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briannadasilva's review against another edition
Big fan of Hitchens but... this book was just not keeping my attention.
takumo_n's review against another edition
5.0
It took me a while. Even the hack jobs and last minute articles that he wrote with a hangover are worth reading. My favourites were his book reviews because he was a very intelligent, sensitive reader. In the last part of the book are two essays that I highly recommend you look for, whoever stumble upon this review by accident, they're "The 'other' L-word" and "The you decade." Very relevant, and if you like them read the rest of this book.
nikshelby's review against another edition
5.0
"Why should we care what the Founding Fathers believed, or did not believe, about religion? They were to such great trouble to insulate faith from politics, and took such care to keep their own convictions private, that it would scarcely matter if it could now be proved that, say, George Washington was a secret Baptist. The ancestor of the American Revolution was the English Revolution of the 1640s, whose leaders and spokemen were certainly Protestant fundamentalists, but that did not bind the Framers and cannot be said to bind us, either."
kevin_shepherd's review against another edition
5.0
In reading this eclectic collection of 107 articles and essays, covering everything from abolition to Zionism, I am repeatedly reminded that brilliance and forthrightness were the hallmarks of all that was Hitchens.
jacksezerhga's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
Many of these essays, due to my age and/or knowledge were vastly irrelevant to me personally, however, I can still see the brilliance even in these! I divert from Hitch in MANY a realms but I still always love reading him. He has such a beautiful way with words that will be severely missed. If only he was around to write into our current political landscape..
toniclark's review against another edition
4.0
Have read about half. Will continue dipping into it from time to time.
tani's review against another edition
So. I got this on a whim and started reading it based on the rave reviews. And now I'm doing something that I do very very rarely. I'm abandoning it. I got a little over halfway through, and decided that it just wasn't worth wasting hours and hours of my life to read something that I wasn't enjoying in the slightest. The parts I did read were pretty much book reviews, almost none of which I had read (Harry Potter being the only exception). And it was tolerable and all. He's obviously a very smart man, even if I didn't agree with some of the major opinions that he was expressing.
Then he started talking about humor between men and women and why women talk about humor more than looks when discussing men. Which could have been an interesting commentary about the different cultural expectations of the gender. Unfortunately, the part I read seemed to be just saying that women just are less discriminating in what they find funny and are only capable of being funny if they're lacking in looks (since clearly you can't be both pretty and funny). This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Thanks so much for the offering of your insights, Christopher Hitchens, but I think I'll pass. There are better things for me to read.
Then he started talking about humor between men and women and why women talk about humor more than looks when discussing men. Which could have been an interesting commentary about the different cultural expectations of the gender. Unfortunately, the part I read seemed to be just saying that women just are less discriminating in what they find funny and are only capable of being funny if they're lacking in looks (since clearly you can't be both pretty and funny). This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Thanks so much for the offering of your insights, Christopher Hitchens, but I think I'll pass. There are better things for me to read.
davidsteinsaltz's review against another edition
3.0
Hitchens is truly inspiring when he writes about literature. He is opinionated but generous. When he writes about politics he does it technically well, but his pretensions grow quickly tiresome.
worky's review against another edition
4.0
Amazing range of well thought out opinions, mightn't agree with them all but he was (died while I was reading) a polymath.