Kate Mester

2 1/2 stars. I wanted to like this more than I did. Premise was interesting, and I liked the small call outs from others' perspectives, but nothing really happens and I stopped listening to the audio and just skimmed the book because it was relatively boring and the YOLO message was so forced. The characters were not particularly compelling and felt more like paint-by-diversity personality notes than real people. The set-up had potential, the ending was well done, but a nothing of a middle made for a boring reading sandwich.

This memoir is certainly as weird as she is. She starts with the conceit that you're sitting on an airplane next to her hearing her story, but then only sticks to that for a little while. I enjoy her voice so I liked listening to the audio, but she added in lots of sound effects to go along with the conceit that were distracting. The book itself has great 90's zine style pictures, but overall she didn't edit this in any narrative way, despite having 3-4 editors thanked, so it veers everywhere and includes recipes and other ephemera. She also calls it self-mythologizing, which is true in that she doesn't analyze her choices or relationships, and tells stories about Louis C.K., Woody Alan, & Ryan Adams with no critical analysis, in fact directly stating that Woody and Soon-Yi are great together....so that's all pretty gross. She also comes across as pretty unlikable - rude to service workers, non-apologetic about accidents she caused, both using and then complaining about her fame - and whether that was intentional or not, or just part of the self-mythologizing, is anyone's guess.

3.5 Good pacing and action and Black has always done well with world building. In spite of that I found Jude saying “xxx sucks” jarring and both out of character and out of world. Think my BOB team will like it and I'm interested enough to read/skim the next one.

Absolutely charming and basically an into to baby's first drag in graphic novel form. The dresses were gorgeous, the romance sweet, and the family dynamics uplifting. Totally joyous for ages 9 to adult!

His art is always enjoyable and the story was interesting, but I much preferred Hazel's character to Katie's. His aim of exploring the hardships of “adult” life would have been better served with a stronger, more likeable protagonist.