Daisy Jones & The Six: An Audiobook Review

I know people always say this, and usually, because it’s true.  The book is better.  I enjoyed the show, but some of its choices made the characters seem dirtier than the book. So much so, that it took the book a while to make me see them differently.  It’s worth getting to know each band member again, to see their nuanced depth. Daisy Jones and the Six is a story about a band that broke up, but it’s also about people coming together.  I listened to the audiobook with the full cast narration and the moment I heard Julia Whelan’s voice I knew that I was in good hands.   I can’t imagine what the book is like to visually read, but there is no way that it could be better than the full cast narration which included the well-known voices of Jennifers Beals, Pablo Schreiber, Benjamin Bratt, Fred Berman, Ari Fliakos, Judy Greer, Robinne Lee, Julia Whelan, Jonathon Davis, Henry Leyva, Oliver Wyman, Nancy Wu, P.J. Ochlan, Arthur Bishop, Holter Graham, Brendan Wayne, Pete Larkin, Alex Jenkins Reid, Robert Petkoff, and Sara Arrington.  Reid has a way of leaving you feeling like everything is going to be all right, a sense of tainted hope that feels true because it isn’t perfect. It’s the kind of story that is easily consumed in just one sitting on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Daisy Jones & The Six was published by Books on Tape as in imprint of Random House Audio.

Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges by Amy Cuddy

I started reading this book because I had heard of Amy Cuddy via her Ted Talk on Power Poses and I had loved those scenes in Grey’s Anatomy when the surgeons would stand like Wonder Woman before a surgery. In a recent Women in Cable Television event a presenter had mentioned that Cuddy’s research was being challenged, I thought I might as well read her findings before they became irrelevant.

I chose to listen to the book as opposed to reading it because that is the only way that I could guarantee that I would complete it before a mentorship meeting where I had volunteered to lead a book club and discuss you guessed it Presence by Amy Cuddy. She read the book herself, I was not surprised by this as she was already known as a good speaker and had quite a bit of experience in presenting. Generally, this doesn’t work out, Neil Gaiman aside, most writers benefit by hiring someone else to perform their book. Amy Cuddy unfortunately, also falls into this category. While her voice is pleasant and her speaking is understandable her tone is predictable and patterned which makes it easy to check out while listening. She also speaks quickly so while, I normally listed at 1.3x for this book I had to move the dial back to 1.1 to listen at a comfortable speed. I still would recommend the book in the audio format because it allows you to participate fully with the activities suggested in the book while listening.

The content of the book was interesting and applicable to daily life. I felt confident in the research presented and compelled to make changes in my own life. I’m already a fan of pretending to be wonder woman so it is a pretty easy sale.

As I indicated earlier recent studies have shown that her research could not be replicated. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170911095932.htm

Even if power poses don’t work, there is still some practical knowledge that can be gleaned from this book. Being cognizant of our postures, focusing on being present, listening, being aware of how positions of power and imposture syndrome can impact our performance are also important subjects addressed in this book. Also now I kind of want to read more about yoga and it’s impact on mental health.