This was one of those books I kept going back and forth on for a while. The first few chapters gripped me and I was excited to continue exploring Leda's inner thoughts. But as the novel went on I found that her voice became a bit tedious and I could not relate to her character as much as I'd hoped. There was a little too much "white privilege" going on for me to fully sit with the story and it pulled me out of it enough to affect my enjoyment.

To be completely honest, I struggled with this novel at the beginning. I almost gave up on it but after about the 20% mark, I started to enjoy it. Leda was going through a rough time and she just needed someone to understand her.

Leda spoke a lot in the novel about how she always wanted to be linear, which I implied, she meant she wanted to be slim, attractive or desirable. Leda is basically lonely, she needs someone, anyone. She dreams about boys, daydreaming about having relationships with them. Leda head was full of conversations that she would have with friends, these friends were her imaginary friends because in real life, Leda didn’t have any friends. Leda needed to do something with her life to find someone to connect with. When she signed up for an art appreciation class, she met John. This is when the speed of the novel picks up and gets interesting.

John was a bit odd himself, so they were perfect for one another. John is offered a job in California and he wants Leda to go with him. Reluctant at first, Leda leaves everyone and everything behind and follow John. I liked how John allows Leda to stay at home yet Leda decides this is too boring, even as she tries to continue her career as a writer. Leda tries a variety of activities in the novel from joining a Meetup group, to returning to her grade school research topic, to getting a job at a coffee shop. It seems that Leda is always searching to find herself and match it with happiness and contentment.

John in the meantime is working and enjoying his relationship with Leda. He is content with his life. Years pass quickly and Leda realizes that John hasn’t made any effort to put a ring on her finger which angers her. Ready to walk away, John finally commits to Leda but Leda still not content. I begin to wonder; will she ever be?

The beginning of the novel was confusing but I liked the novel as I liked Leda search for herself. She was one of those individuals who wanted it all, yet what was it that she was searching for? I wished that Leda had set some goals so at least she would have felt like she accomplished some things along her life. I do feel that Leda felt that she did happy with parts of her life, especially with Annabelle. I enjoyed this story.

I received this novel from NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. in exchange for an honest review.

THE GIRL WHO NEVER READ NOAM CHOMSKY by Jana Casale is yet another debut novel, this time focusing on a character named Leda and a myriad of details as she transitions from college to living in San Francisco, to marriage, to the lingering competition of motherhood and eventual old age. Throughout, there is a tension about pretending to be someone she's not, supplemented by explorations of forming memories about inconsequential encounters with people like the cable guy and crying at sad commercials. The cover is unfortunate and needs more "oomph," but this is a quiet, reflective book which has been quite popular with 20-somethings. Starred reviews from both Booklist and Kirkus ("So much fun, so smart, and ultimately profound and beautiful"), with an accompanying discussion guide: http://knopfdoubleday.com/guide/9781524731991/the-girl-who-never-read-noam-chomsky/

This title was highlighted at a recent Bookstall presentation on new Spring and Summer titles by publisher representatives.

This book was quite an enjoyable experience as a sort of series of "stills" from moments of a woman's life. It read like a series of short stories, all happening to be about the same central character and her life, but progressing through time. I enjoyed the wit, thoughtfulness, self-analytical tendencies, and range of emotions and experiences. I was a bit sad when I finished, as I felt I'd sort of accompanied this woman in her life and come to know her.

This title is amazing and sure to draw readers in, but the writing will quickly turn them away. I wanted to like this character who had not read Noam Chomsky (like me), but had ambitions to do so (same). Unfortunately, there's very little flow to the writing in a way that makes it hard to enjoy.

At the start, Leda, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky, is a college student studying writing who buys a copy of a Noah Chomsky book that travels with her throughout her life, but that she has never read (although she did open it a number of times). Leda is concerned about her appearance and her body, wanting to be "linear", which I assume means thin. Yet there are multiple descriptions of eating muffins, ice cream and other delicious high calorie foods. Leda doesn't appreciate how beautiful she is until she is older and no longer so.

Ultimately, it is a story of a life, a woman's life, a life like many others describing joys and sorrows, friendship, love, relationships, childhood and parenthood and roles determined by gender. Leda's friendship with Anne throughout the years is a wonderful illustration of how women's friendships can be superficial at the start, yet develop and grow throughout life.

Leda falls in love with John and when he graduates with a tech degree, gives up her own plans to get an advanced degree and follow him to San Francisco where he has gotten a job with Google. Perhaps the most real and gripping chapter in the book deals with John's reluctance to commit to marriage and Leda's increasing desire to follow a life without a career. She wants to be a traditional wife and mother and she succeeds in this.

So is her life happy and fulfilled? She and John seem to have it all, yet they grow apart and bored with each other as that life goes on. I think the Unread Noam Chomsky is the allegory of hard choices not made, more education, writing, lead to a life that seems ultimately empty. But it is a story of a life and one that many people would relate to. She is a loving daughter, a good wife, a wonderful mother. Is that all there is?

Jana Casale's first book is most promising and also filled with humor and sadness. I look forward to seeing more from her.

This book was just ok. The writing was choppy and left a bit to be desired, I just could not get into this book. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review

From the first page to the last, I never connected with Leda. She came across as vapid, self-involved, and frequently selfish. I hated how much time was spent on her self-loathing. The fact that I found her completely unlikable would have been fine if the story had been less navel gazing and more action.
I know Jana Casale can write - the scenes that didn't star Leda were engaging. Unfortunately, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky didn't work for me.

Rating: 1 Star (DNF @ 12%)

I know this book is about a woman that never reads Noam Chomsky, but does that mean she has to be so ambivalent toward other books? Did that mean I had to be so bored to tears by a book inspired by an author that I was almost instantly put off by it? I suppose it doesn't, but that's what happened with this title. To be fair, I probably should have researched Chomsky a bit before picking up a book with his name on the cover; hindsight and all that.

From the first page there was a sense of entitlement or elitism that was equal parts confusing, boring, and off putting. It felt like the author was putting on airs to make their writing sound like it was better than they thought it was and in doing so made it sound utterly pretentious. There was also this feeling I got that the author was patronizing and distasteful about the whole storytelling endeavor.

Leda was entirely unsympathetic. I thought that perhaps it was just the early parts of her personality, but the more I read the more I realized the author had just written her to be this unlikeable person. Maybe, maybe, she was working toward making Leda a better person, but the tone of the book was so horrible that I didn't care about seeing this possible bright future. There was nothing about Leda that made me want to know her, to see her get better.

There's definitely a constant fat shaming going on, though Leda uses the word "linear" in place of "fat". She also makes some comments that gave me the impression that she, at the very least, had this idea that fat people have no place on Earth.

"As she turned the corner it all fell away, the donuts, the linearity, the boy and his faultlessness; she caught a glimpse of her jumbled reflection in the window by the elevator, and it was awful. She was disgusting. She was fat."


She was also incredibly judgmental of others, tearing them down in what I would have thought was an effort to make herself feel better except she never did, so I'm not sure what the point was. I can't decide if Leda was being set up by the author to, at some point, become sympathetic because of her body image issues. Even if she was, I'm not sure I'd care because of her terrible attitude toward other people and their bodies. Her own is one thing, but dragging others down, saying they're fatter, lonier, etc., was too much.

The author also inserted sentences that revealed the future, such as saying when something was happening for the last time; that said, it's shown that Leda never heals from this compulsion ("This compulsion to be linear began at age twelve and would persist until her death.") and that, in all likelihood, the fat shaming would be present through the rest of the narrative. It was sad to hear Leda succumbed to this toxic viewpoint, even worse when the author told us at 1% of the way in that she never learns to love herself whatever her size.

Oddly enough, the book seems able to sum itself up in one quote:

"“I really don’t get the ending,” the girl across from her said. “Are we supposed to feel sorry for the main character? Because I really don’t. And it’s boring. Why do I care?”"


No characters to care about, a storyline that was flatter than a paved highway and about as tasteful, this book is not one I'd ever recommend.

This is cute, but I didn't like it enough to review it. Sorry.

The description for this book said "ambitious" -- and I agree with that. Sooo much detail, so intricate, so precise in it's journey through a life. I was waiting for that big AHA, that big ending moment when all the details would come together in a satisfying pattern. But, for me, the ending was more like a soft sigh.

I ended up putting the book down. It started so strong. I like the style, the descriptions, the flow. When the characters make their big move and conflict starts about marriage and kids, the pitiful voice that the narrator takes is unpleasant. I was really uncomfortable for her, which I might have seen through, but I don't think the book hit me at the right time to console the protagonist.

This is one of those books that sounded interesting but offered nothing but whining. I honestly didn't read very much of it, because I really didn't connect or care about the very irritating protagonist.

I requested this book because it seemed like it would be an interesting book. I was wrong. This book dragged on and on. It never felt like anything was happening even when the characters moved across the country. There didn't feel like there was anything going on through a miscarriage. There was just so much passive drama. There was never any heightened emotions or reasons to suck me in. It took me a week to read this book, normally books take me a day or two, but I kept falling asleep or getting distracted by everything else. 

The book follows Leda from college until her death. She goes from an aspiring writer to a stay at home mom to a widow. None of that really mattered though. None of it captivated my interest. I had hope when Leda moved to San Francisco. I moved to Berkeley months after graduating undergrad. They are a train ride away. I thought that maybe this book would pick up and Leda would understand what I felt like during that time, but no. Instead I got spoiled whining. San Francisco is expensive, but they never had money worries. They never really explored the city or really did anything at all. There was just so much inaction. If the story was meant to say that a life full of inaction is boring and that people need to branch out more, then this book did a wonderful job. I just don't think I needed almost four hundred pages to tell me that. 

The relationship between Leda and her fiance is strained and unhealthy. It is full of ultimatums, loss of power, and temper tantrums. It was really painful to read. Second hand embarrassment painful. I just wanted Leda to shut up and realize that she needed to grow up. She never did grow up. I feel like I was more mature that her throughout the entire book and I literally watch cartoons all the time and roll around on the ground when I get excited (to be fair, I have multiple dogs so it makes them excited when I do that). 

The book wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. The writing was well done, but there were hundreds of issues of punctuation that I hope get fixed before this hits the shelves. Leda would often be lower case for not discernible reason, so would a lot of other characters' names. It was random. If there was a pattern to it, then I might have thought it was intentional, but I couldn't for the life of me find a single potential pattern. The plot was boring, the characters were whiny and awful (mostly because they were all told from Leda's point of view which I had more than enough of in less than a hundred pages), and the idea that the novel revolved around another author never came through in a way that justified the length of the book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I truly wanted to love this book. The synopsis sounded right up my alley. And I have to say, the content, the main story itself, was really good but, unfortunately, the rest fell flat.

We meet Leda as a young adult. She is quirky, she is naive, and she is trying to make her mark in this world. Really, she is all of us. Sadly, the writing style is so all over the place that this overpowers anything we could feel for our heroine. Jana Casale tried too hard and it shines through. Is the book supposed to be whimsical? Is it supposed to be heavy? Is the novel build on language or story? We never find out. Each chapter is sort of different. Is that on purpose? I want to believe it is, but that never becomes clear.

I had a really hard time getting into the story because of the writing. About 50 or so pages in, it picked up and I got excited. I started to relate to Leda. I wanted her to succeed. I loved how honest the story was. I loved 20s Leda. I enjoyed her romance with John. I thought having to decide between career and love was brilliant and something most of us experience at some point in our lives. The struggles between how you imagine your life and how it actually turns out seemed true.

But then, it goes downhill again. We follow Leda through pregnancy, raising a child, growing old, and up until the end of her life. I was so bored toward the last pages I found myself nodding off at times. I've read lifespan books before and enjoyed them, so I don't think it had anything to do with me not being able to relate to a 50-year-old woman for example. I just think Casale missed the mark. This book should've been so important, so relatable for women, and it just isn't.

I am giving it 2 stars because I did enjoy young Leda's life, her beliefs, her struggles, and her needing to grow up. But to me, that was the highlight of this novel.

I do think the author has potential, as she seems to have a keen eye for the mundane and the everyday things. Let's hope her next book comes out soon. I really want her to redeem herself.

I have very, very mixed feelings towards this title. Part of me really loves it, as I can relate with most of the main characters thoughts and actions (Leda) while part of me finds Leda irritating and irrational. I enjoyed how the book was written as if we were only seeing little snippets of Leda's life - I was pleasantly surprised to see this cover the majority of Leda's life instead of just her "growing years". This is the kind of book that I would recommend to any girl (or boy) who is a little bit unsure of themselves.

The title was far more intriguing than the content. The narrator was very irritating.

I have to admit that I almost passed on this title on NetGalley because the cover wasn't really attractive enough. I try not to judge a book by it's cover but this one seemed so bland. It was my first NetGalley request and I almost passed on it to read other books, as a new member, so excited and overwhelmed. I am so glad I didn't. When I came on here to write my review I was so dismayed at the other reviews and comments people made about this book. I for sure didn't have a similar experience.
I totally related to Leda. I loved how the book was written in snippets of her life in vignette form. The characters created for this book were so vivid. Leda's life was written in chapters the way others make a Facebook or blog entry. And I related to her so many times. I found myself saying YES to myself so many times while reading this book. And I can't even count the number of times I laughed out loud (and cried, cheered, shook my head, etc.)! The ending was beautiful and heartbreaking but well executed. Wonderful job, Jana Casale. You have a loyal and satisfied fan! Thank you. And thanks to NetGalley.

Leda, the main character, is very funny and thinks of a lot of things that I've thought before, but don't usually admit. I love that. She has insecurities that sometimes seem irrational but authentic. She makes connections between one moment and another, which is something I happen to do a lot habitually. (I.e. someone says "equestrian" and I think of something obscure that happened while I watched the movie "It takes two", because there's a joke in the movie about the word "equestrian".) Some of Leda's thoughts are not PC, because they read like pure, unedited thoughts. I don't mind it. The storytelling style is unique, the way it sometimes jumps back to small memories or zooms out to a big picture view of time. It won't be for everyone, but I find it enjoyable.

When Leda is in college, she flirts with a cute boy at a coffee shop, but unfortunately, nothing comes of it. Well, almost nothing. After that conversation, she decides to read Noam Chomsky. So, she buys a book and then never reads it. As the rest of her life unfolds, we watch Leda decide what she wants in life, and promptly go after it. There are missteps and triumphs, as Leda navigates and questions life along the way.