anndahlquist's reviews
154 reviews

While this book was definitely a memoir and not informative on the art of knitting, it was enjoyable to read. I felt a connectedness with the author that I didn’t expect. Each essay  illustrated how our hobbies become integrated into our lives and reflect who we are back to us. Representing our successes and disappointments and the infinite possibilities of what our life can be. 

This book was actually highly interesting and had a lot more research and cited sources than I usually see in books like this. Not what I was expecting, in a good way. I may be a bit biased because of my own negative feelings about buzzfeed and clickbait. Or maybe I'm jaded because I pick up books in this genre only to be disappointed by cliches and long checklists of how to be less burnt out by burning yourself out more, or look at me and how amazing I am because I am the exception to all of you other losers and it's so so easy if you just spend more money on my "expertise". But this book was compassionately informative and gave real and easily understandable breakdowns of the circumstances that landed us in our current predicament. And it isn't because we aren't working hard enough or don't want it badly enough. No. It's because the systems we were promised would reward us are broken. Refreshingly, this book does NOT offer an easy solution or a list of self improvement tips to get ahead. No, as the author states in her closing paragraph, "it's not enough to try to make things better for ourselves. We have to make things better for everyone." and I think that this is an essential shift that needs to happen. It's not me against the competition, it's us against the systems that are exploiting us and perpetuating this burnout. 
This book was published in 2020, and in the introduction the author does acknowledge that the circumstances of 2020, namely the global pandemic, were not addressed in the text.

This was like a condensed book form of Alexa Chung’s Pinterest board and really just didn’t need to be a book. 

I listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author, and I really enjoyed it. Her voice is soft and soothing and her cadence is that of a storyteller, which brings this beautifully written story to life. 

The book credited with initiating the dark academia genre lives up to the praise of my friends who recommended it to me. Beautifully written.