I found this to be an insightful read. It was both sobering and quite amusing at different times. I could relate to the authors enthusiasm for journalism, as its a line of work thats interested me personally, although with me having social anxiety I accept its not likely to be my calling but I felt I could imagine myself in the authors shoes somewhat.
The book covers themes which are quite relatable to a number of people I'd imagine - mainly failure and also stress (which seems especially prevalent in the journalism industry), plus more generally mental health and talk of how women who are childless are regarded in society, to name but a few. In that sense, it had a feel to me of being a book of its time.
I liked the informal writing style - it sounds a bit like a friend talking you through everything. Parts of it read a bit like a long conversation and I enjoyed picturing said conversations with some people, both some relatively well known people but also colleagues and acquaintances of the author. As I read on, I found it to be quite touching and poignant. I expected it to focus a bit more specifically on the journalism side of the authors life, which it isn't entirely focussed on but the more I learnt about her and heard of both her and her relatives issues and backgrounds, the more I warmed to them and felt intrigued to keep reading and see what we (as the reader) would find out next. I'd say its fairly thought provoking at times, although some people may be a bit put off by the fact that it perhaps doesn't have an entirely clear plot direction as such, or whatever the non-fiction version of plot direction is!. It flows quite well and I managed to read just short of half of the book within one days worth of reading on and off, so it shouldn't take you too long to work your way through it.
My only criticisms that I can think to note here would be that personally I would have liked a little more detail about the authors journalism career - its given in a sort of a drip drip fashion and also that perhaps a little more in the way of an obvious structure would have been nice, although there are specific chapter titles, which are a bit cryptic in terms of how their titled but once you've read them, they make sense. Also, on ocassion it did sound a little bit like the author was bragging, which was a bit off putting, although I feel it only fair to be clear that the author has clearly had a fair number of lows as well as a few semi-extravagant highs.
Overall, I couldn't say it wasn't an interesting read that I didn't enjoy. I found it a fairly engrossing read and I'd recommend it on that basis.
The book covers themes which are quite relatable to a number of people I'd imagine - mainly failure and also stress (which seems especially prevalent in the journalism industry), plus more generally mental health and talk of how women who are childless are regarded in society, to name but a few. In that sense, it had a feel to me of being a book of its time.
I liked the informal writing style - it sounds a bit like a friend talking you through everything. Parts of it read a bit like a long conversation and I enjoyed picturing said conversations with some people, both some relatively well known people but also colleagues and acquaintances of the author. As I read on, I found it to be quite touching and poignant. I expected it to focus a bit more specifically on the journalism side of the authors life, which it isn't entirely focussed on but the more I learnt about her and heard of both her and her relatives issues and backgrounds, the more I warmed to them and felt intrigued to keep reading and see what we (as the reader) would find out next. I'd say its fairly thought provoking at times, although some people may be a bit put off by the fact that it perhaps doesn't have an entirely clear plot direction as such, or whatever the non-fiction version of plot direction is!. It flows quite well and I managed to read just short of half of the book within one days worth of reading on and off, so it shouldn't take you too long to work your way through it.
My only criticisms that I can think to note here would be that personally I would have liked a little more detail about the authors journalism career - its given in a sort of a drip drip fashion and also that perhaps a little more in the way of an obvious structure would have been nice, although there are specific chapter titles, which are a bit cryptic in terms of how their titled but once you've read them, they make sense. Also, on ocassion it did sound a little bit like the author was bragging, which was a bit off putting, although I feel it only fair to be clear that the author has clearly had a fair number of lows as well as a few semi-extravagant highs.
Overall, I couldn't say it wasn't an interesting read that I didn't enjoy. I found it a fairly engrossing read and I'd recommend it on that basis.