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cdoxsie's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Eating disorder
lisakerd's review
3.0
I had never heard of Joseph Fink, Meg Bashwiner, or Welcome to Night Vale, but I was interested in the premise of their shared memoir. And while Joseph is supposedly the professional writer of the two, I liked Meg’s writing better (and highly recommend listening to the audiobook for her narration!).
thepaperbackplanner's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
You know when you’re telling a story about something that happened between you and a family member, friend, or significant other years ago, and suddenly the other person says, “Wait a second, that’s not how it happened?” That’s this book in a nutshell. Authors Meg Bashwiner and Joseph Fink each wrote essays about every year of their relationship’s first decade without consulting one another, then combined them in chronological order to map their love story. The result is a story that, when I was reading, almost felt like I was seeing a flip-book version of a couple’s relationship. I loved playing “spot the difference” between Joseph and Meg’s tellings of each year, and I came away from the book with a greater appreciation of how each of us experiences the same events, the same time frame, in a different way based on what matters most to us and what we’ve been through before. I just loved the writing styles throughout this book. I already knew I liked Joseph’s writing, of course, having listened to hundreds of hours of “Welcome to Night Vale” and read several of his books. But Meg’s very down-to-earth and sharp-witted style provided an excellent contrast to Joseph’s more literary, kind of “floaty” voice. I hope to read more from Meg in the future! If you want to feel some feelings about love, maybe check this out for your next summer read.
knod78's review
4.0
This was a cool concept for two people in a marriage to write their thoughts and perspectives for a 10 year time period. I would have never picked this up on my own had I not won this on Goodreads giveaways, but I'm glad I got to read it. The book definitely gives you pointers on how to properly communicate with your partner regardless if they meant to or not. They worked together even when they were annoyed, angry, frustrated, or sad. I guess I didn't like the repetitive information that they each gave in multiple chapters.
I highly recommend this book.
I highly recommend this book.
rozlev's review
5.0
Brilliant! Amazing writing...happy, poignant, inspiring, insightful, creative...just a wonderful description of a modern relationship and the two people who make it work. Loved every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, and year.
iratekate's review
1.0
This was a read for my book club. I liked the idea of two sides of the same story. I thought it was going to be interesting. I related with Meg the first few chapters with how she viewed her body but she very quickly became whiny and over dramatic. I felt Joseph's chapters are drawn out and lack luster. I did not relate or connect with either person. If I wasn't reading this for book club I would have DNF'd at 2012.
At the end of the day, I don't know who these people are. Never heard of the podcast and they are not interesting people to me. They become stuck up and take everything for granted and become over emotionally political and I didn't think that was necessary. I feel there was no moral to this story, not plot.. literally nothing interesting at all.
At the end of the day, I don't know who these people are. Never heard of the podcast and they are not interesting people to me. They become stuck up and take everything for granted and become over emotionally political and I didn't think that was necessary. I feel there was no moral to this story, not plot.. literally nothing interesting at all.