I added this book to my TBR the very first day I joined Goodreads in July 2008, so yes I do feel accomplished for finally having read it. And it was a good time! I was a bit worried based on a few reviews I’d read ahead of time that it would be dated, and it was a tiny bit (mostly in some jokes Bryson makes that read a little fatphobic to my 2018 eyes and ears, but would have been absolutely bog standard in […]
My First Ever DNF featuring Paul, Mary, Mel, and Sue <3
American on Purpose opens with a chapter on the white house correspondents dinner which I read just after reading this article. It made it feel a bit sour in my mouth. I bought this book, because, despite my rather lukewarm rating for Between the Bridge and the River, I did think it showed potential and people here were raging about how this biography was really good. I persevered through it, somewhat, but it was honestly a slog. It is mainly written for Americans, and there […]
The Radio Guy Runs a Few Marathons
I became a consistent NPR listener when I moved to a region where the radio options were country music, Christian rock, or NPR. I wanted something to listen to in the car to and from work and while running errands, and I can only tolerate the first two options in small doses, then it all starts to sound the same to me and that gets annoying. So when I heard that Peter Sagal, longtime host of one of the more entertaining talk options “Wait […]
Hug Your Secret Service Agent
If Hope Never Dies does not win Best Humor in the Goodreads awards for 2018, I will never again be able to regard them as real awards. The plot and a lot of characters are pretty stereotypical for a mystery or buddy-cop adventure, but it’s a lot of fun, like one of those Obama-Biden memes novelized. Not much as a serious mystery, but really entertaining. Think of the plot and main duo of any buddy-cop adventure: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour), Danny Glover […]