PositiveThe Star Tribune...in some ways, the sequel is better than the original ... Nights benefits from more of a built-in narrative this time, as Rushin moves from Bloomington to Marquette University in Milwaukee and then, about as fast you can say \'you’re hired,\' to a job at Sports Illustrated in New York. There are still a few digressions, such as an obsession with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune’s cable TV listings, but fewer than in Sting-Ray ... Rushin affects a sort of Midwestern \'Gosh, how did this happen to me?\' about much of this. But give him credit for more pluck than that ... As SI readers know, Rushin’s strength is his descriptive and playful prose ... But we move from one moment to the next, one anecdote to another, so briskly that besides Rushin himself, we don’t get to know the people in the stories that well, as we did his family in Sting-Ray. When Saunders enters Rushin’s life, you get a sense of Saunders’ open and embracing nature, but we’re never privy to a conversation that gives us real insight into him, or into their friendship.
Busy Philipps
PositiveMinneapolis Star TribuneHer Instagram followers will recognize the Philipps who just puts herself out there...Here I am, everybody! Do you love me? LOVE ME! And it’s hard not to. (Unless all-caps bothers you. Then you may have issues with this book.) ... Flaws? Some parts in the middle drag a bit, and although her ex-boyfriends are an important part of her story, some of them are, well, not all that interesting ... Her voice is clear, bright and engaging — \'sparkly,\' to borrow her word. It’s earned her a place on the shelf between Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Amy Poehler’s Yes Please.
