Katie

Jane Goodall called this “unusual and fascinating,” and I agree completely. Also sad and strange.

This was a fun read for me because my great-grandfather is in it. :) He was Duveen's comptroller for a little while. It's also fun to read about the famous names on banks, museums, etc., when they were people and not just famous names (Mellon, Frick, Huntington, Stanford, etc.). Duveen was quite a character and I enjoyed hearing about his exploits.

I'm not sure what I just read, but I'm glad I read it. Unlike other books in a lot of ways, and very compelling.

I really don't get the hype on this one. To me it screamed of the male gaze. All the characters were pretty hateful, rage-inducing, or just depressing (or a combination of the two). Blech.

This was really great–atmospheric and engrossing. I wish I had known more of the main character's thoughts at the end, but I thought it was quite true to life all the way through.

This was fairly formulaic but still contained a few surprises. A fun read with characters you'd want to hang out with (some of them!!).

It took me a long time to get to reading this book, despite all the accolades. I guess I expected something fantastic, unusual, marvelous? It was just a good, solid fiction book, with straightforward writing and an interesting, if fairly predictable plot.

Like many others, I really didn't get this book. The writing was awesome and there were some wonderful turns of phrase. But I have no idea what actually happened and what didn't happen.

This book is hilarious, of course, but also just makes you want to tear every last hair out of your head. How can people be so ignorant?

Maybe I'm just not that in to memoirs? Maybe the writing jumps around too much for me? Maybe there's too much God? Idk, but this was a fairly painful read. It's like the world's longest OKCupid profile.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. Part of it just seemed to be listing off what happened. “Then we went here. Then we did this.” But the story overall is interesting. I guess I would have appreciated more reflection, but it's told more in an of-the-minute style. Probably a 3.5.

If you liked Fake Accounts you'll like this book because...it's basically the same book!

Do you like books where every horrible thing that can happen to a character happens? And then happens again and again? Then this the book for you.

This was fun to read while I was in Japan, and an interesting mystery. It has the slow kind of character development that mystery series have when they want you to get to know the characters over the course of many books.

This was probably a three and a half. An interesting story/mystery with compelling characters even if I didn't like any of the all that much.

I tend to avoid books that are this hyped but I caved and I'm glad I did. I loved the characters in this book and the story was funny, inspiring and heartbreaking.

This book was sentimental and cliched (both in the themes and the language) but if you gloss over those parts, you can read the real struggles of a woman who wants to do the things she's so very competent at–her work–and who wants to be a mother who is there for her boys. MLK does a great job of articulating this impossible struggle.

I enjoyed reading this, though I'm obviously not his demographic. I liked Hot and Unbothered much better–that was more a self-help book with a little memoir thrown in, and this was more of a memoir with a little self-help thrown in.

I didn't find this book very funny. Mostly sweet/sad. And fairly predictable.

This was an enjoyable read, but nothing super special. It definitely brought me back to being a teenager in suburbia.

I want to buy a million copies of this book and give it to everyone I know. I hope every member of Congress reads it, too. It really made me feel sympathy for Trumpers–they're victims of the algorithm. That's something I never thought I'd feel.

The pictures were certainly fascinating, and it was interesting to hear people speaking in their own words. But that's basically all it was–photographs, direct quotes (long ones) from the people photographed, and brief introduction pieces by a different author. I felt like overall it was more of an experience of gawking at how other people live, mostly relating to disgusting wealth or the loss of that wealth, than any deep thought on what this says about our society or how to fix it.

This was atmospheric and interesting. I just didn't love it. The author's and translator's notes at the end added some interesting context and thoughts.

I was uncertain if the world building would feel real but not too complicated to “get” in this short of a book, but it was well done and I never felt confused. I loved the way the main character was completely unredeamed in the end.

This was a harrowing story but so important to read. I'm glad to have been given a chance to more fully understand the refugee experience.