KJ's Book Reviews

  The Body Keep the Score Brain, Mind, & Body in the Healing of Trauma Written by Bessel van der Kolk Originally published in 2014 ~464 pages Rate: 5/5 I saw this book on social media a lot for a couple of years so when I went to buy it at Barnes and Noble I looked inside and saw how small the words were and how textbook-like the book format was and shied away from reading it. However, my friend, Margaret and my sister-in-law, Derian recommended this book to me so I decided to try listening to it on audiobook and that helped me not feel so intimidated. This book explains how childhood experiences shape us and how trauma changes us. This was a very heavy book, however I really enjoyed it. The content in this book was incredibly insightful. It's one of those books that I think everyone should read at least once in their life. I would like to get a copy of it some day and annotate it.  While reading the book I felt an array of emotions, some people's stories were shocking, tr...

  Come As You Are:  The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Written by Emily Nagoski About 315 pages Originally published in 2015 Rate 4.5/5 One of my roommates recommend Come As You Are to me towards the beginning of the semester; I am really glad she did. Come As You Are focuses on women's experiences with sex, but I think everyone can learn something from reading it. Majority of the time, Emily Nagoski doesn't talk about the actual act of having sex, rather she talks about what goes into having good sex. Emily Nagoski starts off with a slightly brief anatomy lesson then she gets into the mental aspect of sex. Nagoski talks about the stress cycle, attachment styles, cultural views about sex, lube, desire, orgasm, and learning how to avoid judgment in the bedroom. The idea she pushes throughout the entire book is the fact that everyone is normal. We are all made of the same parts just arranged in different ways. "I am done living in a world where wo...