This American Ex-Wife is another book where I wish it was just a memoir and the author didn’t try to make so many connections to the greater world. I don’t think they worked as well as they could have. Unlike Geraldine DeRuiter, she is a journalist and experienced researcher but it doesn’t help as much … Continue reading
I wish Geraldine DeRuiter had written a memoir or personal essay collection instead of trying to shoehorn facts into her book of essays. The connection between the topic, the some sort of personal story she’d include and the facts she footnotes was often very tenuous. She does not seem to be an academic, a reporter or … Continue reading
The book is cute and has a ton of novelty pie recipes in it if that is your thing. The essays about her life growing up were the strongest most cohesive parts of the book. However big takeaway for me was how many references to beer and drinking there were. Nearly every story about a … Continue reading
Honestly, I read Congratulations! The Best is Over as soon as I was offered the galley because I was baffled that a man who said he grew up in Baltimore could get so much wrong about the city and state of Maryland in his last book. In this one he admits he has no sense … Continue reading
I always love her memoirs and writing in general and this one filled in some gaps in her life’s story. I love how she writes about her biological mother and how fraught that relationship is. She writes very honestly about her father and how he has changed into a very different man with her children … Continue reading
Honestly, this was kind of a disaster of a book. It felt like it was cobbled together at the last minute and was written largely by people who didn’t seem to know what the theme was or care about it at all. One or two essays were okay but largely they were a bunch of … Continue reading
I joined a virtual book tour for Letter to a Stranger because the concept was so fun! I spent a lot of time pre-pandemic eavesdropping and wondering about the people I encountered in my every day life so a book of essays about the strangers that drift in and out of all our lives. This … Continue reading
Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen was a true disappointment. The idea is great and I like the women they chose to focus on but the writing is poor and convoluted. It reminded me a lot of the work I’ve read by high school students. Lots of sources, mostly … Continue reading
What a mess All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft turned out to be. I was ready to be dazzled but I was mostly left thrilled that I don’t know this woman. I think she thinks she is being charming and self-deprecating but she really comes across as smug and … Continue reading
I have to admit that a good bit of the reason I wanted to read this book is that I had read fellow (now former for her) food blogger, Ahern’s earlier memoir/self-help book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too ten years ago and in it, she hints … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 