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kimberlyf's review against another edition
4.0
A memoir in essays about the author’s reckoning with the woman she imagined herself to be versus the woman she actually became. Hauser writes about her journey on finding her place in the world as it relates to love stories: with her family, her friends, her sense of home, her failed relationships—including the engagement she called off—and her stepping in to her bi- and pan-sexuality.
At times meandering yet thoughtful and absorbing.
At times meandering yet thoughtful and absorbing.
maiakobabe's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
5.0
This essay collection focuses on human relationships, many of them romantic, but also with grandparents, parents, sisters, best friends, COVID-isolation pods, and with the children of romantic partners from previous relationships. The title essay interweaves the experience of a broken engagement with a scientific expedition to study the dwindling population of whooping cranes in the Gulf Coast of Texas to devastating effect. Another experience, covering the DARPA Robotics Challenge trails, in which teams test out potential robotic first responders, speaks to the author's own desire to both save others and be saved by a string of problematic men. The author dated a lot of men and a few women in their twenties and processes them through the lens of media (the film The Philadelphia Story, the TV show The X-Files, the novels Don Quixote, Rebecca, We Have Always Lived in the Castle) and the perspective gained with time. I really loved this whole collection, but the piece that keeps rolling around in my mind is "The Fox Farm", about trying to recreate an archetype of a child's fantasy house (full of animals, friends, gardens, infinite rooms) in real life as an adult. I left this book wanting to know more- when did the author start using nonbinary pronouns? Have they resolved their feelings about their tits? Is that guest room in their big upstate New York house still available for visiting artists, and if so, how do I apply for the position of resident writer/new friend?
missadeline's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
katieproctorbooks's review against another edition
4.5
I loved most of these. And the ones I really loved made me forget about the ones that were just meh. Great collection!