aimiller's Reviews (689)

Certainly a fast read, and it says something about how quickly I was able to get through it despite despising the main character (really? How is sexually harassing your older secretary any way to make me like you?) The ending felt like everything had sort of spiraled out of control in terms of believability, which might be a turn off for some people.

Although poetic in its praise of libraries, Battles sometimes gets mired down in his own thoughts; he manages to be by turns self-conscious and lacking self awareness. Although peppered with some interesting historical tidbits, the book frequently gets bogged down in Battles's musings and weird blanket statements that he doesn't bother to back up or even reconsider after he's said them. A pretty book, but perhaps not a good one.

Very interesting! It does a decent job of interweaving the stories, though there was a definite disconnect that I could feel. (I'm also being incredibly picky, but you can tell Larson is a journalist and not a historian--not that that is make or break, but it does color much of what he writes in a far different fashion.)

Amazing- inspiring, thought-provoking, moving. It's now a part of my 'books I want to carry with me forever' collection.

This was really just okay, but I'm giving the third star out of the benefit of the doubt that Caruth's work reflects what she wanted to do, and that just because it wasn't a book that I found interesting or particularly useful doesn't mean it's a bad book per se. It just was way more focused on the actual text of Freud's work rather than the way I understand using trauma to talk about history, which is fine and fair and actually this book is what has made me decide I need to actually read more Freud, but I didn't connect with her claims nor did I feel like the essays connected or supported any kind of overarching conclusion at all.

Just really sucked me in in a way that is rare for me, and wouldn't let go. It's beautifully written, as are most Erdrich's works, and I think the more you read about this world she's crafted, the better you understand what's happening and the more pieces open up. This was just really, truly beautiful and lovely, and made me want to read more about all of these characters way more than I felt I wanted to before. Really, really beautiful, and I think a really accessible place to enter this narrative, as the characters are relatively limited and I felt like had a stronger grasp of what was going on.