skeltzer's review

Go to review page

reflective medium-paced

3.0

I agree with the folks who said this was good on a sentence level. She wrote some lovely, reflective sentences. But I found myself quite bored with this book. It was fine.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

deedireads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.25

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

First, big thanks to Libro.fm and Harper Audio for the audio review copy of this book! I’d been looking forward to it for a while, because I’m a big fan of Jami Attenberg’s substack newsletter, “Craft Talk,” and her annual 1000 Words of Summer write-a-thon.

I Came All This Way to Meet You is one of my favorite kinds of memoirs: about an ordinary life, made meaningful in the details. There’s no denying that Attenberg is a great writer of words, and it shows here. The book is honest, funny, heartfelt, sincere, and very generous.

I will say that the narration style of the audiobook wasn’t my favorite. (She did not read it herself, FYI.) Some people may prefer it; I think it was meant to be a more expressive style. But for me, I think the intonation distracted a bit from what were, underneath, really resonant and hard-hitting sentences. I may decide to reread a print copy in the future. But the book itself is excellent enough that I really enjoyed it anyway.

Thank you, Jami, for sharing this gift with us.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emzireads's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny reflective fast-paced

4.0

Thanks to Ecco Books and Libro FM for the free advance copy of this book.

 - I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU is less a recounting of Attenberg's life, and more a consideration of how she got here and how she became the person she is today - someone fully devoted to art and life and the joy of community.
- I appreciated the exploration of the mental effects of coming up in the art and literature world as a woman, and particularly a woman mostly doing it on her own. She looks at both the joys of going solo and choosing your own path, and the pitfalls and scary moments. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...