Bustle Reads 2016 discussion

Bustle has offered Bad Feminist, I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, and Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" as possibilities. What is your recommendation?

I am reading Bad Feminist right now. I really enjoyed her essays that were about her personal life, but I think I'm finding the 2nd section (which has been about books and other writing) because she's talking about things I haven't read. Has anyone else read it?

I have not. What books is she talking about?

What I can remember are "Green Girl" and "This is How you Lose Her." There's been a couple of others, but since I haven't read them, they don't stick in my head. I think they are probably very well thought out and good critiques, but I guess they just aren't as interesting to me as some of the other ones.

I read The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan - it's a mix of essays and short stories, does that count? It's a great read anyway, I'd highly recommend it

I really enjoyed bad feminist, was last year so isn't really fresh in my mind. I liked when she was talking pop culture quite a lot, like her take on the help and django unchained.

Yes! I her pop culture ones were my favorite. The Django essay kind of changed my life. Or at least the Tarantino watching portion of my life. :)

Shirley wrote: "I really enjoyed bad feminist, was last year so isn't really fresh in my mind. I liked when she was talking pop culture quite a lot, like her take on the help and django unchained."

I'm reading Mindy Kaling's Why Not Me. Probably not what Bustle had in mind, but I needed something funny to read from time to time between some of these heavier reads.

I enjoyed her book Jane , what I think of as a palate cleanser.

Exactly Shirley!

I just finished My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays, i liked it, but i didnt think it was that good.

I've read two book of essays this year, 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater, by Sarah Ruhl, one of my very favorite playwrights, and Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West.

I really enjoyed reading The World is on Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of the Apocalypse. It was full of information that I didn't know and probably didn't need to know, but was entertaining all the same.

Jennie wrote: "What I can remember are "Green Girl" and "This is How you Lose Her." There's been a couple of others, but since I haven't read them, they don't stick in my head. I think they are probably very well..."

Roxanne Gay critiques "This is How You Lose Her"? I'm definitely going to have to check that essay out as I had a lot of strong opinions about that book (despite my love for Junot Diaz).

I read The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman. I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, and I enjoyed a quite a few of the essays, but honestly the arrangement of the essay I thought was a little tedious and repetitive. I would more recommend reading essays out of order over a period of time than straight through like I did.

I read Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things for this one. I'd recommend starting with Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir if you're new to Jenny Lawson. They're almost partner books with Let's Pretend being the funnier of the two but Furiously Happy being a more honest book about mental illness. I liked both but Let's Pretend is definitely an easier read.