Scan barcode
francesmthompson's reviews
896 reviews
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
3.0
Thought I was going to hate it, surprised myself by how much I liked it and I was left hungry enough for more to think about trying the follow up Committed.
HOWEVER... while Gilbert can write wonderfully well with more than a few examples of thought-provoking and mind-soothing prose, what is with her use of parentheses!?!? It's shockingly saturated and occurs on almost every page and often for multiple sentences. Why did an editor let her get away with it? It was off-putting and messy and frankly, detracted from the otherwise easy flow Gilbert is clearly capable of.
Back to the positive, I loved the snippets of stories, fact and research about the places she travelled and how well they intertwined with her own story, but I have to be honest and say I skipped a few chapters in the Ashram. Simply put, I don't own enough linen or incense sticks to feel attached to all elements of her spiritual journey, but I definitely feel somewhat enlightened by reading Eat Pray Love.
HOWEVER... while Gilbert can write wonderfully well with more than a few examples of thought-provoking and mind-soothing prose, what is with her use of parentheses!?!? It's shockingly saturated and occurs on almost every page and often for multiple sentences. Why did an editor let her get away with it? It was off-putting and messy and frankly, detracted from the otherwise easy flow Gilbert is clearly capable of.
Back to the positive, I loved the snippets of stories, fact and research about the places she travelled and how well they intertwined with her own story, but I have to be honest and say I skipped a few chapters in the Ashram. Simply put, I don't own enough linen or incense sticks to feel attached to all elements of her spiritual journey, but I definitely feel somewhat enlightened by reading Eat Pray Love.
Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg
5.0
This book is everything a non-fiction biography of one of twentieth century America's literary greats should be - insightful, informative, comprehensive - but it is also everything the fiction that Maxwell Perkins used to oversee was - moving, encompassing, wonderfully character driven and full of prose that makes you sigh with a smile.
I got lost in Max Perkins' story immediately and kept turning the pages thanks to surprisingly unexpected twists and turns that surrounded his career, or rather the careers of the greats he led so well; Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Wolfe and James Jones. An essential read for anyone interested in the New York publishing scene in the first half of the 1900s and the whole book - so stodgily well written - serves as a reminder of how beautiful biographies can be.
I got lost in Max Perkins' story immediately and kept turning the pages thanks to surprisingly unexpected twists and turns that surrounded his career, or rather the careers of the greats he led so well; Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Wolfe and James Jones. An essential read for anyone interested in the New York publishing scene in the first half of the 1900s and the whole book - so stodgily well written - serves as a reminder of how beautiful biographies can be.