Month: July 2018

Hello, readers and writers. I can’t really say “good day” or anything similar today. For those of my readers who live in California, you’ve probably heard about the Carr fire by now. Unfortunately, that fire has reached the largest city near me and some family members have already had to evacuate, so my stress levels are pretty high right now. The good thing is that my parents and I are not in any danger right now and the family members who have evacuated have found somewhere to stay. That’s why I feel safe, despite the fire, to share another book review with you. Today, the review is for Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron.

You might remember Michael Garron as the author of another book I have reviewed on this blog before, Emotional Intelligence. While Emotional Intelligence discusses how you can read your emotions and those of people around you and then use that information to interact with others successfully, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is about learning to overcome those emotions which are self-destructive: depression, anxiety, anger, etc. In this book, Garron provides the reader with everything they need to initiate cognitive behavioral therapy, from a detailed description of the practice to positivity exercises to approaches individualized for specific emotions/conditions like those listed above. It’s more than just a how-to book; it explains in-depth why you should do something, how it can help you, and any possible downsides.

As with Emotional Intelligence, this thoroughness drags down Garron’s writing at some points in Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In particular, I feel that it takes a long time to get to the heart of the matter—using cognitive behavioral therapy to help manage emotional issues/conditions—because a lot of time is spent in the beginning explaining what cognitive behavioral therapy is. Readers need this information in order to understand what this process is and how it works, but I still got bored at points trying to get through what felt like repetitive information.

Once the book really gets started, though, it’s a quick and easy read while still providing the necessary information.  I think that the chapters on anxiety and depression will prove especially helpful for writers. Working professionals and artists overall, including writers, notoriously have issues struggling with depression and anxiety. Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps to identify the reason(s) for these problems and gives step-by-step instructions on how to restructure this thinking which are still flexible enough to personalize for the individual’s situation. Better yet, Garron addresses different kinds of anxiety when so many people forget that it is not a one-size-fits-all sort of mental illness.

As someone who has suffered from depression, anxiety, and anger issues, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy proved to be a particularly interesting book for me. My bouts of depression can be crippling and my anxiety prevents me from fully functioning on a daily basis; my anger issues, while embarrassing, are easier for me to handle and don’t interfere quite as much with my life. Before this book, I had never really heard of cognitive psychology or cognitive behavioral therapy. However, after reading about it in Garron’s work, I think that cognitive behavioral therapy might able to supplement the control I’ve gained through anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication.

That brings me to a point which almost immediately annoyed me in this book: it cast these sorts of medication in an incredibly negative light. The points that Garron makes about medication are valid; after all, it does mess with the chemistry of the brain, which is why they can help people with these conditions. Nevertheless, Garron highlights more of what’s wrong with these medicines than what is right with them. In the rest of the book, he does so well to emphasize that results may vary and that everyone needs to personalize the cognitive behavioral therapy to work best for them, but I feel that that attitude is absent when he discusses anti-depressants and similar medication. In fact, his bias against them, while not violent or shame-inducing, seems pretty clear when I read this book. I just wish that he had provided a more balanced view of medications as he does with everything else.

Overall, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron is a very helpful guide for those looking into therapeutic ways to address their emotional and mental health problems. Garron tries and covers all of the major mental illnesses and emotional control issues as well as a variety of ways to deal with them using cognitive behavioral therapy. Be cautioned, though: Garron emphasizes, time and time again, that this approach requires a lot of effort on your part and will require investigating emotions and memories that you don’t necessarily want to relive. You also cannot do this alone. You must include a fair third party—a friend, family member, therapist, etc.—to get a full view of your actions and any connections you may not have been able to make on your own. This process is not a passive approach to your problems, and this book is not a passive read; in order to get the full benefits from it, you must give it an honest effort. Also, don’t assume that it will work for you or work overnight; it will take time and, in the end, it might not be for you and/or you will need additional professional help.

You can buy Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron on Amazon.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

 

Happy Thursday, readers and writers! My apologies for the long absence. The good news is that I’m being kept busy with plenty of work; the bad news is that I’m being kept busy with plenty of work. Fortunately, I’ve still been able to set aside some time for reading, and today I have a new book to review for you: Adam Brown’s Napoleon Bonaparte: The Biography of a Leader Who Changed the History of France (Including the French Revolution).

As the title suggests, Napoleon Bonaparte details the life and death of the French emperor and military savant Napoleon Bonaparte. Brown follows Napoleon from his early years in Corsica and rise through the ranks of the French military to his exile and death. In his in-depth examination, Brown explores Napoleon’s less-than-glamorous upbringing and early failures as well as his shining victories and infamous decline. No stone is left unturned, no secret kept buried.

Napoleon Bonaparte provides a thorough, comprehensive account of a political figure who has been both revered and despised. As a history fanatic, I was excited to start this book and learn more about Napoleon. In that respect, this book did not disappoint. Like most people, I knew very little about Napoleon’s personal life before Brown’s work. I only had a rough idea about his contributions to the French Revolution and his controversial time as the Emperor of France. This book taught me about Napoleon’s childhood, his relationship with his parents, his difficulties as a poor academic at a nobleman’s military school, and how he came to know his first wife, Josephine. I was fascinated, to say the least.

I especially enjoyed how Brown covered Napoleon’s death. There is much debate over this event, mostly whether Napoleon was poisoned. In most history books, readers only get one perspective on the matter. In Napoleon Bonaparte, Brown presents all the possible theories. He explores each argument, the good points and the flaws, and states the most logical possibility while allowing readers to come to their own conclusions.

For the majority of the book, Brown’s writing style helped to keep my attention and made the book go by fairly quickly for a purely historical/biographical tome. He utilizes an informal, conversational tone rather than the dry, formal tone which is common to academic and historical pieces. It felt as though I were talking to one of my favorite history teachers about one of their favorite time periods. Brown is clearly excited about the subject of Napoleon, his effects on the world, and the French Revolution, and this excitement translates into an energetic read.

However, this energy did sometimes lead to rambling, particularly in the accounts of the parts of the French Revolution in which Napoleon was not directly involved. Mind you, everything which Brown covers in the book is important for understanding how Napoleon rose to the top and why he was motivated to do so. Nevertheless, I felt that too much time was spent on such things as encounters between the First Coalition and the French Republic before Napoleon enters the scene. In about the first quarter of the book, parts of the French Revolution without Napoleon take up so much space that I sometimes forgot that I was reading a book about Napoleon specifically rather than the history of the French Revolution overall.

I was also rather disappointed that the author did not provide a bibliography of his resources at the end of the book. I’m a stickler for facts and double-checking sources, not to mention I just have a never-ending thirst for knowledge. That’s why, when I read historical books, I love being able to follow the information back to the original source if I can. Of course, some sources the ordinary reader simply has no access to, such as primary sources like letters and even some secondary sources like older books. Regardless, I would still like to know that I could check into the source if I wanted to.

All in all, Napoleon Bonaparte by Adam Brown is a must-read for history lovers, especially if you’re fond of French history, historical leaders, and/or the French Revolution. While I wish that the book had listed its sources and been more focused, it is an interesting read and taught me a lot.

You can buy Napoleon Bonaparte by Adam Brown as an eBook or in paperback on Amazon.

Do you know of a book I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!