Joseph L. reviewed My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues on + 14 more book reviews
Expected a story with more depth. Was amazed at the shallowness of the author despite the large number of books she claims to have read.
An example of the shallowness is seen (pg. 207) in the section about the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - she writes of how she was unable to stop crying, dampening many tissues, while reading it on an airplane (she constantly boasts of her extensive traveling) & how this attracted the attention of 2 passengers & the flight attendant. However, a more sophisticated, less adolescent, review of the book, which is to be expected from a lifelong book-lover & book-reviewer, would have noted those more problematic aspects of the novel such as the many stereotyped characters & the sentimentalized portrait of political corruption.
An example of her surprising ignorance about certain classics is seen (pg. 193) where she quotes J.G. Ballard's quote about how he was affected as a child when reading the "childhood tales" such as "Treasure Island" & "Robinson Crusoe" & how this shows the "power of children's literature". If Ms. Paul had actually read these 2 classics, she would have also noted that although there have been many adaptations for children, they are NOT REALLY children's books - they are great classic literature for adults.
Much of the book is "virtue-signaling" of her political opinions & lifestyle - one example is her uncritical gushing about The New York Times newspaper, her then-employer (pg. 203).
Lastly, she shows she can be quite spiteful when it comes to the Acknowledgments page: she never mentions her mother on the Acknowledgments page despite noting her mother's help in several chapters in the book. She acknowledges the help from her current mother-in-law, old friends, her late father, her brother Roger, "my family", her current husband & children (all, except for her current mother-in-law, also mentioned in various chapters of the book) BUT NOT her mother. Not very nice.
These are just a few of the reasons for giving a rating of only 1 star.
An example of the shallowness is seen (pg. 207) in the section about the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - she writes of how she was unable to stop crying, dampening many tissues, while reading it on an airplane (she constantly boasts of her extensive traveling) & how this attracted the attention of 2 passengers & the flight attendant. However, a more sophisticated, less adolescent, review of the book, which is to be expected from a lifelong book-lover & book-reviewer, would have noted those more problematic aspects of the novel such as the many stereotyped characters & the sentimentalized portrait of political corruption.
An example of her surprising ignorance about certain classics is seen (pg. 193) where she quotes J.G. Ballard's quote about how he was affected as a child when reading the "childhood tales" such as "Treasure Island" & "Robinson Crusoe" & how this shows the "power of children's literature". If Ms. Paul had actually read these 2 classics, she would have also noted that although there have been many adaptations for children, they are NOT REALLY children's books - they are great classic literature for adults.
Much of the book is "virtue-signaling" of her political opinions & lifestyle - one example is her uncritical gushing about The New York Times newspaper, her then-employer (pg. 203).
Lastly, she shows she can be quite spiteful when it comes to the Acknowledgments page: she never mentions her mother on the Acknowledgments page despite noting her mother's help in several chapters in the book. She acknowledges the help from her current mother-in-law, old friends, her late father, her brother Roger, "my family", her current husband & children (all, except for her current mother-in-law, also mentioned in various chapters of the book) BUT NOT her mother. Not very nice.
These are just a few of the reasons for giving a rating of only 1 star.
I thought this would be more like a list of book recommendations with a little bit of memoir. It was more memoir and less book recommendations. The author starts keeping a list of books she has read while she is in high school. In this books she looks back over the list and tells her life story through the books. For example, after a divorce she read a lot of dark books and self-help books so they focus heavily on her list at that time. Interesting life story with lots of travel. And she has one of those dream jobs - NY Times Review of Books editor.
