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spaulk57's review against another edition
2.0
If I wanted to read someone’s political opinions, I would stick to reading the many and varied opinions already available. I was looking forward to reading new and interesting recommendations but it was more an exercise in frustration. I would only recommend this book to those interested in political opinion.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
A nice book to dip in and out of - especially if you wondered what Michiko Kakutani liked to read when she wasn't writing book reviews. And that's the important part of this book - it's not the books that Kakutani thinks are "the best" but these are the ones she re-reads.
bkdrgn303's review against another edition
This is a difficult book to rate because it's really a collection of book recommendations. My TBR list exploded. If you like lists, you'll love this.
taun's review against another edition
2.0
A few gems recommend within, many others I haven’t read & cannot comment on. Overall a list I feel wants to be special, but missed the mark.
cookies_for_madeline's review against another edition
3.0
A collection of analytical (and maybe clinical) essays about a diverse set of books. Albeit a bit America-centric and filled with stories of people who emigrated there. I think Donald Trump was mentioned in too many chapters.
I do not share the author's view on some things but I liked seeing things from her viewpoint for a while.
I do not share the author's view on some things but I liked seeing things from her viewpoint for a while.
sarahanneaz's review against another edition
1.0
While there are several books mentioned that I absolutely plan on reading, this author’s bias is very hard to get around. In nearly every essay, he draws a comparison to the current times we are living in, taking every opportunity to mention the evil despot, Donald J. Trump. He really should charge rent for how much he allows him to live in his head. I also didn’t appreciate the Odyssey being mentioned next to the memoirs of Barrack Obama. I don’t have anything against the guy, but I’m over the idolizing. I just really expected a book of foundational reads and was sorely disappointed.
tmeador91's review against another edition
2.0
Illustrations were gorgeous, but there was far too little analysis/insight and more summarization than I was hoping for.
katekoda's review against another edition
3.0
She writes about books well, although I’m not a big fan of her retelling the plots — dude, I was gonna read that! Plus she seems way too hung up on Trump, Russian trolls, stolen elections and such. I get that stories and ideas have relevance in today’s life that she’s illustrating thus, but it got super tiresome after a while. Yeah yeah yeah russkies rigged the Brexit vote, right right right, moving on.