eengland's reviews
200 reviews

The WWII content ended on page 58 out of 126. This would have been better titled "1940s Chicago Politicians." The authors are clear fanboys of the Chicago mayors. Almost nothing about daily life for Chicagoans during this time period. Way too many photos of dead white dude politicians shaking hands and smiling for the camera. Far too little substance dedicated outside of politicians' activities. And every time you think they've completely forgotten African Americans, they sprinkle them in or add a segregated section on Black history. Just because you can write a book doesn't mean you should.

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.25

I had really high hopes going into this, but it was a flop for me. I deeply enjoyed the queering of nearly everyone on cast, though some moments felt off - on the whole, one of the book's strengths for sure. The racial dynamics felt like a forced afterthought or add-on much of the time. The troupe of magic performers felt very one-dimensional without individual motives and agency, just there to do something for Jordan but falling pretty flat. Adding magic and demons felt like a slap in the face of the original which was all about how wealth insulates people from the consequences of their shittiness so the magic and demons was like off-loading the blame from the human actors. There were a few moments of potential gold with the new gender dynamics that came from telling The Great Gatsby story through the eyes of a woman used to dealing with jealous, possessive men objectifying women. Jordan's motives and contemporary filler scenes felt flat and perfunctory at best. So much potential, not what I was hoping for. I think it would have been much better as a GG-inspired fanfic with all new cast of characters and world than a purported straight-up GG retelling.

North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940 by Susan Benjamin, Stuart Cohen

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informative fast-paced

2.25

Lots of redundancy and constantly re-explaining who people were with each house, even after 10+ times of being discussed (looking at you, my man Jens Jensen) and an appendix of short biographical sketches. Pictures didn't have dates on them, despite the earlier sections sounding like some of the houses featured had both old and current photographs.

First parts moved really slowly. Once we got to the house sketches, it moved very quickly because it was like 50-75% photos.

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eengland's reviews 200 reviews

eengland's reviews
200 reviews