ginnikin's review against another edition
I didn't agree with everything he had to say, and I wonder how much he would say different today. Regardless, it was full of great teaching tips and some good Project Runway gossip.
dja777's review against another edition
3.0
Light read, interesting thoughts on teaching. Tim Gunn is high on my list of people I would love to just sit and chat with for hours, so I enjoyed how well his voice really came through the text.
carolynf's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this up for light Spring Break reading, possibly even a hate-read as I am thoroughly bored by reality TV and never formed a very high opinion of Tim Gunn. This book, however, reveals him to be a wonderful educator with simple and practical advice for teachers. His work is with college students and adults, so I don't think his tips would work with younger students. But for a high school teacher like me, most of it was quite relevant.
frogy927's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't realize quite how many books Tim Gunn has written when I requested this from the library. I think I meant to request one of the others. I have no idea who the audience for this is. It is too pedagogical-y for a general interest memoir and too memoir-y for people who are actually interested in educational theory. There's no empirical data, it's just a lot of Tim Gunn's opinions about teaching. And I'm not sure setting a curriculum for a fashion-arts college program is as applicable for the average k-12 teach as Tim Gunn seems to think. It was a quick easy read, but the parts that were pure memoir were my favorite.
alaspooriorek's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to this as an audiobook and it was really entertaining. I love that Tim Gunn isn't afraid to name names and tell the story. I could also appreciate his philosophy on life. 3/5 stars
rachelleahdorn's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this, it didn’t knock my socks off, but it was a fun quick read. I liked Project Runway, and I thought it was interesting to hear from Tim Gunn the teacher and mentor.
Honestly I picked it up when I was looking for books about teaching. As an art teacher, I think a lot of the perspective relates. The book was theoretically organized by a frankly silly acronym, but after the first section it seems like they gave up on the acronym and just stuck stuff where they wanted to. Each”essay” or maybe “essaylet” was a tiny anecdote about something in Gunn’s career.
Really I thought the general ideas behind the acronym were good—ask questions, be honest, be supportive, let them do the work themselves, and empathy.
I was surprised by a couple of times Gunn was mean to specific people— on a few Project Runway contestants he named and also ragged on, though I don’t actually remember any of them and his nephew, came in for some serious shade, too.
The section about when Gunn disparaged the trans models oddly slipped into a female voice as “the author” talked about the trouble “we” women have with unrealistic beauty standards. Gunn’s coauthor is female so maybe that’s the issue? Weird anyway.
Throughout the book there were little inset quotes from people talking about their influential teachers, mostly good, a few bad. These were interesting for a while and then became repetitive and generic.
So, decent read, worth it from the library.
Honestly I picked it up when I was looking for books about teaching. As an art teacher, I think a lot of the perspective relates. The book was theoretically organized by a frankly silly acronym, but after the first section it seems like they gave up on the acronym and just stuck stuff where they wanted to. Each”essay” or maybe “essaylet” was a tiny anecdote about something in Gunn’s career.
Really I thought the general ideas behind the acronym were good—ask questions, be honest, be supportive, let them do the work themselves, and empathy.
I was surprised by a couple of times Gunn was mean to specific people— on a few Project Runway contestants he named and also ragged on, though I don’t actually remember any of them and his nephew, came in for some serious shade, too.
The section about when Gunn disparaged the trans models oddly slipped into a female voice as “the author” talked about the trouble “we” women have with unrealistic beauty standards. Gunn’s coauthor is female so maybe that’s the issue? Weird anyway.
Throughout the book there were little inset quotes from people talking about their influential teachers, mostly good, a few bad. These were interesting for a while and then became repetitive and generic.
So, decent read, worth it from the library.
ashappee89's review against another edition
3.0
This book had its highs and lows. Ultimately, the good outweighed the not-so-good, so it merits 3 stars.
ginabelle's review against another edition
3.0
This book was really interesting and full of little stories and vignettes that hold morals and lessons in them (which I'm sure means I will remember them better!). It could be a little preachy at times but it was super interesting to hear Tim Gunn's views on fashion, mentoring, and teaching. He had super valuable and valid things to say and I'm sure any fan of "Project Runway" would love this book!