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habertoes's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, and Drug use
Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
alexmac's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse
Minor: Racism
evergreensandbookishthings's review
4.0
This was another review copy provided by Little Brown, as part of their ambassador program and it's not the kind of book I would have normally sought out, since I'm not big on memoirs and I figured the existential talk would be over my head. Admittedly, some of it is, yet Gisleson can compare Dante to Hot Tub Time Machine (!) and she intersperses the existential with such accessible thoughts on motherhood, sisterhood, marriage and life. And at it's heart, it is a beautiful and raw ode to her sisters who committed suicide years ago, the death of her father, and the city of New Orleans. It was very surreal to read it during hurricane season and all of the devastation that is happening right now. A memoir that reads like an atmospheric novel is impressive stuff. I haven't been back to New Orleans since Katrina, but The Futilitarians has me absolutely itching to return.
Visit Born and Read in Chicago for more reviews and bookish musings.
Visit Born and Read in Chicago for more reviews and bookish musings.
tippycanoegal's review
4.0
This is a thoughtful, honest, delightful memoir that centers around the first somewhat fabulously quirky year of reading and conversation for the New Orleans "Existential Crisis Reading Group." Along the way, it also becomes focused on the author's large family and its losses. The author, who is smart, articulate, and deeply sensitive to the great absurdities of life, is generous in her straight-up sharing of herself and her ideas as they revolve around the readings and her responses and musings. I loved this book, even though I more than once wished that an editor had helped to resolve some of the repetitions that creep in along the way. The book's setting--New Orleans--plays a big role here and allows those of us who have all-too-briefly fallen under its spell to imagine life there.
olevia's review
5.0
I want to be as brilliant and well-read as Giselson and most of her friends. I want to move to New Orleans so I can humbly submit myself for possible membership in the ECRC.
christie's review
3.0
There was a lovely chapter towards the beginning that was just so beautiful and heartbreaking. But then I got lost. So many things were happening, and sometimes happening again and again. I didn't quite get where things were going. It felt a little bit like I was on the whole somewhat random Stations of the Cross jaunt. Overall, there were parts I really enjoyed, but they were sandwiched between too many other moving parts.
hardcoverhearts's review
4.0
I know it is a romantic notion, but I do believe that there are times when a book finds its way to you at the moment you need it most. Such was the case with this book. I was granted an Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher, Little, Brown, and Company a while ago, and events conspired to put this lower and lower on my pile. Time passed. In that time, my father also passed away.
As fate would have it- this book is about a specific way the author found to understand life, grief, and her community after the loss of her twin sisters, father and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which devastated her hometown. She gathered a group of like-minded people to create a unique book club- The Existential Crisis Reading Group of those left behind in the aftermath of the storms. It's a book about finding answers in books and people. It's also a book about healing through big, universal ideas that span the course of history. It is smart, honest, literary, thoughtful and poignant. The subject matter was dealt with seriously, without platitudes or easy answers. I appreciated the gravitas that existed in the material, while the author was also able to infuse a sense of vibrancy still coursing through her.
I don't know if I would have resonated with the material if I read it before the passing of my father. There is a specific and unknowable experience that happens with the death of a parent that I realize now I could never have been prepared for, regardless of how deeply I studied the subject. It's experiential. Reading this book was a balm for my heart and my mind, as it brought the existential questions to the foreground, as her book club discussed them. For a bibliophile and a daughter, this was a magic combination to find in a book. I look forward to going back to this book from time to time as there is a lot there to contemplate.
Thanks to Little, Brown, and Company for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
As fate would have it- this book is about a specific way the author found to understand life, grief, and her community after the loss of her twin sisters, father and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which devastated her hometown. She gathered a group of like-minded people to create a unique book club- The Existential Crisis Reading Group of those left behind in the aftermath of the storms. It's a book about finding answers in books and people. It's also a book about healing through big, universal ideas that span the course of history. It is smart, honest, literary, thoughtful and poignant. The subject matter was dealt with seriously, without platitudes or easy answers. I appreciated the gravitas that existed in the material, while the author was also able to infuse a sense of vibrancy still coursing through her.
I don't know if I would have resonated with the material if I read it before the passing of my father. There is a specific and unknowable experience that happens with the death of a parent that I realize now I could never have been prepared for, regardless of how deeply I studied the subject. It's experiential. Reading this book was a balm for my heart and my mind, as it brought the existential questions to the foreground, as her book club discussed them. For a bibliophile and a daughter, this was a magic combination to find in a book. I look forward to going back to this book from time to time as there is a lot there to contemplate.
Thanks to Little, Brown, and Company for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
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