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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Mixed (but mostly good!) feelings! As a book of essays, the quality and topic of each chapter here varied quite a bit— While some chapters I found to be mind-blowingly resonant, and written in a unique and delightful style, others were muddled and confusing, and felt like a chore to read :-( Overall, I’m still very glad I read this, as it gave language to a lot of emotions I previously thought were too confusing or too rare to communicate
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.75 stars. Some books I am not smart enough to get everything out of, and this is one of them! The Biblical allusions came fast and thick, and I feel like I caught most of those, but some of the pop culture (meditations on Columbo and Golden Girls) I did not have a good base of understanding for. However, I am a long-time fan of Daniel Lavery's -- from Slate.com's Dear Prudence advice column to (the best now-defunct website on the internet) The Toast, which was basically the most perfect website (some of the Movie Yelling mirrored my own opinions in ways that make me feel very deeply known) -- so I did enjoy reading this series of short essays, mostly focusing on the author's own transition experience. I really liked the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight essay, as well as the one of Jacob wrestling an angel of God, and the William Shatner one. I do feel a lot of this went over my head because the author is much better read than me :) ALSO THE ONE CHAPTER ABOUT THE EVELYN WAUGH AND THE BANANAS!!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Less of an autobiography, more of a rambling conversation you'd have with a fellow transmasculine friend at 2 am about religion and identity.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Transphobia, Religious bigotry
funny
reflective
Easily one of the funniest books I've ever read. It takes a lot to get me to laugh out loud at a piece of media but Lavery does it in spades. Part memoir, part essay collection ranging from the touching to the outrageous, I can't recommend this enough. So damn funny and so clever.
Not really picking this up so going to dnf it for now. Finding it a little hard to follow at times because of all of the references to things I'm not familiar with.
I feel like Daniel Ortberg (now Lavery)'s stuff can be pretty hit or miss with me, and that's fine--I think his ideal audience is probably people who, like. him were raised Christian and/or are trans. There are tons of references that I just don't get, and that's fine, I'm sure they're making a lot of other readers feel seen.
That said, this book is very Christianity-heavy up front, in a way that almost made me put it down. It's not preachy, but I'm just not equipped to enjoy those deep dives into Pilgrim's Progress etc. After some skimming I found myself in more familiar and enjoyable (to me) territory with references to pop culture and/or classical mythology.
Danny is a great writer with a real ability to analyze media and turn witty phrases, and this book can get by pretty far with that, whether or not you're interested in/familiar with the topics he's writing about.
That said, this book is very Christianity-heavy up front, in a way that almost made me put it down. It's not preachy, but I'm just not equipped to enjoy those deep dives into Pilgrim's Progress etc. After some skimming I found myself in more familiar and enjoyable (to me) territory with references to pop culture and/or classical mythology.
Danny is a great writer with a real ability to analyze media and turn witty phrases, and this book can get by pretty far with that, whether or not you're interested in/familiar with the topics he's writing about.
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced