allybmcg's review
4.0
quirky, sweet becomes prophetic and wise now that amy is gone. unfortunately the interactive bits have not been maintained over the years. as i write this, the website is down and i couldn’t get a text back. but listening to amy’s voice on the audiobook makes up for it all. it was never really about the texts. it was about feeling connected.
bye.
i love you.
thank you.
bye.
i love you.
thank you.
literatehedgehog's review
5.0
So many good feelings from this memoir/collection of observations/interactive text. Would be something to come back to, like comfort reading, like a great friend.
annebennett1957's review
5.0
5+ stars.
I love this book as much as her Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life except there was a pall hanging over me the whole time I read it because I had learned about the author's death between the reading of the first and second "adult" book.
There is one section where Rosenthal talks about recognizing that her life is limited so she must treasure those moments of gazing at trees (or whatever) but in her example she says it is likely she'll die somewhere around age 80. I'm pretty sure that I sobbed at that point knowing that she was right, she did have a limited life span, but it had been much more limited than she guessed. Sigh.
I decided I want my mother to read her books, Encyclopedia and Textbook, but I will give her stern warnings not to open the card from me until she is done reading both. In the card i will explain that the author died of cancer in 2017, just a year after this book was published. It will make the memory of the book both sweet and poignant for her. My mother, btw, is 94 and a treasurer of life. She'll appreciate Amy Krouse Rosenthal's gusto for our ordinary lives.
Now I'm off to see if any of her text links or email links are still alive.
I love this book as much as her Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life except there was a pall hanging over me the whole time I read it because I had learned about the author's death between the reading of the first and second "adult" book.
There is one section where Rosenthal talks about recognizing that her life is limited so she must treasure those moments of gazing at trees (or whatever) but in her example she says it is likely she'll die somewhere around age 80. I'm pretty sure that I sobbed at that point knowing that she was right, she did have a limited life span, but it had been much more limited than she guessed. Sigh.
I decided I want my mother to read her books, Encyclopedia and Textbook, but I will give her stern warnings not to open the card from me until she is done reading both. In the card i will explain that the author died of cancer in 2017, just a year after this book was published. It will make the memory of the book both sweet and poignant for her. My mother, btw, is 94 and a treasurer of life. She'll appreciate Amy Krouse Rosenthal's gusto for our ordinary lives.
Now I'm off to see if any of her text links or email links are still alive.
amat_malak's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
4.0
I wanted more of those little anecdotes. So fun.
s_marsh21's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this book. Super easy to read. A delight on each page. Amy’s brain is amazing! It felt like poetry without is being too full of itself.
tonythep's review
2.0
While I enjoyed many of the insights and anecdotes and the overall attitude and energy of the author, Textbook doesn't really work as a book. It feels more like a blog, and the interactive text features didn't do much for me. If it had been marketed as a smaller, less expensive gift book, it would have been more successful.
jenaugustin17's review
3.0
A quick read. So crazy to hear what seem like my own thoughts on the page, but way more eloquently spoken.
mjsteimle's review
5.0
I read this library book in a day and then promptly got on Amazon and ordered a copy to keep on my bookshelf. This is one of those books that I'll want to read every year. Amy has such a talent for enjoying the moment, for connecting with people. This book is a smattering of thoughts and ideas. There are poems and pictures and interactive portions in which you can text a message or upload a picture. The title Textbook is, in part, a literal description: a book that instructs you to text. One of the things that makes this book so powerful is that Amy died shortly after it was published. She may have even had her cancer diagnosis while she was writing (I'm not sure). To me this makes her messages of noticing things around you and finding joy in the simple, everyday things in life even more poignant.