alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

This was actually a very compassionate insight into the complicated dance that is being in a relationship with a very difficult person. Very recommended, as some of the books written by other playmates seem to be catty and cruel.

I actually kept thinking how great this story is as a modern day Esther retelling: Queen Vashti refuses to perform at the king's party and is eternally banished for rebellion. To find a replacement queen, girls from the land are then brought to the palace to audition in a night with the king, and afterwards join his harem. Little orphan Esther wows the king, and is crowned the new queen. She then wields her influence to save the Jewish people from genocide.

Okay so the retelling kind of breaks down at the end, but the rest lines up: former top bunny Holly Madison has a falling out with Hugh Hefner, and playboy mansion politics are in disarray. Hundreds of girls sent in headshots to be invited to the annual halloween party, and down-on-her-luck Crystal is granted a ticket. At the party, she catches Hugh's eye and he invites her to his bedroom, and then to stay for the weekend, and then just to stay. She skilfully works her facetime with Hugh and quickly moves from the bottom rung to #1 girl. The beauty regimine, her fear of the consequences of asking for simple things (could her mom come to visit?), the curfews, being barred from running away, and control over outside friendships all reminded me of elements of Esther's story, too.

Women have been trading beauty and sex for shelter and influence for a long, long time... Hugh Hefner is no pioneer in that area.

Shocking and incredible, I was on pins and needles the whole time… the final chapters comparing fascism in America to Castro’s regime was such a gut punch.

Funny for kids and adults :) It reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events but happy and lighthearted instead.

It was eerily unsettling to read this after having lived through a pandemic, but knowing this was written 6 years before a pandemic. The pandemic in the book came on much faster and stonger than in the real world. We are recovering at different speeds, too. But still, the story is prescient.

This was my least favorite of ESJM's books. But I do love how the characters in all her books orbit each other. A character merely mentioned in one book gets a speaking role in another, this sort of thing. It makes the reading experience more layered and interesting.

I am so glad I read this book with the Virtual Socialism Reading Group. It was inspiring and interesting to talk to other people about it.

The main concepts that I took away from this book are:
- We can all start working towards abolition/a future we want now. It is as easy as getting to know your neighbors, strengthening relationships, practicing the accountability in your own life that you want to see on others’, getting creative.
- You don’t have to have everything planned out. If one attempt doesn’t work, learn from your mistakes, make adjustments, create new iterations and ideas. The fact is that the current system set the bar very low — no need be afraid of failing when the current system already is lol
- bottom up instead of top down organizing means there is room for lots of ideas, flexibility, resilience, and experimentation. Room for all kinds of folks to have a try at making their ideas come to life.

And I kept thinking about how my church has a lot of these concepts down! That made me proud. Sure, there is a noticeable problem with organization haha. But I think that comes with the territory of having so many different people leading different initiatives and having leadership pretty decentralized.

I was interested in this book because I wanted to learn more about prayer. This is a kind of handbook on how to start your own "boiler room" (24/7 prayer center) or at least incorporate elements and principles into your own life. It is filled with neat stories and spiritual experiences that the two authors have had as they searched for and experimented with what worked for them in the UK. So it wasn't exactly what I was searching to read but I did like reading it.

DNF @ 60%

I enjoyed the descriptions of the desert; it is something I miss. And there is a place for hearing other people's politics even if they slant racist and you don't agree. But the man is arrogant and the pace so slow... it's like a being on a hike with someone who won't shut up.

Confession: I skimmed the second half. The author is a podcast host and the chapters are written like a podcast episode, like This American Life of maybe a Malcolm Gladwell piece. It just would have been better to listen than to read this.

Each chapter begins with a story about someone from the 20th century (told in a very interest piquing way) and then transitions to a notable person in the Talmud who had a similar problem as the modern person. The connections don’t always land, but it is a nice story telling format.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had some background knowledge on the characters, like if I had grown up going to synagogue, and then the stories really would have popped and come alive. As it was, pretty much everyone was brand new to me and thus unmemorable. I ended up remembering the modern people’s stories more.

One American woman was paying attention to the news leaking out of Germany in the 1930s and she published this story in 1938 to raise the public's awareness of how truly dangerous fascism is. It went viral immediately, with reprints in several national magazines, a bestselling book edition, and readers even making copies to give to friends. And I can see why: the story is brisk and shocking, and yet the drama of a lifetime unfolds in just a few short letters.

The inspiration for the story is chilling. Frat bros decided to play a prank on some of their friends in Germany and sent them letters making fun of Nazis. Their friends' response was sobering -- stop, you are putting our lives in danger, a Nazi can get killed over a letter. And so the author wrote a story in which a letter becomes as lethal as a weapon.