I've been using the Peloton App since 2019, and Cody Rigsby is one my favorite instructors. I've probably donI received an advance copy via NetGalley.
I've been using the Peloton App since 2019, and Cody Rigsby is one my favorite instructors. I've probably done most of his rides. He's so charismatic and personal, he makes a ride fly by. I have that weird sense of knowing him like a friend even though he hasn't a clue I even exist. Therefore, I was excited to get an advance copy of this book.
From the very start, I had to laugh because I recognized just about every reference from various rides over the years. Cody's voice rings through, even in polished, edited format. In his rides, he has talked often about his mom Cindy and that he had a hard childhood, but he goes into much deeper detail here about his dad's early death and his mom's drug addiction and mental illness. Those chapters, along with one about his grief over a dear friend's death to addiction, are dark and would be trigger-inducing for some readers. The way he discusses his journey toward coming out is incredibly personal, and I think his words will be enormously helpful for other young LGBTQ people who are struggling with major choices. Other chapters are light and airy in contrast, such as ones that follow his XOXO segments wherein he gives frank relationship advice and others where he dishes on his strong pop culture opinions. He goes into a lot of behind-the-scenes detail on his Dancing with the Stars stint; I have zero interest in the show and have never willingly watched it, but even so, his insights on the process were fascinating.
I think anyone who is a regular on Cody's rides or his other Peloton content will enjoy this book, and I think it'll also be affirming for a broader audience who can appreciate and learn from an out-and-proud successful gay man....more
I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.
Courtney Maum's memoir The Year of the Horses is honest, raw, and heartfelt. She details a childI received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.
Courtney Maum's memoir The Year of the Horses is honest, raw, and heartfelt. She details a childhood fraught with emotionally distanced parents amid a highly-privileged lifestyle and then marriage and anxiety-filled motherhood, threading throughout the role--and the absence--of horses through the years. This culminates in her recent healing through her rediscovery of equines.
I'm almost the same age as her, so we're the same generation. When she had a whole chapter centered around the trauma of The NeverEnding Story, oh yeah, I got that. I felt much more distanced from the high privilege of her youth--she might as well have lived on a different planet from me in some regards. However, as someone who was a horse-crazy girl who has anxiety and depression, I felt like we had more in common than not. It's a powerful book that is not about easy answers, but about works-in-progress and struggling to accept that....more
I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.
Sally Schmitt is a legend in California cuisine and the farm-to-table movement. She's most famouI received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.
Sally Schmitt is a legend in California cuisine and the farm-to-table movement. She's most famous as one of the founders and as chef at The French Laundry in Napa Valley, but as this memoir/cookbook relates through friendly banter and asides, this is only one of six kitchens that has shaped her life. As a storytelling format, it is unique and logical. She begins with her childhood and her mother's kitchen, and moves onward from there, explaining what she learned and what the general vibe of life was at the time, with everything elaborated upon with photographs, drawings, and recipes that will make the mouth water.
The recipes are formatted in a unique style that fits the conversational tone of the whole book: there's no ingredient block up front, but the ingredients are listed in the own column alongside the point in the recipe directions when they are used. I wish more cookbooks would take on this style and save cooks from having to flip pages between ingredients and instructions! The food itself is the epitome of Napa Valley cuisine, relying on lots of fresh ingredients and high quality meats such as lamb. Cost and availability will likely curtail many readers from giving the recipes a try. However, this book is so much more than its recipes. It's a refreshing, gentle memoir, an ambling journey through someone's life via their kitchen and foods. ...more
I had to read The Old Man and the Sea in college. I did not like it. Found it dry as a bone. Some of Hemingway's stories were not as bad, but I would I had to read The Old Man and the Sea in college. I did not like it. Found it dry as a bone. Some of Hemingway's stories were not as bad, but I would never consider myself a fan.
Having read A Moveable Feast, though, I find myself moved more toward neutrality than dislike. I recognized many lines throughout, having encountered them as inspirational quotes for writers in one place or another. Further more, I respected him for his ability to compartmentalize his own life--looking at his early time in Paris, his young adulthood, within the context of the time period rather than with the full weight of age and bitterness. This is especially true of how he writes about his first wife, Hadley, who he betrays with the woman who will become his second wife. He also paints a vivid portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda--not a flattering portrait, but one that feels complex and honest (note to self: never, ever take a trip with the Fitzgeralds).
The way he writes about Paris in the early 1920s is absolutely mesmerizing. This cosmopolitan city of incredible gardens, museums, and diverse cafes, where in the morning goats are still herded through the streets, with milk fresh from the source to those who pay.
My edition of the book had an informative intro that explained changes that Hemingway's last wife made to the first edition of this book, published after his death, and appended material at the end includes unfinished chapters and a fascinating couple pages of drafts of the starting paragraphs of the book. ...more
Jenny Lawson has an frenetic, anxiety-prone perspective of the world, one I can eerily relate to. While I related to her other book Furiously Happy a Jenny Lawson has an frenetic, anxiety-prone perspective of the world, one I can eerily relate to. While I related to her other book Furiously Happy a bit more (it delves deeper into subjects like depression), this is still a fun read, full of crazy family anecdotes, wacky household incidents, and animals both living and dead. It made me smile and laugh throughout, though I do wish it'd been lighter on the profanity....more
I read this with the hopes of data I could use in my novel research, and I ended up delighted with the book overall. This is one of several great trav I read this with the hopes of data I could use in my novel research, and I ended up delighted with the book overall. This is one of several great travelogues/historical explorations I have read in recent years (Children of Kali by Kevin Rushby is worthy of note here). Meyer approaches the book with an American perspective, but as an American who is quite happy to immerse himself in other cultures. He lived for a year in his wife's native Manchurian village of Wasteland, while his wife is elsewhere, and explored the region by bus and rail.
Manchuria is one of the places that is always noted in World War II narratives as the place where Japan began their foray into mainland Asia. Meyer does an excellent job of showing a place with a vital role in history--the Manchu dynasty originated there--that was caught in a terrible 20th century tug-of-war between China, Japan, Russia, and Korea. Communism and the Cultural Revolution destroyed--and built--much more. Wasteland is undergoing a dramatic change in recent years as the home of a powerful rice corporation. The village is becoming something more, with the farmers of the past 50 years being nudged into massive apartment blocks so that their old, kang-heated shacks can become more rice paddies.
Meyer's chapters are easy to read, and the book goes by fast. I loved the historical information and how he portrayed it, but I was surprised to find myself falling in love with Wasteland and its residents. It's remote and bitterly cold much of the year (Siberia is right next door), but also a place of beauty that is even shown by the actions of a elderly local who plots where to sneakily plant her beloved poppy seeds along the main thoroughfare after the rice corporation repaves and modernizes the road....more
I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
This is a rare case where reading this as a galley doesn't really give an adequaI received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
This is a rare case where reading this as a galley doesn't really give an adequate picture of the book. Hsu has penned a book that's part memoir, part genealogy quest, part history lesson on China. As he says at one point, trying to explain Chinese history is like trying to get a drink while drowning. The beginning of the books has placeholders for maps and charts, and that content would have helped immensely to understand the geography and the convoluted connections within Hsu's family (which often confuses and surprises the author as well).
Hsu is American-born and raised in Utah. He had to deal with frustrating comments from other people--the compliments on his English, the way he stood out in lily-white Mormon Utah--but also didn't fit in with his Chinese family. He was largely ignorant of the language and history. Even so, he's fascinated by stories of his mother's family and of the wealth of porcelain they once had, and he takes a job in China at a volatile uncle's company so he can find out more.
The beginning of the story is a bit whiny as he describes China as it is now (it sure doesn't make me want to travel to Shanghai), even as the content is intriguing from the start. Hsu brings a great perspective; readers are likely to be ignorant of China as it is now or was in the past, and I felt like I got to learn along with him. Once it started to delve into the past and the often contradictory stories within his family, it became a gripping book. Hsu isn't searching for buried treasure to get rich. It's more of a sense to recover something lost. His mother's family struggled through all the turbulence of the 20th century, from the Sino-Japanese War through World War II through communist and the horrible whims of Mao. His grandmother escaped some of the worst by being a teacher in missionary schools and then immigrating from the mainland, but other cousins were not so fortunate. The book does a good job of showing the terrible nature of Mao and what he put the people through, and Hsu with his American sensibilities struggles to understand how they endured. It's not just that the porcelain was lost. Almost all family pictures, books, and artifacts were also lost in immigration or through cultural purges.
There's also the historical thread about porcelain itself, how it was made and where, and how that industry has so drastically changed.
I liked the book much more as I read, even as I had to utterly give up on keeping track of who was who. I have trouble remembering names in English, so the similarity of the Chinese names--and that some people had a few names--was utterly confusing. Maps would have been an enormous help as Hsu travels all over China, and also describes where his family was and is now.
If you have any interest in China, seek for this book when it's out in March. At heart, it's about a genealogical search for self, an it's a fascinating journey....more
Since I have a autistic three-year-old, I've been reading many books on the autism spectrum. Look Me In the Eye is a memoir, and a very well-done one.Since I have a autistic three-year-old, I've been reading many books on the autism spectrum. Look Me In the Eye is a memoir, and a very well-done one. It's a fast read, detailing how Robison was a misfit as a child, how his parents were nuts, and how he struggled to assert himself as an adult. It's a very positive, uplifting story. Robison made many hard choices - such as dropping out of high school - but he followed his savant inclinations, fought past his own doubts, and taught himself how to socialize. His story is very honest and unflattering at times, but he shows how he has grown as a person and come to embrace Asperger's as being an integral part of himself. I found his guitar inventions for KISS to be particularly fascinating - I'm not a KISS fan, but I do know about their guitars! It's a great behind-the-scenes peek at the genius of innovation....more
This is an approachable and fast memoir that most any animal lover would enjoy. Susan Richards had a lot of baggage, but by the time she entered her 4This is an approachable and fast memoir that most any animal lover would enjoy. Susan Richards had a lot of baggage, but by the time she entered her 40s she regarded herself as an independent woman in control of her life. She had conquered the alcohol addiction that dominated her for decades. She shed an abusive husband and family. But when she agreed to take care of an abused mare and foal, she got more than she bargained for. The mare, Lay Me Down, had every right to hate humans, but she didn't. She looked on Susan with trust and faith, and Susan felt her old protective barriers begin to fall. But barriers exist with a reason, and soon Susan would need to face the truth: with love comes vulnerability, but it is still worthwhile.[return][return]I was surprised at how gently this book flowed. It felt like stream-of-consciousness, progressing from memory to memory without me even fully realizing how far the story strayed. Susan had a very difficult life, and she is very honest about what she endured and also what she brought on herself. Her relationship with Lay Me Down and other horses, even the impetuous Morgan Georgia, reveal a lot about her and her maturity. This is really a book about love, life, death, and how a person is never to old to learn and grow wise....more
A short book, but very powerful. Wiesel recounts his own experience as a teenager during the holocaust. The prose is sparse, and explicit in how it shA short book, but very powerful. Wiesel recounts his own experience as a teenager during the holocaust. The prose is sparse, and explicit in how it shows his despair and rage at God for letting such an atrocity occur. The end is blunt and left me wanting to know more - more of his time after the war, more of his reunion with his older sisters.[return][return]The style of writing actually reminded me some of a book I read last year, When the Emperor was Divine, a fictional account of a Japanese family in an internment camp. Obviously, Wiesel's book is real and more devastating since most of his family dies, but there is a haunting thread between those two books.[return][return]I read the The Book Thief already this year. I hope I'm done reading about the holocaust for now. It makes me so angry at humanity. I'm not sure whether I want to hug people or hit them....more
Maybe my expectations were too high.[return][return]Maybe I'm looking at the book and expecting it to develop like fiction, even though I know it's a Maybe my expectations were too high.[return][return]Maybe I'm looking at the book and expecting it to develop like fiction, even though I know it's a memoir.[return][return]The simple fact is that I didn't like this book, and I was eager to finish it so it could be done. I hated Frank's father with a passion, and so often the book just seemed to repeat the same thing, over and over again. His father gets a job. Father spends all his earnings at the pub. Family starves, children die. It's infuriating because it still happens, and it still destroys people and families. I wasn't depressed, I was angered. And by the end of the book, I wasn't too thrilled with Frank, either....more
Loading...
