Welcome to Litsy!

5🌟A smart collection of essays exploring a generation of female celebrities and literary icons impact on society and pop culture with a personal touch. All The Lives I Want is a tribute to famous iconic women. Women who's lives and influence have been subjegative, some labeled difficult, some misunderstood. This was excellent!! For all my fellow millennials you will know these women, their stories and the moments Massey examines. #bookreview

What an amazing writer. I was completely blown away. I‘ve never read anything like this. Her writing is her own style. I loved every chapter except the last, I thought it was boring and went on too long. Also hard to relate to being with someone when they have a significant other. I felt no sympathy or connection to that part of the book.

Loving this book! So intelligently written. Can‘t stop reading.

I really enjoyed this. Massey combines cultural criticism with personal reflection in a way that both elucidates the topic (whether it's crazy ex girlfriends or Anna Nicole Smith) and invites the reader to consider its resonance on both personal and intellectual levels. It's entertaining, compassionate and endlessly incisive. All in all a fantastic read.

Alana Massey examines issues of mental health, self-perception and gender bias to close the gap between fame and womanhood. A great read for anyone shamelessly obsessed with pop culture. http://buff.ly/2p0ZZwy #wcw #writercrushwednesday

"I have not seen a fraction of the cruelty that the world is capable of, but I have trembled often enough in the aftershocks of my own resistance to a world built to break me to know know that female brutality is not just and acceptable response, it is the most sensible one, too."

"[I was] silently complicit in narratives that dismiss female rage as symptomatic of a juvenile character rather than the logical response to a hostile world."

It was... fine. The essays were uneven in both their writing and their appeal to me. I would've preferred more analysis, or a commitment to only telling personal anecdotes. There were sentences I had to read more than once because their construction was confusing.

Highlights: defending the unbridled affections of teen girls. The essay about The Virgin Suicides, which I may reference the next time I have to defend not reading more white dudes.

I read a fair amount of cultural criticism by women authors, and one of the first tests a writer has to pass is the way she talks about Nicki Minaj.

(I mostly care about whether they have noticed that Nicki's an intelligent human who makes deliberate choices informed by culture and her career goals. One of the things I haaaaated about GIRLS & SEX was how totally dismissive Orenstein was of basically any Black woman in the public eye.)

To this day, even as Sylvia is long dead by her own hand, her cautionary tale is not about lives poorly lived but about feelings too earnestly expressed. Nearly half a century after her death, we remain more interested in girls' being kept palatable than being kept alive.

I meant to read one essay and get to work. This was an hour ago...

I finally did my taxes today, so now I shall reward myself with a glittery book and a piece of carrot cake. #treatyoself

This was the last book I finished in February and I loved it so much. Alana Massey is that pop culture obsessed smart friend you wished you had. Her essays focus on how we shape our identities on pop culture and how we portray cultural figures to fit our own biases. Her essays are challenging and engaging. Want to have your cultural assumptions shaken up? Read her essay on Anna Nicole Smith. It's brilliant.

I am going to use up my Great Gatsby page flags just so I can re-read my favorite parts before I have to return it to the library. Then I'm going to buy my own copy and fill it with more page flags. This book reminds me why I love to read essay collections.

I'm not even 30 pages in yet but I think it's safe to say it's going to be one of my favorites of 2017.

One of my planned day off reads. Also hanging with Charlie bird.

Current read. Enjoying the sharp observations so far!

Getting lots of #bookmail lately...

Excited for this early read!