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shelleydavis's review against another edition
4.0
The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale is for every woman who has that feeling that she has fallen short of all that she dreamed for herself because she “settled” for family. At first, the book did seem a little bit slow and I wasn’t entirely sure where the author was going with it. But as we follow Leda through college, you really begin to connect with her inner dialogue about all the situations she finds herself in. I actually caught myself thinking, “oh my gosh I didn’t realize other women think this way!” While it may not seem like there is anything fantastical happening to Leda, these every day stories of her every day life let every day women know that they aren’t odd or alone with the thoughts they battle. I enjoyed the simplicity of Leda’s character and the vulnerability she constantly battles. While it may not seem like an outright feminist book, I believe this book is what women need to feel okay with being “normal” because that normal is what makes them great.
kpabs's review against another edition
4.0
Hard to get through at first- the protagonist was so whiny! But the writing picked up as the book went on, and I enjoyed it by the end.
edkohen's review against another edition
2.0
I never felt like there was any character development or story, just random vignettes that occasionally had some charm. I don't usually need a story, but if the author goes that way...well, I want to be interested in at least one character.
nidhisaakshi's review
Was too immature. Couldn’t really get into the characters or plot.
mollypitcher's review against another edition
5.0
Trivial and hard to get into at the start, this book is a series of vignettes over the course of the main character's life, from young adulthood to death. Sometimes, it seems like nothing happens in a chapter, or even longer . . . but that's how life is, right? Ultimately it had a lot to say about how important a life is, the power of relationships (particularly mother/daughter relationships), and womanhood. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone reading this.
montigneyrules's review against another edition
2.0
#readingchallenge2018 (my book borrowed (from a library))
Early novel, I was hooked. I’ll admit, Leda resonated with me so well. She gave off this misanthropic vibe. I thought ‘yes the world sucks-she gets it! I wanted to dive into more of the struggle I related to experiencing, as she gave off a great honesty.
But then…. the author had no idea where to go with the novel. I wrote in my progress it felt like a betrayal. We’re introduced to this college age girl to follow, but suddenly we’re falling downhill very quickly-whizzing past the entirety of her life. It was all over the place in the worst way. It accelerated-timeline wise-way too fast. I’d read the chapter headers and think whaaa?! she’s engaged, she’s married, she’s you name it …. already? It needed focus-stay in one 10-year gap, really dive in. The story was spread too thin.
I did enjoy Leda’s younger life. It had potential. I read all the way through because I did feel I connected so deeply to her early on, I wanted to know how she grew up, but I had more than a few issues:
1. The Noam Chomsky angle barely came up. What needed to be done, is reference the novel more. Move it around in the background, have John ask about it, make it referenced in a class, have her seeing someone else reading it in public during an important stage in her life. In all, I think it was referenced three times-this was terrible. It’s the friggin’ title!? How can the author make it that big of a deal, then forget the point? The synopsis made it seem like not reading it was a direct impact.
2. The descriptors were so bad, regarding characters, I struggled to picture was Leda fat? Or was she a skinny girl struggling with weight? I really hated that I couldn’t figure out if she was frumpy and felt it, or if she was pretty and overly stuck in her head. This was a big disconnect
3. Later in life, the novel started to focus on minor characters a bit too much-like a tangent not properly executed. Ex. Some storylines with her daughter-they were awful. She randomly got a lot of page time, with no prior exposure to her as large focal character
4. Lost plot points-schooling, career, writing, entering essays, talking to her mom, John topics. Too much was skirted around
Early novel, I was hooked. I’ll admit, Leda resonated with me so well. She gave off this misanthropic vibe. I thought ‘yes the world sucks-she gets it! I wanted to dive into more of the struggle I related to experiencing, as she gave off a great honesty.
But then…. the author had no idea where to go with the novel. I wrote in my progress it felt like a betrayal. We’re introduced to this college age girl to follow, but suddenly we’re falling downhill very quickly-whizzing past the entirety of her life. It was all over the place in the worst way. It accelerated-timeline wise-way too fast. I’d read the chapter headers and think whaaa?! she’s engaged, she’s married, she’s you name it …. already? It needed focus-stay in one 10-year gap, really dive in. The story was spread too thin.
I did enjoy Leda’s younger life. It had potential. I read all the way through because I did feel I connected so deeply to her early on, I wanted to know how she grew up, but I had more than a few issues:
1. The Noam Chomsky angle barely came up. What needed to be done, is reference the novel more. Move it around in the background, have John ask about it, make it referenced in a class, have her seeing someone else reading it in public during an important stage in her life. In all, I think it was referenced three times-this was terrible. It’s the friggin’ title!? How can the author make it that big of a deal, then forget the point? The synopsis made it seem like not reading it was a direct impact.
2. The descriptors were so bad, regarding characters, I struggled to picture was Leda fat? Or was she a skinny girl struggling with weight? I really hated that I couldn’t figure out if she was frumpy and felt it, or if she was pretty and overly stuck in her head. This was a big disconnect
3. Later in life, the novel started to focus on minor characters a bit too much-like a tangent not properly executed. Ex. Some storylines with her daughter-they were awful. She randomly got a lot of page time, with no prior exposure to her as large focal character
4. Lost plot points-schooling, career, writing, entering essays, talking to her mom, John topics. Too much was skirted around
librarimans's review against another edition
3.0
This was a bit of an odd story for me. I spent the majority of the book wishing Leda would stand up for herself and go through with something that she wanted to do, but at the same time by the end it was a very lovely story of a life in full. Despite my frustrations with Leda, the book really does a nice job of presenting all the sacrifices one makes on their journey through life. I'd comfortably score this with 3.5 stars if possible, but I'm going to round down to three as it was a little overwritten at times.