IRLBookClubPick

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis | J. D. Vance

I am an hour into #HillbillyElegy... 🤔🤷 It iiiiiiiiiiiis interesting, but I am not really enjoying it. I am confused by all the jumping around between him telling stories of different generations of his family. It just seems like a lot of random stories you'd tell your friends about weird/crazy things your family has done. 🤔🤔 Anyone else feel this way when they read it?
#IRLBookClubPick

BookishTrish I bailed for basically that reason. 5y

AlaMich I bailed on the audio pretty quickly, chiefly because I didn‘t care for Vance as the reader. Sometimes writer-as-reader just doesn‘t work. Also because it was sort of boring. (edited) 5y

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MinDea

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis | J. D. Vance

Just joined an IRL bookclub and we had our first meeting today. We picked #HillbillyElegy. Anyone else read this before? Thoughts? Worth reading? Good book club pick?
#IRLBookClubPick

bookandcat Decent, should lead to interesting discussion. If you're looking for adjunct reading, read the new Barbara Kingsolver (she wrote it partially in response to it, or so I read in an interview by her) 5y

MinDea @bookandcat Interesting. I might check it out depending on how I feel about Hillbilly Elegy after reading it. @JamieArc have you read either Hillbilly Elegy or the new Barbara Kingsolver that bookandcat is referring to? 5y

MinDea @Reviewsbylola I think I saw you post about this a while back. Do you have any thoughts here? 5y

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Joanne1 I‘m Australian so this gave me a very different view of a different part of America then we are usually exposed to. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3/4, though I wasn‘t sold on what he saw as the solutions. 5y

wanderinglynn This book provides one perspective on growing up in a poor, southern-esque culture. I thought he generalized things a bit too much particularly in his suggested solutions because while this is his story, his story is not necessarily representative of the culture. 5y

AmyG I read this. It was so completely different than how I grew up. I found it fascinating. 5y

lynneamch In spite of my aversion to this title, I've heard it is a much better representation, rather than just a personal story, as @wanderinglynn suggests

White Trash

MinDea @lynneamch @wanderinglynn interesting. Good to know that it is an overgeneralization of things there. I hope I enjoy it but I'm not sure if I will or not. Love all the perspectives! @amyG @Joanne1 Thank you! 5y

Blaire As someone who lives in Appalachia I didn‘t think it was a fair portrayal. He takes one experience and then comes to broad and I think incorrect conservative policy conclusions. Good discussion book tho. I recommend

What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia

JamieArc Along with what @Blaire said a little, I enjoyed reading it, but then after read some critiques that left me unsettled and questioning the reason he wrote it, so I don‘t necessarily recommend it now. I got the latest Kingsolver as my BOTM but haven‘t read it yet, and didn‘t realize it was a response to Elegy. That makes me want to get to it much quicker. 5y

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