Jennifer
Easy book to put down. I didn't care about Charlie's plot as much as Eve's. Her character was weakly made. She started off as a math genius and then that whole characteristic fades as the story goes on. Then all she becomes is this wannabe slutty woman who only pines after one man. Boring. Her plot line fell flat. She cares about one thing then we find out the conclusion of the one thing and then she's boring...again. So unnecessarily drawn out. Yawn.
Eve's story is much more engaging. I wish this book was just about her and not about Charlie.
The best part of this story was learning about The Alice Network. That being said, this book does a poor job of making me care about it. This could've been so much better.
I know that when there are two parallel stories, they are bound to be connected, and though I did not predict specifically the connection, I was not moved or shocked when it was revealed.
My least favorite part of this whole thing was the theme of force fed feminism. Women can do things men can do (and things men cannot). Women are strong and have to face the world as a secondhand citizen yada yada yada.
I guess if you need to be reminded of why women are not lesser beings, how they can make contributions to the world, and/or why women need autonomy over their bodies, then I would recommend this book.
This book is about “the best worst idea”, the Jewish Autonomous Region called Birobidzhan. Birobidzhan is located in the Far East of Russia and was supposed to be a safe place for Jews to call home. But, as you probably know, the Soviet Union/Russia and the rest of Europe had a tumultuous time beginning around 1905 - 1960s and beyond. Gessen primarily follows a writer and a
poet through their lives: Bergelson and Dubnow. Other people mentioned lived until the 1950s through the 1980s. I had no idea the remnants of this were still around to essentially modern day. These people's grandchildren are alive and thriving in the US today. Wow.
This book shines light on the importance of freedom of the press and freedom of speech in a time of fascism, and also the importance of preserving language and culture (Yiddish). Librarians and other archivists are still fearful and ashamed to this day about being Jewish in this area and knowing anything about being Jewish.
There was also a quick fun fact about 4500 Koreans being killed in this area during war time. Who knew? No one ever mentions these things.
Upsetting and disturbing. Important for liberals to read. Especially white, “post-racial” liberals. I've never read a book from a Nazi skinhead perspective so it was definitely out of my comfort zone.
This book took me way too long to read. I kept putting it down because I was so frustrated.
I was surprised, however, at the twists and turns in the last 20% of the book.
With 10 minutes left, nowwwwww I understand how this got made into a movie with Viola Davis and Julia Roberts.
I sort of liked the last chapter but I could've done without it. Too over-the-top, unrealistic, and cheesy but a nice happy ending I suppose.
I picked up this book because it is in Reese Witherspoon's book club. I've been underwhelmed with Oprah's book club (blasphemy I know) so I tried out another celebrity.
I didn't read a synopsis of this before reading it.
This should be considered a medical book and should be read by hem/onc fellows and cancer and blood medical specialist and researchers. I worked in cancer research for a while and learned about bone marrow transplants. I wish someone recommended this book to me when I had that job. I would've done a better job. (This book was written way after I had that job but still.)
At the beginning, I was all like, “Does Brian have a touch of Aspergers or what? What a self-righteous tool.”
By the end, I am amazed at Heather for portraying the truth about her and Brian's behaviors through the whole ordeal. Neither of them are saints but human. I can't imagine what I would do if I had a sick child. I have so much more respect for parents overall but especially parents of sick children than I had before reading this book.
New goal in life: find something I love as much as Anthony Bourdain loves describing and writing about and eating pho. Also, find something I am so familiar with to be able to cynically and casually talk about like he is with the restaurant business.
I watched this alongside episodes of Parts Unknown on Netflix. One thing I observed, it is not at all surprising that he died by suicide. In this book, he talks about it openly. And everything about his body language and behavior in the show suggests depression. Sad but now that we're all paying attention, extremely noticeable.
I also watched some episodes of Top Chef with Anthony Bourdain and Jesus, no I wouldn't want to cook for him. He's really mean as a chef. Kind of like the Simon Cowell of cooking shows. But after reading about his life around the time he was on Top Chef, yes, again, super obvious he was depressed.
Four stars for the food porn and unapologetic rants about people > animals.
I never knew anything about the history of racism or slavery in England before this book. I didn't know how similar their problems were to the US, e.g. police brutality, the staggering unemployment statistics about African men, gentrification, etc. Unique perspective about the intersectionality from a black, British woman. Similar to Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, but from a different location. (Adichie is still my favorite.)
Like a lot of other social justice books, those who need to read this won't.
I feel like I've read a lot of books that make the same point as this one, the only difference being that this person is coming from the British perspective. Ta-Nehisi Coates strikes more of a chord with American readers with Between the World and Me in terms of race relations. And like I said before, Adichie and Gay do a better job speaking to Americans about race and gender.
In Chapter 7, the author finally gets to the call to action for what she wants white people to do. Finally.
3.5 stars. Probably would've rated this higher if this was one of the first books about feminism and race I've read. Now it just feels redundant and like it's preaching to the choir.
After reading the first few pages, ouch, way to describe my previous jobs to a T. A little on the nose, Jesus.
Eleanor reminds me of Angela from The Office.
This book is important for demonstrating the significance of human contact and highlights the affects of abuse, the role of substance abuse, mental illness, and other adverse childhood events on victims. I really enjoyed reading Eleanor's thoughts of how she had to figure out other people's behaviors and how she interpreted them.
I had to give this four stars because of the plot twist at the end. I was surprised but upon thinking about it further, I feel that it weakens the story overall.
I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about bipolar disorder and the (broken and flawed) mental health system in the United States. I became interested in this after reading My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward and wanted to read more memoirs about it.
Definitely required reading for people who live in the US. But definitely definitely required reading for people who know and/or love somebody with a mental illness. His story could easily be yours.
Worth reading because it's from a father's perspective and this father just happens to be an investigative journalist.
I also wonder if any of the laws have changed since this was written. Is there an updated version of this book? (Maybe not written by Earley but another similar book that's more recent?)
Nazis did crystal meth (called Pervitin at the time), then cocaine and heroin. Learning about the battles of WWII has never been this entertaining!
The Blitzkrieg was made possible by meth and then everyone slept for 17 days afterward. The halt order on Dunkirk was a stupid move! Ranke was the OG Nazi pusher. We definitely never learned this stuff in AP World History!
Hitler was all jacked up on (bull testicle) steroids and opiates (Eukodal, not meth like the Americans thought) for most of WWII, then def did a whole bunch of meth towards the end...to the surprise of none. Wow what an a-hole.
Merck, the pharmaceutical company, made a hell of a nazi drug.
But, of course, drugs were experimented on people in concentration camps. Horrible beyond words.
Shoutout to the British for bombing Germany's pharmaceutical factories.
Also, f*** Nazis and the civilians that supported them.
I had no idea James Comey was such a normal guy. Like he says (regarding another issue but still applies to this whole book), “we were just people, ordinary people in extraordinary roles in challenging times.” cue John Legend
This reads like a thriller because you know the Trump hurricane is upon us and we're just waiting for the storm.
I liked hearing about Comey's past because again, he makes himself sound so normal and ordinary, even though he's been responsible for making decisions regarding some really important sh*t in my lifetime! He gave me Hillary Clinton vibes at times, meaning he painted himself as the mere mortal making tough decisions without acknowledging the haters and nay-sayers which comes off as “aw shucks guys I really tried” vs. taking actual responsibility for their actions/shaking off the seriousness of it. Especially since I remember some of these things in the news and how the media portrayed Comey at the time. No, dude, you should address the haters at some point. Ignoring it makes you seem fake, but I get it, you're talking about other people's careers. But around halfway through, his tone changes and he becomes way more transparent about his thought process and reasoning. So I believed him more then.
I wish I had a boss/leader like Comey says he was at the FBI. I've read a handful of self-help books lately, and I've learned more about leadership in this book than any of the other books. Would recommend if you're seeking leadership guidance!
I also had no idea this book would make me literally laugh out loud. Comey is hilarious! Who knew??? Definitely can't judge this book by its bland cover! I would love to meet Comey one day and I would absolutely love to meet his wife and kids. Talk about the real MVPs.
Rich, white people shenanigans à la Big Little Lies meets mental illness and a more intelligent child and snarky humor.
Bernadette and Bee are witty ladies that kept me interested enough til the end. Randomly interesting setting and concept. Definitely not what I was expecting from the cover.
I gave this 3 stars because it was a solid story that I will see in movie form when it comes out. It didn't change my life, but I'm glad I read it.
Easy to read but irritating at times. Maybe irritating because I've never heard of Singh before and I can't picture the inflections and personality of her words. I will watch her YouTube videos after I read this because now I'm just trying to focus on finishing it.
Her words are helpful but I can't help being a bit cynical that she wrote a self-help book as a non-expert and psuedocelebrity. (After reading this she is apparently quite famous but no one I've asked has heard of her)
As a literal boss at my last job, I did the things she named in the book. So I agree that those behaviors make you a “bawse”. She's not wrong. I just feel like who is this person explaining this stuff to me? What is the woman definition of mansplaining?
Some chapters were more helpful than others which is why I can't completely disregard this book. Like all self-help books, different parts are helpful to different people. Some exercises were thought provoking and helpful.
The jokes were funny in theory but didn't actually make me laugh.
The pictures in between chapters were pretty.
My favorite part was when she was honest about her struggle with depression and how she fought it. Everything else felt like fluff.
Because I got some helpful exercises and respected some one liners, this books gets a solid 3.5 stars. Maybe I will upgrade after I watch her videos?
The exercises were helpful to frame and structure one's mindset of how to think about self-exploration. I'm not sure how some of the ideas or exercise are “unconventional”. This book can be summed up as “soul search and communicate your skills”, but it gives nice, easy instructions on how to start soul searching.
The most unconventional one was about thinking about the physical landscape around you. Wheeeeetttt??
The website pretty much covers the key posts from the book.
Just skim through and read the bolder and italicized sentences. There are some inspiration gems even though it's pretty repetitive and you'll get the gist right away.
“It's not about survival of the fittest, it's about survival of the best fit”
and something to the effect of
Don't shine alone; shine brighter together.
And
Genuinely praise people and teams.
I liked and related to the author's points about overextending yourself and burnout.
It seems that the “amazing” positive results based off of the author's examples were a bit oversimplified. For example, managers “empowered” consultants to self-organize and then their “profit margin rose 151%!” Eye roll.
Overall, there were useful and inspiring tidbits in here that will be helpful to refer to in times of stress.
Other than the prices of things, it seems like nothing has changed since 1977. Racism, harassment, homophobia, etc. happened then and it happens now.
I'm not sure why I read this but I couldn't stop. Easy, quick read with funny bits. Cool to see how a writer jots down parts of his day, especially after reading his other books.
Side note: this is the third book I've read this year where the person recounts where they were during 9/11. Hearing everyone's versions of where they were at that point in their life and their thoughts about it really hit home for me every time.
A mainstream historical fiction book about the hateful relationship between the Japanese and Koreans from a Korean point of view! I never thought I'd see the day.
Love the symbolism of the title and being able to peek into unpredictable lives over time.
Family karma is so real. I loved the seamless transitions between stories. It was almost dreamlike.
Solid financial advice for everyone. Not just people in a relationship. Only the first two of steps, parts of step 8, and step 9 focus on couples. The rest is just good info, except the last chapter. The last chapter was corny.
Note: It would be much more useful as a physical book instead of an ebook because of all of the worksheets.
The earlier steps contain useful concepts and exercises like the Value Circle process, which makes you think about and write down the things that matter most to you in life. Then once you do this, you'll have a purpose-focused financial plan so that your money is used for your values, not for random things.
The most helpful steps are 5 and 6. Step 5 has a lot of helpful pearls of wisdom about investing and step 6 walks you through what to do with everything when you die. I was also surprised at the brief introduction to the different types of health insurances. That was helpful and I would recommend just those pages to people who don't understand that.
Step 7 is very useful but a lot of information. I would buy this book as a reference instead of borrowing it from the library so I can reread this section.
Overall, answered my stupid questions about investing and is a helpful book for the basics of money management. It is better as a physical book than an ebook.
I liked this book much more than Everything I Never Told You. (Not a difficult feat). I'm not a mother (right now) so I can't relate to the mother motif in this book. Of course I have a mother and I can relate as a daughter. I relate to Pearl and Mia's relationship as Pearl but I think that's not the point. I can understand the issues as a woman but not in the motherly way I think many women are relating to this book thus loving it. It touches upon so many different situations that mothers find themselves in, lightly covering the surface of socioeconomic inequities and injustices, but never quite gets deep enough for me. It points out that many are too quick to judge other moms so I get why this is so popular. It's a simple enough story to make even the most basic of women realize that they, too, judge other moms. Perhaps too harshly.
I appreciate the Asian representation in this book. That's my favorite thing about Ng being so popular with the (white) masses. I hope regular ol Asian people get to be the main (female) character of one of her mainstream books one day. I do appreciate Ng making the Richardsons absolutely racist in the ways so many Americans are when speaking of Asians. Loved it. That was the one part of the book that I related to the most.
Dat ending doe = white people nonsense.
What a life! Shocking and fascinating quick read. I've heard Tiffany Haddish's interview on The Breakfast Club and loved hearing her stories. I was/am so excited to read this book and was NOT disappointed. It goes from heartbreaking to hilarious from line to line.
Even though I've heard some of these stories before thanks to her radio interviews, I still lol'd, especially at the Roscoe chapter omg.
Side note: I read The Bright Hour before this and both books talk about where they were on 9/11 and they were in such different places with such different and contrasting stories. Just amazing.
Side note 2: I had no idea Tucker Max co-wrote this. Lol! I know he's problematic but I've read his books anyway and enjoyed them. (I'm not condoning his behavior I'm just saying I had joy in my life when reading his books leave me alone)
Side note 3: I heard that parts of this book were exaggerated. Kind of disappointing but I feel like a lot of memoirs are exaggerated so why is this one any different? I still enjoyed reading it and isn't that all that matters?