Should I Read This Book?

I agree. I don’t like when the cover has an endorsement sticker on it either, like Reese or Oprah or any of the book club people. It ruins the cover,and is impossible to remove. And it’s presumptuous to think the sticker/ recommendation is a positive thing. Leave the covers alone !

The best-stocked Little Free Library I’ve ever seen was in an ELEVATOR in Philadelphia (it was racks mounted on the wall rather than the more standard birdhouse-looking vitrine). And it was an elevator that only traveled between two floors! Serious decision pressure!

Ooo please share some recs!

Weighing in on the celebrity endorsements, specifically folks saying it’s a hard pass for them if a book has one: I looked at the Libby app list of “Jenna’s picks” and it includes works by Toni Morrison, Mary Oliver, and so many more classics. This isn’t an endorsement of her book club (I know nothing about it other than what I just saw.) It’s just to highlight that the books recommended by celebrities aren’t a monolith and not reading something specifically because it was recommended by a celebrity might be keeping you from discovering something you may enjoy. While I don’t pick up books specifically because of celebrity endorsements, a lot of books I’ve liked recently happen to be endorsed by some celeb or another and my feathers were a bit ruffled by some of comments that made it seem like these books are somehow more commerical or less valuable just because they’re popular. Popular art can be meaningful, too.

Adding to what Lauren has said, below–I’m a literature professor, and I have found over the years that lots of celebrity book clubs and book lists are actually chock full of excellent works, of the kind that are worth reading and rereading, which we often assign or hope our students will read at some point. Toni Morrison is an excellent, wonderful example. I wouldn’t be surprised if hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even in the low millions of people, are eventually exposed to Toni Morrison because of some celebrity book club or celebrity recommendation. There are other similar authors. To my mind the widespread promotion of Toni Morrison counts as a major and valuable public education project. I’ve noticed, in my very conservative middle-of-the-country area, that lots of titles which started as book club books also end up eventually in the Little Free Libraries around here, which makes for some great fiction choices for me and other people who sometimes have very little money. I’m not too elitist for reading airport fiction from time to time–some airport fiction is also really well-written and really great–but I would say that celebrity endorsement lists are often a notch above airport fiction. The novels on these lists are typically interesting and well-written, with novel and valuable perspectives on the world. These lists have also historically been deeply stocked with texts by and for women; they are a major part of the publishing economy that enables novels from women’s perspectives to really thrive. Would I love to see more queer perspectives, disabled perspectives, trans perspectives, etc., on these lists? Or a more diverse range of perspectives from authors of color? Absolutely. But I am grateful for these book clubs nonetheless. I think, if a person lives in NYC or Boston or another major coastal city, they might have limited utility, but for others, they can be really great.

I actually look forward to Obama’s reading list every year. He has good taste and his preferences skew less commercial than other recommenders. He reads way more non-fiction that I care to, but his fiction recommendations are generally spot on.

Absolutely agree. And it is also worth remembering that many times the reason that people read these particular books is because somebody else found them on the list and recommended them. And every single book store or website pushes them because they are on particular lists. I don’t trust any of the same people who supposedly compile these lists not to have their own agendas and often think about all the books that don’t get promoted or read or even picked up to be published because they will never suit these lists.

Yeah. Here with ya.

Farhana, he’s enraged me as well. The overall dissonance right now as the ceasefire begins is also humming behind all my other thoughts: It’s a beginning, and an absolutely vital one, but Gazans need aid and attention as desperately as they did before, and I have no reason to believe Israel will do right by them once the hostages are home. I’m terrified and so angry.

Thank goodness for a ceasefire, unbelievable relief for the families of the hostages, mixed with immense sadness about the horrific loss of innocent lives on both sides. May peace hold and aid flood in. Much love and aloha for Obama, still here in the Hawaiian islands.

Yes, I agree. His statement on the alleged “ceasefire” today was very underwhelming as well. No matter how robust his reputation may have been on the day he left office (and it was not a flawless administration) the shine has worn thin, for sure.

Aside from the fact that Obama killed over an estimated 3,700 people with his drone strikes, his latest statement on the recent ceasefire is vile. He addresses “Israeli families” and “people of Gaza” as if Gazans are devoid of families and haven’t spent the last 2 years watching their loved ones be slaughtered or waste away from deliberate lack of food.Every word is intentional and he meant to dehumanize Palestinians by his wording. He’s such a disappointment.