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meganac's review against another edition
3.0
I feel bad to rate this so low, because it wasn't a bad book - it just felt like an unnecessary one. Censorship is something I'm very passionate about, as a librarian, and reading this almost felt like I'd been drawn in by click bait. I expected a lot more about censorship and libraries. About history. Instead, most of this book drones on about Ruth's life. I hate to say her life was boring, especially since she isn't around to defend herself, but she really seems to have been quite selfish and annoying.
A good look at the time period, but I think I got more out of the synopses than the book itself.
A good look at the time period, but I think I got more out of the synopses than the book itself.
creolelitbelle's review against another edition
3.0
Ruth Rappaport lived a very eventful and impactful life. She grew up as a Jewish Romanian in Nazi Germany but was fortunate enough to be evacuated from the country and Europe by her parents before her life and freedom were taken from her. She lived through many trials and tribulations, some of which she may have brought on herself. Nevertheless, her story is inspiring to read, having gone from living under Nazi censorship to shuffled among temporary homes and family members to eventually securing a career in librarianship that later led to much time with the Library of Congress.
All that said, the book is different from anything I’ve read. It is not simply a biographical account of Ruth Rappaport’s life, although, it does include much about her life from her parents meeting through her various relationships and careers to her death. The book provides sporadic history lessons on subjects such as Nazi Germany, censorship there and in the USA during WWII, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War & libraries’ presence and impacts there, how the Library of Congress catalogs materials, and more. Stewart, the author, does well with plopping these events and history lessons into the narrative at appropriate times for the events she discussed in Ruth’s life, but at times the writing felt a little more dry and passive than maybe it could have been. I learned a lot, but I feel the morsels of relevant history information were small in comparative to the weight of their impacts on Ruth’s life. The only true qualm I have about the book is how the short epilogue became political very quickly and unnecessarily.
All that said, the book is different from anything I’ve read. It is not simply a biographical account of Ruth Rappaport’s life, although, it does include much about her life from her parents meeting through her various relationships and careers to her death. The book provides sporadic history lessons on subjects such as Nazi Germany, censorship there and in the USA during WWII, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War & libraries’ presence and impacts there, how the Library of Congress catalogs materials, and more. Stewart, the author, does well with plopping these events and history lessons into the narrative at appropriate times for the events she discussed in Ruth’s life, but at times the writing felt a little more dry and passive than maybe it could have been. I learned a lot, but I feel the morsels of relevant history information were small in comparative to the weight of their impacts on Ruth’s life. The only true qualm I have about the book is how the short epilogue became political very quickly and unnecessarily.
siria's review against another edition
2.0
A mid-ranking staffer at the Library of Congress would not ordinarily be the subject of a biography, but Ruth Rappaport led an eventful life: as a teenager, Ruth fled Nazi Germany and eventually found asylum in the United States. She then worked as a newspaper editor in Seattle before an ill-fated stint as a photographer in a newly independent Israel, qualified as a librarian and spent several years organising the U.S. military's libraries in Vietnam, before returning to the States and working as a librarian and cataloguer at the Library of Congress. While never famous, Rappaport was therefore an eye-witness to some fascinating historical events.
Kate Stewart has all the ingredients here for a fascinating biography, but A Well-Read Woman never quite takes off as a book. I think it's because Stewart falls prey to that flaw which so often afflicts researchers who've spent a long time immersed with the object of their study: why it's important seems so very obvious to them that they forget to explain that importance to the reader. The result is a rather limp book lacking in a sense of tension or stakes. A pity, because one gets the distinct impression that Ruth Rappaport was not the kind of woman who ever wanted her worth to be overlooked.
Kate Stewart has all the ingredients here for a fascinating biography, but A Well-Read Woman never quite takes off as a book. I think it's because Stewart falls prey to that flaw which so often afflicts researchers who've spent a long time immersed with the object of their study: why it's important seems so very obvious to them that they forget to explain that importance to the reader. The result is a rather limp book lacking in a sense of tension or stakes. A pity, because one gets the distinct impression that Ruth Rappaport was not the kind of woman who ever wanted her worth to be overlooked.
kayoft's review
3.0
Good material but tough to wade through - I wanted to be drawn into the human side and less library documentary style of telling her story.
fiberreader's review
4.0
This book was a freebie through the Amazon First Reads program; I picked it from among the month's selections because although I had not previously heard of Ruth Rappaport, she sounded from the description like the type of woman I've come to admire, and I wasn't far off. Rappaport had a truly unusual life, escaping Nazi Germany as a young girl and spending time in places as varied as Israel; Vietnam; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. Through her entire life ran a common theme: books.
At first, I was a little put off by the author's insertions of her own life and experiences throughout the book, but I soon realized that in doing so, she was doing what many readers do when they read a good story: It was her way of making connections with the narrative. In examining the things she had in common with Rappaport and her reactions to what she had learned about her subject, she was doing what many educators do to make reading strategies explicit to younger readers -- making connections to one's life and experiences and to other books and to think about how what we are reading has context in the bigger world around us.
Some might argue that a woman like Ruth Rappaport didn't do anything extraordinary to merit a biography being written about her. Though she did some unusual things and in many ways was a woman ahead of her time, her main contributions to the world were in the field of librarianship/library science and are largely unknown to those outside it. Still, there is value about learning about everyday people, particularly women, and this is an interesting glimpse into a fascinating woman. Stewart does not sugar-coat Rappaport in the telling of her life; a reader of this biography learns just as much about Rappaport's personal and professional failings as about her successes. She was a fascinating if flawed woman, and I am glad to have learned about her.
At first, I was a little put off by the author's insertions of her own life and experiences throughout the book, but I soon realized that in doing so, she was doing what many readers do when they read a good story: It was her way of making connections with the narrative. In examining the things she had in common with Rappaport and her reactions to what she had learned about her subject, she was doing what many educators do to make reading strategies explicit to younger readers -- making connections to one's life and experiences and to other books and to think about how what we are reading has context in the bigger world around us.
Some might argue that a woman like Ruth Rappaport didn't do anything extraordinary to merit a biography being written about her. Though she did some unusual things and in many ways was a woman ahead of her time, her main contributions to the world were in the field of librarianship/library science and are largely unknown to those outside it. Still, there is value about learning about everyday people, particularly women, and this is an interesting glimpse into a fascinating woman. Stewart does not sugar-coat Rappaport in the telling of her life; a reader of this biography learns just as much about Rappaport's personal and professional failings as about her successes. She was a fascinating if flawed woman, and I am glad to have learned about her.
librariangraceg's review against another edition
I was very moved by this book. As a MLIS student, I've come to regard Ruth Rappaport as an unsung hero. She was never a quiet, retiring person. She lived through so much turmoil but always stayed true to herself. Anyone who is a librarian or loves libraries should read this book. It has so much wisdom that is true in our recent political and social climates.
dananana's review against another edition
4.0
5 stars for my interest level and respect for Ruth Rappaport, the subject of this biography – a Jewish woman born in 1920s Germany, who had to flee the country as a teenager, whose parents died in the Holocaust, and who went on to build a life for herself as a librarian in the mid-to-late 20th century as a single, opinionated woman. She was an amazing and impactful person and I’m very glad I got to learn more about her!
But 3 stars for the execution of the biography itself unfortunately. I didn’t have any issues at first with the writing - and throughout the book, I was kept very engaged and interested. But little things started to bug me as time went on. Like, on a mechanical level, the author would sometimes go into VERY minute details that probably could have been edited and trimmed down a bit. And, deeper than that, I often felt like the novel had a very narrow scope – just Ruth’s life – without contextualizing parts of it in broader historical and cultural events.
A big example of this was that there was little to no discussion of the nuances of Zionism and the Israel/Palestine conflict. Like, there were bits and pieces of information, but I felt very unsatisfied that she didn’t much touch on the more complicated parts of this issue and how social conversations of the time may have informed Ruth’s opinions. Etc. Another way that the biography wasn't contextualized as much as it could have been was in Kate Stewart's emotional connection to Ruth. Obviously we hear about it a little bit, but for certain types of biographies, like this one, I find it very engaging when the author talks more about how they see themselves in their subject, how they're inspired. Stewart herself is a librarian, who works at the Library of Congress like Ruth did - so there must be a lot there that she didn't touch on vis a vis this connection between them!
Also, there were just a few microaggressions that really got on my nerves. Like, at one point the author mentions the name of a source who is a trans woman, and then also tells the reader her deadname, for absolutely no reason. This source was literally only mentioned once - why drop that in!? And then Stewart is describing Ruth’s funeral and states that people read aloud “from the Bible” including a section “from the book of Proverbs.” Excuse me??? Ruth is Jewish!! It’s not called the Bible in Jewish tradition!!!!! I get that Proverbs is also in the Christian Old Testament but it takes five minutes of googling to figure out that in Jewish tradition, Proverbs is in the Tenakh. That just felt hugely disrespectful to Ruth, a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust and who lost family members in it.
Anyway… like I said, glad I read this and I’m very impressed by Ruth’s life. Just wish some of the writing had been executed a bit differently.
But 3 stars for the execution of the biography itself unfortunately. I didn’t have any issues at first with the writing - and throughout the book, I was kept very engaged and interested. But little things started to bug me as time went on. Like, on a mechanical level, the author would sometimes go into VERY minute details that probably could have been edited and trimmed down a bit. And, deeper than that, I often felt like the novel had a very narrow scope – just Ruth’s life – without contextualizing parts of it in broader historical and cultural events.
A big example of this was that there was little to no discussion of the nuances of Zionism and the Israel/Palestine conflict. Like, there were bits and pieces of information, but I felt very unsatisfied that she didn’t much touch on the more complicated parts of this issue and how social conversations of the time may have informed Ruth’s opinions. Etc. Another way that the biography wasn't contextualized as much as it could have been was in Kate Stewart's emotional connection to Ruth. Obviously we hear about it a little bit, but for certain types of biographies, like this one, I find it very engaging when the author talks more about how they see themselves in their subject, how they're inspired. Stewart herself is a librarian, who works at the Library of Congress like Ruth did - so there must be a lot there that she didn't touch on vis a vis this connection between them!
Also, there were just a few microaggressions that really got on my nerves. Like, at one point the author mentions the name of a source who is a trans woman, and then also tells the reader her deadname, for absolutely no reason. This source was literally only mentioned once - why drop that in!? And then Stewart is describing Ruth’s funeral and states that people read aloud “from the Bible” including a section “from the book of Proverbs.” Excuse me??? Ruth is Jewish!! It’s not called the Bible in Jewish tradition!!!!! I get that Proverbs is also in the Christian Old Testament but it takes five minutes of googling to figure out that in Jewish tradition, Proverbs is in the Tenakh. That just felt hugely disrespectful to Ruth, a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust and who lost family members in it.
Anyway… like I said, glad I read this and I’m very impressed by Ruth’s life. Just wish some of the writing had been executed a bit differently.
brittneyr's review against another edition
2.0
2.75 stars
Woah, what a long book. Not long in the sense of physical pages, but because of how uninteresting the writing it is. I love memoirs, but I wasn't expecting a report-esque style novel when I picked this up. It took a month for me to get through and even that was rushing it.
Rappaport seemed like a unique and determined lady, with quite the story. I'm giving it a 2.75 star solely based on her as a person. The writing was tremendously dry and and could have been condensed or fluffed or SOMETHING to keep the reader engaged. I'd rather read lab reports than pick this up again.
Woah, what a long book. Not long in the sense of physical pages, but because of how uninteresting the writing it is. I love memoirs, but I wasn't expecting a report-esque style novel when I picked this up. It took a month for me to get through and even that was rushing it.
Rappaport seemed like a unique and determined lady, with quite the story. I'm giving it a 2.75 star solely based on her as a person. The writing was tremendously dry and and could have been condensed or fluffed or SOMETHING to keep the reader engaged. I'd rather read lab reports than pick this up again.
frostatmidnite's review against another edition
4.0
A biography includes both the personal successes and shortcomings of the person. This book shows us both sides of Ruth Rappaport.
Through her life filled with tragedy and mired with change, the one constant is her love for books. This book will be a bibliophile's joy, to read about someone else's love for books is always joyous. And there is the additional bonus of enjoying a good book as well.
For more book reviews, visit Frost At Midnite.
Through her life filled with tragedy and mired with change, the one constant is her love for books. This book will be a bibliophile's joy, to read about someone else's love for books is always joyous. And there is the additional bonus of enjoying a good book as well.
For more book reviews, visit Frost At Midnite.