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one_womanarmy's reviews
222 reviews
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Some of the best dystopian speculative fiction I've read in a long time. Dark, tense, imaginative. A book with no touch, no men, no variation, and no conclusions. David Lynch-esque nightmare fuel.
The Women by Kristin Hannah
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Semiosis by Sue Burke
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It took me nearly three months to read this book, because the vivid beauty of Claire North's weaving together of personal loss, the horror of humanity, the beauty of recovery, and climate change impacts was giving me nightmares. It was excellent. I cried at numerous junctures and was moved by the stunning creativity and darkness at every scale. A more comprehensive review later.
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke
4.5
We spend a lot of time consuming, and I don’t just mean consuming food or water to survive. We consume everything, from advertisements, TikToks, tweets, television, news, online shopping, romance novels… the list really is endless. Being constantly attached to our devices has caused us to basically live in a Skinner Box all day, every day. This reality is what Dr. Anna Lembke describes as the “age of indulgence” in her book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Merging powerful stories from her clinical practice, personal vulnerability, and insights from the latest psychology research, Dr. Lembke lays out why we over consume, how it impacts us, and what we can do about it.
The hallmark feature of Dopamine Nation is Dr. Lembke’s ability to contextualize scientific insight within a personal narrative. I think it was brave and successful of the author to approach her work with personal confession, allowing at least this reader to move through the story with less denial than I may otherwise have.
The trouble with dopamine... other than it being a control lever fairly effectively targeted by every modern technology, advertising, and cultural milieu? Lembke stresses that when we overindulge in pleasure, we throw off our pleasure-pain balance. This causes two pressing issues.
The first is that we need more and more pleasure to feel an average amount of pleasure. The second issue is that when we have prolonged periods of intense pleasure, our bodies react by feeling pain as a way to balance out the pleasure-pain balance. This idea is a key tenet of opponent-process theory. As they say, what goes up must come down.
The first is that we need more and more pleasure to feel an average amount of pleasure. The second issue is that when we have prolonged periods of intense pleasure, our bodies react by feeling pain as a way to balance out the pleasure-pain balance. This idea is a key tenet of opponent-process theory. As they say, what goes up must come down.
Finding balance isn’t easy, but some tangible steps can be taken. In particular, Dr. Lembke talks about self-binding and, if necessary, taking medication. These two pillars of balance – self-binding and medication – provide important guardrails against compulsive consumption.
Overall I learned quite a few useful tips from this book, and forcing my own focus on the pervasive nature of dopamine overload in so many habits and tools at my fingertips has forced me to reconsider some habits or impulses that I once though of as "harmless," and now include in a rigorous focus of whether my overall balance is appropriate for long-term mental clarity, activity, and health.
Overall I learned quite a few useful tips from this book, and forcing my own focus on the pervasive nature of dopamine overload in so many habits and tools at my fingertips has forced me to reconsider some habits or impulses that I once though of as "harmless," and now include in a rigorous focus of whether my overall balance is appropriate for long-term mental clarity, activity, and health.