This was unbelievably boring. Gave up on page 59.

This was the last straw. I am never buying another book from a self-published author again. I am such a sucker for meeting authors at conventions and book fairs and buying their books and I ALWAYS REGRET IT.

This was awful. Like, 14 year old fan fiction awful. The characters were undeveloped and annoying, the "romance" was a whiplash triangle between the insta-love boy and the high school crush boy, and the pacing was abominable. Just an absolute train-wreck.

I only finished it because I bought the signed copy from Scott herself. My guilt made me do it.

I love that Specht really lived in Nigeria and West Texas, because the places felt like characters themselves. Her writing is beautiful and haunting. But I never felt connected to the characters; they all seemed so useless and ephemeral. I wish they had been more unique.

I love Queer Eye and Tan, and his narration is fabulous. I teared up so many times at his stories. But this felt like one of those memoirs that didn't really need to exist because his life was so normal. It got very preachy at the end with talk of diversity in movies and tv and it felt out of place in a memoir.

I didn't actually enjoy reading this book. It was very stressful. Kondo talks about giving things to your younger sister to move your guilt over to her (OKAY OKAY YES I'VE BEEN DOING THAT FOR YEARS) and I almost stopped reading when she said that owning a hundred books is a lot and that some people even have "as many as forty unread books." (I own a few hundred.)

BUT. While reading this book I actually got up and tidied three different times, and threw out / put in the donate pile several different things. It was very satisfying.

It's a very short read, worth picking up from the library.

Newman is not as funny as she thinks she is, which makes the audio drag. Her comedic timing is lacking, and all of her stories have a serious element of self-pity. Her actual adventures are interesting, but I would never, ever want to meet her. She seems like the kind of person who would get drunk and attach themselves to you at a party and be impossible to shake off because they're too busy whining about their life to pick up on basic social cues.

A look inside the mind of a white nationalist whose friends care enough to change his mind. A hopeful look at a deeply disturbing mindset.

I originally gave this 4 stars, but after reflecting and talking it over with my book club I've dropped it down to 3. While the story itself is fascinating, this book is not. It should have been a long article and Saslow doesn't have the writing chops to make it worth the novel length. It also brings attention to someone who really doesn't deserve it.

This book somehow managed to be both boring and infuriating, which is quite a feat.

Spoiler

I loved the premise, that two people who missed each other in one lifetime got a do-over to be together. But everything else was garbage. Paul and Angelina were judgmental assholes from start to finish. The whole book felt very pro-war, which was weird as it was supposed to be a romance. Angelina lies to Paul for their daughter's entire fucking life because she thinks if he knows he got her pregnant, he'll marry her out of guilt and end up hating her--so she thinks it's reasonable to tell him she cheated and it's another man's child, and he doesn't find out until after Angelina is dead. WHAT. THE. FUCK. There was no climax, just chapters that went from insanely detailed during college and Paul's time in Vietnam to jumping decades at a time by the end of the story. When Angelina's mom committed suicide and Angelina's response was "oh, fine, I'd do the same" I almost rolled my eyes right out of my head. This was pure and utter garbage.

I was a little apprehensive picking up a 22 year old book on science because I thought the information might be outdated -- turns out Sagan had the same fears for the future that we do today (too many of which are already being realized). I love his enthusiasm for science and his focus on education and children's wonder and the importance of voting and being involved. I hated that there were two full chapters that turned my stomach (the one about sexual abuse and alien abduction hallucinations and the one about torturing women accused of witchcraft). It felt more like a book of essays than a cohesive story, but it was definitely worth reading.