Thank you for the opportunity to review - this was interesting as a construct but didn't deliver in the way we'd hoped.

I found some of the essays a little long (partially due to using an e-reader . . . rather than letting myself get immersed in the writing, I found myself wondering, Page 8 of 35? You mean this essay goes on for 27 more pages? But her writing is top notch, so my impatience and this certainly speaks more to my attention span than any deficit of the writer. Humorous, heartfelt, and anecdotes about her father are worth the price of admission alone. Hope to see more from this author.

I did not get very far into this book before growing tired of it. It feels like it tries too hard to be brash and clever, ultimately falling flat for me. In a vein similar to essays by Roxanne Gay or Jennie Lawson, I felt that the overarching themes of being female in the modern world were drowned out by overwhelming crassness.

I reviewed and mentioned this book in my video. It was poignant, hilarious, and authentic. Would 100% recommend.

This is a fantastic essay collection touching on a lot of social issues. The author did a great job tying in personal anecdotes and experiences with larger existent cultural phenomena. My favorite essays were the ones that touched on the issues of being a brown immigrant woman, the cultural dissonance when in Canada or in India, Her observations of colorism and its impact in India was particularly touching. I enjoyed her sense of humor balanced against some very serious topics.

This is a collection of essays from 26-year old Scaachi Koul, a Canadian-born daughter of Indian immigrants who currently writes for Buzzfeed Canada. The essays cover a wide range of topics including family relationships, dating, internet trolls, alcoholism, rape, anxiety, race, and culture. I think my favorite sections of the book are about Koul's family. Oh, how I wish her dad had a Twitter account...

The book is entertaining and youthful, but also surprisingly thoughtful. I appreciated Koul's honesty and willingness to poke fun at herself. There are some preachy moments that irritated me, but Koul's earnestness keeps the collection grounded. It's easy for me to see that she's just genuinely trying to figure life out, and I like and respect her for that.

So One Day We'll All Be Dead (etc.), is a quick, light read. It's pretty much what you expect a memoir written by a 20-something to be, but it's one of the best books in that category that I've read. I hope Koul keeps writing, because I am definitely interested in reading her future books.

A great collection of essays from what will (probably) be a very popular writer one day. She tackles some tough topics (sexual assault, immigration, bicultural living), yet she brings humor on every page. It's a little disorganized in parts, but it made me like the author as a person more. I could imagine sitting at lunch with her, talking about nothing and everything.

I enjoyed this book, it was interesting to read about the millenial, first-generation immigrant experience. Many of her stories are self-indulgent, (which put me off at first.) However, I decided to keep reading and I enjoyed the majority of her essays and Ms. Koul's perspectives on issues facing young women today, especially those in a multicultural, digital world. Her essays are engaging, some are entertaining and most illuminate the complexities of being raised in North America, balancing both her Indian identity and her Canadian identity.

I’d been salivating over this book for a while, ever since I’d seen it on multiple lists last year of forthcoming books. A month ago I thought it was out but realized that was just in Canada and not the U.S. Found it on Netgalley and finally was able to read it after begging the publisher to approve me on Twitter. :D

Scaachi Koul is a Buzzfeed writer who’s probably best-known for when she put out a request on Twitter for non-white writers and started a completely undeserved shitstorm. The very people who often disparagingly call liberals “special snowflakes” lost their freakin’ minds. Anyway, before I go off on that tangent (and she talks about this whole episode in her life in the book)...

Koul is the child of Indian parents, specifically parents from the Kashmir region of India, so that’s another reason I wanted to read this: I’m really interested in reading writing of people with whom I can identify, even a little bit.

In that, the book didn’t disappoint. The struggles of an immigrant or the child of immigrants are uphill, especially when you’re younger, and Koul really gets into that, throughout multiple essays. One thing that I think a lot of brown people who grew up here can identify with is this particular line: “I tried to force myself out of brownness at her age, but the older I get, the more I tuck myself into it.” When you’re younger, you try to separate yourself from your culture to fit in (despite all the shit you face from your parents for doing so), but as you grow older you realize what a mistake that was.

“Fitting is a luxury rarely given to immigrants, or the children of immigrants. We are stuck in emotional purgatory. Home, somehow, is always the last place you left, and never the place you’re in.”

Some of the strongest parts of the book were when she talked about her parents: their experiences as immigrants, their relationship with her, their perceptions as people living away from their homeland. I saw a lot of my parents reflected in her parents, and it made me consider them in ways that I probably hadn’t enough thought to before. This line especially resonated:

“So much of immigration is about loss. First you lose bodies: people who die, people whose deaths you missed. Then you lose history: no one speaks the language anymore, and successive generations grow more and more westernized. Then you lose memory: throughout this trip, I tried to place people, where I had met them, how I knew them. I can’t remember anything anymore.”

Her experience of returning to a place in India as an adult that she’d previously visited only as a kid could have been me doing the same thing in my life. Knowing that others have these same feelings and experiences, and reading about them, is so validating. I’m so glad that voices like Koul’s have a place now in mainstream culture. You don’t think about it actively, but it’s like all the arguments being made for having more than just white people on TV and in movies: Representation matters.

The essay on rape culture, Hunting Season, was another stunning, strong piece. I’d actually read it before on Buzzfeed (which leads me to believe that much of the book may be from pieces she’s already written online), but it can certainly be read over and over and shared with everyone you know. Her insights on how men watch women are so on point.

“Surveillance feeds into rape culture more than drinking ever could. It’s the part of male entitlement that makes them believe they’re owed something if they pay enough attention to you, monitor how you’re behaving to see if you seem loose and friendly enough to accommodate a conversation with a man you’ve never met. He’s not a rapist. No, he’s just offering to buy you a beer, and a shot, and a beer, and another beer, he just wants you to have a really good time. He wants you to lose the language of being able to consent. He’s drunk too, but of course, you’re not watching him like he’s watching you.”

And of course, the aforementioned chapter on the disgusting harassment she faced on Twitter was another fantastic essay. I highlighted the hell out of that section but I’ll leave just this one quote here:

“But all things built by humans descend into the same pitfalls: loathing, vitriol, malicious intent. All the things we build in order to communicate, to connect, to find people like us so we feel less alone, and to find people not like us at all so we learn how to adapt, end up turning against us.”

Basically, throughout most of this book, I would sigh softly and highlight something and reflect on what I’d just read. There were definitely things that Koul writes that I disagree with but hers is an interesting, and often hilarious, perspective to read. I’ve been shouting about this book to everyone, even before I finished it, and I already know a couple people I’ll be buying it for. Highly recommended.

Thank You to Macmillan- Picador for providing me with an advanced copy of Scaachi Koul's, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- In her essay collection, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Koul explores growing up in Canada as a child of Indian immigrants. She write about her culture, dating, and dealing with sexism and racism, both stemming from societal biases or the kind that is overt, and from a place of hate. Her writing is both funny and gut-wrenching.

LIKE- I immediately fell in love with Koul's voice. She's witty, razor sharp, and insightful. She writes with an openness that is rare: sharing with readers intimate details of her life. For example, she writes about body issues as a child, like worrying over her body hair with an obsession that would never have occurred to her fairer, white classmates. The pain of this is acute, when she recalls a male classmate pointing out the hair on her arms. As a woman, thinking back to that age, my heart broke for her. She writes about being roofied in her twenties, and the way young women have mixed messages drilled into them: Drink to be fun  , but don't get sloppy drunk. Drink to be flirtatious, but be on guard that you're not a tease. Go out and enjoy yourself, but predators are lurking everywhere. Koul nails the frustrations of being a woman.

I was most disturbed regarding a chapter when explained how she was cyber attacked for voicing a controversial opinion. It wasn't so much that people disagreed, but it was the way in which they disagreed: through hate. She received messages attacking her sex, her race, her body; truly vile messages. It was shocking and stomach churning. 

The chapters where she wrote about her family and traveling to India, were my favorite. The title of her collection actually comes from her cousin, who was getting married in India. It is in reference to the arduous and tedious week-long marriage celebration, which includes elaborate ceremonies, strict traditions, and many changes in outfits. Koul explains how no one who has actually attended an Indian wedding, would want to attend an Indian wedding. I enjoyed this glimpse into another culture and hearing about her family. Just like any family, there is a lot of affection and frustration.

DISLIKE- Nothing. This is an poignant, thought-provoking, and frequently humorous collection.

RECOMMEND- Yes!!! Koul has a unique and appealing writer's voice. I finished, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, and was left wanting more. She's a great writer!

Scaachi Koul is a delight to read. Not only are her essays diverse (ranging from finding the perfect clothing item, to the patriarchy of traditional Indian weddings, to the atrocities one can encounter on the inter web), but they are very, very entertaining.

I recommend this book to those with slightly hipster to full fledged liberal tendencies, as Koul is clearly a feminist; however, her writing is persuasive, inviting, and hilarious. I'm not sure if it would work in its entirety for a high school class, but I'd recommend an essay or two to explore the diversity of other cultures, especially "Fair and Lovely" in which she discusses shadism in current India. Her language is sometimes crass, but in my mind it becomes relatable to more audiences by being that way.

This is a book of essays that are so funny I had to get up and leave the room. I laughed so loud my husband couldn't hear t.v. I have been stalking Ms. Koul on twitter. Read this book you won't be disappointed

Laugh-out-loud funny, particularly in some of the earliest chapters. I found myself highlighting quote after quote because I either identified with it so much or thought it was so hilarious. I appreciate the more serious entries here as well, but the strictly-humorous parts were so dang funny, I kind of wished there were more of those. All in all, though, there is a very nice balance between the serious and the silly, and Koul demonstrates an unflinching candor in talking about some hairy topics (both figurative and literal). She also displays truly remarkable compassion, for example when she looks for the humanity in even the most virulent of her online harassers, positing that "these men who harass women online were all owed something very simple at one time -- respect, love, affection, the basic decency of living upwards and not curling inwards, a humane education -- and someone, along the line, failed them. [ . . . ] It doesn't make me feel better about it, it doesn't make me like it, but it does give me an answer." What a generous and mature assessment, and I applaud her for it.

Full of wry and wise meditations on the perils, pitfalls, and pratfalls of modern womanhood, this book is a very enjoyable read.

One Day We'll Be Dead and None of This Will Matter is a fun and fearless essay collection by Scaachi Koul, a culture writer/blogger based in Toronto. Growing up in Calgary, the daughter of Indian immigrants, Koul’s essays discuss her upbringing and tend to focus on identity: cultural identity, gender identity, identity within families, etc. She introduces the reader to her loveably kooky family, the army of twitter trolls who publically attack her, her white boyfriend, and what it was like for her to grow up Indian in Canada, “the land of ice and casual racism.” She’s candid and outspoken, and isn’t afraid to bring up taboo topics, ranging from shadism to body hair. I can appreciate a woman who openly admits to needing to be cut out of a skirt in a dressing room at a (now defunct) Jacob store. How’s that for honesty? (Reviewed in March 23rd edition of The Napanee Beaver, pgs 6-7)

http://bookriot.com/2017/03/21/read-these-essay-collections-winterspring-2017-edition/