baguettekelly's reviews
229 reviews

This book gives a voice to the very real feeling that our constructed social identities aren’t everything.  Something else is out there and that something is Pennsylvania.  I found myself a little dissatisfied by how neatly this wrapped up, but I enjoyed the journey and the PA scenery as a native Yinzer.

I’ve been walking around telling everyone fun facts from this book since I finished it.  It’s apparent that the author is excited about her subject matter, and it got me excited too.

WHEW this man has a lot to say.  Mercifully a lot of it is interesting.  It was a delight to sit down and read through the musical genotype passages while listening along to each “hit parade”, and I found the sections on psychology and intraculture to be engaging and accessible.  As a STEMstress I also quite enjoyed the physics lesson.

This book is 700 pages, and maybe 400 of those are on-topic.  I’m glad I read it, but it is not a light afternoon’s jaunt (I read it in sections over 6 months).  It has the material of about four different books (an intro to music theory, a review of popular music history, a description of taste archetypes, and an account of working at Pandora) and it would’ve been easier to digest if it were four different books.

Girl……it’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl 

This book is interesting but definitely not for everyone.  The style is quite challenging and makes for a slow read of a short book.  I found myself zoning out during Clara’s chapters and wanting to get back to whatever freak shit Fernanda and Annelise were up to.

Cozy, generational southern gothic 

This book made me nostalgic for a fictional school I did not attend.  One of my favorite ever queer coming-of-age stories and 9/11 books.  It manages to capture all of the cringe and discomfort of being a weird, confused, codependent teenager while being a pleasure to read.

Nobody makes you care about a cringy main character you hate like Anna Dorn

The most existentially terrifying 100 pages of your life

Both an engaging memoir and an effective investigation into the cycles of addiction and poverty impacting so many women in the rural South.  Gave me a lot to think about.  I’ve been on an education kick in my nonfiction content consumption and recommend this to anyone interested in the same.