This book took the author 26 years, two advances from the publisher, and the need for a co-author, to be published. The original commissioning editor at Knopff died, requiring a replacement. The author's own family were certain he was going to die before it was published. The amount of detailed research is unsurpassed, and really shows in the text. I loved it, more than the movie, which reduced a number of the people involved to caricatures.
Reviews and Comments
A dedicated if somewhat slow reader. Book lover. I am also at @Megan@toot.lgbt
Libraries and used bookshops are my happy places. NQN - Newly Qualified Nurse #NHS - love my bicycle.
LGBTQ+ Trans rights are human rights. Abortion on demand is a human right.
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Megan reviewed American Prometheus by Kai Bird
Megan reviewed The Typewriter Century by Martyn Lyons
Megan commented on American Prometheus by Kai Bird
I struggled with this book at first, but something clicked into place around Chapter 3 or so, and now I’m blasting through it, and when I’m not reading it I can’t wait to get back to it. A detailed piece of work, meticulously researched, and written in an easy to read prose style. Full of fantastic moments from Oppenheimer’s life, the small incidents of a life, as well as the grand scale of historic events. A who’s who of the early days of particle physics.
Megan reviewed Corrections in Ink by Keri Blakinger
Megan started reading Corrections in Ink by Keri Blakinger
Thanks to the recent news about the Texas Observer, I learned about Corrections in Ink and bought a copy. From the online blurb; "Keri Blakinger is the author of Corrections in Ink, a memoir about addiction, incarceration and building a life after it all.
In her day job, she is a staff writer at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news site dedicated to covering the criminal jutice sustem. Her work focuses on uncovering the worst parts of American prisons, and exposing flaws in the county's criminal justice system. Before coming to TMP, she covered prisons and prosecutors for The Houston Chronicle and her work has also appeared in VICE, the BBC, the New York Daily News, The New York Times and more.
She was part of the Houston Chronicle team whose coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Two years later, she wrote …
Thanks to the recent news about the Texas Observer, I learned about Corrections in Ink and bought a copy. From the online blurb; "Keri Blakinger is the author of Corrections in Ink, a memoir about addiction, incarceration and building a life after it all.
In her day job, she is a staff writer at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news site dedicated to covering the criminal jutice sustem. Her work focuses on uncovering the worst parts of American prisons, and exposing flaws in the county's criminal justice system. Before coming to TMP, she covered prisons and prosecutors for The Houston Chronicle and her work has also appeared in VICE, the BBC, the New York Daily News, The New York Times and more.
She was part of the Houston Chronicle team whose coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Two years later, she wrote a piece for the Washington Post Magazine's Prison Issue, which won a National Magazine Award. Currently, she lives in Texas."
So far I am really enjoying it.
Megan rated Suffer the children: 5 stars
Suffer the children by Sunday Times Insight Team. (A Futura Book)
Thalidomide was hailed as a wonder drug. A tranquilizer that was to be aggressively marketed as non-toxic, free from side-effects …
Megan started reading Suffer the children by Sunday Times Insight Team. (A Futura Book)
Megan rated The Orton diaries: 5 stars
The Orton diaries by Orton, Joe.
Fron December 1966 to his murder in August 1967, Joe Orton kept a series of diaries that prove to be …
Megan reviewed The Virago book of wicked verse
Absolutely Brilliant Anthology of Women's Poetry from the 1990s
5 stars
No poetry collection from different authors is perfect, but this is one of my all-time favourites. It also contains one of the best feminist poems of the 1990s, Rappin' It Up, by Patience Agbabi. That feeling that a lot of us recognize, you're having a nice time, "listenin' to the beauty of your own imagination" when your peace is destroyed by some straight dude deciding to talk to you. The whole book is worth it, the nice thing about anthologies like this one is they're slowly evolving treasures as you dip in and out, each time finding new things to love, and if you're in the UK the best part is there are loads of cheap copies available from used bookdealers.
Megan rated And the Band Played On: 4 stars
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
The blueprint of 20th century investigative journalism. Tracing the course of HIV/AIDS through society; from its earliest as then unknown …
Megan rated Creative Writing: 5 stars
Megan rated Invisible Lives: 5 stars
A detailed and well researched book drawn from experience
5 stars
The author is a professional therapist, and she has formulated an approach to dealing with trauma based on her clinical experience and expertise, that draws on a wide evidence base.
Her approach is novel and probably as a result controversial, as it also involves critiques of other approaches to trauma therapy. It’s difficult to describe why this book is so good, the method described, called “parts therapy” makes a lot of sense. The goal is to help people understand how and why trauma influences their emotional state, and how to integrate trauma effects positively, without focusing on the trauma. There is a body of thought that suggests that approach, of focusing on trauma, only reactivates it and keeps people emotionally trapped. I love this book and have revisited key chapters frequently since first reading it. The book isn’t designed to be a self help course, it’s aimed at explaining the …
The author is a professional therapist, and she has formulated an approach to dealing with trauma based on her clinical experience and expertise, that draws on a wide evidence base.
Her approach is novel and probably as a result controversial, as it also involves critiques of other approaches to trauma therapy. It’s difficult to describe why this book is so good, the method described, called “parts therapy” makes a lot of sense. The goal is to help people understand how and why trauma influences their emotional state, and how to integrate trauma effects positively, without focusing on the trauma. There is a body of thought that suggests that approach, of focusing on trauma, only reactivates it and keeps people emotionally trapped. I love this book and have revisited key chapters frequently since first reading it. The book isn’t designed to be a self help course, it’s aimed at explaining the method to therapists and people looking for therapists, but I still found it really helpful as someone who can’t afford therapy, to understand my own struggles more fully.
Megan rated Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: 5 stars
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors by Janina Fisher
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical …