Todd Tyrtle
I love most of Tahir Shah's work but I found this one a bit jarring. It was like the literary equivalent of someone doing jackrabbit starts and stops in traffic. Each story felt like it ended too early and I didn't get to spend enough time in them before moving on to another.
Of course I might have been missing something...
I love most of Tahir Shah's work but I found this one a bit jarring. It was like the literary equivalent of someone doing jackrabbit starts and stops in traffic. Each story felt like it ended too early and I didn't get to spend enough time in them before moving on to another.
Of course I might have been missing something...
It was OK, just OK. If there had been a character I liked I may have enjoyed it more. I've had a string of really good reads lately and this was a bit of a letdown. The world seemed a little patchy - like a Potemkin Village. We saw a bit of the world but the depth wasn't there, and being forced to travel it with people ranging from mildly irritating to downright odious wasn't enjoyable.
It was an odd experience to find the book simultaneously so inspiring and yet find the author so irritating. Fiercely competitive in the way that turned me off anything athletic for 90% of my life, sexist (eff anyone using the word “Chicked” to describe the humiliation (eyeroll) of being passed by gasp a woman), and not without at least one racial slur.
Still, for some reason I persisted, and I did really resonate with the idea of “doing what needs to be done” and pushing through challenges instead of giving up.
Would I recommend it to others? Probably not. I bet there are way more inspiring books out there by people that wouldn't bug me as much. Still, I suppose that having found this on the side of the road in a free box it was worth every penny.
It was an odd experience to find the book simultaneously so inspiring and yet find the author so irritating. Fiercely competitive in the way that turned me off anything athletic for 90% of my life, sexist (eff anyone using the word “Chicked” to describe the humiliation (eyeroll) of being passed by gasp a woman), and not without at least one racial slur.
Still, for some reason I persisted, and I did really resonate with the idea of “doing what needs to be done” and pushing through challenges instead of giving up.
Would I recommend it to others? Probably not. I bet there are way more inspiring books out there by people that wouldn't bug me as much. Still, I suppose that having found this on the side of the road in a free box it was worth every penny.
Fantastic read. Timely as I turn a bit inward (in a good way, I think), reduce my use of technology and social media and wrestle our own budget under control. I like her humanity as well. I recently tried reading a book on a similar topic and I found the author cold, judgemental, and apparently flawless in their pursuit of simplicity. It's not very motivating for me to read that.
Ms. Levine, on the other hand, still wants to buy stuff, struggles with the idea of “necessity” and shares the good and bad of her experience.
After reading another “1 year project” book in which it seemed the author's partner did little but belittle and ridicule her and her project, I liked how Ms. Levine's partner was. Refreshing to read a book where the author really likes the people in their lives.
What a fantastic roller coaster ride of a book. It kept me off balance wondering what would happen next but not giving me much idea of what that would be. I can't even give the slightest detail to friends who may want to read it someday as I feel almost anything beyond what happens in the first 5 pages or so is on some level, a spoiler. Fantastic!
Not a book that would have caught my attention were it on the shelves - I read this one entirely at a friend's suggestion. And even if I had picked it up on my own, I'm pretty sure that I would've given up in the first fifty or so pages, her relationship with ‘S' seeming to dominate the story and truth be told, generating more than a few eye rolls on my part. However, that aspect of the book made what came that much more powerful. To see so much love, kindness, and strength in someone whom I judged at first to be tremendously boring and shallow really made me question my judgments of people in my own life. Very thought provoking. Thanks to my friend, Melissa for suggesting it.
Not a book that would have caught my attention were it on the shelves - I read this one entirely at a friend's suggestion. And even if I had picked it up on my own, I'm pretty sure that I would've given up in the first fifty or so pages, her relationship with ‘S' seeming to dominate the story and truth be told, generating more than a few eye rolls on my part. However, that aspect of the book made what came that much more powerful. To see so much love, kindness, and strength in someone whom I judged at first to be tremendously boring and shallow really made me question my judgments of people in my own life. Very thought provoking. Thanks to my friend, Melissa for suggesting it.
The content itself was really good - quite helpful. I didn't care so much for the actual delivery, however. I am not a fan of SNL, and don't really see the ‘genius' of Chris Farley and other SNL cast members (maybe in improv he was better? Definitely what I've seen of Tina Fey doing improv vs. sketch comedy supports that possibility). So in that sense it felt like a great offering at the altar of Lorne Michaels. And that name dropping really detracted from the experience of the book such that I found myself having to just remind myself of the value of the content even when the examples of why the content was good had just the opposite effect on me.
Overall a good book but the author comes across to be a bit of an evangelical fundamentalist with his anti-technology views. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to that, though, having had similar feelings and broadcast them on my blog back when we lived in a yurt with no electricity or running water for 2 years. Ten years after that, living then in a highrise in Canada's biggest city I realized that it was pretty narrow-minded of me to be so sure that living that simply was not only right for me but the way everyone should be living. It was right for our family then, and a different way of life is right for us now.
The author seems to fall into the same trap I did - feeling that the fact that the life change he made then and that worked so well for him then was the life change that everyone else needs to make, and that many of society's ills are caused by the failure of everyone to do so.
When it comes to movies, there's a certain kind of movie that my partner and I say is really great on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Usually not an Oscar winner, often not even widely known but one that brings a smile to your face and makes you glad you spent the time to relax and enjoy it.
This book is the literary equivalent. “Comfortable” to read and brought a smile to my face.
Sometimes I want to read an introspective travel book where the author explores their own psyche as much as they explore the outside world. Other times, it's fun to just read about someone having interesting adventures in far away places. This book's a fine example of the latter category. A very light, quick read but also quite enjoyable.
Sometimes I want to read an introspective travel book where the author explores their own psyche as much as they explore the outside world. Other times, it's fun to just read about someone having interesting adventures in far away places. This book's a fine example of the latter category. A very light, quick read but also quite enjoyable.
IMO, it wasn't up to Doctorow's usual standards. The story didn't hold me, and his portrayal of overweight folks really rubbed me the wrong way. (Oh yes, they're all waiting for a cure that lets them eat 10,000 calories per day - and when they finally get thin they do nothing but worry about their wardrobe when they're not sleeping with each other).
Particularly disappointing because I know he can do far better. Gave up about half way through...
Great read as a travel book and a delicious read as a cookbook. I would be driven insane if I had to read this anywhere further than 10 kilometres from a decent Asian market.
I've been lucky enough to take several of Arvinda's cooking classes. The thing I like about them is that the dishes made in the class, while quite simple to prepare, taste amazing - like you spent hours slaving in the kitchen over them. The recipes in this book are just like that. Tasty enough for a dinner party but easy enough to cook for dinner after a day at work.