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Trick Mirror

Reflections on Self-Delusion

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Trick Mirror

Written by: Jia Tolentino
Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire

Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia Tolentino could be the Joan Didion of our time.”—Vulture

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADES

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HARVARD CRIMSON AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review, Time, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, NPR, Variety, Esquire, Vox, Elle, Glamour, GQ, Good Housekeeping, The Paris Review, Paste, Town & Country, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews, BookRiot, Shelf Awareness

Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.

Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet.

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY Asian Creators Essays Social Sciences Nonfiction Socialism Capitalism
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Brilliantly written and observed, his book has essays on everything from Reality TV to scammer culture. The author tackles the conflicts and contradictions that define the times we are living in. She boldly digs into how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through the forces warping our vision.

While I imagine the intent was to reach her own age demographic (thirty something), I found plenty that applied to my own (fifty something). I was relieved that thoughts I attributed to my inner curmudgeon were shared by smart thirty somethings!

Must Read For Anyone With A Head Full Of Thoughts!

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A wonderful and calming listen. Every essay kept my attention and full of perspectives I never considered. Recommend to any and everyone!!

Lived up to the hype

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Brilliant exploration of feminism, capitalism, and race in an accessible and stimulating essay collection. This work is deeply personal and relatable with honest critiques of self and society.

Profound, honest, and accessible reflections

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Strange is the imprint of the book. You ride this feeling of slippery slope through out the book. The stories are hard to relate to but you are embroiled in them. It is possibly the rocking of my own self-delusion that gives rise to this uncomfortable feeling. I find myself wanting to recommend this book to everyone, yet very difficult to actually convince them to read the book.

The book ultimately is Jia's self-reflection and thus should not be read in a way to find resolutions. Rather, the value of this book comes from the demonstration of effort required to self-reflect. This book should demonstrate complexity of society and how ideologies are morphed and integrated into a society straying from original intention. It should motivate you to understand the lives around you beyond the surface and superficial. This book should trigger you to evaluate your commonsense and belifes regularly and find the underlying truth.

I will close this with my own thought on our self-conduct "I encourage individuals to express themselves however they want to because I express myself similarly. I admire the individuals that having understood how they want to express themselves, choses to express themselves in a way that upholds the confidence of their valued others, this is the growth I seek."

Reflection on the book

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Jia’s viewpoints on many modern day topics, and the history behind them, were riveting and challenging. I loved that my personal opinions (or lack thereof) were tested in my own brain.

Loved the insight!

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