User Profile

Wild Woila

wildwoila@wyrms.de

Joined 2 years, 4 months ago

I have #mecfs so I have a lot of time for reading, mostly #fantasy and #SciFi but I'm happy to dip into nearly anything.

Ratings: 1 star: I didn't like it 2 stars: it was okay 3 stars: I liked it 4 stars: I really liked it 5 stars: it was brilliant

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Wild Woila's books

@polomexgetslit@bookwyrm.social Hmmm, I've recently done some IFS work and I wonder if you need to do it with a counsellor to really get it. I wouldn't have been able to give you a list of my Parts before starting with IFS, but they've gradually been revealed to me as I work on different issues/emotions that come up during the course of my life. And they are not fixed roles/personalities, but just avatars that are useful for a particular situation, and may not be present in other contexts or as time passes. I don't think of it as a true description of my psyche, just a model that is useful at a particular moment.

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Richard Schwartz, Alanis Morissette: No Bad Parts (2021, Sounds True, Incorporated) 3 stars

Review of "No Bad Parts"

3 stars

I’ve now borrowed dozens of books from the library, but "No Bad Parts" tested my patience. Every physical copy in my library’s network? Checked out. No digital copies available at all. I even borrowed my mother’s Chicago Public Library card—surely a big city system would have it, right? Nope. Every single copy was checked out, with a 40+ person waitlist for physical books and over 100 people waiting for a digital version.

So I caved and bought the Kindle version for $10. Not a terrible price, but it’s been a while since I actually paid for a book. The question is… was it worth it?

"No Bad Parts" is an introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic model developed by Richard Schwartz. The book posits that we all have different “Parts” within us: subpersonalities that take on roles to protect or guide us. At our core is the “Self,” …

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Bessel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score (2014) 5 stars

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath …

Review of "The Body Keeps the Score"

4 stars

This was not a book I approached lightly—or leisurely. "The Body Keeps the Score" is dense, academic, and filled with clinical insight. To get through all 460 pages before my next therapy session, I toggled between the physical copy and the audiobook. It actually became a unique way to experience the material—reading when I had time to sit and focus, then listening while doing chores or cooking. Switching between formats helped me move through the content quickly, but also made it feel like I was processing the book in layers.

Van der Kolk’s central argument—that trauma reshapes both the brain and the nervous system—is hard to unsee once you’ve absorbed it. Trauma doesn’t just color how we feel about the world; it rewires how we function within it, biologically and neurologically. The electrical signals in our bodies are affected. And while medication may have a place in treatment, the author …

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Becky Chambers: A Closed and Common Orbit (2017) 5 stars

Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - …

I Cried

4 stars

The dual stories, told in short, impactful chapters is such a powerful mechanism, and Becky Chambers wields it perfectly.

Both stories are riveting for their own, very different reasons. But both have to do with social justice, and personhood denied.

I found myself getting to the end of one chapter and being oh but I want to stay with this character! only to get embroiled in the other character's chapter immediately.

It's like an anti-cliffhanger. Rather than leaving you hanging, it pulls you in to the next segment, and then pulls you right back into the following.

If you liked The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - the previous entry by Becky Chambers, then I can super-recommend this.

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Thaddeus Russell: A renegade history of the United States (2010, Free Press) 4 stars

This provocative perspective on America’s history claims that the country’s personality was defined not by …

Really interesting section on how the Italian mafia opened gay bars during the 50s and 60s - not just because they could profit off of them but also because several prominent mafiosos such as Fat Tony, who was known to have a long-term relationship with a Chinese drag queen, were themselves queer in some way. The raid on Stonewall was instigated by the Feds because the mob had been paying NYPD to leave the bar alone.

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Kristen Loesch: The Last Russian Doll (Hardcover, Penguin Random House) No rating

A haunting, epic novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian …

Interestingly, when I went to add this book, the spanish translation of it ("La muñeca de porcelana") popped up. But Bookwyrm doesn't seem to realize that these are translations of the same book, and I'm not sure how to indicate that. Any tips?

reviewed The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (The Inheritance Trilogy, #2)

N. K. Jemisin: The Broken Kingdoms (2010) 4 stars

The Broken Kingdoms is a fantasy novel by American writer N. K. Jemisin, the second …

Most notable for the protagonist's blindness

3 stars

A woman gets caught up in the manoeuvring of gods, godlings and grasping humans. Most notable for the protagonist's blindness, except for her ability to see magic.

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Review of "Our Polyvagal World"

5 stars

"Our Polyvagal World" is an accessible and thought-provoking exploration of the polyvagal theory and its implications for trauma, safety, and social connection. Written for a general audience, the book explains complex neuroscience concepts in a way that is clear and engaging without oversimplifying the science. The authors do a great job of reinforcing key ideas without feeling repetitive, making this an excellent read for anyone interested in understanding how our nervous system shapes our experiences.

One of the most striking takeaways from the book is its perspective on trauma: trauma isn’t about the event itself but about how our nervous system responds to it. This explains why two people can go through the same situation but react completely differently—our nervous systems are wired uniquely. The book also challenges the idea that trauma must stem from a singular, catastrophic event. Instead, trauma can result from an accumulation of smaller stressors over …

Neal Shusterman: Scythe (2017, Simon & Schuster) 4 stars

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity …

Misses the opportunity for thought-provoking world building

3 stars

A future where AI has created the perfect world without war, illness or death, and a select group keeps the population in check via 'gleaning'. Great premise but occasionally feels like a parody of itself and missed the opportunity for thought-provoking world building. Not much characterisation.