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sunbreak's review against another edition
4.0
I wish the editors had a few less hipsters and a few more natives write the chapters. Tennessee ended up being my favorite, Ohio was pretty accurate too.
debs4jc's review against another edition
3.0
Our marvelous country is so varied--and perusing the various essays of this book will definitely reinforce that fact. Each is wonderfully different, some even are done in graphic novel form, as talented authors with connections to each state (i.e. Augusten Burroughs for New York) share their impressions of it. I enjoyed many of these glimpses into the diverse ways of life and geography of our United States. This would be a great read for someone new to the U.S. or who enjoys travel.
corvingreene's review against another edition
4.0
The essays are hit or miss and mostly written for non-natives. I don't know anyone who liked the essay for the state they hail from (I HATED the essay on Iowa, and was hit by fat phobia from the first paragraph), and I wish they'd made more of an effort to get people who actually live in that state, as opposed to tourists, to write the essays, but it is a great project and definitely worth a read.
lisawhelpley's review against another edition
3.0
Someone reviewed this as being written by authors native to each state and that is not the case, which is perhaps the problem. Another problem is that you can't find 50 Dave Eggers or Susan Orleans, so you get some states with less-than-stellar (or lazy) writers. Of the states I read, Ohio and Illinois were lovely...well written, with genuine love for the state as well as facts and information. Iowa's essay (my native state) was written by someone who didn't seem to know anything about Iowa. I think he was just visiting. For instance, how could you be in Iowa and have to LEARN the difference between field corn and sweet corn? That's something Iowans are born knowing! (Just kidding, but really, come on.) Anyone at University of Iowa's writers' school surely could have written something much, much better. Michigan's essay was sweet but written by someone who had only lived there a few years of his life.
lauriestein's review against another edition
5.0
I adore this and have never more wanted to take a cross-country road trip than when reading it. Must get hands on some of those WPA guides.
msladyreads's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who has strong roots to my hometown in northeast Ohio and appreciates the city of Columbus where I have lived for most of my life (with only small intervals of time away: to spread my wings, create enough distance away from my parents to be able to get in trouble, eat some bomb-ass sushi on the other side of the world, etc.), I really liked the essays included in this compilation.
Some of the authors who contributed I have read, some I have not, the majority all writing truthfully about the state where they grew up or currently live. To me, they displayed the strong feelings and appreciation that I have for my own state of birth, (see also, life, love and the horrors of middle school). If a writer feels so passionately about the virtues of their home place, like Nebraska, it seeps through the pages and may convert a reader who previously was ambivalent about Nebraska in every way possible. Almost every state essay was a story like it was a family member: with tenderness, truthfulness but an acknowledgement that there is shared blood, shared memories, shared ties that mean something big.
This leads to my only point of contention: WHO decided that the Ohio essay was on par with the rest of the writings. I am not writing this only because Ohio is close to my heart but I am writing because Ohio is close to my heart. The essay was bland, distant and literally the word disappointment is in the last sentence of the essay. It is not difficult to sell Ohio's charms especially to a life long Ohioan. If one author is capable of making me want to visit Nebraska, than Ohio's author should at least be capable of making me nod my head and smile.
Some of the authors who contributed I have read, some I have not, the majority all writing truthfully about the state where they grew up or currently live. To me, they displayed the strong feelings and appreciation that I have for my own state of birth, (see also, life, love and the horrors of middle school). If a writer feels so passionately about the virtues of their home place, like Nebraska, it seeps through the pages and may convert a reader who previously was ambivalent about Nebraska in every way possible. Almost every state essay was a story like it was a family member: with tenderness, truthfulness but an acknowledgement that there is shared blood, shared memories, shared ties that mean something big.
This leads to my only point of contention: WHO decided that the Ohio essay was on par with the rest of the writings. I am not writing this only because Ohio is close to my heart but I am writing because Ohio is close to my heart. The essay was bland, distant and literally the word disappointment is in the last sentence of the essay. It is not difficult to sell Ohio's charms especially to a life long Ohioan. If one author is capable of making me want to visit Nebraska, than Ohio's author should at least be capable of making me nod my head and smile.
carrieliza's review against another edition
3.0
I like this book in theory, but not so much in execution. I like the idea of having an essay about each state, but I quickly realized there are some states I just really don't want to read about. I ended up skipping around reading the essays that looked interesting/were by writers I enjoy. So I can tell you Dave Eggers' piece on Illinois is fantastic. And I read Rick Moody's Connecticut, despite my sort of dislike of him. I liked it, but it focused on Fairfield county, which is not a part of my state that I care to read much about. Which is, again, why Eggers' was so good. A bit of history, a bit of wandering around the state, some generalizations. Great reading. The rest? I'm not sure.
mrsfligs's review against another edition
4.0
As with all collections with essays by various authors, the results are somewhat uneven. However, I can’t imagine anyone who lives in or has traveled extensively in the United States not being interested in how the states they have lived in or visited are portrayed. I was thrilled that Anthony Bourdain took on my home state of New Jersey (and did a good job with it), and I thought it fitting that Oregon’s entry was one of the few in the form of a “comic” strip (which prominently featured rain and umbrellas). Looking back now, the essay I remember the most fondly was Dave Eggers’s take on Illinois. Although I read this book straight through, I think the better approach would be to read one or two states a day—or just dip your toes in every so often. In addition to the essays, there are little factoids about each state that were interesting in their own right.
amb3rlina's review against another edition
2.0
I gave up on this book about half way through. It is fascinating in concept, but I just lost steam and there wasn't enough bringing me back to finish it. One can only renew at the library so many times :-) I think the essays were a little too diverse for my taste. Unpredictable and not quite so tied to the sense of place that I had hoped.
minvanwin's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful concept (50 essays on 50 states by 50 writers, plus an interview with DC's Edward P. Jones) pretty well-executed. It seems inevitable that with this many contributors, the anthology is bound to be a bit uneven. And it was.
The essays that work best are those written by people who love or live (or lived) in the state they're writing about. It's much more satisfying to read about someone's childhood vacations to Florida, say, than it is to read about someone's poorly researched and misinformed weekend excursion to a place. (David Rakoff, I'm looking at you.)
You can argue that we can learn more about ourselves and our culture if we examine it from an outsider's perspective (a la Tocqueville). But in this volume, the travel journalism just can't compare with the warm, proud, complex, and conflicted reflections by the writers writing about home.
This book has something to offer everyone, if only one or two essays. And if you want to read the entire book, I recommend not reading it cover to cover. The alphabetical journey from Alabama to Wyoming isn't all that magical. The editors might have thought of a more creative way to organize the essays, perhaps by admission to the Union (Delaware to Hawaii), by toothlessness rate (West Virginia to Hawaii), roller coasters per capita (New Hampshire to Wyoming), or suicide rate (Alaska to New York). (Please note: those tables in the back of the book are awesome.)
I abandoned the alphabetical approach after getting bored in Arizona. Here's how I ended up reading it. I recommend this more haphazard approach:
First, read about the states where you grew up and where you currently live. For me this led to a frustrating encounter with David Rakoff in Utah quickly followed by a delightful visit to Washington with Carrie Brownstein.
Next, check out the authors you know and love, who may or may not be writing about states you know and love. This approach took me to Jhumpa Lahiri's Rhode Island, and Ann Patchett's Tennessee early in my reading.
Try some authors who you don't necessarily know or love but whose work you're curious to sample. For me, this led to Ha Jin's Georgia and many others.
Still not finished? Try some states you don't necessarily know or love, but ones where you perhaps traveled briefly for a family vacation, drove through on your way to somewhere else, or have a great aunt to whom you have not spoken, ever. Who knows? You may discover some real gems. Thanks, Alexander Payne, for making Nebraska seem maybe hip, and Louise Erdrich, for making North Dakota seem not completely lame.
Still got some unread essays? Pick and choose at random. My last stop was Jack Hitt's South Carolina.
The essays that work best are those written by people who love or live (or lived) in the state they're writing about. It's much more satisfying to read about someone's childhood vacations to Florida, say, than it is to read about someone's poorly researched and misinformed weekend excursion to a place. (David Rakoff, I'm looking at you.)
You can argue that we can learn more about ourselves and our culture if we examine it from an outsider's perspective (a la Tocqueville). But in this volume, the travel journalism just can't compare with the warm, proud, complex, and conflicted reflections by the writers writing about home.
This book has something to offer everyone, if only one or two essays. And if you want to read the entire book, I recommend not reading it cover to cover. The alphabetical journey from Alabama to Wyoming isn't all that magical. The editors might have thought of a more creative way to organize the essays, perhaps by admission to the Union (Delaware to Hawaii), by toothlessness rate (West Virginia to Hawaii), roller coasters per capita (New Hampshire to Wyoming), or suicide rate (Alaska to New York). (Please note: those tables in the back of the book are awesome.)
I abandoned the alphabetical approach after getting bored in Arizona. Here's how I ended up reading it. I recommend this more haphazard approach:
First, read about the states where you grew up and where you currently live. For me this led to a frustrating encounter with David Rakoff in Utah quickly followed by a delightful visit to Washington with Carrie Brownstein.
Next, check out the authors you know and love, who may or may not be writing about states you know and love. This approach took me to Jhumpa Lahiri's Rhode Island, and Ann Patchett's Tennessee early in my reading.
Try some authors who you don't necessarily know or love but whose work you're curious to sample. For me, this led to Ha Jin's Georgia and many others.
Still not finished? Try some states you don't necessarily know or love, but ones where you perhaps traveled briefly for a family vacation, drove through on your way to somewhere else, or have a great aunt to whom you have not spoken, ever. Who knows? You may discover some real gems. Thanks, Alexander Payne, for making Nebraska seem maybe hip, and Louise Erdrich, for making North Dakota seem not completely lame.
Still got some unread essays? Pick and choose at random. My last stop was Jack Hitt's South Carolina.