20 mins)

By Gretchen Rubin

Narrated By Kathe Mazur

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(66)
Performance
(56)
Story
(54)

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick - why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home. And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks.
Jamie says: "Worthwhile Follow-Up to The Happiness Project"
"So useful!"

Overall
Performance
Story

This book is packed with useful ideas, thoughts, suggestions to take responsibility for making our homes happier and healthier. Love it! Now I intend to listen to "The Happiness Project."

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It

UNABRIDGED
- by Gary Taubes
- Narrated by Mike Chamberlain
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It

UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 2 mins)

By Gary Taubes

Narrated By Mike Chamberlain

Overall
(1250)
Performance
(642)
Story
(641)

Building upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what’s making us fat—and how we can change—in this exciting new book. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes’s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience.
Igor says: "Are you looking for an attachement for the book?"
"Awesome!"

Overall
Performance
Story

This book bears repeated listening...it's wonderful to find a concise, informed, rational explanation of the stupidity of the low-fat diet and how many people are being hurt by

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

UNABRIDGED
- by Samuel Arbesman
- Narrated by Sean Pratt
The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 54 mins)

By Samuel Arbesman

Narrated By Sean Pratt

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(37)
Performance
(34)
Story
(34)

New insights from the science of science Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that Pluto was a planet. For decades, we were convinced that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. But it turns out there’s an order to the state of knowledge, an explanation for how we know what we know.
Davin V. Jones says: "Author misrepresents what an actual 'fact' is."
"Think!!!"

Overall
Performance
Story

That is the takeaway message from this book. What we think we know might be more opinion than fact. Try to think critically about EVERYTHING. Facts change. Keep up. Open your mind.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards

UNABRIDGED
- by William J. Broad
- Narrated by Matthew Boston
The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards

UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 1 min)

By William J. Broad

Narrated By Matthew Boston

Overall
(20)
Performance
(17)
Story
(17)

Five years in the making, The Science of Yoga draws on more than a century of painstaking research to present the first impartial evaluation of a practice thousands of years old. It celebrates what’s real and shows what’s illusory, describes what’s uplifting and beneficial and what’s flaky and dangerous—and why. Broad illuminates how yoga can lift moods and inspire creativity. He exposes moves that can cripple and kill. As science often does, this groundbreaking book also reveals mysteries.
Karen says: "Makes me think and act differently at yoga..."
"Makes me think and act differently at yoga..."

Overall
Performance
Story

This book by an educated yoga practitioner helps to dispel some of the silly claims made by yoga teacher (toxins? really? what are they?) while sharing benefits and dangers so we can make informed choices.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality

UNABRIDGED
- by Jacob Tomsky
- Narrated by Jacob Tomsky
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality

UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 8 mins)

By Jacob Tomsky

Narrated By Jacob Tomsky

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(206)
Performance
(193)
Story
(195)

Jacob Tomsky has worked in hotels for more than a decade, doing everything from valet parking to manning the front desk. He's checked you in, checked you out, separated your white panties from the white bed sheets, parked your car, tasted your room service, cleaned your toilet, denied you a late check out, given you a wake-up call, eaten M&Ms out of your mini-bar, laughed at your jokes, and taken your money. And in Heads in Beds, he pulls back the curtain on the hospitality business.
Abigail says: "Funny, honest writing."
"Funny and informative..."

Overall
Performance
Story

This book is a million times better than "Waiter Rant." It's smart, funny, and tells me more than I want to know about the hospitality industry.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Them: Adventures with Extremists

UNABRIDGED
- by Jon Ronson
- Narrated by Jon Ronson
Them: Adventures with Extremists

UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 16 mins)

By Jon Ronson

Narrated By Jon Ronson

Overall
(123)
Performance
(117)
Story
(116)

Them began as a book about different kinds of extremists, but after Jon had got to know some of them - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen - he found that they had one oddly similar belief: that a tiny, shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, Jon sets out, with the help of the extremists, to locate that room. The journey is as creepy as it is comic, and along the way Jon is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and more.
aaron says: "Dated but VERY Good... and FUNNY!"
"I love Jon Ronson's work..."

Overall
Performance
Story

This book (a series of articles, really) is a fascinating look into the world of extremists and conspiracy theorists. Ronson is funny and a little off-kilter. He makes me laugh out loud, and then makes me shake my head at some of the people in the world.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way

UNABRIDGED
- by Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by Mark Bramhall
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way

UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 57 mins)

By Jon Krakauer

Narrated By Mark Bramhall

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(81)
Performance
(61)
Story
(61)

Greg Mortenson has built a global reputation as a selfless humanitarian and children's crusader, and he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is also not what he appears to be. As acclaimed author Jon Krakauer discovered, Mortenson has not only fabricated substantial parts of his bestselling books, but has also misused millions of dollars donated by unsuspecting admirers like Krakauer himself. This is the tragic tale of good intentions gone very wrong.
Dan says: "Had to be written, doesn't have to be read"
"Fascinating..."

Overall
Performance
Story

This book seems to confirm my worst suspicions about the "Three Cups of Tea" phenomenon.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health

UNABRIDGED
- by William Davis
- Narrated by Tom Weiner
Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health

UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 37 mins)

By William Davis

Narrated By Tom Weiner

Overall
(914)
Performance
(795)
Story
(769)

Since the introduction of dietary guidelines calling for reduced fat intake in the 1970s, a strange phenomenon has occurred: Americans have steadily, inexorably become heavier, less healthy, and more prone to diabetes than ever before. After putting more than two thousand of his at-risk patients on a wheat-free regimen and seeing extraordinary results, cardiologist William Davis has come to the disturbing conclusion that it is not fat, not sugar, not our sedentary lifestyle that is causing America’s obesity epidemic—it is wheat.
Stacey says: "The program works, but the listen is technical"
"Great read, ponderous and stuffy narration"

Overall
Performance
Story

This book inspired me to get back to the low-carb life that saved me 12 years ago.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease - and the Statin-Free Plan That Will

UNABRIDGED
- by Stephen T. Sinatra , Jonny Bowden
- Narrated by George K. Wilson
The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease - and the Statin-Free Plan That Will

UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 22 mins)

By Stephen T. Sinatra, Jonny Bowden

Narrated By George K. Wilson

Overall
(65)
Performance
(53)
Story
(52)

Emerging science is showing that cholesterol levels are a poor predictor of heart disease and that standard prescriptions for lowering it, such as ineffective low-fat/high-carb diets and serious, side-effect-causing statin drugs, obscure the real causes of heart disease. Even doctors at leading institutions have been misled for years based on creative reporting of research results from pharmaceutical companies intent on supporting the $31-billion-a-year cholesterol-lowering drug industry.
Z. Karpinski says: "Easy to understand, helpful in practice"
"I've recommended this to people I love..."

Overall
Performance
Story

...who have been led down the wrong path by the medical establishment and big pharma. It's a great partner to "Why We Get Fat."

2 of 2 people found this review helpful