I hate not finishing a book. The literature student in me feels compelled to give every author his due, and there was a time when I would have slogged through anything no matter how disinterested I was. Now that I’m older and one would hope wiser, I’ve realized that life is short and there are times when I should cut my losses and move on to something that makes me happy. I’ve always had a love–meh relationship with Julian Barnes, so it surprised me at […]
“Look, I know I’ve been joking around a lot, but it’s only to keep from being sad.”
I’ve been volunteering at my local library, and shelving books has taken me into unfamiliar territory: the nonfiction section! (dun dun duuuuuuun!) Since I’ve been attempting to read stuff by non-white non-men lately anyway, when I found this on my cart to return to the shelves, I decided to keep it for myself. I’m glad I did – Phoebe is a delight. The book is organized into general essay sections, but she rambles a bit, which makes it all much more conversational and easy to […]
Allowing Humanity and Complexity to Coexist
I have read many reviews of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist over the past few years, and I still don’t know if I really understood what I was getting myself into. But that isn’t a bad thing. At its core, this is a book about Gay coming into herself, and owning exactly who she is, without reservation. She walks the reader through her outlook, her struggles as a woman in the world to live up to being a feminist, or not wanting to be associated with […]
Getting woke for beginners.
It’s kind of hard to review this book without sounding like a jackass. I really wanted to love it based on the salty cover and title, and I think I was just really prepared to be the “you” in question, get called on my bullshit, and, well, do better. Luvvie is a super likable and engaging writer, and parts of it were great. The first half was more about her views and anecdotes on life, people, friendship, money, dating. Nothing groundbreaking but there was some […]
“My father believes hunger is in the mind. I know differently. I know that hunger is in the mind and the body and the heart and the soul.”
“For so long, I closed myself off from everything and everyone. Terrible things happened and I had to shut down to survive. I was cold, I’ve been told. I often write stories about women who are perceived as cold and resent that perception. I write these women because I know what it’s like to have so much warmth roiling beneath the skin’s surface, ready to be found. I am not cold. I wasn’t ever cold. My warmth was hidden far away from anything that could bring […]
Investigative essays on various topics. Most of them were great.
The Devil & Sherlock Holmes is a collection of David Grann’s investigative journalism, covering a wide range of topics (though, as the subtitle of this book suggests, he is a bit fixated on stories of murder, madness and obsession, particularly the latter). David Grann is very good at what he does, and this collection is proof of that. All the essays in this book have been previously published in newspapers and magazines, including the two essays that gave the inspiration for the mashed-up title (“Mysterious […]
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