Hillary Carlip

the last third of this definitely improved dramatically for me. the rest was fine, okay, entertaining enough. it could be the heavy reliance on pop culture, which i have no reference point for at all, that made me not care much about most of the essays in the book. that said, her life experiences are pretty incredible. but the last part of the book was both more relatable and more interesting to me, and the writing felt more authentic, but maybe that is projection since i liked those essays show more better. i do like it when a book ends up unexpectedly featuring lgbtq people, that's always a nice surprise. show less

This is the kind of quirky photography book/social anthropology book I really like. Hillary Carlip collects shopping list, not something I would have thought inherently diverse or interesting, but you can see the personalities of the authors spilling out, even through something as silly as paper choice. Then Ms Carlip has made up stories about the lists, creating characters, then she dressed up as the characters and got herself photographed. So only the lists are real, but everything is show more quirky and interesting. A good book to have in the bathroom (and I mean that in a highly complimentary way!) show less

I picked this up at 6pm and when I looked at the clock, it was 3am and I'd finished. Hillary Carlip is completely posessed/ blessed with the knack of making real-life 'unputdownable'. (It probably helps that she's had an incredibly off-beat and interesting life.) The only thing that disappointed me was a sense of bitterness that appeared out of the blue in the final chapters - perhaps it was her relevation about why her relationships were such disaster zones, but it did feel a little uneven. show more Still, she's a fantastic writer and this made me feel nostalgic for a time and places I've never experienced in my own life...I straight away wanted to re-read 'A girl's guide to taking over the world', AND find a copy of 'Girl Power'. Oddball = awesome. show less

A hilariously funny memoir that clearly shows facts can indeed be stranger than fiction. Despite the recent flood of exageration and "woe is me, can you believe I survived that?" dribble that leaves one doubting the truth (or worthiness) of this genre nowadays, Carlip provides a light and entertaining story, packed with too much serendipity for it NOT to be true. These are tales of a person who travels in the same circles as the rich and famous without ever being (or becoming) rich and show more famous herself. And while their fame and fortune might not have rubbed off, a lot of eccentricity apparently did, leaving behind a terrific narrator for this yarn. show less