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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
"Every day we sit down to work we swim in a sea of our own fuck-ups. On the shore is one good sentence."
This is a book full of great sentences, thoughts on what it means to live for your creative life, and how one writer found a sense of home for herself. Definitely recommend.
This is a book full of great sentences, thoughts on what it means to live for your creative life, and how one writer found a sense of home for herself. Definitely recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this memoir! Fun to feel like I could be friends with this author whose novels I've really liked as well.
Someone else said that the writing was good on a sentence level, which I completely agree with. Nothing really happened, there were very few actual stories, and the structure was non existent between and within chapters. Lots of referring to people by their first names without any context of who they were. I didn't find the stories about her being a successful but not-successful-enough author compelling. It feels like she doesn't care about her readers at all and only about other authors.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I listened to this book from the recommendation of some bookstagrammers that I follow. It was an easy book to listen to (memoirs are usually the best bet for audio for me). I didn't know who the author was and I haven't read any of her books, so I didn't feel any sort of connection to her and if I had known of her, it might have been better. She talks about her life and for the most part it is pretty typical and boring/normal. I don't feel like it was a waste of my time and I now look forward to reading some of her other material, which is fiction.
emotional
reflective
When I was reading this audiobook, I kept forgetting about it, and I mainly read it while exercising, and honestly mainly finished it because I had so many long car rides in the last couple of weeks. That to me says this wasn't exactly a success.
It's a shame, because I do think Jami Attenberg is a talented writer on the sentence level. What she lacks here is focus. The vast majority of these essays started on one theme, slid into another and another, and had me totally lost by the time we returned to the original theme.
As far as the subject matter went, I wanted a little more variety here; how many times can we read about the difficulties of being a career author who is no more than moderately successful and not particularly well known? It's compelling for one or two essays, but not almost a whole book. I did enjoy a few of Attenberg's travel stories, but they often blended together.
The one essay that truly stood out to me was Attenberg's account of her sexual assault by a close friend in college. Her descriptions of the nature of this friendship, one that it pained her to lose even in light of the friend's abuse and manipulation, are poignant and realistic.
But one good essay does not a good essay collection make!
Note on the format: I listened to the audiobook, read by Xe Sands. I wasn't a huge fan of her narration; her tone is a little too casual for some of the essays IMO.
It's a shame, because I do think Jami Attenberg is a talented writer on the sentence level. What she lacks here is focus. The vast majority of these essays started on one theme, slid into another and another, and had me totally lost by the time we returned to the original theme.
As far as the subject matter went, I wanted a little more variety here; how many times can we read about the difficulties of being a career author who is no more than moderately successful and not particularly well known? It's compelling for one or two essays, but not almost a whole book. I did enjoy a few of Attenberg's travel stories, but they often blended together.
The one essay that truly stood out to me was Attenberg's account of her sexual assault by a close friend in college. Her descriptions of the nature of this friendship, one that it pained her to lose even in light of the friend's abuse and manipulation, are poignant and realistic.
But one good essay does not a good essay collection make!
Note on the format: I listened to the audiobook, read by Xe Sands. I wasn't a huge fan of her narration; her tone is a little too casual for some of the essays IMO.
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
Very much a "meh" encounter for me at this particular moment in time with this particular book. Some good tidbits on writing and traveling and being alone, but I somehow was left less than satisfied.