3.5 stars. In Everyone But Myself, Julie Chavez writes a memoir about losing touch with her own voice in the midst of exerting all of her time and att3.5 stars. In Everyone But Myself, Julie Chavez writes a memoir about losing touch with her own voice in the midst of exerting all of her time and attention on being the best possible mother, wife, and daughter. She writes honestly and candidly about her journey through depression and anxiety in her late 30s, and how over several years she managed to find effective help through therapy and medication, while rediscovering and reprioritizing herself along with her family. This memoir is well-written, fluid, and a quick read/listen -- nothing particularly novel, but I can see how this book would be encouraging and inspiring to her target audience.
In this debut memoiristic essay collection, comedian Chelsea Devantez writes a series of eclectic vignettes about happy and less happy (read: traumatiIn this debut memoiristic essay collection, comedian Chelsea Devantez writes a series of eclectic vignettes about happy and less happy (read: traumatic) periods of her life, from her nomadic childhood in the Southwestern US, her discovery of comedy and drag culture, and her 20s and 30s spend grinding in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles trying to forge a career in comedy and entertainment. She titles most essays after women in her life with whom she's had significant relationships - her mother, her mother's friend Grace who was a crucial maternal figure for Devantez, a childhood Mormon best friend, an ex-best friend (this was a standout chapter for me - it was very circumspect and relatable), a current best friend, her therapist, etc. Devantez also works through various traumatic events in this memoir - two heavily redacted chapters on an abusive relationship (apparently for legal reasons these chapters are extensively censored, though Devantez apparently commissioned a dress made out of prints of diary pages detailing this relationship that she was photographed in since she couldn't publish it in this book), domestic violence in various childhood homes, and generalized daddy issues (I won't spoil the nature of them here).
I don't follow the comedy scene so I was unfamiliar with Devantez when I picked up the book. She namedrops a lot, but again, I'm not familiar with most of those names either. I'm happy she seems to have achieved a lot of personal growth through therapy and self-reflection, though this memoir is less about celebrating growth and more about entertaining and, at times, showboating, how interesting her life has been, similar to how she spent her 20s pitching her wild and crazy stories to network executives to try to get hired. In general and in this case, I think it's an odd choice to write a memoir as a series of non-chronological essays - all the time jumps between and within the various essays were hard for a casual reader like me to keep track of.
My statistics: Book 195 for 2024 Book 1798 cumulatively...more
Lyz Lenz was raised in an Evangelical family, saved herself for marriage, got married at 22, got divorced twelve years later, and literally did burn hLyz Lenz was raised in an Evangelical family, saved herself for marriage, got married at 22, got divorced twelve years later, and literally did burn her wedding dress afterwards as depicted on this memoir's cover. Though she went to grad school for writing and worked in the field during her marriage, she's been especially prolific in publishing full-length books since her divorce, including another prior memoir, 2019's God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America.
In this memoir centered around her divorce, she tries with varying success to link her particular divorce story to the broader picture of divorce in modern American society and how marriage (particularly heterosexual marriage) still largely favors men. As other reviewers mention, the statistics and arguments she make aren't particularly novel, and to frequent readers of the genre, will sound quite familiar (see Traister's All the Single Ladies and Sales' Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno and Bowler's The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities for a religious take). The statistics are even repetitive at times within the book. As other reviewers also mention, the financial aspects that often trap people (usually women) in marriages was hardly discussed; I felt like there could have been a real opportunity here to explore that given Lenz' religious upbringing and the social media rise of #tradwives (traditional wives) whose schtick is largely bragging about embodying traditional gender roles including complete financial dependence on their hubbies and are at risk for being traded in for newer, younger models.
That being said, it sounds like Lenz did herself a favor by leaving a marriage where her husband would literally and repeatedly confiscate and hide or dispose of things that brought Lenz joy because he didn't like them, among other issues. I appreciated her honesty in sharing these personal stories, though it's always tricky to do things like this when children who'll likely read the book someday are in the picture (this seemed tit-for-tat given how her husband allegedly turned the kids against her when announcing they were splitting).
Dan Lyons is a journalist whose 2016 tongue-in-cheek memoir about being a fish-out-of-water at a tech startup in his early 50s, Disrupted: My MisadvenDan Lyons is a journalist whose 2016 tongue-in-cheek memoir about being a fish-out-of-water at a tech startup in his early 50s, Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, had me in stitches (see my review as well as related recommendations here). In this 2018 follow-up, Lab Rats, which is not at all a memoir, Lyons reports more broadly on the culture of tech startups through extensive interviews with current and former tech employees, investors, and critics. Unfortunately for me, this book lacked the punch of Disrupted - it seemed defanged and impartial in many ways - though it's still useful information.
My statistics: Book 192 for 2024 Book 1795 cumulatively...more
As a kid, I lived through the Chicago heatwave that killed over 700 people in July 1995 and honestly have no recollection of it, and apparently I'm noAs a kid, I lived through the Chicago heatwave that killed over 700 people in July 1995 and honestly have no recollection of it, and apparently I'm not the only one. I have vivid memories of the blizzard of January 1999 in Chicago, but my only childhood recollections of summer weather events in Chicago are listening to former Mayor Daley exhorting Chicagoans to check up on elderly family and neighbors to make sure they were OK, and cooling down by running around in the water spray feature in my local Chicago park .
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg's book Heat Wave is an interesting exploration of why this severe heatwave has been glossed over by so many. He spent several years researching the events of the heat wave, the victims, the neighborhoods that had the highest fatality rates compared to nearby neighborhoods with lower fatality rates (and social factors contributing to this, both positive and negative), the choppy, inconsistent news coverage of the incident as it unfolded, the complicated reasons why first responders took so long to respond to calls, the political underpinnings of the city's response to the heat wave, and, in the 2015 edition which I listened to, a retrospective analysis on how climate change may have precipitated the event. While some areas where more conjecture than others, I appreciated this interdisciplinary look.
William Krejci's short book Buried Beneath Cleveland explores lost cemeteries -- and by lost, he doesn't mean small but well-maintained burial sites, William Krejci's short book Buried Beneath Cleveland explores lost cemeteries -- and by lost, he doesn't mean small but well-maintained burial sites, but rather, parking lots, roads, buildings, and overgrown nature areas where human remains from the 1700s-1800s (mostly of early Americans, some of Native Americans or British military members) were once buried but have since been built over, with little traces of the past remaining. Clearly this book took a great deal of research -Krejci does his best to narrate the lives of people likely buried in these areas using historical birth, marriage, and death records - but for most of these ordinary, non-famous people, all that remains are the bare bone details (pun intended). Some of these remains were later exhumed and buried in more established cemeteries that are still maintained today, but many were not, for reasons lost to history. It's sad to think about how commonly forgotten these people were -- many of whom died as children or teens before having families or careers of their own, which likely accelerated how quickly they disappeared from memory.
That being said, this is likely a better reference book or guide should readers want to explore some of these burial locations on their own (Krejci provides geographic coordinates and street landmarks for most, but clearly delineates which sites are on public property and accessible vs. private property and inaccessible, as well as warnings about terrain elements that make some sites less suitable for exploration), rather than a book to be read from start to finish as I did.
In All That Glitters, British man Orlando Whitfield (b. ~1987) got a book deal for writing a memoir that's ~50% about himself, and ~50% about his overIn All That Glitters, British man Orlando Whitfield (b. ~1987) got a book deal for writing a memoir that's ~50% about himself, and ~50% about his over 15-year one-sided friendship with former art dealer, conman, convicted felon and "mini-Madoff" of the art world, as explored here, Inigo Philbrick (also b. 1987). The writing of this memoir is decidedly above average with surprising amounts of introspection and frequent artistic turns of phrase, though substance-wise, this book isn't anywhere near as salacious as Rachel DeLoache Williams' takedown of her former best friend who scammed her, Anna Delvey, in My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress.
Whitfield and Philbrick met in 2005 when both men matriculated at Goldsmiths, University of London, an art college. While both men came from families in the art business, Philbrick had a magnetic, celebrity-like aura about him that attracted Whitfield like a moth to a flame, and the two quickly fell into a lopsided friendship where Whitfield clamored for every iota of Philbrick's attention but Philbrick seemed largely indifferent to Whitfield. Still, Whitfield persisted for years lingering in Philbrick's shadow, even engaging in morally questionable behavior while working on art deals with Philbrick and also being scammed by Philbrick (though it seems like after many months, Whitfield recouped his losses). Despite this all, Whitfield never dumped Philbrick as a friend even after Philbrick pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, admitted the extent of his scheming, and was convicted and served federal prison time. It is a very odd, toxic dynamic that was probably the most fascinating part of the memoir; at the same time, should Philbrick ever write a memoir, I get the sense that his relationship with Whitfield would be a footnote if included at all.
Personally, I felt bad for Whitfield, who at his lowest found himself in a mental institution on suicide watch after being scammed by Philbrick, and whose debut memoir in his late 30s revolves around a man who cares little about him, rather than more interesting elements of his life.
In this brief (224 page/5 hour audiobook) work, author Lee McColgan recounts his ongoing preservation/restoration work of the ultimate fixer-upper of In this brief (224 page/5 hour audiobook) work, author Lee McColgan recounts his ongoing preservation/restoration work of the ultimate fixer-upper of a home, the Loring House, a 1702 colonial build in Pembroke, Massachusetts. McColgan attempts to take as active a role in the reconstruction/restoration as possible, taking odd jobs with various expert craftspeople profiled herein to learn skills like mortaring, framing, and glass-blowing. I'm not an architect or a restorer, so I can't comment on how accurate and/or faithful McColgan's repair attempts were to the period; his stated intention throughout was to follow early 18th century building and repair practices as closely as possible -- quite an ambitious undertaking.
I think this would make an interesting long-form article, but is probably not quite enough for a book. The suspenseful element McColgan tries to craft at the beginning is that he has 18 months to whip the house into shape to host Thanksgiving dinner for extended family, and by the aforementioned dinner at the end of the book, McColgan mumbles that the point of the restoration was family, not the house, since the house clearly isn't finished yet. It reminded me of home renovation reality shows where by the end of production when it's time to tape the finale segment, the cameras artfully pan around the few rooms that are finished and cleverly omit all the partially finished rooms and half-done projects because budget and time constraints precluded their completion.
3.5 stars rounded up. In Toxic: Women, Fame and Tabloid 2000s, late Gex X/elder millennial author Sarah Ditum (b. 1980/1) writes a series of moderatel3.5 stars rounded up. In Toxic: Women, Fame and Tabloid 2000s, late Gex X/elder millennial author Sarah Ditum (b. 1980/1) writes a series of moderately cohesive essays on various female celebrities who attracted major tabloid and gossip blog attention in the 2000s (with her definition of the 2000s being extended on either end, using Britney Spears' public debut in 1998 as an arbitrary start date and the release of Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and TI's problematic song Blurred Lines in 2013 as an arbitrary end date). Ditum posits that the 2000s were a decade of "casual cruelty" to female celebrities and women in general, where exposed deviations from expected sexual purity and gender norms were causes for vilification. To illustrate her thesis, she profiles nine female celebrities: Britney Spears (singer), Paris Hilton (socialite), Lindsay Lohan (actress), Aaliyah (singer), Janet Jackson (singer), Amy Winehouse (singer), Kim Kardashian (reality TV personality), Chyna (pro wrestler turned adult film actress), and Jennifer Aniston (actress). Of note, three of these women have passed away (Aaliyah, Amy Winehouse, and Chyna), eight are American (Amy Winehouse was British), and only two are women of color (Aaliyah and Janet Jackson). Some chapters discuss mostly the celebrity and how their personal life became tabloid fodder, while others don't really focus on the celebrity and contain a broader discourse on celebrity culture in that niche area (for instance, the Amy Winehouse chapter deals with British celebrity culture, Simon Fuller's many talent shows at the turn of the millenium, and the differential ways celebrities in the UK were treated at the time -- as an American who followed British acts in the '00s, I remember the British print tabloid stories about acts I followed always seemed particularly cruel and salacious, on the level of Perez Hilton in the US).
I'm also a millennial who was a teen during most of the '00s and remember most of the scandals mentioned in the book; like Ditum, looking back on those days now, it's striking at times to think of what was normalized then that's considered verboten nowadays (mostly for the better). The research is generally good (I didn't hear any obvious errors), though I thought some of the celebrities profiled seemed to be odd choices (particularly Kardashian, who orchestrated her own fame and thus seemed to be largely in control of her own narrative, and Chyna, who I don't remember getting the mainstream coverage of the rest). There were also obvious differences between the profiled celebrities who were already grown adults at the start of their fame (Aniston) vs. those who were still minors when they became public figures (Lohan, Spears).
Given that Ditum is British, I would love to see her write a similar book focused on female British tabloid targets of the same time period, and how factors like race and socioeconomic status impacted the narrative; i.e., how someone like Lily Allen (solo singer; white and nepo baby-esque) was treated compared to Cheryl (Girls Aloud singer; white and raised in council estates) or Kerry Katona (Atomic kitten singer; white and raised in foster care), versus people of color like Mutya Buena (Sugababes singer; Filipina/Irish), Keisha Buchanan (Sugababes singer; Jamaican), and Mel B (Spice Girls singer; mixed Afro-Caribbean and white).
As always, I'd recommend reading source material (memoirs written by subjects in this book) for better perspective. These include Britney Spears' 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, and I would also add Jessica Simpson's 2020 memoir Open Book and the late Sarah Harding's 2021 memoir Hear Me Out to that list (Sarah was briefly mentioned during the Amy Winehouse chapter).
My statistics: Book 161 for 2024 Book 1764 cumulatively ...more
In a lot of ways, traction is to business productivity and success as Dave Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is to persIn a lot of ways, traction is to business productivity and success as Dave Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is to personal productivity and success. Each system has its own jargon-laden language, its defined sequence of doing things, and promises of amazing results if the system is faithfully followed. Not coincidentally, each book is written by a person who made a career out of business and/or personal consulting, with the book being used as an evangelizing tool to people or organizations who may or may not be future clients.
That being said, Traction's advice is generally quite good. It's crucial in a business to know what your core values are, to ensure the right people are in the right roles (both from an alignment and skill perspective), and to regularly and iteratively determine your organizational/personal goals and check whether you're making good progress toward them (and if they're still worth pursuing).
My statistics: Book 151 for 2024 Book 1754 cumulatively
I'll start out with the elephant in the room: at its core, Uptime is basically a thinly-veiled and uncredited regurgitation of Dave Allen's classic GeI'll start out with the elephant in the room: at its core, Uptime is basically a thinly-veiled and uncredited regurgitation of Dave Allen's classic Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, updated for the 2020s digital age and with a dash of energy management philosophy sprinkled in. Martin uses many of Allen's concepts with slightly-altered names --i.e., Allen's concept of "mind sweep" (brainstorming and centrally collating everything on your to-do list) becomes Martin's "brain dump," and many other obvious parallels will emerge as readers who've previously read Allen's book will read this one.
But maybe a reason why there's so little originality in this genre is that while one-size-fits-all time management systems don't exist (i.e., Allen's GTD is certainly not for everyone), the underlying concepts and underpinning philosophies are similar enough that all the good books (including this one!) sound very similar.
So despite my comments above, I would still recommend this book to the past-entry-level office dweller demographic. What I found most helpful were Martin's suggestions for managing email and scripts for making people who want to meet with you or delegate work to you do extra work on their end before being granted your time and attention (obviously your success with these scripts depends on your leverage and seniority). And I most definitely agree with Martin's statement near the end of the book that:
The biggest obstacle to productivity is putting something on your to-do list with no idea when you're actually going to do it.
My statistics: Book 164 for 2024 Book 1767 cumulatively...more
![I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This [But I'm Going to Anyway]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696962462l/198385436._SY75_.jpg)
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