Does anyone else suffer through an occasional crappy book because the thought of not finishing something you started is agony? That is what I did with the most recent book I finished off NPR’s list of the 10 best books of 2016.
The Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel received great reviews, but I just never fully engaged with the book. Jane Jacobs was a journalist and activist focusing on the problems city planning methods caused for many communities in the 1950s.
While I appreciate the general idea of the book (that one person really can make a huge difference when it comes to social awareness and change), it just read like kind of a dull college research paper. Maybe skip this one unless you don’t have a problem with walking away from an unfinished book.
(Image from amazon.com)
Here is the updated list:
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel
Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939-1962 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
A HOUSE WITH CHARACTER 