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https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-186-the-president-is-missing/

WOW this was FANTASTIC. LOVED the added context for Pet but also loved this as its own thing, one that feels like it could take place, like, tomorrow compared to the more utopian* world of Pet.

*I know

This book's copy compares it to Educated which I think is very valid because, like Educated, I feel like this is a book where the sheer story is very compelling and the author's struggle is admirable, while the quality of the writing is like, fine. If you're into cult shit I'd recommend it, but it's not like, for example [b:The Glass Castle|7445|The Glass Castle|Jeannette Walls|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1523542886l/7445._SY75_.jpg|2944133] where the story was bonkers AND the writing was gorgeous.

Oh man, I used to be so obsessed with Neil Gaiman! Out of habit I pre-ordered this book and then it sat around my house for months because I didn't feel like reading it??? Anyway I finally read it and it turns out I still like Neil Gaiman, whew.

I wasn't expecting it to be so scary! It was kind of scary! It reminded me of one of the early Sandman stories, but in novel form and without the Sandman in it! It's like kind of ~classic Neil Gaiman~ in that it's about the power of stories and myth and childhood.

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re-read 12/17/21
It's interesting that I gave this 4 stars in 2013 because over time my memory of this kind of faded into like, "Oh, that book was fine" but it didn't really stick with me. But then, I was #blessed to see the play adaptation of this on the West End and I LOVVVVVED the play so I wanted to re-read the book. I think I appreciated it more having had the play in my mind, or honestly maybe just being a little bit older? I just found all of his reflections about memory and time and childhood to be a lot more moving than I had remembered. It's just like this very book says...memory is tricky.

There are a lot of pieces here that I'm theoretically into but I think the execution was a little off? Would still recommend to readers particularly looking for ~dark academia, especially canonically queer dark academia, but as a work itself itssssss kinda clunky.

I was disappointed to be disappointed in this :( I LOVED [b:Elatsoe|49089632|Elatsoe|Darcie Little Badger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581002562l/49089632._SX50_.jpg|71388826] soo much so I was really looking forward to this but it really just dragged for me. It took me SO long to read this. It's a dual narrative and I really enjoyed Nina's story set on our earth but I simply was NOT vibing with the snake's story in the animal world. (Not because I'm squeamish about snakes but I was just...very bored by it. It felt very simplistic and childish to me, more like half the book was a chapter book for emerging readers and the other half was a YA fantasy.) I'm willing to attribute this to cultural differences and me just not vibing with that kind of oral tradition maybe?

So for readers more interested in that kind of storytelling, or just readers who are maybe looking for a more slow-paced, gentle fantasy story about animal people (mixed with half of a climate change fantasy thriller???) I think this will be more your cup of tea. But for me it was this weird cup that was like 50% extreme Sleepytime tea :(

oh my gosh, this is such a funny and sweet book. LOVE that it's about a boy with anxiety (aka "the frets") getting to be a superhero and having these fun adventures while also dealing with pretty big emotions. And the wordplay is really fun, and the art is really fun, and I just think it's a great graphic novel with a lot of appeal. Also the way each little adventure is broken up into chapters would make this a great classroom readaloud book.

This book was hard to read on a lot of levels. Like obviously yes it's hard and necessarily to confront the horrors of slavery, but also this was slower-paced and lyrically written such that it did take me a long time to get through it.

I will also warn that there is some medium-explicit sexual content including sexual assault, like kind of obviously given the topic but also noting the explicitness mostly just because given some of Rita Williams-Garcia's other works like [b:P.S. Be Eleven|16240734|P.S. Be Eleven (Gaither Sisters, #2)|Rita Williams-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388718375l/16240734._SY75_.jpg|21856221] I might have expected this book to be pretty tween friendly but I'd recommend it more to upper teens.

I didn't know very much about the Barbizon but I read a review of this book and it captured my imagination. The book was very compelling and enjoyable to me! It's largely a string of anecdotes but the anecdotes are baller. I was reading this at lunch at work and I kept putting it down to announce to the breakroom random things like "this bitch got famous off French onion soup during prohibition!"

Iconic tbh

It's an interesting microcosm of a particular moment in history, and Bren is pretty aware and explicit about the limitations of this history (eg the hotel was white-only for a long time and even after its first Black resident, like....mostly white). But I dug reading about some of the random non-famous residents just as much as I did about Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion. Definitely an enjoyable read if you're interested in the subject!

I had never read this before, but after reading [b:The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free|54304210|The Barbizon The Hotel That Set Women Free|Paulina Bren|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1612105261l/54304210._SY75_.jpg|84737476] and learning that some of this book was based on Plath's time at the Barbizon Hotel (here called the Amazon) I got interested to read it. I'd heard this described as [b:The Catcher in the Rye|5107|The Catcher in the Rye|J.D. Salinger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398034300l/5107._SY75_.jpg|3036731] for girls, which is like, sure diminutive and disprespectful but like not wrong I don't think...

anyway like Catcher I think it's dated in some (BIG) ways and in some ways speaks to some ~eternal emotional truths and I DEFO get it being influential in its moment.

anyway if like me you have reached adulthood without having read The Bell Jar yet, like, honestly you're probably good imo but on an abstract level I get why people love this book