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reading_to_write's reviews
176 reviews
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
2.0
I did not finish this book, mostly because the premise was easy enough to understand and I didn’t feel the need to read to drill down on the specifics, but more so because EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE the author used of specialists/success stories who worked deeply were MEN. There are plenty of women to hold up as examples. This white-male-centric view was pervasive enough that I stopped reading.
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
5.0
Masterful. At once a memoir and an exploration of the stratification of New Orleans (And beyond). Captures an important piece of history and viewpoint. The book did read like several different voices/books in one as it travels over several decades and POV of the author, but for me this only enriched the narrative and underlying story and message Bloom is bringing to her readers.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee
5.0
A classic, an important read in the canon of nonfiction. Agee is a master poet who takes the reader thoroughly into his experience with southern tenant farmers, dissecting his own role which he acknowledges as self-serving as much as he wishes to expose and enlighten the tenant Farmer existence. His digression into fake news and the role of media is even more poignant today, and while his examination of his role sometimes strays into beating that subject to a pulp, it’s an important “discussion” to have- one that is again made more poignant when read today when many are having the same conversation (who gets to tell other people’s stories and why?). Not an easy read, but a very important one.