If it wasn’t for some dark themes I would have thought this book was written for children. The writing is very simplistic. Everyone’s thought process is very black and white. The bad men are very bad. The influencers are all liars. The prairie is vast. It is an odd choice to write about influencers when … Continue reading
The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays by Irena Smith was the rare book that really surprises me with it’s content. In retrospect I can see how the title can be read both ways–her life written in the style of college admissions essays or her life in college admissions essays. It is 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
As you may have noticed I rarely read books by men. It is books like How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison that remind me why. Continue reading
I didn’t read her first book until right before I picked this one up. As I read it, I thought she really should have made it a memoir about how she became obsessed with Adan Syed during what seemed like many low points during her life. She talked a lot about her personal life in … Continue reading
What a waste of a good idea! The writing of The Bright Lands was so poor. Certain phrases were used over and over again the most glaring was “ridged stomach” and twice on one page the phrase “Joel wondered what the odds were that…” appeared. The word spry was also misused in the description of … Continue reading
I was excited about this one. I recommended it to both the Baltimore City and County libraries and was excited when it came in. What a disappointment. A lot of it didn’t make a lot of sense and there was little plot or character development. The book seemed to switch perspectives but it was very … Continue reading
Bon Appétempt: A Coming of Age Story (with recipes!) by Amelia Morris is one of those memoirs written by a person who doesn’t seem to understand what she is telling us about herself. Some warnings—She has massive unreflected on privilege and an eating disorder she passes off as “dieting”. She got the book deal off … 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
I was really excited about Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages by Cate Doty because the NYT wedding pages both seem like a dinosaur and a fascinating peek into what we apparently value as a society. I was disappointed not so much by the peek into … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 