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keen23's review against another edition
4.0
Not a bad anthology of essays. Some are much better than others, but it was bound to happen. Massachusetts was a favorite of mine, Arizona didn't work for me.
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
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.