onmalsshelf's reviews
1306 reviews

A stark, quick read focusing built on guilt and processing. There’s not much plot and not much character development, but I still enjoyed it and can see why it was nominated for the Booker. 

Thanks to the publisher for this copy!

I stand by my usual stance that people in their thirties don’t need to release memoirs. 

I think the title was meant to be an attention grab, but it leads the reader to thinking this would be about someone’s deep dive into MAGA in some way. However this is really a memoir of a woman who is a libertarian (if you forget she’ll probably tell you in the next few paragraphs) as she goes through right wing college, internships, mentorships, and her job following the the first Trump office. 

There was a lot of name dropping in here and overall I was underwhelmed. 

Obviously she has respect for Tucker Carlson (one of her mentors) because she couldn’t even call him out on the sexist things he has said. 

I have a hard time believing that this is the writing of an award winning journalist. It felt so self righteous but also impersonal at the same time?

Right off the bat it left a sour taste in my mouth because this woman just automatically assumes the worst in all of the prisoners.

I personally usually stay away from both religious nonfiction and self-help books. However, like many I picked this one up after Bishop Mariann Budde called out the Trump administration in sermon. 

I found this to be both inspiring and gut punching. There is one quote that made me tear up because it made me think directly about my experience with my church. 

"Knowing our failings all too well, I can easily understand why so many choose to leave the church and the faith. What convinces any of us to stay within our faith tradition when new insights and personal maturation cause us to question what we had once accepted as true, or when spiritual leaders or entire communities fail us?"

This was a punch right to my heart. I like many millennials feel failed by my church community. I was born, baptized, raised, and confirmed into the United Methodist church. I have watched as church has split in two (United Methodist vs Global Methodist) from afar as why would I go back to a church that was not there when I needed them? 

I, nor my parents,  have not stepped foot in the church I was raised in since 2020. At first it was because of COVID and then it was because Nana got cancer and we could not risk the COVID exposure at church. 

To this day, no one at the church I once called home and spent Wednesday evenings and Sundays at as a child and teen has reached out to any of us to ask why we don't attend anymore. Not one person reached out to us when Nana passed from cancer. 

So yeah, I like many millennials feel failed by and forgotten by spiritual leadership and community. 

If you are someone that has a strained relationship with religion or if you are religious and enjoy religious nonfiction, I highly recommend you pick this up. 

This is not the self-help preachy kind of book. This is the kind of self-help book that really gets it. With essays on staying and starting,  this one really struck a cord with me. 

Very poignant essays, but a few felt skim able.

Least favorite plot device added in