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How to Murder Your Life
5.0
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"I was twenty-six years old and an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion...
Music and Soviet Power, 1917-1932
Marina Frolova-Walker and Jonathan Walker
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The October Revolution of 1917 tore the fabric of Russian musical life: institutions collapsed, and...
Ascent
Book
Sir Chris Bonington is Britain's premier mountain man. Ascent will chart his childhood, and...
Eastman Was Here
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“Absorbing...Eastman is a riveting...presence who demands to be loved and remembered.” —The...
Fiction
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Yes Please in Books
Feb 1, 2018
I wasn't sure how to feel about this book. In some ways, I appreciated that it was more serious than some of the other "funny people" memoirs going around. I am not a huge fan of books written by silly people full of silly things that pretend to tell the story of their life. What's the point? At least Amy makes an attempt to write a memoir, chronicling bits and pieces of her life and actually detailing true thoughts and feelings about things, rather than just jokey things that have no meaning. I found myself sort of rushing through some of the silly lists and spending more time on the actual writing, though some of the funny bits were good - fake acceptance speeches and the like.
The problem is that the book jumps around a lot and never really delves too much into anything. Not wanting to cover her divorce - okay, I get that. There is a really sweet chapter on her sons, which was lovely. You get a rough chronicle of how she became a kid from New England who wound up in New York by way of Chicago. But there's not a lot of detail. I also, selfishly, wish there had been more Tina Fey.
I enjoy that you get the impression that Amy is a deep person with deep thoughts - and isn't even perhaps always nice. She's not afraid to tell stories that don't necessarily flatter her. You get an idea of her as multifaceted person - actress, writer, mom, etc., and not just someone who tells funny stories. There are also some good stories that feature celebrities, which you are always looking for in a celebrity memoir. Finally, there's a fun bit annotated with notes by Parcs & Rec creator Mike Schur. He and Amy talk about a holiday gift Mike gave all his family and friends containing every email, text, and phone message he received during the Red Sox's successful World Series run in 2004. I was left thinking I want to read *that* book.
Anyway, the book just felt a little flat to me, as if it was missing something. It was a little disjointed in its presentation and content. Because it jumps the line between serious and funny, you're left without a full idea of who Amy is, but yet it's not funny enough to just make you laugh and forget all the other flaws.
The problem is that the book jumps around a lot and never really delves too much into anything. Not wanting to cover her divorce - okay, I get that. There is a really sweet chapter on her sons, which was lovely. You get a rough chronicle of how she became a kid from New England who wound up in New York by way of Chicago. But there's not a lot of detail. I also, selfishly, wish there had been more Tina Fey.
I enjoy that you get the impression that Amy is a deep person with deep thoughts - and isn't even perhaps always nice. She's not afraid to tell stories that don't necessarily flatter her. You get an idea of her as multifaceted person - actress, writer, mom, etc., and not just someone who tells funny stories. There are also some good stories that feature celebrities, which you are always looking for in a celebrity memoir. Finally, there's a fun bit annotated with notes by Parcs & Rec creator Mike Schur. He and Amy talk about a holiday gift Mike gave all his family and friends containing every email, text, and phone message he received during the Red Sox's successful World Series run in 2004. I was left thinking I want to read *that* book.
Anyway, the book just felt a little flat to me, as if it was missing something. It was a little disjointed in its presentation and content. Because it jumps the line between serious and funny, you're left without a full idea of who Amy is, but yet it's not funny enough to just make you laugh and forget all the other flaws.
Debbiereadsbook (1536 KP) rated Rocked Hard in Books
Sep 1, 2018
Aubrey was a bit in-yer-face!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
Jumping straight in here!
For the most part, really did enjoy this book by Ms Knight. I've read a lot of her BDSM books and really enjoy the way she spins her tales, so was intrigued to see how this would work.
It works, really well apart from one major issue I struggled with.
Aubrey, himself.
He is so totally in-yer-face, right from the start, with how much he cares for Bryan, loves him, even and I found him too much too soon. Granted, he doesn't let it all out to Bryan early, but WE get it. We get how much he wanted Bryan to write his memoirs. How much it was ONLY Bryan he wanted to write them, so he could get up close and personal with Bryan.
And he does get up close and personal, very VERY quickly. Aubrey and Bryan's relationship moves at rocket speed, partly because of Aubrey's in-yer-face-ness, and partly because Bryan is also a rocket launcher as far as Aubrey is concerned, and I did struggle to keep up with them!
I didn't get just what Chuck was doing, and why, til it all came out in the book. I knew it was be bad, but I wasn't expecting that. I did like how it took a single line from a song Aubrey wrote, to make Bryan see how much he really did love Aubrey, and he would forgive him pretty much anything.
Aubrey in-yer-face aside, I really did enjoy this. It's well told from both man's point of view, so we get all of Aubrey, but also all of Bryan and the internal wrangling he does about his feelings for Aubrey, both as his rock star idol, but also Aubrey the MAN. Because Bryan hasn't been with a man before and it's a huge shock to him to feel this way. But I liked that, while it WAS a shock, Bryan just ran with it, thinking, what the heck and let's see where this takes us.
So, all in all, a great read, just pipped off those 5 star because of the in-yer-face-ness.
4 solid stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Jumping straight in here!
For the most part, really did enjoy this book by Ms Knight. I've read a lot of her BDSM books and really enjoy the way she spins her tales, so was intrigued to see how this would work.
It works, really well apart from one major issue I struggled with.
Aubrey, himself.
He is so totally in-yer-face, right from the start, with how much he cares for Bryan, loves him, even and I found him too much too soon. Granted, he doesn't let it all out to Bryan early, but WE get it. We get how much he wanted Bryan to write his memoirs. How much it was ONLY Bryan he wanted to write them, so he could get up close and personal with Bryan.
And he does get up close and personal, very VERY quickly. Aubrey and Bryan's relationship moves at rocket speed, partly because of Aubrey's in-yer-face-ness, and partly because Bryan is also a rocket launcher as far as Aubrey is concerned, and I did struggle to keep up with them!
I didn't get just what Chuck was doing, and why, til it all came out in the book. I knew it was be bad, but I wasn't expecting that. I did like how it took a single line from a song Aubrey wrote, to make Bryan see how much he really did love Aubrey, and he would forgive him pretty much anything.
Aubrey in-yer-face aside, I really did enjoy this. It's well told from both man's point of view, so we get all of Aubrey, but also all of Bryan and the internal wrangling he does about his feelings for Aubrey, both as his rock star idol, but also Aubrey the MAN. Because Bryan hasn't been with a man before and it's a huge shock to him to feel this way. But I liked that, while it WAS a shock, Bryan just ran with it, thinking, what the heck and let's see where this takes us.
So, all in all, a great read, just pipped off those 5 star because of the in-yer-face-ness.
4 solid stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Out of Africa
Book
Karen Blixen's Out of Africa is the lyrical and luminous memoir of Kenya that launched a million...
BookInspector (124 KP) rated Outcry: Holocaust Memoirs in Books
Sep 24, 2020
The blurb describes the book very accurately, this book starts when Manny was a little boy, he tells about his family and his daily encounters. Slowly the situation changes, and Manny and his family end up in a Jewish ghetto, surrounded by a fence, and ruthless Germans. This was the first time I had the ability to read about life in the ghetto as well as someone who was in the same camps as their brother or father. In the previous books I read, people normally used to be on their own snatched from their houses in the middle of the night. So, it was kind of refreshing to see this different side of the events.
I really admired Manny’s and his brother’s creativity to survive in the concentration camps. Both of them are incredibly smart and, to be honest, lucky men. This book is heartbreaking, filled with violence, torture, disgusting human actions which my brain can’t comprehend. So, if you are sensitive, this book is not for you. I really liked the writing style of this book, it is truly beautiful. It is not like a history textbook, crammed with facts, but more like cruel but an amazing evening story, told to you by your grandpa, where it catches your attention and you won’t go away until you will hear it all.
I really liked the way this book was divided into parts, describing each stage in Manny’s life. The chapters were pretty long, but the book was so engrossing to me, that the pages just flew by. Even though Germans are very ashamed of this period in history, it should not be forgotten! The generation who suffered in these events are dying, but I hope the memoirs will survive from not only those who suffered from Germans but as well of those, who suffered from Russians in the same concentration camps in Siberia, during WWII. I truly hope that these books will be read not only in Europe, which was affected but in other countries as well, especially in the US. As Manny mentioned in this book, they were all neighbours, they used to visit each other and were happy until racism, jealousy and violence were encouraged by the government, and that is what I see happening with Trump and his followers.
I really admired Manny’s and his brother’s creativity to survive in the concentration camps. Both of them are incredibly smart and, to be honest, lucky men. This book is heartbreaking, filled with violence, torture, disgusting human actions which my brain can’t comprehend. So, if you are sensitive, this book is not for you. I really liked the writing style of this book, it is truly beautiful. It is not like a history textbook, crammed with facts, but more like cruel but an amazing evening story, told to you by your grandpa, where it catches your attention and you won’t go away until you will hear it all.
I really liked the way this book was divided into parts, describing each stage in Manny’s life. The chapters were pretty long, but the book was so engrossing to me, that the pages just flew by. Even though Germans are very ashamed of this period in history, it should not be forgotten! The generation who suffered in these events are dying, but I hope the memoirs will survive from not only those who suffered from Germans but as well of those, who suffered from Russians in the same concentration camps in Siberia, during WWII. I truly hope that these books will be read not only in Europe, which was affected but in other countries as well, especially in the US. As Manny mentioned in this book, they were all neighbours, they used to visit each other and were happy until racism, jealousy and violence were encouraged by the government, and that is what I see happening with Trump and his followers.
Broken Horses
8.0
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The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, and five-time Grammy winner opens up about a...