http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/1069458 en-US Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:52:00 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 29902910 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:52:00 -0700
author: James Baldwin
name: Mindy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 08/11/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, essays-and-the-like, own-it, race-racism-colonial-imperial-ism, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:

]]> 29881122 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:31:43 -0700
author: John Grisham
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 01/97
date added: 08/11/08
shelves: fiction
review:
There was a while there when I was on a John Grisham kick and I ordered all his books from BOMC. He's an excellent storyteller. It's easy to suspend disbelief with his books (and you definitely NEED to). But very few of them needed to be read again, so I ended up giving them all to my Mamaw.
]]> 19910521 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:54:31 -0700
After that, however, the story lagged in places and became a bit far-fetched in others and the writing was a bit obvious for me to totally love it anymore, but it was still very touching and utterly devastating in its portrayal of the realities of war for children, especially given that Afghanistan is still in turmoil. I think most people (especially Americans) need to read this book even if it's not a literary masterpiece (Most people don't read literary masterpieces anyway, right? Isn't that one of the requirements of literary mastery, to be inaccessible? Hmph!) so that they can feel that devastation just a little. I used to believe that effective literature had the power to make me people think and then act (politically). I'm not sure about that anymore, but if it is possible then a book like this could make a difference.]]>
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/11/08
shelves: fiction
review:
I vacillated b/w 3 and 4 stars here... If it had stopped after the first part, before they emigrated, I probably would've given it 5 stars even. The description of pre-war Afghanistan was effective on its own for me b/c I already know a little about what happens to Afghanistan after Russia comes in. And the tragic relationship b/w the two boys was stunning. I can't really think about it too much yet...

After that, however, the story lagged in places and became a bit far-fetched in others and the writing was a bit obvious for me to totally love it anymore, but it was still very touching and utterly devastating in its portrayal of the realities of war for children, especially given that Afghanistan is still in turmoil. I think most people (especially Americans) need to read this book even if it's not a literary masterpiece (Most people don't read literary masterpieces anyway, right? Isn't that one of the requirements of literary mastery, to be inaccessible? Hmph!) so that they can feel that devastation just a little. I used to believe that effective literature had the power to make me people think and then act (politically). I'm not sure about that anymore, but if it is possible then a book like this could make a difference.
]]> 25096045 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:54:01 -0700
I had no idea there were biographical/historical novels before Irving Stone (Well, I never really thought about it, obviously, b/c there are tons, aren't there?), but I like them very much. So I think I might actually read this one. It looks pretty good. (Most of my old books I just buy for objects, not to actually read.) This book is in pretty good shape, and there are some very nice etchings throughout.

After I read it:

Well, there's a reason why some literature does not stand the test of time, I suppose. This was not a great work by any stretch of the imagination. (See, for example, this reviewer's remarks about his subject's having to endure this particular author!) I don't know if the melodrama was as thick in the German original or if the English translation exacerbated it, but in the first 90 pages Schiller had "thrown" himself on at least four pieces of furniture, into the arms of two men, at the feet of two women, and into a carriage and had "paced frantically" (while wild-eyed and pulling at his golden tresses, of course) at least five miles of floor in his appropriately (for such tragically unremunerated genius) cold and shabby room. :-)

Still, I'm glad I read it b/c it is an old thing that no one's probably paid attention to in almost one hundred years. And I learned a lot that I didn't know about that time in Prussian (or would it be German?) history. The author was apparently very meticulous about the factual information and even noted where she'd used a character's actual words. (That may be standard in biographical/historical non-fiction-y fiction, but as I said above, I don't know much about the genre.) I also found Luise Mühlbach's story interesting in its own right. She was quite prolific and was an early feminist and supported the family with her books after her husband became an invalid.]]>
author: Luise Mühlbach
name: Mindy
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1867
rating: 2
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/06/08
shelves: antiques-vintage, fiction, history-is-not-a-social-science, own-it
review:
In the beginning:

I had no idea there were biographical/historical novels before Irving Stone (Well, I never really thought about it, obviously, b/c there are tons, aren't there?), but I like them very much. So I think I might actually read this one. It looks pretty good. (Most of my old books I just buy for objects, not to actually read.) This book is in pretty good shape, and there are some very nice etchings throughout.

After I read it:

Well, there's a reason why some literature does not stand the test of time, I suppose. This was not a great work by any stretch of the imagination. (See, for example, this reviewer's remarks about his subject's having to endure this particular author!) I don't know if the melodrama was as thick in the German original or if the English translation exacerbated it, but in the first 90 pages Schiller had "thrown" himself on at least four pieces of furniture, into the arms of two men, at the feet of two women, and into a carriage and had "paced frantically" (while wild-eyed and pulling at his golden tresses, of course) at least five miles of floor in his appropriately (for such tragically unremunerated genius) cold and shabby room. :-)

Still, I'm glad I read it b/c it is an old thing that no one's probably paid attention to in almost one hundred years. And I learned a lot that I didn't know about that time in Prussian (or would it be German?) history. The author was apparently very meticulous about the factual information and even noted where she'd used a character's actual words. (That may be standard in biographical/historical non-fiction-y fiction, but as I said above, I don't know much about the genre.) I also found Luise Mühlbach's story interesting in its own right. She was quite prolific and was an early feminist and supported the family with her books after her husband became an invalid.
]]> 23011085 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:15:14 -0700
author: Julia Cameron
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 11/05
date added: 08/05/08
shelves: artsy-fartsy, bibliophilia-writing-language, junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
I didn't finish this one, but I have started writing again. As the comments on Lena's reviews express, the insistent spirituality of the book can be hard to work through, but there are some good exercises.
]]> 22101632 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:59:56 -0700
I was kind of disappointed that all she was doing was sleeping around with *gasp* working-class guys... From all the hype about the main character's tawdry double life, I thought surely there would be a little kink, but no such luck. And though the point the author was trying to make was TOO obvious, she made it very well: there definitely wouldn't have been so much hoopla if Cate had been an unmarried male judge rutting all over town.]]>
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 07/08
date added: 08/03/08
shelves: fiction, own-it
review:
I needed a quick escape, and I got it.

I was kind of disappointed that all she was doing was sleeping around with *gasp* working-class guys... From all the hype about the main character's tawdry double life, I thought surely there would be a little kink, but no such luck. And though the point the author was trying to make was TOO obvious, she made it very well: there definitely wouldn't have been so much hoopla if Cate had been an unmarried male judge rutting all over town.
]]> 29076463 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:39:08 -0700
author: Alice Walker
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/02/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, essays-and-the-like, feminist-womanist-gender, own-it, race-racism-colonial-imperial-ism, theory-philosophy
review:
I just got this book at the flea market, but I have read many of these essays over the years in various classes so I'm going to mark it as "read." I utterly ADORE Alice Walker.
]]> 29058147 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:07:35 -0700
author: Peter L. Bernstein
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 12/05
date added: 08/02/08
shelves: class-inequality-economics, history-is-not-a-social-science, social-science
review:
As some other reviewers have mentioned, this book demonstrates the importance of math in humanity's "conquest" of nature, but it does so in a way that is not at all intimidating to mathphobes. I actually read this as a text in an advanced principles of sociology class as the foundation for examining Ulrich Beck's thesis of "risk society."
]]> 28621668 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:46:46 -0700 this bridge we call home: "Writing that uses language that excludes most [people] is not feminist... why not write in formats that engage rather than exclude?" I am reminded that writing is for me a wholly different exercise than what it is for most of the poets I will likely find here, and so there's no reason for my feeling apologetic for this poetry not working for me.]]>
author: Andrew Lundwall
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/29/08
shelves: la-poesie, own-it
review:
Perhaps I am too literal-minded to "appreciate" abstraction, but I just didn't "get" most of these poems. They did not speak to me; they did not effect me, except to make me feel confused and hopelessly plebeian for being confused. And then I remembered something Donna Hightower Langston wrote in this bridge we call home: "Writing that uses language that excludes most [people] is not feminist... why not write in formats that engage rather than exclude?" I am reminded that writing is for me a wholly different exercise than what it is for most of the poets I will likely find here, and so there's no reason for my feeling apologetic for this poetry not working for me.
]]> 28623619 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:46:29 -0700 this bridge we call home: "Writing that uses language that excludes most [people] is not feminist... why not write in formats that engage rather than exclude?" I am reminded that writing is for me a wholly different exercise than what it is for most of the poets I will likely find here, and so there's no reason for my feeling apologetic for this poetry not working for me.]]>
author: Ryan Daley
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/29/08
shelves: la-poesie, own-it
review:
Perhaps I am too literal-minded to "appreciate" abstraction, but I just didn't "get" most of these poems. They did not speak to me; they did not effect me, except to make me feel confused and hopelessly plebeian for being confused. And then I remembered something Donna Hightower Langston wrote in this bridge we call home: "Writing that uses language that excludes most [people] is not feminist... why not write in formats that engage rather than exclude?" I am reminded that writing is for me a wholly different exercise than what it is for most of the poets I will likely find here, and so there's no reason for my feeling apologetic for this poetry not working for me.
]]> 27772073 Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:53:12 -0700
author: Catherine Bowman
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/27/08
shelves: la-poesie, own-it
review:
This was a nice little introduction to many different poets with whom I was not familiar. I will keep it by my bed so I can flip to one of the many dogeared pages for a poetic nightcap when I need one.
]]> 28386259 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:13:48 -0700
I would've liked to've known Sam Clemens. How cool is this?!]]>
author: Mark Twain
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/26/08
shelves: essays-and-the-like, sexy-sexy-splashy-splashy
review:
Well, now I've read it, so I guess it can go on the sexy shelf... once I figure out what a Vendome Column is...

I would've liked to've known Sam Clemens. How cool is this?!
]]> 24071634 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:45:07 -0700
The extensiveness of the drug section was a bit much, but I get the point he was trying to make--our perceptions (of self and of the world) are chemical reactions in the brain. The fact that external chemicals alter our perceptions (and our personalities) points to the material basis of the self (and the "soul"). In fact, I found myself wishing I had had this book when I first got clean and sober b/c the material approach works so much better for me than framing alcoholism/addiction as a "spiritual disease."

I appreciated the broad overview of human religious behavior from a non-sociological perspective (which I also love, btw, but it's nice to read outside one's primary discipline), and this book illuminated some concepts to which I had not been exposed--like neoteny and contingency and our pathological fear of it and especially of the ultimate contingency, death--and which I now want to learn more about. (And I'm about to add a bunch of books from his references to my to-read shelf!)

Beyond enjoying the subject matter, I also just enjoyed reading this accessible book (though it wasn't very well edited--lots of typos). (And it is not a small thing that the author makes an effort to refer to humans with the female pronoun more often than not. Thank you, Mr. McGraw! It really does make a difference!) McGraw is very personable and at times quite funny, and even though he very obviously thinks (and effectively argues) that humans must mature in our psychological/philosophical interpretations of the world and accept our ultimate fate (death with nothing beyond it), he also expresses compassion for believers and their deep psychological need for the benzodiazepine of belief in immortality and realizes that the security blanket can't just be yanked away. He doesn't provide any recommendations for how to do it softly and sweetly, but he does offer several "mature philosophies" as alternatives [Buddhism (yay!), Epicureanism, and Stoicism].]]>
author: John J. McGraw
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/26/08
shelves: not-so-social-science, own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism, social-science
review:
Wow, I enjoyed this one very much, but I will have a hard time describing it. The subtitle "exploration" is appropriate because the book examines the notion of immortality from the perspectives of several different disciplines including neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy and pyschology.

The extensiveness of the drug section was a bit much, but I get the point he was trying to make--our perceptions (of self and of the world) are chemical reactions in the brain. The fact that external chemicals alter our perceptions (and our personalities) points to the material basis of the self (and the "soul"). In fact, I found myself wishing I had had this book when I first got clean and sober b/c the material approach works so much better for me than framing alcoholism/addiction as a "spiritual disease."

I appreciated the broad overview of human religious behavior from a non-sociological perspective (which I also love, btw, but it's nice to read outside one's primary discipline), and this book illuminated some concepts to which I had not been exposed--like neoteny and contingency and our pathological fear of it and especially of the ultimate contingency, death--and which I now want to learn more about. (And I'm about to add a bunch of books from his references to my to-read shelf!)

Beyond enjoying the subject matter, I also just enjoyed reading this accessible book (though it wasn't very well edited--lots of typos). (And it is not a small thing that the author makes an effort to refer to humans with the female pronoun more often than not. Thank you, Mr. McGraw! It really does make a difference!) McGraw is very personable and at times quite funny, and even though he very obviously thinks (and effectively argues) that humans must mature in our psychological/philosophical interpretations of the world and accept our ultimate fate (death with nothing beyond it), he also expresses compassion for believers and their deep psychological need for the benzodiazepine of belief in immortality and realizes that the security blanket can't just be yanked away. He doesn't provide any recommendations for how to do it softly and sweetly, but he does offer several "mature philosophies" as alternatives [Buddhism (yay!), Epicureanism, and Stoicism].
]]> 28314408 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:45:46 -0700
author: Sophocles
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 01/99
date added: 07/25/08
shelves: drama
review:
Traaa-ge-dee!
]]> 28122689 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:52:29 -0700 Codependent No More review, the insane relationship stuff has taken a lot longer to let go of than the insane drinking behavior. And since I actually had to reread this one 6 months ago, it would seem that I'm still not there yet! *sigh*]]>
author: Melody Beattie
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
As I said in the Codependent No More review, the insane relationship stuff has taken a lot longer to let go of than the insane drinking behavior. And since I actually had to reread this one 6 months ago, it would seem that I'm still not there yet! *sigh*
]]> 28122336 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:47:39 -0700
author: Melody Beattie
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 01/02
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
So, the dysfunctional relationship patterns ended up being more detrimental than the drinking, a lot more entrenched. This book helped to look at that stuff.
]]> 28118692 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:44:00 -0700
author: Melody Beattie
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 01/04
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
There were times in my recovery that I found this book very helpful--just the routine of reading it every morning. But it became a lot less bearable the less religous I became. My daily routine now includes journaling and maybe "meditating" on a poem.
]]> 28121717 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:42:42 -0700
author: Melody Beattie
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 01/04
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
OK, you can read all my caveats about 12 Step lit on my reviews of the Big Book and the 12 & 12, but if I was gonna HAVE to do the 12 Steps, I would do them from this book b/c she makes a point of saying that it doesn't have to done exactly as AA Nazis tell you it does, and you can even not have a diety, especially not a male one, as a Higher Power! :)
]]> 19908193 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:36:51 -0700
author: Pierre Bourdieu
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 01/05
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: class-inequality-economics, own-it, social-science, theory-philosophy
review:
While I am totally in agreement with most of his premises, the book itself is very hard to read, so I'm only giving it 3 stars. I definitely could not have done it outside a classroom setting and without a professor to interpret for me.
]]> 19871877 Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:42:56 -0700
author: Michael Shermer
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/20/08
shelves: own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism, social-science
review:
My undergraduate Research Methods professor used the 3rd chapter ("How Thinking Goes Wrong") as an introductory text for our class, and it was so invigorating! I finally had words to express why I found it so frustrating trying to refute fundamentalist religious arguments (which we've gotten a lot of in the last 8 years) about how life is and/or should be... We are essentially speaking two different languages, and as long as I am trying to argue from logic and reason, there's just no talking to them! James wanted us to think about these logical fallacies, though, as part of our sociological imagination. We (humans) tend to reify society and ascribe many of our own (social) creations (culture norms, gender inequality, class attributes, etc.) to "the natural order," which is just one more way of saying "because God said so," which is no more than a religious argument to maintain the status quo. Everyone should have to read at least that chapter!
]]> 24885709 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:47:27 -0700
author: Alexis De Veaux
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/17/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, feminist-womanist-gender, glbtqia-lmnop, own-it, race-racism-colonial-imperial-ism
review:
I just finished it, like 5 minutes ago, so I am still processing. All I can say right now is... Well, I don't think I can say anything. I feel like crying actually. :(
]]> 27410613 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:43:04 -0700
author: S.E. Hinton
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 01/86
date added: 07/16/08
shelves: class-inequality-economics, fiction
review:

]]> 27410487 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:42:45 -0700
author: S.E. Hinton
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 01/86
date added: 07/16/08
shelves: class-inequality-economics, fiction
review:

]]> 27410733 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:41:42 -0700
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 01/85
date added: 07/16/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 26809608 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:12:15 -0700
author: Geoffrey Chaucer
name: Mindy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1898
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/12/08
shelves: antiques-vintage, fiction, la-poesie
review:
This book is in horrendous shape, but I cannot bear to throw Chaucer away! :)
]]> 27034052 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:45:29 -0700
author: Anne Rice
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1976
rating: 2
read at: 01/93
date added: 07/12/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction
review:
When I read it in the early '90s, I remember thinking that it was just too "flowery." All the lavishy detailed descriptions of wallpapers and curtains, etc.... I imagine it would be different experience now, but I there are so many other books I'd rather read first.
]]> 26956225 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:22:53 -0700
author: Truman Capote
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 01/06
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, fiction, own-it
review:
I don't know how I missed entering this one when I was going through all my books. I read it after all the hoopla about the Capote movie but before I watched the movie so I wouldn't be tainted by the film portrayal of the story, which was actually quite good.
]]> 26955242 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:11:36 -0700 Umm, it's been quite a while since I read this, and I don't remember some of the stories too well. I think "The Long Walk" was my favorite.]]>
author: Richard Bachman
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 01/91
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction
review:
I had this one, but now I only have the dust jacket! Wtf?
Umm, it's been quite a while since I read this, and I don't remember some of the stories too well. I think "The Long Walk" was my favorite.
]]> 26954231 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:58:20 -0700
author: Stephen King
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1983
rating: 2
read at: 01/90
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction, own-it
review:
This is one of his worst books.
]]> 26954246 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:57:32 -0700
author: Stephen King
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.28
book published: 1981
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction, own-it
review:

]]> 26952198 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:34:27 -0700
author: Carrie Fisher
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.25
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 01/96
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, junkie-recovery-self-help-ish
review:
Another one that I read a long time ago...
]]> 26951512 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:26:46 -0700
author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1850
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: fiction
review:
This is one of those that I read in high school and should probably go back and read again b/c it would be a completely different experience now.
]]> 26940289 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:19:35 -0700
:)

Seriously, though, this book was part of that time when I was making my first terrified steps towards recovery and growth. Sexuality and sexual/body confidence were all wrapped up in that, so Lou's book ended up being a lot more for me than just a how-to manual. (But it is EXCELLENT as a how-to manual! *wink*)]]>
author: Lou Paget
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 01/99
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: junkie-recovery-self-help-ish, sexy-sexy-splashy-splashy
review:
About ten years ago I finally left (for good) the cheating asshole biker I had been with since high school. All that time with him piled on top of a lot of childhood sexual baggage meant that my sexual self-esteem was pretty much nonexistent. However, I had met a young (hothothot in the nerdy way that I like) guy and was planning on having sex with him eventually, but I wanted to know that I was doing it well. So, I bought this book, some Astroglide, and a cucumber from the market (as Lou suggests) to practice on, and by all accounts my oral (and other) sex skills (with men anyway) are unsurpassed.

:)

Seriously, though, this book was part of that time when I was making my first terrified steps towards recovery and growth. Sexuality and sexual/body confidence were all wrapped up in that, so Lou's book ended up being a lot more for me than just a how-to manual. (But it is EXCELLENT as a how-to manual! *wink*)
]]> 26906494 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:05:33 -0700
author: Robin Cook
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.36
book published: 1977
rating: 2
read at: 01/91
date added: 07/10/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction
review:
Lol, one of the people on my friends list added this, and it reminded me that I had read it a long, long time ago. I don't remember much of it, but my general impression from back then was that it was all right.
]]> 26797867 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:56:08 -0700
I seriously thought about putting this one on the horror shelf.]]>
author: William Golding
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at: 01/89
date added: 07/09/08
shelves: fiction
review:
Ugh.

I seriously thought about putting this one on the horror shelf.
]]> 23088648 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:01:28 -0700
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1929
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 07/08/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, essays-and-the-like, feminist-womanist-gender, own-it, theory-philosophy
review:

]]> 26634835 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:19:41 -0700
Mmmmm, hmmmm!]]>
author: Brooklyn Copeland
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/08/08
shelves: la-poesie
review:
"hot crotch lace"

Mmmmm, hmmmm!
]]> 26559606 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:27:02 -0700
author: Buddha
name: Mindy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 07/07/08
shelves: religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
I chose this version of The Dhammapada b/c of the excellent reviews Glenn Wallis' translation and exegesis received. I was not disappointed. This is an excellent introduction to Buddhist scripture!
]]> 26536445 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:02:16 -0700
author: John Berendt
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 01/95
date added: 07/07/08
shelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff
review:
This is another one of those books that has somehow escaped from my home. I didn't even realize I'd lost it until I saw it on someone else's shelf and noticed it wasn't on mine! ANYWAY, I really enjoyed this one and read it at least twice just to wallow in all the delicious eccentricity.
]]> 26489739 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:16:39 -0700
author: Kate Chopin
name: Mindy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1899
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: feminist-womanist-gender, fiction
review:
As moving and intriguing as the story itself is the fact that it was written at all by a woman in those times... The whole time I was reading and experiencing (and totally sympathizing with) Edna's frustration and anguish, I was also trying to place myself back in 1899, trying to imagine the outrage this book caused, the audacity of the implication that, given a choice, woman might not merrily march off down the aisle to home, hearth, and nursery... This work, within and without itself, simply stunned me.
]]> 26464875 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:56:01 -0700
author: James Redfield
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.37
book published: 1993
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: religion-spirituality-atheism
review:
I read this when it first came out, at the beginning of my spiritual searching for something beyond the religion I was raised with. I don't really rememeber a lot of it, but I think my general impression is that it was just generally pretty silly.
]]> 26392108 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:53:45 -0700
author: Dean Koontz
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 01/97
date added: 07/05/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction
review:
This is probably my favorite Dean Koontz book, which may not be saying much since I don't find him all that remarkable. I DID own this at one point, but I seem to have lost it along the way in all the moves over the past few years... Something interesting about this book is how the French film High Tension seems to be based on it almost exactly (in the first at least half of it), but neither Koontz nor Intensity is mentioned anywhere in the film. Does anyone know what's up with that?
]]> 26300800 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:57:04 -0700
author: Tracey Stevens/Katherine Wunder
name: Mindy
average rating: 1.00
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: glbtqia-lmnop, sexy-sexy-splashy-splashy
review:
This one was so bad I actually returned it to Amazon!
]]> 26299990 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:42:55 -0700
author: Robert A. Scott
name: Mindy
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1979
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: social-science
review:

]]> 26283201 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:27:38 -0700
author: John Coyne
name: Mindy
average rating: 3.17
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: dark-scary-or-mysterious-shit, fiction
review:
Adding the old gothic paperbacks last night made me remember this one. I read it in later elementary school, which was probably a little too young, and it scared the poop out of me. So of course I read it over and over again! The evil white cat was the best part, and the scene of the woman drowning in the pool b/c some magical force had created an invisible "cover" over it afer she got in is STILL eerie to me. The last thing she sees as she loses consciousness is the cat watching her from the edge of the pool. I think I also remember there being a movie, but it was kinda corny.
]]> 26266423 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:06:47 -0700
author: Alexandra Ripley
name: Mindy
average rating: 2.87
book published: 1991
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/03/08
shelves: fiction
review:
I think I actually read the Reader's Digest condensed version. For some reason all I remember are striped (red? green?) stockings...
]]> 22468719 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:56:10 -0700