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Feb 09, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

[Ack -- 3 out of 5 stars seems so vague, as meaningless as ratings in general; 3 out of 5 is so ... Rolling Stone.]

Anyway, true or false: Are male memoirists seen as witty, pithy, and insightful while female memoirists are derided as self-involved or -indulgent? Food for thought, and not just pertaining to lit. I have everything in mind from Anne Lamott vs. Donald Miller to Justin Timberlake's career arc vs. Janet Jackson's relative plummet (think Super Bowl '04).

Now to t More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

Barky rated it:

This is an absolutely hysterical down-home kind of memoir of Haven Kimmel’s growing up years in Mooreland, Indiana. She’s goofy and strange, and full of spunk and energy. Listen to the audiobook, which is read by the author, as she really brings her own experiences to life. She’s got a childlike innocence still that resonates in this work. The scene where her dad borrows all of the hunting dogs to get back at a cranky neighbor is truly one of the most amusing things I have ever heard. This More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2008

Amber rated it:

Zippy was a mottled mess of mixed up and metastasized memories. The whole time I was reading it I kept wondering why it is that I liked it. But I did like it, despite it's obvious flaws. Any book that can make me laugh out loud is worth reading. I enjoyed the author's flippant, unceremonious style of writing. Her character, Zippy, was bright and reckless, loveable and startling all at the same time. I found it interesting how well she wrote from a teen, tween, child's perspective. I got sucked i More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2007

Heather rated it:

This is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever come across. I tore through it, often laughing OUT LOUD in inopportune public places (you know, when you are reading something funny and you kind of guffaw and then catch yourself, stifle the laugh, and look around to see if anyone is watching?).

It's hard to explain what it is about, because it is really just what the subtitle says: "Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana." It's an autobiographical collection of impressions, More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

Ashley rated it:

I had completely mixed feeling about this book. One minute I was laughing out loud (I loved the part when the cat falls down the chimney and gets drop-kicked out the front door by the nast old lady neighbor), because there are some awfully funny bits, and the next I was feeling very awkward and wanted to escape this girl's terrible environment.
What is wierdly endearing though is how she seems to be blissfully unaware/unaffected by events any one of which would have caused me some emotio More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Indra rated it:

I just reread this book and remembered how much I love it. I give it five stars even though I like the sequel, "She Got Up Off the Couch", a bit better...both are so very beautifully written. I love the narrator's clear-eyed child's view of the people around her, and the fact that this tells the story of a different world than most of us know, the mostly idyllic small town many years ago. Serious issues are hinted at, not avoided, but neither are they dwelled upon. I loved the char More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2007

Erin rated it:

This book was pleasurable enough to read, but because it wasn't very plot driven, it took me forev-ER to complete. Zippy's narration is amusing and I enjoyed her descriptions of a more innocent time of small town Americana, when farm animals were kept in backyards, and kids could ride their bikes (complete with streamers and horns) to the corner drug store for a 26 cent lemon phosphate. But beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what she was trying to convey in her memoir, and I wasn't compelled to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This is the book I reach for when I need a pick-me-up...a reminder that life is humorous and wonderful and that even the everyday moments are meaningful…that even the quietest, smallest life is worth living. Haven Kimmel's childhood memoir is more than a stroll down memory lane...she pieces together her life, her family, and her town until the reader sees her so clearly, you may feel convinced afterwards that you grew up with her! The writing is sharp, witty, and refreshingly uplifting. You wi More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2009

Katie rated it:

You know that moment in life when you realize that stories of the things that loom large in childhood -- like your absolute terror of the woman who lives next door or your absolute certainty that some of the cards in a deck of playing cards are female and some male -- can be condensed, as if through a trash compactor, into little nuggets of pure cuteness and innocence that you can then hand to others for the rest of your life in one long show-and-tell, knowing they are obligated to laugh nostal More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2008

Rebecca rated it:

Absolutely a wonderful, funny, insane, clever book. Read it, read it, read it.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Marie rated it:

I must say that it is refreshing to read a memoir in which the author does not grow up in a dysfunctional family or face overwhelming odds in his or her life.

This is the story of a normal, small-town childhood. Zippy was an odd little creature of a child, but I found her adventures to be amusing and the descriptions of her family and neighbors to be well drawn.

I grew up in a suburb rather than a small town, one year before Haven Kimmel, so I could relate to the cultural r More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Desiree rated it:

This book is guffaw-out-loud-on-the-subway-despite-the-stares funny!!!

From the book...

"The distance between Mooreland in 1965 and a city like San Francisco in 1965 is roughly equivalent to the distance starlight must travel before we look up casually from a cornfield and see it." (From A Girl Named Zippy, p. 2.)

Haven Kimmel may be older than me but we both grew up in small towns and I found her literary musings about said life to resonate very deeply More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2008

Cynthia rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. It is a very funny, light, sweet book.

A Girl Called Zippy is a childhood memoir of Haven, aka Zippy. She tells stories from her babyhood till about 10-12 years old. She lived in a small town in Indiana with about 300 people. Unlike other biographies, it did not involve this serious tone with serious topics about death, illness, war, love, etc... Instead Zippy told oridinary, yet hilarious stories from a child's point of view. She told stories and ex More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2007

Tracey rated it:

A pass-along from my mom, I read through A Girl Named Zippy in just a few hours over the past couple of days.

A memoir along the lines of Jean Shepherd (of A Christmas Story fame), Kimmel recalls vignettes from her rather bizarre childhood in the tiny town of Mooreland, Indiana. She was "an afterthought" with siblings 10 and 13 years older than she; slow to talk (her first words -- actually a complete sentence - coming at age three) and by her own description, funny-looking. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2011

Lori rated it:

Considering that I have just finished the final book of a 10 book series that has had me obsessed for the last 5 years, and the philosophical implications of said series have kept me thoughtful for a week now, any other book that engrossed me as much as Zippy has got a lot going for it! Funny, thoughtful, evocative of the times in which I too was growing up, I can't wait to read Haven's newest, and discover who Zippy has become as an adult.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2007

Sfdreams rated it:

Some of the parts involving animals were pretty brutal and hard to get through, for this animal-loving vegetarian.

Otherwise, I found it interesting to read. Haven writes with an interesting style, and she seems to remember how she felt and saw life as a child. I envy that,as I cannot. Her parents seem quirky and likeable. Her mother reads Asimov and sci-fi and her Dad is more like the adults I knew as a child. Haven seems to have a special relationship with her Dad that I enjoyed rea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 29, 2008

Tammra rated it:

This was a fun biography for me to read because Haven Kimmel was born in 1965 and grew up with many of the same experiences and expressions that I did. She grew up in a small town called Mooreland, Indiana where people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday and kept barnyard animals in their backyard - just like the town I grew up in. Haven was nicknamed "Zippy" because of how quickly she would zip around when she was little. She was especially recognized for her huge eyes More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

JM rated it:

Memoirs, especially of people who aren't famous for anything, and even more especially by young first authors, usually suck. Too much excitement about nothing interesting, mostly. It's hard to make it through unless you have some forceful reason to finish, like you know the person or you have a very similar experience.

This is the exception. I can't figure out why, just yet. The author is young, not unusual, first-time writer, yet this just glows. I picked it up because I needed More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

Picked this up a while back at the Goodwill to release. Glad I actually did read it first, and didn't let barren shelves at the OBCZ frighten me. Someone stepped to the plate and filled the shelf, and I got to read a quirky memoir.

I somehow missed all the hype when it came out, so had no expectations for the book. Instead, Zippy was able to tell her tale, presenting her life in a way that anyone who ever was an inquisitive, mischievous child can at once recognize.

I didn't More...

0 comments like

Dec 28, 2011

Susan rated it:

Dear Goodreads Group,

Yes, your correct in thinking that I give almost every book I read five (5) stars, and this one is no acception. The reason for them almost always getting five (5) stars is because I only read for pleasure, and/or edification, which is also pleasing for me!

Therefore; if I begin reading a book, and by the 2nd or 3rd chapter I am not taken away with it, then it goes into the give away pile, never to be thought of again.

I found this author s More...

0 comments like

Nov 03, 2011

Susan rated it:

I did not like it at first because I thought the language was a little crude. I wasn't going to finish it, but it was a RS Book Club selection. However, I did like some of the later chapters. The writing seemed a little disjointed. Again, I thought some of the later chapters had more continuity and were better written. I so enjoyed "The Glass Castle" that it is hard to read a memoir which is written through the eyes of a child without comparing. There didn't seem to be a point to More...

0 comments like

Oct 03, 2011

Arika rated it:

"A Girl Named Zippy offers a rare and welcome treat: a memoir of a happy childhood."

I am not a big reader... at all, so for me to say the following a rare occurrence. This book was actually assigned to me by my creative writing teacher for a memoir project we were working on. I was not looking forward to reading it, but once I started, I couldn't stop. This book is a wonderful, fast, and easy read. The beginning starts out describing the town Zippy lived in, her childhood More...

1 comment like

Nov 17, 2010

Annika rated it:

First of all, my entire life I've known that Mooreland, Indiana exists. It is a very small town, a dot on a map in east central Indiana, and my dad's old stomping grounds. He is a Hoosier through and through, and Mooreland is the center of his web of tales involving his own childhood and growing up in a small Indiana town (John Cougar Mellencamp has nothing on my dad's stories ;)

So I'm at a family reunion and all weekend I'm hearing snippets of "that book". "That book" More...

0 comments like

Aug 17, 2010

Carol rated it:

"Didn't you feel that rabbit biting you?"
"I reckon I was hypnotized."
Dad looked at mom, stricken. "She thinks she was hypnotized by a rabbit."

"Mom, mom, mom. Hey. Mom."

One of Sissy's front teeth always pointed north... I wanted to see what the relationship would be between her tooth and that bread and butter...Sissy leaned close to me. Her tooth arrived first.

"I'll tell you the Less Fortunate Child I'm g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2010

Michelle rated it:

Haven Kimmel has perfect comic timing. This book was sweet, with a few hints of darker things (the band teacher, ugh), but mainly for me, it was all about love--for Zippy's childhood, a simpler time, families, especially hysterical and loving parents, bicycles, numerous childhood best friends, small towns...There were so many times that I wanted to hug this book because it made me remember being a kid. Read it and smile :)

"As she sat down in a booth many feet away from me, I lea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 09, 2010

Camzcam rated it:

This is such a wonderful and funny memoir about the young life of the author in a very small town in Indiana. She grew up roughly the same era that I did so the events of her story were both foreign and familiar. Although I didn't grow up in a small town, there were elements of her childhood that I could completely relate to...the freedom of riding your bike all over town; deep-seeded fear of a grouchy, older neighbor; being the child who talked any willing ear off; and all of the school-yard More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I really loved this book. The book was laugh out loud - in some parts I actually tried unsuccessfully to make myself quit laughing.

Kimmel has a very wry sense of humor and obviously had fond memories of her childhood. She paints a wonderful picture of Mooreland and all the eccentric characters who lived there, but she also (ever so briefly) would touch on real life issues that made the story even more realistic - her father's gambling, child abuse, alcoholism, poverty, etc.
More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2010

Judy rated it:

I absolutely loved this book which is Haven Kimmel's love letter to the small town of Mooreland, Indiana, population 300 where she grew up. Instead of a memoir looking back at her childhood, Kimmel writes this book from the viewpoint of a tween and writes it as a series of often unconnected memories. Some of them were interesting, some of them were laugh out loud funny. This book has all of the characters that we remember from our childhoods--the friends who live near us (although in Moorelan More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2009

yoli rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2009

Jane rated it:

"Zippy"--had to read it, since all of you were reading it or had read it! I agree with Shana that it's fun to read something by someone who is the same age as we are. Despite having grown up in "little" North Mankato, Zippy's town/neighborhood was much, much smaller than mine, and (maybe because it's in southern Indiana?) much less prosperous, prejudiced and "low-class" than most of what I remember from my youth. That's not to say my community didn't have its sh More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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