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miss_creant's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
A lovely collection of essays. I love Jo Ann Beard’s writing style. The essay about her mother was absolutely gorgeous.
nikki_booknook's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed some of the pieces in this short story collection, like "Behind the Screen" and "The Fourth State of Matter", but others, especially "Coyote" which I couldn't even finish, left me uninterested. It's worth picking up from the library like I did but I wouldn't buy it.
mbdarwin's review against another edition
5.0
Certainly one of the best writers I've read recently. Both The Fourth State of Matter and The Boys of My Youth were so masterfully written and are now two of my all time favorite essays. I still catch myself thinking about them all of the time. Bulldozing the Baby was also so creatively structured and the point of view was perfect. I could go on. Read this book. It is fantastic.
kmgard's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
angie_reading's review against another edition
Beard's "Forth State of Matter" is one of the best personal essays I have read.
mearghan's review against another edition
5.0
Here are some sentences from this book that could have been written about me:
"The truth is I'm weary of all that men stuff"
"I've always had a tendency to be mean to men; now there's a reason for it"
"I'm working on having a better personality"
"The truth is I'm weary of all that men stuff"
"I've always had a tendency to be mean to men; now there's a reason for it"
"I'm working on having a better personality"
dianametzger's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly I was tempted to do 2 stars bc the stories are SO uneven and some are downright boring. But the good stories are REALLY good and her prose is beautiful.
perilous1's review against another edition
3.0
On the whole, his was a pretty erratic read. The author jumps around from memory to memory in her small-town Midwestern life without anything this reader could call a logical cohesion or progression. Half of the time, these short stories almost feel more like tangential modern poetry than memoir essays. The most gripping and memorable of these was, hands down, her memory of a horrific act of workplace violence that the author narrowly avoided.
While seeming somewhat unlikely, the author's recollections of her still-in-crib childhood motivations and impulsive thought processes are both amusing and endearing. (Though, I did wonder a bit at their significance to the work as a whole.) Much of the collection has a meandering feel that doesn't seem to resolve or intertwine with the rest. Which is, of course, the author's right in narrative non-fiction.
This reader's most prominent lack of connection over this book centered on the teenage and adult versions of the author. Beard has a detached, stoic sort of style, which translates well with scenes involving her younger self being high—yet, doesn't seem to provide insight into her mental inner-workings while sober. Readers who enjoy reading autobiographical works as a way of getting to know the author and their perspective more intimately may walk away from this collection with that particular desire unfulfilled.
sekulig's review against another edition
5.0
This is a marvelous collection. Poetic and ripe with details, a beautiful portrait of a life.