This book has an intriguing title and little else to offer. It was like being locked in a room with an entitled teenager who won't shut up.

Leda is the type of person that I hate. Overanalyzing, self-doubting, and self-loathing. She acts like she knows herself, but in actuality doesn't know a thing about herself and looks to others for how to act,

I honestly couldn't really say what this book is about, because I could not get very deep into it without losing concentration, rolling my eyes, and beginning to skim the pages for some sort of plot point. I would imagine it's about a young woman finding herself, however I really couldn't care less if she did or not because the writing came off as a pretentious diary entry by an insecure lost little girl, and that totally lost me.

Promising first book. Humorous and also sad. Took a while to get into it but glad I stuck with it. Looking forward to reading more of her books.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book felt pointless and boring. It tried to come off as if it was important but I just didn't think it was.

though i was intrigued by the concept, i found this merely an indulgent experiment in an extended journal. not much plot or conflict.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It's difficult to know where to start because this novel is inconsistent, although I enjoyed reading it more and more as it went on.

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. (less)

I tried to get into this book, but just couldn't. It came off as one long, pointless diary entry, the writing trying to sound overly deep and meaningful, but in reality was quite shallow. The constant talking of wanting to be "linear" without ever really explaining what it meant to Leda became repetitive and annoying. The character of Leda seemed to encompass every bad and stereotypical thing about a millennial so that you couldn't take her seriously. Eventually, I had to skim the rest of this piece.