Perhaps the most spectacular thing about this book is that it takes arguably the most mythologized president in US history – Abraham Lincoln – and builds a compelling and detailed account of his life and administration without losing any kind of emotional impact. We all know what happens, here. We all know who Lincoln was (more or less), and we all know that he was one of the greatest presidents (more or less), and we all know that this ends in tragedy. But the simultaneous […]
God is the color of water.
I read The Color of Water by James McBride for my Honors Composition I course (eleven years ago now! Yikes), and I remembered liking it. My friend F had this month’s pick for our book club, and she chose this one, so that we could talk about race in America. If you’ve followed my reviews for any length of time, you know I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, because I often have issues with the writing or style. I felt that The Color of […]
Shopping, Seduction and Mr. Selfridge
Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge has a very specific target audience: people who are interested in history, fashion and the retail business. I happen to be one of those people, I read the Stanley Marcus book Minding the Store for pleasure while I was a junior in college. I’d recommend Mr. Selfridge over Mr. Marcus if you enjoy a little scandal, because Mr. Selfridge was pretty scandalous. Fashion succeeds as a business precisely because its obsolescence is inevitable. Harry Gordon Selfridge was an American who […]
A panegyric to the paterfamilias
I was too young to really follow the presidency of Ronald Reagan. I have vague memories of the Cold War, but it always felt like a distant and insubstantial thing. It wasn’t until Desert Storm that world events really started to register through the haze of childish indifference. So George H.W. Bush is indelibly connected, for good or ill, to the opening of my world and discovery of politics. While I can’t say I paid great attention to his administration, his was the first I […]
Amy Poehler is my hero
“The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone, no matter how great the machines are.” (329) There was never any doubt that I would read Yes Please (2014) by Amy Poehler; the only question was how long I’d have to wait for it to become available at the library. I’ve always enjoyed Poehler. I like her jokes, and I […]
Girl Walks into a Bar…
I read Tina Fey’s Bossypants pre-Cannonballread and Amy Poheler’s Yes, Please last year, both women mention Rachel Dratch in their memoirs because they were friendly in Chicago and on SNL at the same time. For the last few years Girl Walks into a Bar… has been on my recommendations lists from Barnes & Nobel, Amazon and Goodreads- so it was time to give Ms. Dratch a spin. Girl is different than her colleagues’ memoirs because SNL wasn’t the stepping stone for her career, it was […]
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