Tag Archives: Good Reads

When Is Enough, Enough by Laurie Ashner and Mitch Meyerson (1996) – BR00029 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
October 27 2004

Plot or Premise

The premise of this book is that there are many people who never feel satisfied, nor take the time to feel satisfied, and are always looking forward to the next obstacle, next project, next item on their to-do list — and whatever they have done, or accomplished, is never enough.

What I Liked

There is a lot to like in this book. Some highlights:

  • Never-enough thinkers act compulsively…unsure about what they really want, they stay in constant motion. (p.2)
  • Having been taught not to depend on other people, you take more than your share of the blame for what goes wrong in your relationships, at work, and in your family. (p.4)
  • Realize that if you could “just do it”, you would have done it. (p.5)
  • There’s a saying in Twelve Step programs: Your best thinking got you here. (p.9)
  • When we suppress our painful feelings, we lose our happy feelings too. (p.32)
  • You get an illusion of security from having all of these untapped talents. (p.47)
  • Depression indicates that the self-system has had to retreat to a lower level of functioning in the face of its inability to meet higher goals. Depression also serves as a communication, a message to the world at large that the self-system can no longer be counted upon, that it has ceased to function to some significant degree, that one has lost hope, and that help must come from the outside. In other words, the self says, “enough is enough”, and retreats away not only from the feelings that are most troublesome, but all feelings in general. It’s a concept that goes far toward explaining why depressed people often feel, “What’s the use?” (p.67)
  • You have an emotional thermostat turned high to nuances, a sensitivity to a lot of surplus information other people filter out and disregard. This sensitivity is your strength at times. But it has an enormous cost. (p.84)
  • We meet the right person when we become the right person. (p.144)
  • There’s an interesting fact about blaming oneself which explains why so many people are so willing to take it on. If one is at fault, then one can always do better. As long as one is responsible, one always has hope. (p.208)

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the approach gets a bit repetitive in trying to emphasize or illustrate certain points.

The Bottom Line

An excellent self-help resource.

Killing Floor by Lee Child (1997) – BR00036 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 5 2004

Plot or Premise

The plot is relatively confusing at the start. Jack Reacher is a drifter who gets picked up by the police in a small town as a suspected murderer. He knows he didn’t do it, so he is fairly cooperative with the lead detective. But when it starts to appear that some of the other people don’t particularly care if he did it, he is a little annoyed that their laziness is going to cost him a weekend in jail with someone else who confessed to the crime. Jack starts to draw on his past skills as an MP in the army to help out the investigation, and then it starts to get personal.

What I Liked

From the word go, Jack Reacher is a solid character. He comes with a lot of history and no baggage, which I understand is how the rest of the series unfolds as well. The characters read a little more stream-lined than perhaps a Robert B. Parker novel, without as much soul-searching, and the action keeps going.

What I Didn’t Like

There is a major “coincidence” in the novel, and I really hate novels that hang on coincidence as a major plot device to move the story along. Happenstance is one thing, such as Jack being in the town and subject to being suspected. But when it turns out that Jack knew one of the victims, in a town where he doesn’t know anyone, and there’s no reason for either of them to be there, it’s a bit of a stretch.

The Bottom Line

Great intro to a series.

Darkest Hour by Jenny Carroll (2001) – BR00031 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 28 2004

Plot or Premise

Suzannah is a mediator — she helps ghosts move on from this plane to the next. But when she’s not embracing her sixth sense, she’s earning money as a staff babysitter at a hotel/resort and dreaming about Jesse who haunts her current home. Then she meets trouble in the form of spoiled brat Jack who can also see ghosts, but doesn’t know that ghosts are actually real and is instead three steps away from a nervous breakdown. Suze has to help him figure out his own role with ghosts, at the same time that she tries to figure out more of the mystery with Jesse’s past life.

What I Liked

I really liked the idea of finding newbies who don’t know what they are supposed to do when it comes to ghosts — hey, didn’t they see the movie? I also still like the fact that Suze can actually interact with the ghosts (i.e., fight with them). The backstory for Jesse was cool, and knowing that Suze can move to another plane at least temporarily is really a good omen for future books. The interesting addition of negative mediators to counter-balance the good mediators is very Tru Calling-ish, and we’ll have to see how that plays out in future books.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the repeated teenage angst might sit well with teenage readers, but it gets really repetitive fast for older readers.

The Bottom Line

Oh, no, it’s ghosts again!

Note: Also published under the title Young Blood.

Shadowland by Jenny Carroll (2000) – BR00030 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 7 2004

Plot or Premise

Susannah is a mediator, a la the Sixth Sense, helping ghosts resolve their earthly problems so they can depart. She lived a life of school problems and adventure in New York, hung out with her visiting dead father’s ghost, and got in trouble with the law. Then Mom married a guy from California and they moved in with the new family — a new stepdad and three new stepbrothers. And her first day of school? She finds out that her school’s principal, a priest, is also a mediator. She’s not alone! Ever!

What I Liked

The introduction of a character who can physically interact with ghosts is great, and the introduction of Susannah to the ghost Jesse who has been haunting her new bedroom for the last 150 years is actually funny. There are lots of humourous bits as she moves into the new school and meets the resident bully — a rejected popular girl who committed suicide over a boy and who now wants to exact revenge on him.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the clichés used around the vengeful ghost are a bit much and the constant injuries to various people while the mediator skates through uninjured are rather exaggerated.

The Bottom Line

She sees dead people.

Note: Also published under the title I Love You To Death.

Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy (1984) – BR00039 (2003) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 9 2003

Plot or Premise

John Cuddy is asked by a grandmother to investigate the disappearance of her grandson, a prominent judge’s son…even though the judge doesn’t seem to want people looking for the boy. Cuddy goes looking anyway, even when a corrupt Sheriff tries to direct him away rather forcefully.

What I Liked

A huge cast of characters, with a couple of the series regulars just beginning to be fleshed out a little.

What I Didn’t Like

A few of the characters were one-dimensional, fifth business to the storyline – only there to pass along a vital clue, and it was usually pretty obvious that the author was trying to slip it by, since Cuddy himself doesn’t catch it.

The Bottom Line

A great story.