Kazuhiko

Disappointed

Reviewed: 09-17-22

I loved Murakami's the wind-up bird chronicle (1997) and Kafka on the shore (2002). As some Murakami fans say, some of his other stories feel derivative. But I liked (used to like) his style enough to listen to his other stories. But this one was very disappointing. Maybe one or two out of the eight short stories were OK, but I was disgusted by the story about the "ugly" woman. Overall, I started disliking this writer while listening to this audiobook. Sad. His personal views that I see in these stories are not appealing. It's puzzling that a guy like this could write great stories 20 years ago. Maybe he changed.

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1 person found this helpful

A great storyteller AND scientist

Reviewed: 01-21-17

Many of the scientists who teach in The Great Courses series are not necessarily good speakers, but this professor is an exceptionally good storyteller. Many of the scientists in the series also talk about academic things that are not essential to the material, but not this professor. This made it easy for me to absorb the material.

When I was growing up, minerals and living organisms were taught separately in schools, with no teacher mentioning their connections. This book gave me totally different perspectives, and now the systems of earth makes a much better sense, and it does in the context of this universe. Knowing this has made me a much happier person. But knowing all of this, and understanding that how small the probability would be for an animal like human to figure out how the universe and earth evolved, I feel so sad that humans' activities can hasten their own end by accelerating climate change, before we understand more.

Towards the end of this, however, I felt that I have a bit different view about climate change than the author does. Yes, Earth will keep going without humans. Yes, the Sun may die in a couple of billion years and end us all. But what a precious period (for humans) we are living now, when we get to learn all of this. Why aren't we trying harder to make our civilizations last even a few hundred years longer? But I thank this professor for teaching this great class and making me feel this way.

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9 people found this helpful

Doesn't seem scientific enough

Reviewed: 09-17-16

Dr. Kharrazian is not a medical doctor. He is a chiropractic doctor. That fact alone should not disqualify him from writing about this subject. However, the format of this book made me really uncomfortable. The book contains many successful case studies of how the patients were treated and cured from certain adverse brain conditions, along with the names and "www..." contact information of the "doctors" involved in the cases. The book sounds scientific enough because he talks about specific brain functions and malfunctions and specific chemical compounds and supplements used to treat the conditions. But what about the cases where these treatments and supplements did not work? Where are the data from epidemiological studies and clinical trials? Specific diagnostic tests mentioned in this book may still be useful. The information about certain brain functions and chemical compounds involved are informative. Books like this exist because there are situations where "main stream medicine" still fails. But, to me, this book is an advertisement for the author's alternative medicine buddies.

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4 people found this helpful

Tremendously entertaining

Reviewed: 07-24-15

I read Paul Auster's Timbuktu and really enjoyed it. So I tried this book, and now I am a fan of this author. Auster is a genius in depicting irony of human lives that are tragedy and comedy at the same time. All the characters in this story are so real. The story happens to take place in Brooklyn, but I think it can happen in any U.S. city.

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The problems that we turned away from

Reviewed: 03-14-15

When I plan listening to audiobooks, I try to alternate the ones that I want to read (for fun and pleasure) and the ones that I need to read (for knowledge). This book definitely belongs to the latter group. Who wants to read about genocides? For 22 hours! But I am glad that I read it because the book gave me a good review of all the major genocides/atrocities in the 20th century. This makes me more responsible for my actions in the future problems, but I would rather know about these facts than remain ignorant. So, yes, I am glad that I read it.

The book mainly focuses on U.S. foreign policies (or lack of) about these genocides and how the politicians at the time acted. Naturally, politicians are reluctant to choose unpopular policies with unknown risks, especially when there are serious domestics problems. There are of course examples of failed foreign interventions. But, to me, the problem is that the people may not always be aware of what is going on in a remote places in the world (though this may be less of a problem now because of the Internet). Of course, people would demand better domestic economy and national security policies over foreign interventions. But at what cost? We as citizens need to be better educated about what goes on in other countries and demand any necessary intervention actions from politicians.

This was a difficult book to read emotionally. But this must have been a really difficult book to write. The book does amazing job of depicting facts and events as they were (well researched) with minimum emotional interpretations. I have tremendous respect for Samantha Power for this.

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10 people found this helpful

This audiobook needs a PDF for the figures

Reviewed: 12-18-14

As far as I can tell, there was no companion PDF file for figures to download as of mid-December 2014. It definitely needs one. Without it, the information in this audiobook is only 50% (maybe less) effective. Nevertheless, I am giving four stars because I still got the gist of it and know that I just have to look at the figures in the actual book without spending time reading the text. So I don't regret buying this audiobook. I peeked at one figure of this book (pose, fall, and pull) at Amazon.com and found it useful already, so I ordered one at $10.75. If you are patient enough to actually read the text, go straight to the printed version and skip this audiobook.

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23 people found this helpful

You don't need to be a dog-lover to enjoy this one

Reviewed: 11-11-14

Or, maybe it is easier for a non-dog-lover, like me (I own cats), to enjoy this book. The unrealistic premise that this dog fully understands the human language did not bother me once I got pulled into the story. The silly, tragic, depressing, wonderful, sad, and at times hopeful aspects of the complicated animal called human are depicted so naturally in this book. I am sorry that I did not know anything about this author till I listened to this book. So, I put a couple of his books on my wish list. The narrator was perfect for this too.

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2 people found this helpful

Great story and outstanding narrator, but

Reviewed: 07-14-14

There is no question that Dostoevsky is a great writer. I love it when his characters say outrageous things (more fun than Tolstoy's stories, I think). But the motivation of the murder was not strong enough for me. I liked Brothers Karamazov better.

The narrator was outstanding. I am giving 4 stars to the narrator rather than 5 only because his voice's dynamic range is so wide (from whispering to yelling) that it was not suitable for listening during my commute, which consists of subway riding and walking through busy streets, even with a good pair of earphones. The narrator's voice got lost in the surrounding noise when he was whispering, but his yelling (during the characters' arguments) got too loud when I was walking through less noisy areas so that I had to be constantly re-adjusting the sound level. After listening to more than a hundred audiobooks, this is the first time I faced this technical problem, not because the narrator was not good but because he was too good! So, if you are a commuter like me, be warned.

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6 people found this helpful

My suspicion about the industry confirmed

Reviewed: 07-01-14

I often smelled dishonesty in the personal finance industry ads. This book tells me that the reality is much worse than I had imagined. The author's arguments seem backed by well-researched information and credible, and I could tell that she is honest, as she herself was once a financial columnist. I wished that she could provide some concrete recommendations to fix the problem, but pointing out all the problems is a very good start. The narrator could have done better though - she did not sound she had rehearsed at all. But overall, I highly recommend this book.

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I now try to sleep longer because of this book

Reviewed: 06-30-14

I don't have a problem falling asleep, but I always thought I don't sleep long enough. This book gave me enough information about the danger of not getting sufficient sleep. For example, brains apparently clean up toxins while we sleep. Imagine what happens if we don't sleep enough. This is just one example. Brains do all kinds of other processing tasks that don't happen while we are awake. So, I now trust my brain and let it do what it needs to do, just by sleeping. The book also explains why taking a nap can be so beneficial. The book is full of useful information, and the author has a great sense of humor. The narrator is also excellent. Highly recommended.

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5 people found this helpful