http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/187043 en-US Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:44:50 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 30466116 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:53:59 -0700
author: Chaim Potok
name: Laura
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/18/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 29999352 Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:42:17 -0700
One caveat: if you're upset at the thought of Nancy in engaging in, um, adult activities, you should probably give a miss to the middle section of the book.]]>
author: Joe Brainard
name: Laura
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/13/08
shelves: art
review:
If you’re not already madly in love with Nancy (and I think a ton of people are — I used to have a Nancy T-shirt and I couldn’t walk more than a couple blocks in NYC without someone stopping me to ask where I got it), you will be after looking at Joe Brainard’s The Nancy Book. I promise. I can’t remember the last time that a book cracked me up like this. (“If Nancy was a Ball” is perhaps the one that made me laugh most — it’s sort of inexplicably charming and weirdo-bizarro all at the same time.)

One caveat: if you're upset at the thought of Nancy in engaging in, um, adult activities, you should probably give a miss to the middle section of the book.
]]> 29811269 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:47:09 -0700
author: Yoshiko Uchida
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/10/08
shelves: ya-literature
review:

]]> 29607110 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:44:13 -0700
author: Jan Harold Brunvand
name: Laura
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction, read-dont-remember
review:

]]> 29607036 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:43:30 -0700
author: Jan Harold Brunvand
name: Laura
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29607008 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:43:04 -0700
author: Jan Harold Brunvand
name: Laura
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29606975 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:42:40 -0700
author: Jan Harold Brunvand
name: Laura
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29606753 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:39:55 -0700
author: Tom Burnam
name: Laura
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29606708 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:39:31 -0700
author: Hal Morgan
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29606683 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:39:08 -0700
author: Hal Morgan
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 29259948 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:46:00 -0700
author: Roy Blount Jr.
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/04/08
shelves: humor
review:

]]> 29259771 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:44:20 -0700
author: Valerie Shaff
name: Laura
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/04/08
shelves: art, humor
review:

]]> 29045336 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:45:19 -0700
author: Kathryn Gibbs Davis
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1982
rating: 2
read at: 01/90
date added: 08/02/08
shelves: ya-literature
review:
This book was adequate. I don't remember that much, but I do recall stilted dialogue and plodding prose, with wooden characters to match. I think it's out of print, so apparently my review of the book with a resounding "eh" was not unusual.
]]> 29031972 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:44:14 -0700
author: Dean Walley
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/01/08
shelves: children
review:
Pop-up books! I loved pop-up books. I was annoyed when my school library didn't carry them. This one was cute because it had lots of weird creatures. Although I remember thinking that the pet at the end that was supposed to be the ne plus ultra of great weird pets was actually the lamest of the bunch and I couldn't really understand why the main character chose that one over all the others. Oh well!
]]> 29031496 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:39:28 -0700
author: Melville Shavelson
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1976
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 08/01/08
shelves: novelizations
review:
Do we count novelizations of TV movies as books? Anyway, I read this when I was around 11 or so, and I thought it was a big fat thrill because there was this one scene where a lady took off all her clothes and Houdini kneels down to look at her naked body and it talks about his looking at "her perfectly formed hips, her breasts, her vagina." (Yes, I am embarrassed that I remember it in such detail.) This was the first time I'd read a fiction book that used the word "vagina" and I was all, "Ooooooooooooh." (Ok, when I was 11 I didn't notice the fact that the author meant to say "vulva" instead of vagina, so sue me.) So that's what I remember. It was a novelization, though, so I'm giving it two stars.
]]> 28885926 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:49:31 -0700
author: Jennifer Donnelly
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/31/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 28805795 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:00:17 -0700
author: Lorenzo Carcaterra
name: Laura
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/30/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 28099451 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:20:38 -0700
This book, written for young adults, has a very fine premise with an engrossing narrative, and Ashby knows how to build suspense. Most importantly, his characters ring true, and he deserves a lot of credit for refusing to take the easy way out by making Hannah an innocent victim. To the contrary, some readers may justifiably find Hannah nearly as petty and manipulative as she believed her tormentors to be. This choice raises the book several notches above the usual good guy/bad guy teen angst story.

The one problem I had with the book is that it's written in that sort of studiedly terse, melodramatic style that's all the rage in YA books these days -- lots of one-sentence paragraphs, one-word sentences, and piles of tortured acts such as smashing one's hand into a chain-link fence and watching the blood flow. (If you've ever read a book by Jay Bennett, you know what I mean, but in fairness, it seems to be the prevailing style in YA these days.) The technique can be effective in short bursts, but over the course of an entire book can get wearing and repetitive.

Technical flaws aside, this book presents a complex and thought-provoking story, and it's one to seek out if you're looking for a worthwhile YA read.]]>
author: Jay Asher
name: Laura
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/24/08
shelves: ya-literature
review:
Immediately before teenager Hannah Baker takes her own life, she sends audiotapes to 13 people, explaining the reasons for her suicide.

This book, written for young adults, has a very fine premise with an engrossing narrative, and Ashby knows how to build suspense. Most importantly, his characters ring true, and he deserves a lot of credit for refusing to take the easy way out by making Hannah an innocent victim. To the contrary, some readers may justifiably find Hannah nearly as petty and manipulative as she believed her tormentors to be. This choice raises the book several notches above the usual good guy/bad guy teen angst story.

The one problem I had with the book is that it's written in that sort of studiedly terse, melodramatic style that's all the rage in YA books these days -- lots of one-sentence paragraphs, one-word sentences, and piles of tortured acts such as smashing one's hand into a chain-link fence and watching the blood flow. (If you've ever read a book by Jay Bennett, you know what I mean, but in fairness, it seems to be the prevailing style in YA these days.) The technique can be effective in short bursts, but over the course of an entire book can get wearing and repetitive.

Technical flaws aside, this book presents a complex and thought-provoking story, and it's one to seek out if you're looking for a worthwhile YA read.
]]> 27945385 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:01:21 -0700
author: Ruth Chew
name: Laura
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 01/75
date added: 07/22/08
shelves: children
review:

]]> 26356635 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:35:47 -0700
The book is extremely short -- 126 pages, much of which is taken up by illustrations -- and thus, is something of a lengthened article rather than a book (a trait that Holt more or less concedes in the preface). Nonetheless, the book never feels rushed or underdeveloped, and I actually found myself sorry it was ending so quickly.

A tip for New Yorkers, or people who have spent a fair amount of time here: even if you think you don't want to read the book itself, pick it up next time you're in the bookstore and read the footnote on pages 80 to 81. It was so funny (to me, anyway) that I actually started carrying the book around so I could read it to people. ]]>
author: Jim Holt
name: Laura
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/18/08
shelves:
review:
Largely because of the old saw about a joke ceasing to be funny when you have to explain it, I was a bit dubious about starting this book, as the subtitle "a History and Philosophy of Jokes" didn't seem to hold too much promise. What a pleasant surprise, then, to begin the book to find that not only does author Jim Holt have a pleasing and utterly engaging narrative voice, but that the book, unlike much of the genre purporting to deconstruct the concept of the joke (Sigmund Freud, I'm talking to you) is itself quite funny. Although Holt does enumerate the various philosophies purporting to explain why we, as a species, find jokes funny, he never descends into academic dryness.

The book is extremely short -- 126 pages, much of which is taken up by illustrations -- and thus, is something of a lengthened article rather than a book (a trait that Holt more or less concedes in the preface). Nonetheless, the book never feels rushed or underdeveloped, and I actually found myself sorry it was ending so quickly.

A tip for New Yorkers, or people who have spent a fair amount of time here: even if you think you don't want to read the book itself, pick it up next time you're in the bookstore and read the footnote on pages 80 to 81. It was so funny (to me, anyway) that I actually started carrying the book around so I could read it to people.
]]> 27417197 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:29:00 -0700
author: Don Asmussen
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/16/08
shelves: humor
review:

]]> 27005780 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:31:29 -0700
author: Jeff Moss
name: Laura
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at: 01/94
date added: 07/11/08
shelves: children
review:

]]> 26783600 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:16:08 -0700
author: Munro Leaf
name: Laura
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/09/08
shelves: children
review:

]]> 26484203 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:04:46 -0700
Do you?]]>
author: James Innes-Smith
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: humor
review:
Read and be happy you do not look like this.

Do you?
]]> 26465235 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:04:11 -0700
author: Ira Levin
name: Laura
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 01/77
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: fiction
review:
Read this when I was perhaps 11. Didn't understand the ending until someone explained it to me, but it talked about sex and made me feel very adult, so I liked it anyhow.
]]> 26465305 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:03:38 -0700
author: Ira Levin
name: Laura
average rating: 3.35
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 01/78
date added: 07/06/08
shelves: fiction
review:
When I was in Hebrew school, the teacher had us listen to the first chapter on audiobook, and promised to let us hear the rest. When he realized that the book had dialog such as "Fucking bitch, I'd like to cut her tits off," he reconsidered his plans.
]]> 26391043 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:25:37 -0700
author: Editors of Phaidon Press
name: Laura
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/05/08
shelves: art
review:

]]> 26391004 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:25:02 -0700
author: Rick Moody
name: Laura
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/05/08
shelves: art
review:

]]> 26390878 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:24:35 -0700
author: Philip-Lorca Dicorcia
name: Laura
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/05/08
shelves: art
review:

]]> 26260825 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:43:58 -0700
author: Frank Bidart
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/03/08
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 26043311 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:55:53 -0700
author: Arnold Lobel
name: Laura
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/01/08
shelves: children
review:

]]> 26043279 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:54:39 -0700
author: Arnold Lobel
name: Laura
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/01/08
shelves: children
review:

]]> 25999321 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:22:23 -0700
Shockingly, Clarissa (upon whom we bestowed a nickname that was, um, less than flattering, and which you can probably figure out) never wrote another book that got the slightest amount of attention (unless you count The Gift of Story, a little nothing of a book that she tossed out in a couple of weeks just in time for the Christmas rush. [Yep, nothing cynical about Dr. Estes.] I won't even tell you the advance they gave her for it because it will make you lose your will to live.) Can't imagine why.

I mean, let's face it: you know a book is a must to avoid when you have Alice Walker saying stuff like, "Women Who Run With the Wolves isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows." Yeek.]]>
author: Clarissa Pinkola Estes
name: Laura
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1996
rating: 1
read at: 01/93
date added: 07/01/08
shelves: non-fiction, overrated
review:
When I worked at Ballantine Books in the early to mid-1990s, this was by far the most successful book the house had ever published (it probably still is). Everyone who worked there couldn't get over it -- this piece of shit was a runaway best-seller? Overblown, overwritten, self-important, pseudo-intellectual -- what the hell was to like? And to top it off, the consensus was that the author was a complete asshole, with personality traits that matched her book to a T. Her visits to the office were ludicrous -- she used to prance around, puffed up like a little marshmallow, waiting for everyone to fall at her feet.

Shockingly, Clarissa (upon whom we bestowed a nickname that was, um, less than flattering, and which you can probably figure out) never wrote another book that got the slightest amount of attention (unless you count The Gift of Story, a little nothing of a book that she tossed out in a couple of weeks just in time for the Christmas rush. [Yep, nothing cynical about Dr. Estes.] I won't even tell you the advance they gave her for it because it will make you lose your will to live.) Can't imagine why.

I mean, let's face it: you know a book is a must to avoid when you have Alice Walker saying stuff like, "Women Who Run With the Wolves isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows." Yeek.
]]> 3037324 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:11:47 -0700
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Laura
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at: 01/88
date added: 07/01/08
shelves: fiction, overrated
review:
Heinlein's sexism and right-wing assholery is fully on display in this book. Ew.
]]> 25606067 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:09:02 -0700
author: Harvard Lampoon
name: Laura
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/26/08
shelves: humor
review:

]]> 20099904 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:16:58 -0700
author: William Wharton
name: Laura
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 01/79
date added: 06/25/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 2979107 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:33 -0700
The fact that people worship this misbegotten mess of a book as they might worship pieces of the True Cross is just plain depressing. Give 'em a decent narrative, throw in some breathless nonsense about free will and the Bible, and don't forget to puff out your chest and tell everyone that you've written a masterpiece. And sure enough, everyone will drool and call it one of the greatest books ever. Gack. Surely we can all do a bit better.]]>
author: John Steinbeck
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1952
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: fiction, overrated
review:
I hate this book. Hate. Ponderous, pretentious, melodramatic, self-satisfied, patronizing to its readers, with ultimately nothing to say. Can be summarized thus: a bunch of people with no formal education whatsoever sit around discussing the time they read the Old Testament in Hebrew, and tell us all how to live. Uh...right. I knew we were in trouble with the unbelievably lame introduction -- some forced, self-congratulatory metaphor about a box, if memory serves -- but it's hard to believe it actually got worse from there. In any event, with its smug aura of "Here you will find WISDOM," it's certainly no wonder that it's right up Oprah's alley.

The fact that people worship this misbegotten mess of a book as they might worship pieces of the True Cross is just plain depressing. Give 'em a decent narrative, throw in some breathless nonsense about free will and the Bible, and don't forget to puff out your chest and tell everyone that you've written a masterpiece. And sure enough, everyone will drool and call it one of the greatest books ever. Gack. Surely we can all do a bit better.
]]> 22934908 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:12:57 -0700
There's not too much here that's terribly startling, but there are lots of interesting moments: Dylan babbles incoherently about...something (interviewer Nat Hentoff charitably characterizes Dylan's ramblings as "surrealistic," which is pretty funny); Sinatra rails against organized religion (which was probably pretty shocking in the mid-1960s); Howard Cosell is every bit as egocentric as you think he was; Mae West is even more egocentric than you thought she was; Ali, well, doesn't seem like a terribly nice person on a whole bunch of levels -- at the time of these interviews, at least, he was, not to put too fine a point on it, a racist and sexist asshole. And it turns out Bette Davis was a pretty rock solid feminist. No surprise, I suppose, but it's still pretty startling to read her say that she thinks every woman should read The Female Eunuch. Go Bette! Lawrence Grobel's interview of Brando is a standout, as Grobel's interviews so often are.
]]>
author: Stephen Randall, editor
name: Laura
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:
Pretty good set of interviews with various Mr. and Ms. Bigs: Bette Davis, Mae West, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Marlon Brando, etc.

There's not too much here that's terribly startling, but there are lots of interesting moments: Dylan babbles incoherently about...something (interviewer Nat Hentoff charitably characterizes Dylan's ramblings as "surrealistic," which is pretty funny); Sinatra rails against organized religion (which was probably pretty shocking in the mid-1960s); Howard Cosell is every bit as egocentric as you think he was; Mae West is even more egocentric than you thought she was; Ali, well, doesn't seem like a terribly nice person on a whole bunch of levels -- at the time of these interviews, at least, he was, not to put too fine a point on it, a racist and sexist asshole. And it turns out Bette Davis was a pretty rock solid feminist. No surprise, I suppose, but it's still pretty startling to read her say that she thinks every woman should read The Female Eunuch. Go Bette! Lawrence Grobel's interview of Brando is a standout, as Grobel's interviews so often are.

]]> 25252557 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:54:51 -0700
author: Jean Webster
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: ya-literature
review:

]]> 24023973 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:54:54 -0700
The book could easily have turned into the usual outlining of a gory crime and its prosecution, blah blah blah, as true crime stories so often do, but Harrison does much more with the material, examining how people use story and narrative to help them continue their lives after undergoing horrific events.

Boy, was this one a breath of fresh air after the execrable A Descent into Hell.]]>
author: Kathryn Harrison
name: Laura
average rating: 3.12
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/22/08
shelves: truecrime
review:
Very fine book about a killing in the family. I will confess to being a little nervous at the beginning, as Kathryn Harrison talked a lot about herself and her incestuous relationship with her father, and I was afraid we were veering into "Enough about me, what do you think of me" territory. But my fears turned out to be unfounded, as Harrison used her own story only to segue into that of the book's subjects: Billy, the son who killed his abusive parents and his younger sister; and Jody, the daughter who had to live with the aftermath of the crime.

The book could easily have turned into the usual outlining of a gory crime and its prosecution, blah blah blah, as true crime stories so often do, but Harrison does much more with the material, examining how people use story and narrative to help them continue their lives after undergoing horrific events.

Boy, was this one a breath of fresh air after the execrable A Descent into Hell.
]]> 24589941 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:07:34 -0700
1. The title. I mean, A Descent into Hell? Really? It sounds like a title that the Lifetime TV movie people rejected as too trite. At least Baby Monitor: The Sound of Fear and Ski Lift to Death (hey, look them up if you don't believe me) had some character.

2. The subtitle. "An Altar Boy" and "a Cheerleader"? Need I say more?

3. The pacing. This is a story about a murder, people. Let's at least bring the pacing up to the level of an episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. If the narrative had been any slower, I would have had to don my gorilla suit and read the book while marching back and forth across the room to Sousa marches just to keep myself mildly entertained.

4. The editing. I actually started marking the diction and grammatical errors just because it was a lot more interesting than trying to keep my mind on the book. Examples: "disinterested" instead of "uninterested"; getting one's car "out of hock" to mean getting it out of an impound lot ("hock" means you sold it to a pawnbroker, duh). And I've rarely encountered a tin ear for dialog like the one on display here. A representative sample:

"Finally, she grabbed the arm of a young man in a uniform, shouting, 'Is my sister all right?' [At least it doesn't say "alright" -- I'll give the author that.]
'Your sister's dead,' he said, pulling away.
When the man walked by again, Vanessa, sobbing, yelled, 'You don't know how this feels.'
'I do,' he said, more kindly. 'My sister jumped off a mountain in Greece last summer. All I can tell you is it will get better.'"

Uh. HUH. And:

"Vanessa's entire body ached. She'd never felt so alone."

Whoa, ace narrative technique there, Hoss! Maybe soon you can graduate to having one of the subjects of the book drop a family portrait so that the glass in the frame shatters.

5. The blurb by Ann Rule saying, "Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers today." This statement is wrong on so many levels that I won't even bother to deconstruct it, but I will say that either the state of true crime writing is worse than I thought or there's some serious logrolling going on here.

Oh, I know, I know. This is what I get for reading true crime. You're probably right. Now excuse my while I go flip though In Cold Blood to get the taste of this thing out of my mouth.]]>
author: Kathryn Casey
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/20/08
shelves: truecrime
review:
The things wrong with this book:

1. The title. I mean, A Descent into Hell? Really? It sounds like a title that the Lifetime TV movie people rejected as too trite. At least Baby Monitor: The Sound of Fear and Ski Lift to Death (hey, look them up if you don't believe me) had some character.

2. The subtitle. "An Altar Boy" and "a Cheerleader"? Need I say more?

3. The pacing. This is a story about a murder, people. Let's at least bring the pacing up to the level of an episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. If the narrative had been any slower, I would have had to don my gorilla suit and read the book while marching back and forth across the room to Sousa marches just to keep myself mildly entertained.

4. The editing. I actually started marking the diction and grammatical errors just because it was a lot more interesting than trying to keep my mind on the book. Examples: "disinterested" instead of "uninterested"; getting one's car "out of hock" to mean getting it out of an impound lot ("hock" means you sold it to a pawnbroker, duh). And I've rarely encountered a tin ear for dialog like the one on display here. A representative sample:

"Finally, she grabbed the arm of a young man in a uniform, shouting, 'Is my sister all right?' [At least it doesn't say "alright" -- I'll give the author that.]
'Your sister's dead,' he said, pulling away.
When the man walked by again, Vanessa, sobbing, yelled, 'You don't know how this feels.'
'I do,' he said, more kindly. 'My sister jumped off a mountain in Greece last summer. All I can tell you is it will get better.'"

Uh. HUH. And:

"Vanessa's entire body ached. She'd never felt so alone."

Whoa, ace narrative technique there, Hoss! Maybe soon you can graduate to having one of the subjects of the book drop a family portrait so that the glass in the frame shatters.

5. The blurb by Ann Rule saying, "Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers today." This statement is wrong on so many levels that I won't even bother to deconstruct it, but I will say that either the state of true crime writing is worse than I thought or there's some serious logrolling going on here.

Oh, I know, I know. This is what I get for reading true crime. You're probably right. Now excuse my while I go flip though In Cold Blood to get the taste of this thing out of my mouth.
]]> 24112173 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:31:48 -0700
author: Michael Shermer
name: Laura
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/09/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 23928089 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:31:25 -0700
author: Maurice Stanley
name: Laura
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1991
rating: 2
read at: 01/91
date added: 06/07/08
shelves: non-fiction
review:
Odd little book -- I think I may be one of the two or three people who's read it -- about a woman who kills her granddaughter, ostensibly to save her from poverty. Although it was written in the style of a novel, it was based on a true story. As I recall, the writing style is strangely stilted, and though I don't recall the details, it was fictionalized in such a way to make the main character more sympathetic than she really was.
]]> 21520876 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:30:45 -0700
author: Ron Rash
name: Laura
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/06/08
shelves: fiction
review:
Ron Rash's collection of stories from Appalachia is a worthy addition to what one critic has called "the literature of place." Some of these stories are a little, dare I say it, obvious (for example, in "Honesty," Rash overplays his hand with characters that might as well be named Self-Doubt, Desperation, and Arrogance, a la John Bunyan) but when they aren't, they hit home. Rash's O. Henry Award-winning story "Speckled Trout" appears in this volume --it's indelibly rendered and every bit as powerful on repeated readings as it was on the first.
]]> 18200502 Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:01:00 -0700
So ends "Real Life," the first story in Donald Ray Pollock's knockout of a debut. It seems that every review I've read uses two phrases to describe this collection: "pulls no punches" and "not for the faint of heart," and rarely have those phrases been more aptly used. Pollock's characters have sex with their sisters, kill their neighbors, torture insects, betray their friends, drug themselves into stupors, and beat the shit out of each other. These people are the sorts you'd probably inch away from on the bus if they sat next to you, and you'd be well-advised to stay away from Knockemstiff if you dislike books because you "don't care about the characters." The denizens of Knockemstiff, Ohio are difficult to live with for the length of a book -- they're mean, violent, and without hope -- but Pollack presents them without flinching, and without pitying them or asking to reader to do so.

Pollock's writing is like a quick-acting drug -- after you finish the first story, you'll either throw the book across the room as hard as you can, or you'll barely want to put it down. Reading this book isn't an easy trip, but if you can hang on until the end, I dare you to try and forget it anytime soon.]]>
author: Donald Ray Pollock
name: Laura
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/04/08
shelves: fiction
review:
"As my parents' bed thumped loudly against the floor in the next room, I lapped the blood off my knuckles. The dried flakes dissolved in my mouth, turning my spit to syrup. Even after I'd swallowed all the blood, I kept licking my hands. I tore at the skin with my teeth. I wanted more. I would always want more."

So ends "Real Life," the first story in Donald Ray Pollock's knockout of a debut. It seems that every review I've read uses two phrases to describe this collection: "pulls no punches" and "not for the faint of heart," and rarely have those phrases been more aptly used. Pollock's characters have sex with their sisters, kill their neighbors, torture insects, betray their friends, drug themselves into stupors, and beat the shit out of each other. These people are the sorts you'd probably inch away from on the bus if they sat next to you, and you'd be well-advised to stay away from Knockemstiff if you dislike books because you "don't care about the characters." The denizens of Knockemstiff, Ohio are difficult to live with for the length of a book -- they're mean, violent, and without hope -- but Pollack presents them without flinching, and without pitying them or asking to reader to do so.

Pollock's writing is like a quick-acting drug -- after you finish the first story, you'll either throw the book across the room as hard as you can, or you'll barely want to put it down. Reading this book isn't an easy trip, but if you can hang on until the end, I dare you to try and forget it anytime soon.
]]> 23370428 Sat, 31 May 2008 07:41:13 -0700
author: Helen Keller
name: Laura
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/31/08
shelves: autobiography-memoir
review:

]]> 23145893 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:57:25 -0700
author: Daniel Defoe
name: Laura
average rating: 3.34
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 01/85
date added: 05/28/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 22931505 Sun, 25 May 2008 13:54:51 -0700
author: Lan Cao
name: Laura
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 01/98
date added: 05/25/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 22884775 Sat, 24 May 2008 14:30:54 -0700
author: Mary Stolz
name: Laura
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 01/77
date added: 05/24/08
shelves: ya-literature
review:

]]> 22801134 Fri, 23 May 2008 05:03:51 -0700