angieoverbooked's reviews
494 reviews

This was a super informative and eye opening read. I started making changes in my digital life while reading and will continue to do so. 

This was an interesting overview of Judy Blume’s career and work, her impact on culture and her readers across the span of decades. As a GenX-er/Xennial, Blume and her books were quite endearing to me as an adolescent. I have not read any of her adult novels, but now I really want to! 

The general commentary on literary gatekeepers and book banning is timely and informative. Bergstein offers insight into how this affected Blume but also how steadfast the iconic writer remains on the value of her books for her audience. When few writers were doing so, Blume addressed real and complicated topics that young readers were wondering about, talking about, and grateful to explore in characters and situations in Blume’s books. 

I've read (and enjoyed) a good number of weird books- add this to the top of the weird list. 

At some point, the narrator says to the reader something like, "No, this isn't a fever dream..." and I realized- that's exactly what this entire book feels like. A fever dream or someone telling me a story when they are extremely out of it without a care at all about whether they are making sense or causing concern to the listener. 

I finished it in under 24 hours anyway- was *I* in a fever dream? I don't know. Nothing was happening, and the vibes were off, but I didn't want to leave her. Like when you're sober and your friend is drunk, confusing and kind of insufferable, but you stay with her all night because she's still your friend and you want to make sure she's okay. 

What a bummer. The premise and cover are so great... but this didn't work for me at all.

This family is insufferable. None of the relationships are very inspiring or genuinely healthy and there were so many opportunities for this with two parents and four daughters! 

So much of this made me uncomfortable- from the anti-Persian behaviors of... Persian characters to a literal starter's guide for disordered eating. And the description does not inform you of this, but this is a covid book in a very major way, with a "fun" review of all the conspiracy theories that were circulating in 2020. No thank you. 

This was great, especially on audio.

I really enjoyed Kenan’s reflections on:
•being a girl dad
•his friendship, beef, then friendship again with Kel 
•growing up in Atlanta (fun fact: he and my husband hung out at the same clubs back in the day)
•his stories from making it on SNL and hitting his goal of staying on the cast for 20 years

There are so many name drops- and with all of the stars who have worked on SNL or hosted and performed, how could there not be? 

I could have done without the Bill Cosby and Dan Schneider mentions, knowing what we know about them now, but they are a part of his story and Kenan does acknowledge Cosby’s fall from grace. 

I’ve watched Kenan since the 90s on All That and this made him even more endearing to me.