Todd Tyrtle
This is the third time I've tried to read this. I'm embarrassed to admit that I stopped the first couple of times in part out of jealousy. I am also studying Hindi but I wasn't making such good progress. To be fair it had a lot to do with how little I was studying. This time, though, I have been paying better attention and feeling better about my own skills and so what I found was that reading the book didn't make me feel simultaneously jealous and down on myself for not trying very hard. Instead I really enjoyed it. It felt very familiar and reminded me of my own trips to Rajasthan and all of the help I've been getting from native Hindi speakers. Hearing about her own struggles and triumphs as someone learning language later in life felt very familiar. I know exactly what she was feeling when she would describe problems she had or things she was proud of. Her talk about language learning and motivation was also really fascinating. I liked how we went back and forth between her experiences and some of the more technical details.
Like any good travel memoir it makes me feel like I do at the end of a trip to a beloved place - sad to see it come to an end.
Really fun read. I have memories of hanging out with friends for a season, summer, or grade in school and everything is amazing. You all have so much fun together doing ridiculous things and living like siblings. Reading this felt like being a fly on the wall for a lifetime spent like this among three friends. Yes, they were famous and that informed some of the stories - but the interesting part wasn't that they were famous - it was capturing that friend-meets-family dynamic.
One of those books you're sad is over because now you can't experience it again.
Very enjoyable reading with tons of interesting facts and stories I never knew before. Beautiful artwork as well. You know it's interesting when you're left wanting to read more. Thankfully the author has a whole “recommended reading” section at the end to keep me satisfied for a long while to come.
Now to find a way to get back down to NYC for another trip soon...
Plot was not terribly compelling for me and I didn???t like any of the characters. After a while I just petered out with no more motivation to find out what happened.