http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/132513 en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:18:26 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 8672854 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:18:26 -0700
author: William Julius Wilson
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: on-hiatus
review:

]]> 8255884 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:17:28 -0700
author: Robert Sullivan
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 04/15/08
shelves: on-hiatus
review:

]]> 17856818 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:53:00 -0700
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/16/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 12078307 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:53:33 -0800
author: Henry Kisor
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/17/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 11314878 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:59:06 -0800
author: E.L. Konigsburg
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/30/07
shelves:
review:
Had to reread this while in New York. This was one of my favorites as a kid, and it still holds up for me.
]]> 11314741 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:55:40 -0800
author: Dan Zuberi
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 10998201 Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:26:22 -0800
author: E.B. White
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 12/25/07
shelves:
review:
I've reread this a couple of times since I moved to New York. Sometimes when I am walking around the city, I'll remember snippets of White's essay. Right now the most applicable part, for me, is his description of those to move to New York from somewhere else: "...the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. ...each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company."
]]> 10912042 Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:25:54 -0800
author: Emily Franklin
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/23/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6369772 Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:46:05 -0700
author: Amy Cohen
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/17/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 5977786 Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:18:54 -0700
author: Anne Kreamer
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 5123402 Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:51:03 -0700
author: National Geographic Society
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4420911 Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:27:48 -0700
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.84
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/12/07
shelves:
review:
I read this when I was at my mom's this summer. It happened to be around, and I couldn't concentrate on any of the books I had with me. Otherwise I wouldn't have read it and wouldn't recommend it.
]]> 4351217 Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:07:45 -0700
author: Marie Arana
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 4183599 Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:32:01 -0700
author: Joe Bageant
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 08/06/07
shelves: on-hiatus
review:

]]> 4088522 Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:04:27 -0700
author: Anne Fadiman
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 11/07
date added: 08/04/07
shelves: on-hiatus
review:

]]> 4041579 Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:02:42 -0700
author: Lewis Buzbee
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 3743780 Sun, 29 Jul 2007 09:58:06 -0700
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 07/29/07
shelves: on-hiatus
review:

]]> 3642495 Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:06:57 -0700
author: Joan Anderson
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/27/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 3642079 Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:06:31 -0700 A Walk on the Beach (which is one of my recent favorite books). However, that book focuses on her friendship with Joan Erikson, the wife of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, and Year by the Sea focuses on Anderson's own experience at Cape Cod as she readdresses her life. Parts of the story will sound familiar if you've read Walk on the Beach, but the different focus makes it worth a read.]]>
author: Joan Anderson
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/27/07
shelves:
review:
I wasn't sure if I would get much out of this book since I read Anderson's other account of her year in her book A Walk on the Beach (which is one of my recent favorite books). However, that book focuses on her friendship with Joan Erikson, the wife of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, and Year by the Sea focuses on Anderson's own experience at Cape Cod as she readdresses her life. Parts of the story will sound familiar if you've read Walk on the Beach, but the different focus makes it worth a read.
]]> 3338638 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:53:45 -0700
author: Stephen Kuusisto
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/26/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 3422537 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:16:25 -0700
author: Alex Kotlowitz
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/24/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 3338645 Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:42:19 -0700
author: Richard Rodriguez
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 3338597 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:05:58 -0700
author: Wendy Lesser
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.75
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/20/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2556274 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:05:11 -0700
author: Wendy Lesser
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/20/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2144885 Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:17:50 -0700
There are a few good essays here, but most importantly, I found some of what I was looking for in David Roth's essay about the New Jersey Nets. During his youth, the basketball team was a losing bunch of "charming drug addicts and gimpy vets and half-defective veterans of the NBA's satellite minor leagues." The team reflected the state, an underdog place which "was ugly but beautiful--you had to know where to look and what to look for, and know how to see that certain types of ugliness can be beautiful."

Toward the end of the essay, the Midwesterner in me who rejects East Coast pretention about my "flyover country" finally bonded ever so slightly with this maligned state when Roth wrote: "pull your fucking weight, or never understand that it's actually the right thing for us to fight for recognition and a little respect, which is not really too much to ask. Never understand that when it came down to it you would never be able to change yourself enough to seem as if you weren't from here. Never understand that there's no shame in being what you are, which is someone born into New Jersey, with New Jersey born into you. Understand that, embrace that, and understand how close that is to the heart of being in and of this place, or go back to whatever dark part of it you come from."

Reading this didn't make me like Jersey, but Roth's essay revealed something similar in his native pride and mine that helps me relate to it just a bit.]]>
author: Irina Reyn
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/04/07
shelves:
review:
I picked this up when I ran across it, half hoping something in it would explain Jersey to me. (I've spent one academic year there so far for grad school.) I agree with statements by previous reviewers that this essay collection is uneven and probably of interest more to people who grew up in or otherwise identify with Jersey. As a Midwesterner who grew up in suburbia but prefers cities, there wasn't enough here to reveal any uniqueness about Jersey suburbs to me. One writer's father told him the state "was unique because there was no hiding from the seasons." Really? Wow, no other states in the country have four seasons?

There are a few good essays here, but most importantly, I found some of what I was looking for in David Roth's essay about the New Jersey Nets. During his youth, the basketball team was a losing bunch of "charming drug addicts and gimpy vets and half-defective veterans of the NBA's satellite minor leagues." The team reflected the state, an underdog place which "was ugly but beautiful--you had to know where to look and what to look for, and know how to see that certain types of ugliness can be beautiful."

Toward the end of the essay, the Midwesterner in me who rejects East Coast pretention about my "flyover country" finally bonded ever so slightly with this maligned state when Roth wrote: "pull your fucking weight, or never understand that it's actually the right thing for us to fight for recognition and a little respect, which is not really too much to ask. Never understand that when it came down to it you would never be able to change yourself enough to seem as if you weren't from here. Never understand that there's no shame in being what you are, which is someone born into New Jersey, with New Jersey born into you. Understand that, embrace that, and understand how close that is to the heart of being in and of this place, or go back to whatever dark part of it you come from."

Reading this didn't make me like Jersey, but Roth's essay revealed something similar in his native pride and mine that helps me relate to it just a bit.
]]> 2714609 Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:09:21 -0700
author: Mildred A. Wirt
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1946
rating: 2
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/04/07
shelves:
review:
Penny convinces her dad to hire her as a cub reporter at his understaffed newspaper, and she is sent out to cover an explosion at a steel plant. Unfortunately, that explosion doesn't factor back into the story until much later, and the plot twist in between with a scam artist drags down the story. This story had enticing elements, like a disgraced reporter, an unwritten story, and a ship filled with ne'er do wells, but they don't develop as much as I wished.
]]> 2552183 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:50:44 -0700 Olympia. Along the way, she intertwines her own life with fictional passages from Victorine. The sections Lipton imagines from Victorine's perspective annoyed me since there was no indication they were based on her research and rang hollow. I didn't want an imagined story of the woman but to follow the historical mystery as it unfolded. But the last quarter of the book made me sit up and read eagerly to the end when Lipton finally ran into more luck in her quest for Victorine's story. Her account of her hunt intrigued me enough to overcome the book's weaker fictional passages, and it's enough to inspire persistent research for other stories from the past.]]>
author: Eunice Lipton
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/29/07
shelves:
review:
As an art historian, Eunice Lipton traces the life of Victorine Meurent, the model for some of Manet's paintings, including his famous Olympia. Along the way, she intertwines her own life with fictional passages from Victorine. The sections Lipton imagines from Victorine's perspective annoyed me since there was no indication they were based on her research and rang hollow. I didn't want an imagined story of the woman but to follow the historical mystery as it unfolded. But the last quarter of the book made me sit up and read eagerly to the end when Lipton finally ran into more luck in her quest for Victorine's story. Her account of her hunt intrigued me enough to overcome the book's weaker fictional passages, and it's enough to inspire persistent research for other stories from the past.
]]> 2453359 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:05:04 -0700
author: Glen O. Gabbard
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/27/07
shelves:
review:
Just started watching the Sopranos (I know, I'm a little slow) and read this to fill the gap between getting the next episodes from the library. It looks at how therapy is portrayed and used in the show and the psychological issues of the characters. If you're not addicted to the show, this probably won't be of much, if any, interest, but it was interesting as a light quick read.
]]> 2069186 Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:13:46 -0700
author: Reinhard Kaiser
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/22/07
shelves:
review:
While the book is just 100 pages, it took Kaiser more than five years to uncover this story of a couple who were separated while the Nazis ruled Germany. The author stumbled on the story when he bought a bundle of envelopes containing letters from Rudolf Kaufmann to Ingeborg Magnusson at a stamp auction. Intrigued, he traced the couple's love story through newspapers, Kaufmann's geology disseration, and interviews with people who knew them. Photographs and images of the correspondence help to flesh out the slim book. I wish the author had been able to provide a more complete portrait of Ingeborg from the interviews he did, but overall this is a quick and interesting read.
]]> 2064706 Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:30:08 -0700
author: Ann Patchett
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 05/07
date added: 06/17/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2064682 Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:28:56 -0700
author: Davar Ardalan
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 05/07
date added: 06/17/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1984990 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:27:44 -0700
author: Mildred A. Wirt
name: Heidi
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1944
rating: 2
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:
I've only read a few of the Penny Parker books so far, but this is my least favorite at this point. It felt more predictable than the others I've read (Drawbridge, Secret Pact, Cry at Midnight).
]]> 1985069 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:24:55 -0700 Persepolis (I & II) and Embroideries. I might reread it later to check my reaction.]]>
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:
I didn't take to this one from Satrapi as much as her others, for some reason. Not sure if it was the mood I was in when I read it or the book itself, but it didn't feel as strong as Persepolis (I & II) and Embroideries. I might reread it later to check my reaction.
]]> 1985406 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:30:17 -0700
author: Cecil Castellucci
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1985098 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:22:10 -0700
author: Brian Selznick
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1984872 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:16:36 -0700
author: Calvin Trillin
name: Heidi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 1984804 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:14:13 -0700
author: Mildred A. Wirt
name: Heidi
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 06/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves:
review:

]]>