PositiveThe Harvard CrimsonTo be clear, none of these subjects are new, and men who read this book might not learn anything revolutionary. What Orenstein does excellently, however, is condense, clarify, and draw out the perspectives of the boys and men that she interviewed — their voices, interspersed with her own, lift the book up, hopefully showing readers that they are not alone in their experiences ... The book’s strength lies in Orenstein’s ability to summarize biting, salient points that, even if they don’t come as a shock to some readers, are nonetheless reemphasized clearly ... a valuable addition to the litany of books out there discussing what, exactly, is happening with the youth these days ... a 200-page treatise dedicated to uncovering why the sexual landscape is difficult for men, too, and suggests that statements like this would be more frequent if boys were encouraged to speak frankly about their emotions from a young age.
Anna Wiener
RaveThe Harvard CrimsonTwo aspects of Anna Wiener’s memoir, Uncanny Valley immediately make themselves apparent: its understated observations and attention to detail ... hese observations do double duty: They demonstrate her incredible ability to write nonfiction, and they further highlight why she felt so out of place in Silicon Valley in the first place ... With the keen eye of a writer and humanist, she inspects not only what drives these people, but how they can live with themselves in the soulless world they have constructed ... Uncanny Valley also brings up the now-infamous heartbreaking moments of what it’s like to be a woman Silicon Valley ... The memoir’s most ludicrous moment is when Wiener recounts the story of a startup founder who thinks books should be shorter — you know, to make things more efficient ... The memoir’s beauty lies in Wiener’s ability to convey her desires in little packets, cleanly interspersed throughout the memoir. Wiener does not hit the reader over the head with her thesis ... Wiener wonders what it would be like to live in a world that values intellectual discourse and emotional complexity...The entire book is an elegant argument for the urgent need to do so.
