RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksEverybody on my holiday gift list is getting this book ... Harford has written a delightfully original and engaging look at how being messy is a good thing...he finds concrete, real-world examples that are totally absorbing and fresh ... The big theme of this book is, in fact, not messiness but diversity. Harford argues that if we try to be too neat, ordered, organized, we can end up with unhealthy, un-resilient, one-dimensional forests, cities, workplaces, playgrounds, as well as plane crashes, and too much trust in online dating algorithms. And we suffer more boring, less interesting lives. Messy is a fun and informative read. All my friends and family will thank me this December.
Michael Schulman
MixedThe Washington Independent Review of BooksCaveats aside, Schulman has written an engrossing examination of Streep’s background ... Working within the limitation of not actually talking to her, Schulman is good at showing how meticulously Streep worked before and after that quick rise to build her craft ... Schulman is lucky that Streep has given thoughtful interviews over the years, and he quotes from them extensively. He also interviewed some friends, colleagues, and former boyfriends. Yet the book, indeed, ends up feeling a tad thin.
