Jennifer
Three stars for the architecture and world's fair half of the story. Four stars for Holmes' story.
I learned a lot about architecture and this story really broadened my knowledge horizons, but I was also really bored with the back and forth of the construction drama. Also, sue me for not caring more about some rich white men not getting their way with their buildings. The epilogue really ran down the list of all the things that the World Fair inspired so that was pretty cool. I Wikipedia'd and googled many people and things that I had not previously thought about. Like the invention of the Ferris wheel. Otherwise eyeroll emoji
I had no idea Holmes inspired the reason for so many anti-fraud laws among other laws we take for granted nowadays. Whenever I find myself wondering how something came to be a law, now I know to refer back to Holmes gaming the system to the best of his abilities. I.e. “why can't someone buy vats of chloroform anymore?” Or “when young women go missing, shouldn't more people take notice?” And of course the more obvious, “how come not just anyone can become a beneficiary of so many people's insurance plans?”
This story has no pay off. The first half of this book is the protagonist's (Roderick McCrae) account of what led him to murder three people. The second part is the psychologist/doctor's account. The third part is the trial.
The first half is great. It really leads you to believe something happens in the latter half. Nothing surprising happens. It's like the least exciting episode of Law and Order: SVU you've ever seen. Or in this case, read.
This book is pretty much the show Mindhunters for 1860s Scotland, except the killer is not exciting and tells you everything truthfully from the get go.
I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time because it kept my interest. But it was a bit of a waste of time because nothing exciting happens. It was literally like reading documents from a completely predictable court case. Why was this nominated for an award again??
–
After reading other people's reviews, it seems people really liked the unsolved sexual deviance activities. I would've liked this book more if someone in the book cared about those deviances, but no one did and it made no difference in the outcome of Roddy so nope. Don't care. Doesn't matter.
I read David Sedaris's other books and loved them. Because this one is holiday-themed, I thought he would take it easy on the dark humor. Quite the opposite.
Dark. Idk what I was expecting but some of these stories were dark. I enjoyed the story about the Macy's elves the most. And I laughed out loud at the story about Dutch Santa Clause.
So many pop culture references and millennial inside jokes. I wonder if this book will be used as some sort of time capsule artifact in the future. Or kind of a memory scrapbook of how people talked and joked back in the 2010's.
Luvvie is so quick witted and funny. I'm sure most of what she says is a foreign language to our parent's generation and anyone not aged 10-30 in America. Or just to white Americans in general. And/Or people not familiar with the Twitter/tumblr culture.
Witticisms aside, her messages are clear. Luvvie speaks on racism, rape culture, and feminism to name a few. She's preaching to the choir though, so I found myself saying “I get it I GET IT”. Kind of like when I read Bad Feminist.
Also, her whole rant about how to pronounce her last name is me. Ajayi and Ohashi have the same struggles.
The last chapter boosted this entire thing for me by one star. I was going to give it three but the relevant and sorely necessary addendum really solidified my feelings. Four stars.
TL;DR: This book is basically 2010s struggles. It made me chuckle at times.
I really enjoyed this book and glad I got the audiobook from the library. I appreciate Gladwell's take home points. To oversimplify: disadvantages can be advantages. I learned so much about dyslexia, Irish history, and the full story about David and Goliath, to name a few random subjects. I'm always reminded of Gladwell's thought process and creative ways of storytelling to prove his points. Even though I know that negatives can be turned into positives, I'm entertained by the ways Gladwell explains the concept. I don't think it's his best work, but I'm glad I took the time to hear him read it to me via audiobook. I was pretty bored by the end but every story piqued my interest at some point.
We used this to plan our honeymoon and read some parts again while we were in Costa Rica after we went to the location. We felt that some of the reviews of some places seemed to have a disappointed or had a negative tone to it. We had more fun than the writer sounded like they had. They were spot on with their star ratings overall, but the descriptions felt a bit cynical.
Such a random story that I never even knew or thought about but am so glad someone took the time to investigate this public health travesty in American history.
Spoiler alert:
all the women put radium in their mouth and eventually die
I couldn't help but be reminded of Richard Gere's character, Billy Flynn, in the movie rendition of Chicago when reading about the trial. These court cases are exactly why so many laws exist around work safety. While getting my master's in public health, this book should've been required reading for the Occupational Health section.
There were some melodramatic lines that made me roll my eyes and though I was impressed that the author was able to piece together personal stories from dry, legal documents, I still felt there was something missing from the narratives. The epilogue contained more soul to the women than the main part of the book. Why not include the epilogue with the original narrative?
Kevin Hart is anything but perfect. He really puts himself out there, whether it's talking about his drug addict father, or strict, physically abusive mother, or his history of relationship abuse. Like any celebrity memoir where the celebrity is still relevant, he glazes over some major facts about how he actually, logistically got to where he is today. Like, how did drinking and “networking” with comedians ACTUALLY get him gigs? Like, was he not actually just getting wasted and messing around on his woman while he was gone all that time?
I really enjoyed the stories about his rise and the life lessons that his mother taught him. The end of the book got kind of messy to me since the scandal about him cheating on Eniko is still percent recent and unresolved. Once a cheater, always a cheater?
I think it would be difficult for someone who has never seen Kevin Hart's stand up to appreciate this book, but I guess you would never read this book without seeing his stand up first. His voice is so him<\i> that I can't NOT hear his voice.
Required reading
Much of the political climate today includes outrage of how many of 45's policies will affect the poor. The most impoverished of the nation. This book provides engaging narratives of the poor. Black, white, country folk, inner city people, slumlords and tenants.
Don't know what it's like to worry about safe housing? Read this.
Don't know what it's like to hustle so you can have some place to call your own? Even if you're renting the place? Even if said place is covered with roaches and has no running water? Read this.
This book is America. And when you hear of how cutting funding to low income people, think of the people in this book. These are real people and the policies you hear about in the media have real consequences.
Necessary read.
Oh my gosh! A book about an interracial white and Asian couple! With wasian children! I never thought I'd see the day.
And! The author is from the suburbs of Pittsburgh like me oh boy!
I can't think of a worse book recently than this one. The story seemed very unrealistic and stifling. Each character was a caricature of angst and being stuck in a rut. It should've been called “How Not To Parent” or “Worst Parents Ever”. I just have so many questions as to how these kids had absolutely no backbone for themselves. Their personalities were so extreme. The youngest, literally hiding in corners because her parents ignore her. The oldest son, who doesn't have any friends? Doesn't know how to make friends? Even the weirdos and loners in high school had at least one friend. COME ON. Were schools in the 70s really this negligent of their students? Holy crap. And then Lydia. I get parental pressure and getting rejected by a crush but I mean come on. She didn't even try to make friends on her own. She literally only did whatever her parents told her to. Also, no one was alarmed at her gradual academic decline?? Again, were schools and teachers and fellow students in the 70s really this bad? If so, it's no wonder more kids didn't kill themselves.
Then the godawful parents. I get what it's like being the only Asian in a small town. The father's behavior in this book defies any realistic situation. Sure, I get the angst, but to carry that burden of his wife's mother's racism for 16+ years??? There are REAL problems in the world and this guy let this one sentence haunt him and manifest into his whole identity crisis. What a loser. Get a life!
The mom, yeah, she needed a break for a while, and then she came back and never talked about it?? And her kids never asked?? What family is this??? Doesn't this take place in Ohio?? I know families that communicate better than this in the jungle. Or Amish communities. Absolutely ridiculous.
Moral of the story: learn how to communicate. Express yourself! This was ridiculous. I just imagined every scene taking place in their silent house with maybe two lines of dialogue per character. In this instance, families who scream and fight all the time seem better than this family.
If I could use one emoji to sum up this book, it would be the eye roll emoji x1000.
Wow. This sh*t is effed up. So glad I read it. I learned so much.
The ending glosses over the logistics of how exactly she got out (not a spoiler), so I was kind of disappointed in that, but I appreciated her graphic descriptions of what happened. I also appreciated that she followed up on what happened to some of the messed up events she mentions. I would read a sequel if she ever wrote one.
This behind-the-scenes memoir of Congress was enthralling. Oh...this isn't...well, this nonfiction thriller about the establishment of a fraternity...oh nope that's not it either.
A huge metaphor of civilization that still holds true today. The “beast” looming around, instilling fear into the people, not based on facts. Immature, selfish, ego-driven leaders. The smart guy always getting ignored. Battling egos for power. Groupthink. Solving issues with death and violence. Golding predicted our government/world today.
This whole story just really felt...on the nose. The symbolism was straightforward. The message clear. Not super impressed.
Uncomfortable. Brutal honesty. Raw.
Valenti addresses the criticisms I am thinking about as I read her stories, and for that I am appreciative. She is self-aware of her flaws, the flaws in her stories, and the flaws of the reader. I think many women can relate to her stories on some level. Maybe under worse circumstances, maybe better, but a woman knows what she's talking about.
Easy, fast read. It's like reading about this basic yet educated, Jewish girl-turned-woman who happens to be funny. I actually chuckled out loud at a couple of parts. I could not relate to her basic chapters about Anthropolgie or liking “fat Jews” (lol), but I felt like I was getting insight on the awkward typical white girls I encounter in real life. Parts of it felt like watching a National Geographic special about middle class white, Jewish women.
Any book that makes me genuinely laugh on the outside gets an automatic 4 stars. Bonus points for a feel good ending.
There's stereotypes out that all Nigerians are scammers and how the people are corrupt. Well, in this book, many chapters are a short story or quick example about how corrupt Lagos, Nigeria is. Other chapters are quick glimpses into a scene of life (not necessarily Nigerian-only life). Other chapters speak to the violence.
I also learned about Lagos history, their involvement in transatlantic slavery, and current economic situation. Wow.
All in all, it made me realllyyyy not want to go there (but obviously if I had the opportunity I still would). It definitely feels like a memoir more than a novel, and makes me think it is loosely based on real life.
I appreciated the author's focus on art and how art begets hope in such a corrupt world. That is the message I'm taking away from this and one that I will remember whenever I am disheartened by current events in the US.
I “read” this as an audiobook and regret it.
This would be an awesome special effects movie. Seeing the characters and transitions between lives would be way more engaging to me than this. For some reason, some parts of the book couldn't keep my attention and I never really grew to care about the supporting characters.
Ursula is really one of the unluckiest people I've ever read about. I wanted to quit listening to this audiobook at almost every other chapter and then there would be an interesting section but then she would die, it would be over and I was bored again.
The most engaging parts for me were when Ursula was 16 and when she met Eva Braun. Everything else was kinda boring via audiobook. Maybe it's the narrator? I can't tell.
A pro of the audiobook is that there's a lot of German that's spoken that's much better to hear than me trying to read.
I found myself just wanting to know what happened at the end and not caring how we got there.
The first half of the book focuses on Lancelot (Lotto) and the marriage from his perspective. If you've ever watched the show Californication on Showtime, think:
Lancelot = Hank Moody
Chollie = Charlie Runkle
...except way less lighthearted. And way more vindictive.
If you haven't seen that show, Lotto is a self-absorbed writer with an inexplicable sexual drive. Chollie is the obnoxious friend.
The wife in this book is quiet, soft, and loving...until the second half of the book. Her perspective wowed me. I wasn't ready for her backstory.
Overall, entertaining to see both sides of the story. Based on other reviews, I was expecting to be moved and changed, but instead I'm just like ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway from Riverhead Books and I'm so glad I did!
