Reviews

All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy by Michael Harris

kaylagroening's review

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5.0

What do we (humans) want? What should we want? Why do we want, at all?

Michael Harris explores these questions (and more) in his thought-provoking book "All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy."

As a faculty member of Literary Journalism, Michael Harris displays his craft in this piecework of stories that span time and space. "All We Want" is eloquently written, engaging and a pure delight to read.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada, Doubleday Canada and Michael Harris for providing an advanced reader copy of this e-book. All opinions expressed above are my own.

tayloremmap's review against another edition

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2.0

This book started off really great, I loved the mini history lesson about advertising! By the end it felt disjointed, the author had so much to say and so many ideas but they were all left as loose ends 

lillimoore's review

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3.0

Hmm… felt pretty meandering to me, but had some nice moments. Full review to come!

lilyofthevalley_reads's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

kimmag92's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

jasmineehare's review

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informative medium-paced

3.25

I wish I had looked at the author more closely before starting this one; I read his book Solitude and found it to be pretty middling as well. I found the chapter on care quite moving, but aside from that, he doesn’t present many original ideas and I was just wading through a lot I had heard before.

chrislatray's review

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3.0

I liked this book enough to want to make sure I read Harris's other books, at least one of which I realize I already own (Solitude). It's not that I didn't like this one; the information is solid and the writing is beautiful. I don't know that the subtitle does justice to what the book is actually about, though, and I went into it expecting something different. It's more of a "this is the mess we've made of the world" book without a lot of attention to building a better one. Which is fine, just not what I was hoping for when I selected it to read.

Still, I could just as easily give the book four stars except the last section related to Harris's husband's mother, while lovely and heartbreaking, seems a forced-fit into the rest of the story. The book is just a little disjointed, I guess I'd say.

jhv_1984's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

beckysbookshelf's review

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informative fast-paced

4.0

erynlasbelin's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective fast-paced

4.75