Julia

Early in the book Andrew Marr mentions that he could have written this book, then written another as long without including any material in it from the first, and then a third just as long without including any material from the first two. I think that I was hoping to read that third book. Early history went by way too fast and the modern material was largely events I already knew in detail.

"The Muslim Age in Europe was much better than we have been told and the expelled people took their advances elsewhere" What? Where did they go? Am I missing pages? Off to do research to figure out just what the Islamic age of Europe was all about. And again, "When the Dutch tulip bubble burst everyone forged on as usual, aside from individually sad stories, commerce refused to prosecute and civilisation soldiered on." What? Very relevant to now! The judges did what? Municipal people did what? The bubble popped with minimal damage? How exactly did they do that! I need an index! Auuuggghhh!

Then again, he got much more than 26 hours of extra work out of me attempting to answer the questions that his narrative raised. I learned more about Cleopatra than I could have possibly guessed could be known.

Cleopatra's life was told in detail, and I had no idea how she fit into the larger narrative until reading this book.

If Andrew Marr writes those other two books I will be right on the spot to read them, too. What a great thinkertoy this book is.

I wish I had a really gook book that started at the collapse of the tulip trade.

I enjoyed the varieties of experience, many points of view within the nonbelieving community.

If you are looking for a book putting forward the virtues of the Freethinking experience, this is more of the reverse -- some of the strongest negative language is reserved for descriptions of groups of freethinkers. Interesting . . . .

I'll be listening to this book again, at least once. I will be putting time into some changes based on the compassion fatigue concept and the lek concept -- really new ideas for me.

The idea that people don't burn out due to overwork but instead underwin -- I'm going to be putting that into action right away.

There's all kinds of myth about the founding of Tae Kwon Do and the effect that ITF and WTF have now. If you want the underbelly, with lots of documentation, this is your book. You'll be going to resources again and again to supply some historical background for the events described, and you will read it again and again.

This was a book to work with in sections, and best with community, and the author provides a community online. Very well done.

Any book by Eleanor Cameron, or Sylvia Waugh. There's a just next to of this reality, fully realized alternate reality to play in. People who love the Mennyms will enjoy this book.

The ending was a choker, but in a good way.

I will be looking for more books by this author.

This is a blue collar flavored tale. Part of the time I thought he was running some sort of Colbert Report, making a character and half the time I thought he was serious. Every time he mentioned "that time of the month" I certainly gritted my teeth.

When someone suddenly can't stand the sight of you and you can't even figure out who this person is and where the person you love went, consider the possibility that they are experiencing guilt at the very sight of you. My mom knew this. She used to say "The thing about mudslinging, mud sticks best to clean skin." Great advice. Wish she had taken it for herself, right at the beginning of my parent's struggles.

Men can deal with the situations described, I'm sure of it. However the women I know are more likely to deal with the problems mentioned. An eye opening look at the savage side of love.

I'll be listening to this again and again. I'm a dog lover and grew up with horses. horses have "prey minds" dogs have "hunter minds" but the relationship between people and their animals has a lot of similarities. Listening to this book brought back the best of my history with horses and from there the author added a lot to think about.

This book isn't a "how to" book, it's a parable, with lessons told in the form of stories.

I'll be buying more of this author's books. Any one who teaches any being, including self teaching -- will benefit from this book.

No. I was listening imagining how this narrative would work if the setting was a home rather than a school -- criminal behavior should not be treated as such inside a school --bullies if caught have aftermaths and hurt too -- what about the anguish of the bully's parent's -- who knows if the anguish and suicide of victims is caused by bullying when the victims are chosen by their vulnerability -- doesn't it make bullying worse when helpless people are selected by bullies?

The pain of people targeted by bullying will be made more intense by this book. Bullies and their parents are unlikely to read it. I would have liked to think that we as a society had risen above such thinking.

The discussion of the deep level of security that surrounded the creation of the Federal Reserve. Today -- nothing like that would be possible. This book does not cover the creation as "how demonically clever these men are" but more as if she was creating an introductory paragraph for a Fail blog.

There's a dismay and "grandpa's got gravy on his tie" embarrassment for the current people in power that comes across so well in her vocal delivery that might be missed in print.

"Fakers gotta fake". The comparison between people and institutions that actually moved society forward and people who scooped off the best bits for themselves could not be more stark.

The last sixth of the book contains some action plans, which are useful as far as they go, but the primary benefit of this book is the magician's reveal; once you know how the trick was done you won't ever be clapping and admiring the people who put themselves on stage ever again.

The main flaw of this book, actually. In the early parts of the book he is clearly developing himself as a narrator. As the book move along his reading becomes more and more fluid, really coming to its own at the final chapters. It tickled my sense of "it works, good enough, let's move on". My partner's experience of being very hung up on narration rough spots to the point of losing the message several times in the beginning was eye opening for both of us.

This book is a great next read after What Shamu taught me about Life, Love, and Marriage. It affirms that in some situations the best supporting act to take is to not act, as difficult as that is, and it mirrors in some way Zoobiquity in that understanding of what is going on in the other person's narrative is often far more important to creating change than immersing yourself in the consequences of their actions on your own life at the time.

This book is among the best I've ever read for explaining the behaviors of people who procrastinate. There are few to no books for the people who have chosen to live within the chaos fields generated by people who do this and we often look on, distressed, injured, unable to think of anything to do for ourselves besides remove ourselves from the situation.

I'm one of those people who admires order and puts a lot of thought and care into setting up order for myself -- this book contains the only sound advice I've found to date on how people who have a fragile sense of order can live with people who have anxiety about planning can peacefully coexist.