The Empathy Exams: Essays | 
bailedMan... I really wanted to like this book. It‘s taken me over a month to get halfway through it. It‘s time to put it away.
I did enjoy the first, titular essay. But everything after that fell flat for me and it started to all feel like a stretch.
#essaycollection #essays
pickThis was a smart collection of essays that covers the question: what's the difference between empathy and tragedy voyeurism? The essays cover topics like sympathy for those suffering illness, even made up ones, tourism, and wounded women. Great read! #halfbloodbingo #essays #bookbingo
For #bookbingo "a book of essays" I chose the empathy exams by Leslie Jamison. Still reading the titular essay but it's incredibly well written so far. #halfbloodbingo #readingchallenge #nonfiction
This is an ideal way to spend the evening. I'm burning the christmas at the burrow candle from frostbeard and listening to the harry potter scores playlist on spotify to drown out my dudes videogame.
Awkward selfie with Leslie Jamison! My favorite serious essayist (Sloane Crosley is my favorite humor essayist).
#morristownfestivalofbooks #mfob
Two more essays to go till the finish line. Thank god there is not a test.
It‘s 2:30am and I can‘t sleep. So I‘m going to continue reading The Empathy Exams. I read the titular essay in college and loved it, so I‘m excited to read the rest of the book.
I am however a bit annoyed because the books I ordered (and am super excited about) were delivered and can‘t be found anywhere in my apartment complex. I get wayyyy to pumped to receive and read new books. The annoyance I feel now may be a little dramatic. 😂
pickMuch different than I anticipated, but Leslie Jamison gave me so much to think about.
so-soI read this after reading Dead Girls because I wanted more amazing personal essays and this is a highly lauded collection that I never got aound to, but it did not resonate with me in the same way. Jamison is a fantastic writer and the opening essay is great, but where Bolin was engaging with media to make points about culture through the personal, Jamison seemed to be mining the pain of others for what often felt like empty points about empathy.
so-soFeeling pretty apathetic towards this... luckily I had the audiobook so I could passively listen to it when I couldn‘t care enough to follow along. I really liked the quality of Jamison‘s writing and the first essay about her time as a practice patient for young doctors & how she tied it into her real medical history— but the other essays seemed like too much of a stretch comparing real world events to her personal experiences writing or drinking.
1) Twitter somehow... 🤔 OH. It must have been a link to the BookCon website or Book Riot.
2) I didn‘t initially, but now I track quite regularly with Goodreads book challenge. 📚
3) YES IN THE BEST/WORST WAY. 💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸I have, fortunately, found a few ways to get more free books (I‘m looking at you Net Galley).
4) Tagged. I have mixed feelings on this although I like the writing style.
Throwing some nonfiction in between my dystopian trilogies for a palate cleanser.
“She has the grace to imagine her way into the minds of people who won‘t imagine hers.”
Melissa: "I've read the first half in about 12 hours. What's interesting is that we can practice empathy in many aspects of life. A few minutes ago I saw someone drag a suitcase up the stairs and a stranger helped them out. I thought that was really great. I don't think I help people enough. I think it comes from a fear of me coming across as awkward. It's better to act on impulse. When someone needs something, just help out. Don't overthink it."
After a long thought experiment with the bf, we have come to a working theory that evil is the absence of empathy.
I'm curious as to whether anyone has any thoughts on the topic?
This has been on my mind a lot lately.
#onthenightstand This is the night stand in my guest bedroom. I filled it with short story collections and books you can dip into (because maybe guest forgets book, and wants something to read in bed -at least he/she can finish a short story or two). Anyway, I'm not sure anyone has actually read anything yet, but if I were a guest, that's what I would like. #aprilbookshowers @RealLifeReading
pickThis essay collection is powerful and stays with me even 2 years after I first read it. Leslie Jamison is a treasure
@Liberty #READATHONESSAYS
2017, Book 17 "Maybe moral outrage is just the culmination of an insoluble lingering. So prepare yourself to live in it for a while. The great shame of your privilege is a hot blush the whole time. The truth of this place is infinite and irreducible, and self-reflexive anguish might feel like the only thing you can offer in return. It might be hard to hear anything above the clattering machinery of your guilt. Try to listen anyway."
pickI haven't read an essay collection in ages, and this one reminded me everything that I love about them. Each essay had its own center, but the emotional resonance traced through them all. It had so much to say about how we experience pain and emotion, and how we relate to others--this book definitely made me wish I hadn't checked it out from the library, because my copy would be absolutely filled with underlining and notes!
I made a pie for #piday #pieday, and while I was waiting for it to set, I started reading. Six hours later, and it is a soup pie instead of a pudding pie. 😂 #marchintoreading @RealLifeReading
#blameitonLitsy #blameMrBook This has been on my list for a while now, but when @MrBook posted a picture of this cover, I had to have it. #marchintoreading @RealLifeReading
WHY CAN'T I FINISH THIS BOOK?
#currentread #amreading #empathyexams #essays #bookish #bookstagram #bookworm #booknerd
pickI don't usually highlight things in books, but this collection had sentences that knocked me flat. I adored most of these essays and recommend them for anyone.
#TBRtemptation post! This is an award-winning essay collection that seems to be ubiquitous nowadays, which is a good thing considering the subject matter confronted. How should we care for each other? How do we feel each others pain? Is it important to gauge empathy to determine a person's goodness? She looks at poverty tourism, phantom diseases, street violence, reality tv, illness, jail. Definitely worth a read! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎
pickOverall, I enjoyed this wide-ranging collection of essays about our feelings when faced with the injustice, poverty and suffering of others (and also how we want others to react to our own suffering). It brings up questions like: why do people volunteer for gruelling ultra-marathons?; what is it like, as a prisoner, to have visitors who can come and go while you remain confined?; why do we watch documentaries about people being treated unfairly?
pickFinally finished. There were definitely some essays I liked more than others but the interesting thing about this collection is that this was never a "how to be empathetic" how to. Jamison tells stories from her own experience and then the reader decides where to place empathy. Overall I enjoyed how different it was from my normal! #trumpedupreadinglist
How I determine if the Kindle version is the right format to read a certain book: 1) Is the hard copy too big/heavy to fit in my purse? 2) Is my hard copy signed by the author? (If yes, I don't want to ruin it). And in the case of "The Empathy Exams" 3)Will I be underlining/hi-lighting every other sentence? Seriously, you guys these essays are so good!
Productive visit to #HalfPriceBooks. Got $24 in trade so only had to pay $7 for all of these! 🙌🏼 Empathy Exams has been on my radar for a while and the Morocco guidebook is for an upcoming trip! #bookhaul
"I will listen,even when I'm deep in my own sadness" I'm going out on a limb here and saying that being #generous and #empathetic aren't too distant neighbors. #generous365 #generous52
Picked this up from the #library based on a review that says this book is "a necessary, brilliant antidote to the noise of our time" Remember friends, #dontdrinkthekoolaid
The race described in this book (the Barkley Marathon) is insane. I know only one person who will do this with me. What say you @jeff ?
so-soFor a book about empathy, I found the writing surprisingly cold. Read more: https://thethousandproject.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/62-the-empathy-exams/
So, it's about time I get around to making my first Litsy post! The semester is winding down, so now that I'm not drowning in my own essays, maybe it's time to take a shot at someone else's.
so-soThe concept of empathy is a common thread that runs throughout the book, especially seeing the humanity in others. While I generally enjoyed this collection of essays, I connected most with the pieces where the author seemed to take the most care and effort in trying to view a situation from another's perspective. I really enjoyed the writing style and the clarity of the author's voice throughout.
#NonFictionNovember #Essays #opencitizen
And from the previous page: "Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing."
This feels so true. Takes me back to sitting with my friend coping with her sons cancer diagnosis that morning - and the new world she was entering with its different landscape and rules.
These essays should be required reading. For everyone. #empathy #theempathyexams #lesliejamison
panShe's an amazing, insightful writer. The essays about med school patient roleplaying, Morgellons, & the quirky marathon were awesome. But her narcissism infects almost every other piece; she can't seem to stop from inserting the most unbelievably jarring me-me-me digressions into the midst of pieces about the deeply traumatic experiences of others, experiences with which she is supposedly trying to empathize!?!? I give these empathy exams an F.
pickTough book covering some tough topics. Essays make for great reading because you can breathe in between each topic. I took a lot of time to breathe while reading this particular collection. There are many sensitive topics discussed in the book, so if you are easily triggered - avoid this one.
