Well written but a little fluffy. Adichie's heroine is engaging and the story has a breezy and appealing quality, and Adichie herself has many keen, hWell written but a little fluffy. Adichie's heroine is engaging and the story has a breezy and appealing quality, and Adichie herself has many keen, humorous and subtle insights about living in America as an immigrant from Africa. But while the story was full of passion, affection, and warmth, it was missing it's heart in one key way. It subtly lacked compassion for, denigrated and picked apart characters other than the heroine, while having what is essentially a blind spot for the protagonist's and her love interest's faults. The story is basically one of marital infidelity, but the wife was almost subhuman and certainly inferior to the more alive, more honest, more vibrant protagonist. that seemed like an easy out and a cliche one at that. ...more
Humorous, but there are a few classics I've seen before on her website. Humorous, but there are a few classics I've seen before on her website. ...more
This guy seemed kind of like a jerk. His insights about the Yamomano were fascinating, but his eagerness to make sweeping generalizations about the moThis guy seemed kind of like a jerk. His insights about the Yamomano were fascinating, but his eagerness to make sweeping generalizations about the motivations of humans in some primitive, evolutionary past put me off. While the Yamomano surely do provide some insight, there are many other societies on Earth that seem equally cut off from civilization and yet don't seem to have the same societal structure. Also, the griping about his fights with other anthropologists was boring....more
I can relate to Amy Chua. No, not because I've called my children garbage when their homemade birthday cards failed to impress. I can relate because CI can relate to Amy Chua. No, not because I've called my children garbage when their homemade birthday cards failed to impress. I can relate because Chua is in the uncomfortable position of knowing her beliefs are a bit nuts, and yet being unwilling to completely let go of them. Chua adheres to a regime of extreme "Chinese" parenting that prizes academic and musical achievement, obedience to authority, and hard work above all else. Her book ostensibly chronicles her transition from true believer to disillusioned agnostic, as she realizes that Chinese parenting is failing her youngest daughter. Chua has the provocative tone of a born polemicist, and she deadpans and mocks herself delightfully. (When she spends time fretting over her dogs' lack of intellectual achievements, for instance). The book starts off as a manifesto, but becomes more of a personal growth essay about halfway through. And yet Chua can never completely reject the notion that her superhuman efforts to mold her progeny into wunderkinds paid off. So in the end, Chua seems to believe that her hardcore, Sarah Connors approach to parenting (combat the Western Culture-induced decline of the family at all costs) mostly paid off. Seeing how her kids have (so far) turned out, it's hard to disagree completely....more
This memoir is written with quiet, heartbreaking candor and was a quick read. J.R. Moehringer is a journalist who was raised half by a single mom and This memoir is written with quiet, heartbreaking candor and was a quick read. J.R. Moehringer is a journalist who was raised half by a single mom and half by his hometown bar. When he describes his family life, it's beautifully written. But when he writes about the hold the bar, called Publicans, had on him, it kind of drags. The bar is a mirage that only obliquely touches the human drama going on in his "real life, and it's not as interesting to watch someone escaping from real life as it is to watch him face it. He whipped up a frothy, romantic conception and gave the bar a pride of place in his life that it never really earned. He also spent a lot of time painstakingly agonizing over the "what makes a man" question and self-consciously imitating a kind of Saul Bellows-type maleness, which I find insufferably dull. It's understandable, because he lacked a father, and therefore, a positive male role model, but for most of the book he doesn't have the self-awareness to realize that "good men" and "good people" are basically the same thing. Of course, in the end he has a Wizard of Oz, "there's no place like home" realization that all the traits he was looking for in the bar were already right there in spades in his mom. Still, the melancholy and longing that runs through the story, and the fragile, hot-house love that the boy shares with his mom is moving. Moehringer has lived a rather ordinary life but is able to render it with extraordinary perception and sensitivity. He also wrote Agassi's biography, Open, which is equally poignant but much more explosive and dynamic. That's because the tennis star really has lived an extraordinary life and the author has more interesting material to work with....more
Jake Adelstein's recounts his time on the biggest Japanese Newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun. This book promises yakuza, coverups, prostitution and...vice. HJake Adelstein's recounts his time on the biggest Japanese Newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun. This book promises yakuza, coverups, prostitution and...vice. However, Adelstein breaks the cardinal rule: your subject is interesting, not your experiences of them. No one wants to read about a journalist's experience, they just want to read about the story.
Unfortunately, we get a lot of anecdotes about his early days on the paper, vaguely interesting cases told without any setup or suspense, and updates about people he once knew. The one interesting thing that happened to him--namely, that he got on the wrong side of a Yakuza boss and was forced to publish or literally perish--was teased at the outset but not covered at all until the last 50 pages of the book.
For someone who writes for a living, he seems to be sadly deficient in some of the basics. Or maybe, as a journalist, he never learned how to sustain interest over a whole book's length....more
Wow, a surprising page-turner from Agassi. Of course it helps that he had a co-author, but I truly couldn't put this book down. I don't even like tennWow, a surprising page-turner from Agassi. Of course it helps that he had a co-author, but I truly couldn't put this book down. I don't even like tennis all that much!...more
It's not exactly a breathtaking, finely-wrought masterpiece, but Mortensen's story is inspiring, and it's a quick, feel-goody read. It's not exactly a breathtaking, finely-wrought masterpiece, but Mortensen's story is inspiring, and it's a quick, feel-goody read. ...more
I read this book while staying at a friend's house, when I was lacking some nighttime reading. The book was surprisingly boring for a tell-all by a poI read this book while staying at a friend's house, when I was lacking some nighttime reading. The book was surprisingly boring for a tell-all by a porn star. It's also kind of sad: you want to think there are some people who get into this business who aren't severely damaged by past sexual experiences, but she seems to have been assaulted several times, and treated pretty shitty even more, and it's hard not to see her conforming to a sad stereotype. Also, there are too many digressions into her family life. Her internal family dynamics, let's face it, are not why someone would read this book....more
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