Crenshaw's Books & Decks

Trust your Vibes is a wonderful uplifting book more appropriate to open the channels to your intuition, so you can hear it louder and better, than to develop your intuition.

Choquette's writing is very direct, cheery and entertaining, and her personal and client's examples are very illustrative.

The book will add to your life even if you aren't an intuitive person or have any psychic interest. It is just good advice for happy living. Many of the exercises and questions for thought she poses are terrific and a good tool to develop your self-knowledge.

Choquette uses principles of the law of attraction and positive thinking in her approach to life mixed with some Eastern Philosophy teachings, but her approach is heavily religious and Christian. If you aren't religious or Christian, you might not connect with some of the things she says. At times, Choquette opposes intellect and intuition, but I find that puzzling because one can be highly intellectual and very intuitive at the same time without opposition. I agree that both things can create conflict sometimes, but I don't think that you need to erase your intellect, especially if you have it, to be a good intuitive.

I have enjoyed the book a lot, so much so that I have bought another one by her. However, I do prefer Laura Day's books on intuitive development because she offers plenty of practical exercises and advice on how to develop you intuition, does not oppose intellect and intuition at all, and is not religiously biased

This is a very comprehensive book on setting and keeping healthy boundaries and handling boundary infringements successfully. There are many real life examples and conversations used to show how the boundaries are trespassed, and a retake on them to demonstrate how the issue could and should have been handled.

There are many practical items of advice that you can take and apply to your life to keep and restore your boundaries. You will find yourself (or people you relate to) reflected in many of the behaviours described in the book, too.

The first 11 chapters are the ones with more detailed information and more insight on boundaries. I especially liked the chapter about anger management and friends. The second part of the book focus more on daily life aspects of human relationships, and, except for some chapters (like sexual, Internet, therapist boundaries), I would consider most of the issues discussed there an etiquette or tact issue more than a proper boundary issue.

The book is very easy to read, easy to understand, very didactic, and very well structured, and you can make it a manual to check different issues at different times.

The main downside of the book is the fact that trifle matters like vacations or gifts are discussed with family rape and domestic violence. Those things should never be put together. Never ever. The same applies to the gender issues discussed here. I agree with all it is said about gender, but a book on boundaries is not, from my point of view, the place to discuss gender bias.

The Bhagavad Gita -one of the Hindu sacred texts- is in my must-read list. You can get a cheap translation of the Gita (Kindle version for $0.99) at Amazon. Reading a spiritual text of the complexity of the Gita, as any other religious text, is always a burden on my shoulders. Sorry for the honesty. When I stumbled upon this book, I thought the cover was cheap and unappealing, naive in a way, but the title was appealing enough to download it, especially because it was, again, 0.99 cents.

I usually browse many of the "cheapies" or "freebies" I download for my Kindle searching for passages or chapters of interest, to quickly move on to more substantial readings. To my surprise, this book got me glued from beginning to end. 

Vishwanath is a former business consultant turned into New Age guru, something that would have made me run away from this book a priori. Ignorance is sometimes blissful. Thus, I was able to read the book without any prejudice, with intellectual curiosity and the detachment that any religious or spiritual book requires from me. This is not an academic exegesis of the Gita, done by a Gita expert or spiritual master (you should check Yogananda's edition for that), but a simple unpretentious book that uses the Gita in a practical way to extract practical advice to improve your life in general, no matter your religion or lack of it. In a way, is also a teacher's book to explain in simple words Hindu spiritual beliefs to non-Hindu people. 

Vishwanath is able to speak about very complex spiritual things using a very simple language. The book is full of metaphors and simple parables that will get you to understand some of the principles taught by the Gita or some obscure sayings by Krishna. You will learn about the nature of God, the age of the Universe, the Hindu heavens and reincarnation, why Hindu people need of many Gods and Godesses, and the spiritual principles that inspire Yoga among many other things. Some of the practical items of advice will help to bring peace to your mind (if you need of any), give you food for thought, and provide you with some amazing meditation exercises. I especially like the one about the Ocean, which I do sometimes and it is truly amazing.
 

It happens rarely, but, sometimes, a one-dollar investment produces a good revenue.

A very entertaining and thoughtful book. 

Jalaluddin Rumi is an Aghgan-Persian Sufi mystic and poet of the 12th century who produced, among others, the Book of Love, an amazing book of love poems.

The Book of Love is one of those books that everybody should read at least once in a lifetime. It is full of depth about the human soul, the true essence of our humanity disregarding origin, and, most importantly, about the nature of Love. 

Rumi talks about divine love, mystic love, romantic and erotic love, and friends love with candidness, cheekiness, sense of humour, and great depth.Sometimes the poems can be read in a mystic or romantic way. The poems are so fresh and modern that one wows at the fact that a Muslim mystic wrote them many centuries ago. Even if you are not into Poetry, which is my case, the poems are still easy to read, enjoyable and thought-provoking.

This edition as a preface and introductory study, and each of the fifteen groups of poems have also a little commentary to contextualise them and the theme they revolve around. I don't know Arabic, but the translation seems correct and it is easy to read.  

In alignment with the ideas and principles shown in Ruiz's The Four Agreements, the Mastery of Love approaches the basics of human relationships (romantic and non romantic) by going to the root of what love is, and how true happiness can be found and achieved.

Don Miguel Ruiz uses many metaphorical stories and fables to make his points, and, despite the simplicity of the language, he is able to convey deep and meaningful concepts. 

Some of the lessons this book teaches are:
- To have a successful relationship with anybody, no matter the type, you have to work mostly on yourself.

- If you don't truly genuinely love yourself, nobody will.
- If you don't respect yourself, nobody will. Actually, they'll abuse you.
- If you don't accept your body as it is, you are disrespecting yourself, you become insecure and an easy pray to your own and everybody else's criticism. Physical beauty is just an ever-changing idea that means nothing.
- See people for what they are, not for what they could be.
- Accept people for what they are, not for what you want them to be.
- If your partner doesn't have what you are looking for, look for another partner.
- Don't try to change the other person. People don't change that much. 
- You can't find happiness unless you are already happy inside. 

- You can't find happiness if fear rules your life.

- People vibrate at the same frequency levels and find/meet who they "are", not what they are looking for.
- Don't let your believe system (partly family inheritedy) and programming (Social/cultural conditioning) rule your life. You want to dream your own dreams, not somebody else's.
- Be true to who you are, and don't fake what you are not. The latter takes much more effort and makes your life more difficult and less fulfilled.

- Forgiveness makes you happier, as cleans out the poison in your emotional body.

- Accept that we are mind and body, and that our animal instincts are nothing to be ashamed of.

- In a couple, the only half you can control is you.

- Improvement is a a fight against your social programming, a 24/7 battle against yourself and your thoughts and emotional reactions.  

- We perceive the world with the eyes of our emotions. If they are dirty, we see a dirty world. If you see it rosy, rosy it is.

The book is very philosophical, and helps to clear up our mind when we have doubts about a date, a person with whom we are starting a relationship, or a partner/relative with whom we are having communication or relation problems. 

The book is also repetitive, ruthless and pitiless. In a way, tells us to stop with the excuses we give ourselves, do something or shut up. This is not a book for the faint hearted. Don't read it thinking that you will find a magic potion to date the hot new guy/girl on the block or sort out your family relationships. Still, it is a book worth reading, because in its few pages provides us with many useful ideas to ponder about what human connection is and can be.

Despite its title, the Mastery of Love lacks a bit of practicality regarding techniques to implement the advice given, except for some exceptions, and some final prayers, which aren't of much help if you aren't a believer. For ex. if you don't love yourself, how do learn to love yourself? f you are blind and you cannot see, how can do you open your eyes? If you have been abused since childhood, how do you learn to stop the abuse? If you are with somebody who has addictions, mental problems or anger issues, what do you do? Abandon him? Should you abandon any person with whom you don't have a fluffy initial relationship? That sort of questions. Although some of the things Ruiz mentions can be easily accepted, at least at an intellectual and spiritual level, the lack of practical techniques and exercises makes difficult for the reader to go from the intellectual/spiritual acceptance of the ideas and principles mentioned in the book, to a place where things flow naturally from the heart and you experience those feelings yourself.

Osho was an amazing philosopher and spiritual guru, whose life and death were surrounded by controversy -  the good and the bad. Osho abhorred of the political establishment, herd mentality in social behaviour, and of all established religions, despite him being a very spiritual person. His teachings are based on both Western and Eastern spiritual and lay Philosophy. He is very "Nietzschean" in a way, specially in his aim to create a new kind of human being, an evolved version, that is more tuned with its true nature and with the Universe, and that does not need of religion just of spirituality and ethical integrity. Osho's teachings and philosophy, evident in Intimacy, are  full of irreverence, sensitiveness, craziness, paradoxes, common sense and profound wisdom.  

Intimacy is not a book about physical intimacy, but a book about emotional intimacy. The book is structured, basically, in chapters that discuss those elements that  prevent you from becoming truly intimate with somebody else (the habit of reaction, being stuck on security, shadow-boxing, and being attached to false values), and those that will help you to become intimate (learn to relate without having a relationship, be true to yourself, listen to and accept yourself, trust yourself, learn to be vulnerable, be "selfish", learn the language of silence, and meditate), plus an introduction on what Intimacy is and is not, and a final section devoted to Q&A. 

The language of the book is very simple and easy to understand, with a constant use of parables and metaphors. Osho was a lecturer and teacher after all, and his writing is a direct reflection of that, as this book, as others are a transcription of public speeches given by him. On the other hand, he is not a native English, so his English is straight forward and simple, and not the usual cryptic philosophical dry jargon that can drive you nuts.

 

Intimacy is full of wisdom, good advice and food for thought, which will resonate with you whether you are in a relationship or not, looking for one or not, you are a very social person or a reserved one. Intimacy will especially speak to you if you aren't a traditional person in the way you approach society, family, religion, gender roles and the world in general, but you need of help to clear your mind in periods of emotional distress or confusion, and when you need a wise adviser who is not at hand, or the advice you get doesn't provide you with any answers.

A few things I would like to criticise about Intimacy, which, however, do not rest value to a book that is stupendous:
> Osho seems to be carried out by his own discourse, and he becomes repetitive and loopy in many occasions. The book would have needed of a good editor to weed out its unnecessary wordiness and to clean up typos and misspellings in the transcription of the speeches used as a bases for the book.
> Osho equals self-love with selfishness. Although some of his arguments are terrific and this equation is not straightforward, it is a dangerous association. I wonder whether the use of the word selfish/ness is the result of a linguistic calque from an Hindu word with a different meaning. Still, the identification doesn't work for me. I agree that self-love is a catalyst of change, that you cannot give that you don't have, and that you have to give voluntarily without restrictions. Put your mask first and then help others then (as they say on the safety instructions on a plane) is one thing. And put your mask and help others if you want or feel like it, is a very different one. Being selfish and self-centred, even if it is not in a narcissist way, is a bit unnatural, to me. Sharing is impossible if one is self-centred and selfish.
> Osho's criticism of self-improvement and goal setting. Be content with the present, simple be, do not think about the future and how to change it, do not waste your time on anything that is not this very moment, you are perfect and do not need of any improvement. Be happy being. I believe that living the present and being present are wonderful things, and also that setting goals to be socially praised or get fame is a senseless thing to do. I also believe that setting goals and self-improvement are necessary, and a way of getting rid of the limitations and conditioning that our time, society, family, gender or past negative experiences put on our shoulders. I also believe that self-improvement is done for our own sake, not for the public. My own life experience contradicts Osho's teachings in this regard. If I had accepted the limitations that my family's social class, level of education and gender expectations had on me, I would have never become an individual, and I would have never become me - the "I" I am now, the "I" so many people said that I would never become or was. If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and fight harder my present to achieve more things for my own sake, set more goals. Self-improvement, the way I understand it, is not a way of correcting an imperfect self; it is a way of making the perfect self you have shine  through a heavy cast of stinky crap that we we all carry on our shoulders. 

Once we have the data, what we do with it? We want to know more about ourselves to improve ourselves, right? Ritberger gives examples on how she deals with some of her clients' issues, so I was expecting her to share some of her practical knowledge with the reader. Unfortunately, she stops writing when the book was getting interesting. Questions that came to my mind were, among others: How do we compensate or correct our negative personality type characteristics? Does our colour type attracts more people of other colour types? What happens if our personality is 50% two colours? Why there aren't blue colours in this classification?  Should we mingle more with some colour types for our personality to shine more and have a more balanced life?

The book is easy to read and very entertaining. Although psychologically and medically backed, there is a lack of academic notes and references (which I expect from a Ph.D. writer), which make the text a bit of... fluff. Most importantly, you will learn little about yourself. You will learn which colour personality type you are, and say yes to many of the characteristics attached to it... in the same way you recognise yourself in a good description of, say, your Chinese horoscope.

I think the book (Kindle edition at least) should be half price in Amazon. Nine dollars for so much fluff makes me colour purple, purple out of annoyance.

Have you ever wondered why do some doctors make stupid errors and others solve very difficult puzzling medical cases? How does a doctor decide that you have disease X from the gazillion possible diseases that your symptoms could be related to?

The answer is in the way approaches and listens to the patient,and, most importantly, how he processes all the information and data on each individual case - how a doctor's brain work is more important than the knowledge he has. How a doctor thinks is something that profoundly affects all of us every time we go to the doctor.

The book focus on many aspects related to diagnosing an illness an how doctors' brain works to make an accurate diagnosis, and the many elements that are required for it, when you visit many dozen of patients a day, sometimes more than you can attend to. Groopman also demonstrates what a good doctor thinks, acts and behaves like, and what separates a good doctor from a bad one, giving precise tangible information.  

The book mentions a good deal of real medical cases, some of them fascinating, all entertaining and interesting. Groopman has the ability to be scientifically rigorous but conveying his message in a simple, organised and understandable way to the lay reader. The different chapters are devoted to different types of doctors: general practitioners, specialists, surgeons, radiologists (this one is one of my favourite chapters and totally unknown to most of us), paediatricians, the pressure of the pharmaceutical industry on doctors, and the care of the elderly. All of them are fascinating and, in some cases, eye opening. The most important chapter is perhaps the one devoted to us, the patients to be, on how to redirect our relation with your physicians when they haven't been able to solve our ailment after a few visits. The book leaves out, the issue of diagnosis in psychiatry, which would certainly make another fascinating book.  

I loved seeing criticised by a physician medical behaviours that are widespread amongst the profession, though ethically reprehensible, of which I am whining about. For example, the fact that some GPs don't look at your face while you are talking to them, those who don't listen to what you are saying, those who don't examine you when they should, those who are  interested in getting points with the pharmaceutical industry or promoting surgeries that aren't necessary, and, most importantly, those who treat me as a case not as patient with thoughts and feelings. Indeed, Groopman demonstrates that if some doctors saw and related to their patients more like a patient and not as a medical case, there would be less medical errors.  

This one of those books that any medical practitioner, any medical student and any person visiting a GP should read and keep fresh in his-her mind. I can guarantee you that you will not be bored with the reading, and that  you will never think of doctor, look at him, or relate to him, in the same way ever again.

I really wanted to read this book after enjoying Niffenegger's previous book "The time Traveller's Wife", which showed her many talents as a writer: from his Literary English, his imagination, and virtuoso composition technique. However, I was disappointed after reading it.

This is the story of two American twins who move to London after their deceased aunt bequeaths them with her apartment, located at the creases of the Victorian Cemetery of Highgate. Their experiences will intersect and intertwine with those of their weird neighbours, a ghost included.

The atmosphere of the book is good, and the settings too. This is a revamped love and ghost story after all, with many elements of the eighteenth-century romanticism, although sometimes also very clichéd. 

The book has three parts, the third being the most interesting, as it concentrates most of the action, emotion and entertainment. However, to get there, you have to go through two hundred pages of uneven storytelling. The twins' family story is unnecessarily intricate and a bit a soap-opera-ish. The actions of some of the characters are arbitrary and inconsistent, underdeveloped at times. Some characters and stories are great, and I would have liked them explored and developed in depth - The most memorable characters are, indeed, those of the twins' obsessive-compulsive neighbour Martin and his missing Dutch wife; really intriguing and fascinating, but just outlined.

While reading the book I had the impression that Niffenegger had produced the book in a hurry, as if her publishing house had given her a deadline and she had had to hurry to finish it despite being incomplete. Just an impression, but the book is unpolished and uneaven, and below Niffenegger's capabilities.

The book is enjoyable to read, especially if you come to it without many expectations. It is interesting at times, a bit soapy others, intriguing and fascinating at others, and hurriedly finished. However, you will feel that is just a sketch of a book that never matured enough before being released to the public.

"In synesthesia two or more senses are automatically and involuntarily coupled such that a voice, for example, is not only heard, but additionally felt, seen, or tasted." It is a genetic modification that affects sensory perception and mixes sensations and perceptions that are separated in different areas of the brain, so it can  alleatorily mix sounds with colours, touch with images, numbers with music, and so on. Synaesthesia has forced neurologists to rethink the traditional block/area division of the brain in self-sufficient and independent areas that are devoted to specific tasks and worked its play in the validation of neuroplasticity.

The book is written by two neurologists and synesthesia researchers, and offers the reader a clear, entertaining and well organised description, categorisation and analysis of the different neurological conditions called synesthesia, which affected, among other famous people, writer Nabokov and painter Kandinsky. The books is scientifically rigorous but written in a very approachable language, easily understandable by the lay reader, with a great deal of pictures, diagrams and drawings that will help you to understand better. Still, it contains the notes, footnotes, bibliography necessary to made it academic-friendly. The book as an epilogue by Navokok's son Dimitri, who, like his father, is also a synaesthete.

 

The book can be a bit dry at times, as the matter is scientifically described and categorised, but here the detail in the description is not superfluous as it serves to highlight the many variations and varieties of synaesthesia, a word that in fact describes things that are very different from a perceptual and sensorial point of view.

The tones and writing styles of the two authors are evident through the book, even though none of the chapters is attributed to any of them explicitdly. The last two chapters are, perhaps, the most interesting ones for both neurology students and neurology aficionados.

The edition of the book is wonderful, with glossy paper, coloured headers and footers differentiated by chapter, and plenty of illustrations. One o those books that are rarely published in our modern times, especially because the book is directed to the general public not just the medical world. A book difficult to find and a bit expensive that, however, you can borrow from your local library and really enjoy. 

The book will fascinate you, especially if you haven't heard or read anything about synaesthesia before, and have a fascination for neurology and the study of the brain.