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35th out of 210 books
—
107 voters
Durable Goods (Katie Nash #1)
On the hot Texas army base she calls home, Katie spends the lazy days of her summer waiting: waiting to grow up; waiting for Dickie Mack to fall in love with her; waiting for her breasts to blossom; waiting for the beatings to stop. Since their mother died, Katie and her older sister, Diane, have struggled to understand their increasingly distant, often violent father. Whi...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
May 13th 2003
by Ballantine Books
(first published April 19th 1993)
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It’s rare that a movie sequel surpasses the original. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Terminator 2 and Before Sunset. It’s even rarer that a book sequel is better than the original because I think most authors pour most of their creativity into the first one and then half-ass the others. Or am I just being cynical?
Anyway, I prefer Joy School, the second book in this series. I read it first and loved it without realizing it was a sequel. The writing was so sweet and fresh and lyrical...more
Anyway, I prefer Joy School, the second book in this series. I read it first and loved it without realizing it was a sequel. The writing was so sweet and fresh and lyrical...more
I read Durable Goods after reading its sequel Joy School. I just love the narrator and main character Katie; such an authentic voice of a 12-year-old girl growing up in the time of transistor radios and drive-in movies and muscle cars. I find it relaxing the way the author shows the time and place of the novel - there are no computers or cell phones or DVD's - by using the "technology" that was there at the time. I hear "transistor radio" and I remember the radio we had with the leather cover wi...more
Katie is a twelve year old Army brat living in Texas with her abusive father and her older sister.Her mother has recently died and Katie crawls under her bed to have conversations with her and even harbors a hope that it was all merely a misunderstanding and that one day she will walk through the front door. Her best friend, Cherylanne, lives next door and is two years older, so Katie learns about kissing boys and sex and shaving her legs from her, Their conversation about sex was pretty funny.
K...more
K...more
durable goods is about a girl who is growing up beside her sister and father. Her mom died some time ago and her father works for the military; he is very strict. This girl can't do anything she wants because her father is always after them and looking what their doing. They can barely talk to him because if they say something wrong he beats them up or talks to them really bad. She wants a boyfriend and is in love with her sister's boyfriend. Her sister is always sneaking out but never gets caug...more
This author has a real talent for rendering the small details of girlhood. The first in a series of novels focusing on the same character (the others are Joy School and True to Form), Durable Goods introduces Katie, an army brat growing up in TX. Her mother has recently passed away, her father is cold and occasionally abusive, and her sister is itching to get out of town and away from their dad.
Yet, for me, the heart of the book is not the family drama, but the spot-on descriptions of the munda...more
Yet, for me, the heart of the book is not the family drama, but the spot-on descriptions of the munda...more
3 likes · like · see review
Durable Goods
By Elizabeth Berg
204 pp. New York, NY
Ballantine Books. $12.95
ISBN 0-8129-6814-X
I did not know how hard life could be until I read Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg. I had an image of “rough life”, but that image was completely altered after seeing how life could be. You wouldn’t believe how everyday life is portrayed in this novel. The normal teenagers have now become the beaten children of Texas – thanks to Berg’s meticulous sensory detail.
In Durable Goods, a teenaged girl, Katie, li...more
By Elizabeth Berg
204 pp. New York, NY
Ballantine Books. $12.95
ISBN 0-8129-6814-X
I did not know how hard life could be until I read Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg. I had an image of “rough life”, but that image was completely altered after seeing how life could be. You wouldn’t believe how everyday life is portrayed in this novel. The normal teenagers have now become the beaten children of Texas – thanks to Berg’s meticulous sensory detail.
In Durable Goods, a teenaged girl, Katie, li...more
Reading a coming of age novel brings you back to when you were 12. Elizabeth Berg describes those feelings so accurately. Where the road forks in this tale is that Katie is facing these days without a mother. She lives with her older sister and her father. She has a love/hate relationship with her sister. The second turn in the road is that her father is violent and they have learned the signs well for when he will explode. What will happen to this threesome as the days go by and Katie has indee...more
Durable Goods is an enchanting novel that tells the life of an adolescent girl, Katie, who longs for a life of normalcy. For her entire life, she has never felt like a place was truly considered a home, since her father was in the army and kept moving the family around the US. After the death of her mother, Katie was forced to be accustomed to a hard life. In Texas, she finally found a place where she felt like she truly belonged. Themes of love, growth, sadness, among others are captivated and...more
This was a really quick read, although it helped that I read a bunch of it on the beach before I could put it on here. So it probably was more like 4 days to read.
I've read other Elizabeth Berg books and seen the author speak several times so I really wanted to read her first published book. It was good, but not one of my favorites. It's interesting to look at an author's first work and see how far he/she has come. Her writing was good in 1993 but has become more rich and developed in her later...more
I've read other Elizabeth Berg books and seen the author speak several times so I really wanted to read her first published book. It was good, but not one of my favorites. It's interesting to look at an author's first work and see how far he/she has come. Her writing was good in 1993 but has become more rich and developed in her later...more
It's interesting to read Elizabeth Berg's novels after consulting her book on "the art of writing true" so many times. Berg certainly knows how to do that. I think what I admire most about her, in fact, is the way she can take the most ordinary, realistic aspects of life and make them beautiful with words. Her metaphors are perfect: subtle, a little odd, but perfect once you think about them.
This is actually the first of the three books about Katie, but I actually read the second and third befor...more
This is actually the first of the three books about Katie, but I actually read the second and third befor...more
I adore anything and everything written by Elizabeth Berg. She puts words to feelings, creating a tangible description of what we feel at so many times in our lives. This book so sweetly describes a time of change, most of it unwelcome, in the life of a young girl in the south. Follow up with Joy School as it takes the story further.
Elizabeth Berg is a remarkable author! I hope you'll love her works as much as I do!
Elizabeth Berg is a remarkable author! I hope you'll love her works as much as I do!
2 likes · like · see review
Elizabeth Berg's first novel and my favorite book. The heroine, 12-year-old Katie Nash, who lives on an army base with her strict father and older sister, has a uniquely compelling voice. She narrates the story in a conversational tone, sharing her hopes and dreams as well as her fears as she tries to adjust to life without her mother, who has recently died. Katie also appears in Joy School and True to Form.
This book is about Katie a girl that lives on an army base in Texas with her sister and her abusive father. Her mother had recently passed away and she was learning to live without her and tiptoeing around her father. Her sister decides to run away with her boyfriend to Mexico and Katie tags along. She decides to return home before they get to Mexico. She calls her fiend Cherrylanne and her mother talks her in to coming back. Her dad comes to pick her up and the story ends. IT was a very quick r...more
Once again, freshman English rears its ugly head. Technically, this isn't due until the 27th but I finished it early for lack of anything better to read. My first thought was that it was going to be super awkward to discuss in class, and my second thought was that it was like House on Mango Street, another book I've had to read in English.
All in all, this book was okay. I thought some parts were awkward, but I liked Katie's voice. I think the author had a clear idea of who she was, and it sho...more
All in all, this book was okay. I thought some parts were awkward, but I liked Katie's voice. I think the author had a clear idea of who she was, and it sho...more
" 'Well,' Cherylanne sighs. 'Do you want some angel food cake?' Sometimes it seems to me that the only thing in the world is people just trying."
~from Durable Goods
Elizabeth Berg has a rare talent. And that talent is her ability to take a story thats only 150 pages plus, and have such a deep and multi-layered message. Her characters are brilliant, and all of the forms of life are there. Innocence, the loss of it, angry people, aggressive but simple people, tired people, people in love, they ar...more
~from Durable Goods
Elizabeth Berg has a rare talent. And that talent is her ability to take a story thats only 150 pages plus, and have such a deep and multi-layered message. Her characters are brilliant, and all of the forms of life are there. Innocence, the loss of it, angry people, aggressive but simple people, tired people, people in love, they ar...more
This is the wonderful coming of age story of Katie who lives on a Texas army base with her cruel, unattentive and often violent father and her older sister Diane. Katie is a quiet observer of people and makes rather percise conclusions about others. Katie is waiting to grow up and must find ways to avoid her cruel father. Katie often speaks to her dead mother and hides under her bed. Elizabeth Berg's sorrowful portrayal of Katie's ability to deal with her life is handled with sensitivity. I thor...more
This is an unassuming book. I was very surprised by this book. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I love books in which I can identify with and fall in love with characters. And this book did just that. I fell in love with both Katie's innocence and wisdom. In some ways, Katie was naive and innocent and in others she was wise beyond her years and more grown up becuase of the tragedies and grief she had experienced. She was so relateable.
The character I was most surprised with was Katie's da...more
The character I was most surprised with was Katie's da...more
I read this today at the public library in Washington DC. Turned out the museum I wanted to go to didn't open till 11:30 and I had a couple hours to spend doing something. I found the public library and this little book. It's a good story, short, concise, one of Elizabeth Berg's first I think. The story about two young girls who live with their military father and move around a lot. He's an angry man who intimidates them, as he did their mother who has died of cancer prior to the beginning of th...more
There were times when I liked her writing style- I loved the way she described things sometimes- my senses were awakened and I could almost touch, see, hear, taste, and smell with Katie- but the story seemed unfinished somehow- like there was something missing or something not said...I don't know how to describe it except an elephant in the room feeling the whole time I was reading.
It just felt like the author was meandering around sometimes- I don't know if there was a point or not- the story...more
It just felt like the author was meandering around sometimes- I don't know if there was a point or not- the story...more
Katie Nash is the daughter of an army man, living in the 1960s. She observes so much of everyday life. Although she is young, she has dealt with a lot: moving, her mother's passing, her father's temper and quick hands, being 12 and wanting to cross that line of puberty. Elizabeth Berg hits on a variety of themes that happens in life. No one is ever just dealing with one thing.
I didn't like that manner in which the story was told. Really short blurbs as the day goes on. It wasn't until I sat dow...more
I didn't like that manner in which the story was told. Really short blurbs as the day goes on. It wasn't until I sat dow...more
I loved this book. I love stories about family.
I read this in one day.
Then I read it again the next day.
I read this in one day.
Then I read it again the next day.
This book was OK. I listened to the audio book version. The story was told from the point of view of a twelve year old girl. She lived with her Father and eighteen year old sister. Her mother had recently died from cancer. Her father was in the service and they were constantly moving. Katie’s father felt that one only needed durable things in life and could do without the fragile, breakable things. There were some very humorous parts in this story as Katie describes different aspects of becoming...more
Nothing wrong with the writing here, but nothing all that exciting, either. I found the nuanced description of the abusive father interesting; rather than present him as an inhuman monster, Berg gives us glimpes of kindness, and of the past that might have led to his unpredictable spite and temper.
The present-tense narration moves quickly; the book can be read in a day. I enjoyed the narration of 12-year-old Katie well enough, but two days after putting the book down, I had forgotten key charact...more
The present-tense narration moves quickly; the book can be read in a day. I enjoyed the narration of 12-year-old Katie well enough, but two days after putting the book down, I had forgotten key charact...more
This was a pleasing enough read but lacking a bit in substance.
Just under 200 pages, this book is delicious. It's a semi-autobiographical book based loosely on her dad and in Berg's words, she said she wanted to write about what is was like being an army brat. She said she learned alot of what her feelings for her father were when writing this book.
The book is told from a 12 year old girl's perspective. It was a one sitting book for me. I couldn't put it down. The words on the pages were so lovely. I wanted more. Berg has such a way with words. Love her wri...more
The book is told from a 12 year old girl's perspective. It was a one sitting book for me. I couldn't put it down. The words on the pages were so lovely. I wanted more. Berg has such a way with words. Love her wri...more
Captivating POV from an 11 year old. Completely believable dialogue, mindset and persepctive ... it grabs your heart and takes you back to the time you grew up, even if it wasn't in Texas or you didn't have an abusive father. I could have read forever!
I learned from this book that a POV from a child can convey in its beauty and simplicty the origin of many life lessons. Lessons that you never really spend much time thinking about - but know deep in your heart they've been with you since the begi...more
I learned from this book that a POV from a child can convey in its beauty and simplicty the origin of many life lessons. Lessons that you never really spend much time thinking about - but know deep in your heart they've been with you since the begi...more
Nov 23, 2008
Xi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone, especially who likes family sries
Recommended to Xi by:
friend
Shelves:
9th-grade-advisory
Imaging your heart pounds, hands sweat, waiting for the beating of your father to stop. This is a very captivating book about a problematic relationship between a girl, named Katie and her moody father. Katie and her sister, Danie often being beat up by their father every time when they do something not satistify with their father. Their relationship with their father is like a mist, blurring about what their father really looks like inside. They are afraid to approach to their father even to sa...more
Elizabeth Berg is my favorite author! This is the 12th book by her that I've read. I just love her style. She says so much but writes just a little. And alot of her observations are about seemingly unimportant things that are right on, or make me think, I know just what you mean, but it might be something so every day that you never really put much thought into it before. And it's funny how nothing much seems to really happen in the story but it still pulls me in and I can't put the book down.
Th...more
Th...more
Durable Goods was a book about Katie, a twelve year-old girl who lived in Texas. Katie’s mom had passed away from cancer and she always missed her. Her father took care of Katie and her fourteen year-old sister, Diane. Diane had a boyfriend and was a teenager; therefore she did not spend much time with Katie. Diane didn’t let Katie into her room, only on rare occasions.
Katie had a best friend who was eighteen and went by the name Cherylanne. Cherylanne’s mom was a good friend of Katie’s mom. Ch...more
Katie had a best friend who was eighteen and went by the name Cherylanne. Cherylanne’s mom was a good friend of Katie’s mom. Ch...more
Durable Goods is captured through the words of 12 year old Katie, an army "brat" (but is not a brat in the true sense of the word) living on base with her 18 year old sister and her father, a colonel. Her mother had died of cancer, and the family remains in a state of limbo, a post traumatic evisceration in all their lives. Her father is abusive, and hits the children, especially the older sister. Katie learns to look the other way, just like her mother had to do.
This is a tender exposure of a y...more
This is a tender exposure of a y...more
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| Goodreads Librari...: ISBN 0380728842 | 2 | 22 | Nov 05, 2012 04:34pm |
Elizabeth Berg is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including We Are All Welcome Here, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year, and Talk Before Sleep was short-listed for the ABBY Award in 1996. The w...more
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“Here is the knowledge, so easy and mean: find what they love and wreck it. Simple.”
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Sep 25, 2010 04:19pm