http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/323724 en-US Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:44:29 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 29073153 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:44:29 -0700
Occasionally the stories veer into grating quirkiness (I'm looking at you, "Ten True Things"), but most of July's oddball observations have a weird truth to them. ("One reason Helena and I would never be close friends is that I am about half as tall as she. People tend to stick to their own size group because it's easier on the neck. Unless they are romantically involved, in which case the size difference is sexy. It means: I am willing to go the distance for you.")

"This Person" struck me so forcefully that I read it twice in a row on the train ride home. I'm afraid I would totally be that person who sneaks out of a fantastical gathering of everybody I've ever known or loved, only to come home disappointed that I had no mail. ]]>
author: Miranda July
name: Amy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/11/08
shelves:
review:
Miranda July's book is a lot like her movie -- off-kilter vignettes peopled with desperate, damaged characters who are so fragile you want to hug them, and whose inappropriate behavior just makes you want to hug them more.

Occasionally the stories veer into grating quirkiness (I'm looking at you, "Ten True Things"), but most of July's oddball observations have a weird truth to them. ("One reason Helena and I would never be close friends is that I am about half as tall as she. People tend to stick to their own size group because it's easier on the neck. Unless they are romantically involved, in which case the size difference is sexy. It means: I am willing to go the distance for you.")

"This Person" struck me so forcefully that I read it twice in a row on the train ride home. I'm afraid I would totally be that person who sneaks out of a fantastical gathering of everybody I've ever known or loved, only to come home disappointed that I had no mail.
]]> 26732257 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:44:20 -0700 Emperor of the Air again as a palate-cleanser), but this one just left me cold. I read about 100 pages then set it aside in frustration for a couple of weeks, then gave it another 50 pages to get interesting, then decided life is too short to read books that bore me.

Perhaps it was because I had such a bad experience with The Cheese Monkeys -- which has a similar "sheltered Midwesterner's life is shaken up by worldly, effortlessly brilliant, big-city classmate with a dark secret" motif -- but this book annoyed me from the start. All the characters sound like 40-yr-old men, especially the college freshmen. The women exist to be pliant, undemanding sex partners or moms. And the dimestore Gatsby-style antagonist is supposed to be irresistibly magnetic to everyone around him, but just kept reminding me of Logan Huntsberger. In fact, if only Orno's high school English teacher had assigned some Fitzgerald, he would have gone off to Columbia already knowing that rich people with secrets are best avoided.

The more compelling story in the book is Orno's relationship to his rural family after a couple years in New York, but that keeps getting pushed aside so we can spend more time riding speedboats with rich jerks. Feh to the whole enterprise, I say!]]>
author: Ethan Canin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/31/08
shelves:
review:
Boy, I tried with this one. I love Canin's short stories (and I feel like I should read Emperor of the Air again as a palate-cleanser), but this one just left me cold. I read about 100 pages then set it aside in frustration for a couple of weeks, then gave it another 50 pages to get interesting, then decided life is too short to read books that bore me.

Perhaps it was because I had such a bad experience with The Cheese Monkeys -- which has a similar "sheltered Midwesterner's life is shaken up by worldly, effortlessly brilliant, big-city classmate with a dark secret" motif -- but this book annoyed me from the start. All the characters sound like 40-yr-old men, especially the college freshmen. The women exist to be pliant, undemanding sex partners or moms. And the dimestore Gatsby-style antagonist is supposed to be irresistibly magnetic to everyone around him, but just kept reminding me of Logan Huntsberger. In fact, if only Orno's high school English teacher had assigned some Fitzgerald, he would have gone off to Columbia already knowing that rich people with secrets are best avoided.

The more compelling story in the book is Orno's relationship to his rural family after a couple years in New York, but that keeps getting pushed aside so we can spend more time riding speedboats with rich jerks. Feh to the whole enterprise, I say!
]]> 25711322 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:54:24 -0700
author: Amy Bloom
name: Amy
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25711658 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:37:34 -0700
author: Amy Bloom
name: Amy
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/27/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25711443 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:34:39 -0700
author: Amy Bloom
name: Amy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/27/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25711373 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:34:29 -0700
author: Amy Bloom
name: Amy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/27/08
shelves: reread
review:

]]> 25645688 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:31:02 -0700
author: Rick Moody
name: Amy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/27/08
shelves:
review:
I liked the first story a whole lot. I think I just wasn't in the mood for the others. Perhaps I'll try again some day.
]]> 22739528 Tue, 27 May 2008 05:56:01 -0700
I do want to get myself a Baby Laveen, though. ]]>
author: Chip Kidd
name: Amy
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/27/08
shelves:
review:
Very funny, but seemingly without purpose. I zipped through it on a long bus ride and laughed out loud several times. But I kept waiting for the book to add up to something other than a collection of wacky art-school anecdotes populated by stock characters (the crazy girl, the mean professor, the country lass) that were little more than measured dialogue and quirky gestures.

I do want to get myself a Baby Laveen, though.
]]> 21284634 Thu, 22 May 2008 10:08:13 -0700
However, Bruno provides a considerable amount of historical information that places "Armed Forces" (working title: "Emotional Fascism") in the proper context. Bruno explains the various fascist and nationalist movements that have gripped Britain in waves over the years, the cultural reactions to those movements, and Costello's likely inspirations for the militaristic/romantic themes on the record.

There's also a thorough discussion of the "Columbus incident" -- during which one of the original supporters of Rock Against Racism called Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger," thus tainting his career forever in the States.

Overall an interesting read, although I quibble with Bruno's analysis re: "Tiny Steps" (one of my favorite EC songs). In explaining the line "She's almost human beneath that Cuban heel," Bruno writes,

"The distinction between this figure and his projected counterpart ultimately dissolves, clearly in 'she's your friend and she's your double,' but more subtly in the chorus. 'She's...beneath that Cuban heel,' but wouldn't she be the one wearing it? Domination crushes both master and slave: very dialectical."

Interesting, but probably wrong -- Cuban heels are associated with men's shoes (e.g., Beatle boots, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B..., not women's. Once again, obsessive knowledge of Beatle ephemera saves the day!]]>
author: Franklin Bruno
name: Amy
average rating: 3.03
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/22/08
shelves: 33-1-3
review:
I tend to prefer my 33 1/3 books with a more linear organization -- Bruno's is arranged encyclopedically (song titles, last names of historical figures, place names) with the occasional random noun thrown in as an entry (ambition, bodyguards, etc.). The result is a jumpy little book, which in turn made me a little jumpy. There's also quite a bit of professional-musician geekery about chord changes and such that was lost on me.

However, Bruno provides a considerable amount of historical information that places "Armed Forces" (working title: "Emotional Fascism") in the proper context. Bruno explains the various fascist and nationalist movements that have gripped Britain in waves over the years, the cultural reactions to those movements, and Costello's likely inspirations for the militaristic/romantic themes on the record.

There's also a thorough discussion of the "Columbus incident" -- during which one of the original supporters of Rock Against Racism called Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger," thus tainting his career forever in the States.

Overall an interesting read, although I quibble with Bruno's analysis re: "Tiny Steps" (one of my favorite EC songs). In explaining the line "She's almost human beneath that Cuban heel," Bruno writes,

"The distinction between this figure and his projected counterpart ultimately dissolves, clearly in 'she's your friend and she's your double,' but more subtly in the chorus. 'She's...beneath that Cuban heel,' but wouldn't she be the one wearing it? Domination crushes both master and slave: very dialectical."

Interesting, but probably wrong -- Cuban heels are associated with men's shoes (e.g., Beatle boots, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B..., not women's. Once again, obsessive knowledge of Beatle ephemera saves the day!
]]> 20601364 Thu, 15 May 2008 21:02:17 -0700
author: E.M. Forster
name: Amy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1910
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/15/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 19782132 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:12:42 -0700
Maurice Hall is every inch the upper-class twit he's been groomed to become: wealthy, properly educated (though not terribly bright), rude to the servants, and poised to take over his late father's stock brokerage. There is nothing extraordinary about him, except that at Cambridge he falls madly in love with fellow student Clive in an era where men of the "Oscar Wilde sort" ended up in prison. Their chaste affair continues for several years, until Clive prepares to run for public office by dumping Maurice for a lady. The betrayal leaves Maurice completely undone, but rather than punishing his hero, Forster takes the revolutionary (for its time) step of portraying Clive as the creepy, empty fraud and allowing Maurice to find happiness with a rough but tender gamekeeper, transgressing both romantic and class conventions.

One of my favorite passages:

"...[T]hough [Clive] valued the body, the actual deed of sex seemed to him unimaginative, and best veiled in night. Between men it is inexcusable, between man and woman it may be practiced since nature and society approve, but never discussed nor vaunted. His ideal of marriage was temperate and graceful, like all his ideals, and he found a fit helpmate in Anne, who had refinement herself, and admired it in others. They loved each other tenderly. Beautiful conventions received them--while beyond the barrier Maurice wandered, the wrong words on his lips and the wrong desires in his heart, and his arms full of air."

Clive and Anne never see each other naked, but Maurice is getting on with Alec and totally digging it. They run away to the woods and live happily ever after.

Forster added a terminal note to the manuscript in 1960, which contains the following:

"A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise....I dedicated it "To a Happier Year," and not altogether vainly. Happiness is its keynote -- which by the way has had an unexpected result: it has made the book more difficult to publish. Unless the Wolfenden report en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfende... becomes law, it will probably have to remain in manuscript. If it ended unhappily with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well...but the lovers get away unpunished...and the only penalty society exacts is an exile they gladly embrace."

Hooray for love!

]]>
author: E.M. Forster
name: Amy
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/28/08
shelves:
review:
Forster worried that his novel of forbidden man-man love in merry old England would seem quaint and dated when it was finally published in post-Stonewall 1971. Yet while it's true that the world changed immeasurably almost immediately after he finished the book in 1914, the longing and alienation and fear of reprisals among his young lovers ring true still.

Maurice Hall is every inch the upper-class twit he's been groomed to become: wealthy, properly educated (though not terribly bright), rude to the servants, and poised to take over his late father's stock brokerage. There is nothing extraordinary about him, except that at Cambridge he falls madly in love with fellow student Clive in an era where men of the "Oscar Wilde sort" ended up in prison. Their chaste affair continues for several years, until Clive prepares to run for public office by dumping Maurice for a lady. The betrayal leaves Maurice completely undone, but rather than punishing his hero, Forster takes the revolutionary (for its time) step of portraying Clive as the creepy, empty fraud and allowing Maurice to find happiness with a rough but tender gamekeeper, transgressing both romantic and class conventions.

One of my favorite passages:

"...[T]hough [Clive] valued the body, the actual deed of sex seemed to him unimaginative, and best veiled in night. Between men it is inexcusable, between man and woman it may be practiced since nature and society approve, but never discussed nor vaunted. His ideal of marriage was temperate and graceful, like all his ideals, and he found a fit helpmate in Anne, who had refinement herself, and admired it in others. They loved each other tenderly. Beautiful conventions received them--while beyond the barrier Maurice wandered, the wrong words on his lips and the wrong desires in his heart, and his arms full of air."

Clive and Anne never see each other naked, but Maurice is getting on with Alec and totally digging it. They run away to the woods and live happily ever after.

Forster added a terminal note to the manuscript in 1960, which contains the following:

"A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise....I dedicated it "To a Happier Year," and not altogether vainly. Happiness is its keynote -- which by the way has had an unexpected result: it has made the book more difficult to publish. Unless the Wolfenden report en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfende... becomes law, it will probably have to remain in manuscript. If it ended unhappily with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well...but the lovers get away unpunished...and the only penalty society exacts is an exile they gladly embrace."

Hooray for love!


]]> 10546074 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:04:04 -0700
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Amy
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/15/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 19078937 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:41:46 -0700
This book made me want to spend my Sundays playing lawn tennis in my figured silk and having tea and cakes while gossiping about the awful business involving the cad who nicked the vicar's watch fob and all that.]]>
author: E.M. Forster
name: Amy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1908
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/09/08
shelves:
review:
I finally got around to reading this book, and I'll admit it was a challenge not just playing the movie along in my head the whole time. Happily, it's an enjoyable read in its own right. Forster's prose is playful and wise and surprisingly relevant to the 21st Century -- Cecil Vyse may be the first literary character who enjoys popular culture ironically, who is utterly exhausted by the hard work of constant scorn, and he lives on in every sneering hipster in a trucker hat.

This book made me want to spend my Sundays playing lawn tennis in my figured silk and having tea and cakes while gossiping about the awful business involving the cad who nicked the vicar's watch fob and all that.
]]> 19799088 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:23:09 -0700
author: Albert Camus
name: Amy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1942
rating: 3
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/09/08
shelves: reread
review:

]]> 10545621 Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:23:49 -0700
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Amy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/13/08
shelves:
review:
Brilliant and engaging and a damned good read.
]]> 11834218 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:13:05 -0800
A couple of the essays in this book are disposable, and "A Brief Study of the British" beats its central joke (Americans don't know much about the world) dead in the first few paragraphs. But the essays that work best are thoughtful, surprising, illuminating, and occasionally hilarious. He explains without lecturing, more content to just suggest to readers, "What if we thought about [intractable social problem X] this way instead?" And you read and think, "Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense."

"Thank You, Esther Forbes" effortlessly combines Saunders' love of words and humanity to demonstrate that bad writing -- the sort of jargon-heavy corporate-speak that he lampoons in Civilwarland and Pastoralia -- stems from dishonesty and an unwillingness to take responsibility for one's ideas. Which is, not coincidentally, how we also end up with bad policy.

You will be a better person for reading this book.

]]>
author: George Saunders
name: Amy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/24/08
shelves:
review:
Saunders is a brilliant, humane essayist. He loves language and clarity and ideas, but he also loves people -- even Republicans and Minutemen -- and he will make you love them as well. Well, maybe not "love." Maybe "understand" or "empathize with," but in a way you (or at least, I) never thought possible. It's easy to see Vonnegut's inspiration in Saunders' words.

A couple of the essays in this book are disposable, and "A Brief Study of the British" beats its central joke (Americans don't know much about the world) dead in the first few paragraphs. But the essays that work best are thoughtful, surprising, illuminating, and occasionally hilarious. He explains without lecturing, more content to just suggest to readers, "What if we thought about [intractable social problem X] this way instead?" And you read and think, "Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense."

"Thank You, Esther Forbes" effortlessly combines Saunders' love of words and humanity to demonstrate that bad writing -- the sort of jargon-heavy corporate-speak that he lampoons in Civilwarland and Pastoralia -- stems from dishonesty and an unwillingness to take responsibility for one's ideas. Which is, not coincidentally, how we also end up with bad policy.

You will be a better person for reading this book.


]]> 13705214 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:25:45 -0800
Whither Gary Mule Deer?]]>
author: Steve Martin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/19/08
shelves:
review:
Steve Martin wittily and pithily describes the 14 years of labor that birthed his standup act. He also talks about all the ladies he shagged during that time. So there you go.

Whither Gary Mule Deer?
]]> 12825042 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:40:54 -0800
It'll make you want to crank up Unknown Pleasures on your headphones and write "Joy Division" on your Chucks and think about the unfairness of it all, man. ]]>
author: Chris Ott
name: Amy
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/25/08
shelves:
review:
Although the books in the 33 1/3 series are supposed to provide in-depth analysis (or record-geek wankery) on just one album, this slim volume manages to cover just about every note Joy Division recorded, from their scrappy EP as Warsaw through both JD studio albums, the singles, live cuts, and even the first couple New Order songs. Ott also manages to discuss Ian Curtis' personal life and marital troubles, important medical information about epilepsy and its treatment, lots of lyrics, and a list of the records he was listening to as he wrote the book.

It'll make you want to crank up Unknown Pleasures on your headphones and write "Joy Division" on your Chucks and think about the unfairness of it all, man.
]]> 12559582 Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:01:33 -0800
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Amy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/22/08
shelves:
review:
As a second-generation American with virtually no ties to any of the various motherlands that spawned my ancestors, books about the experiences of immigrants and their children have always intrigued me (and made me strangely jealous). Second languages, ethnic foods, traditional footwear from the old country -- none of these things were part of my experience growing up. Even though Lahiri heaps on the specifics of sari colors and dal preparation and Bengali cultural traditions, her graceful writing portrays the alienation of her characters in such a way that the details don't matter as much as the universal sense of not belonging. That's the reason I couldn't wait to get on the train every night to read more, the reason I spent five hours on my day off curled on the sofa unable to put the book down until I finished it.
]]> 12654643 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:05:53 -0800
The main problem for me is the scale of Dragonwagon's dishes. I'm sure these worked well when she owned an inn in the Ozarks, but a two-person household just won't go through the required ingredients before they spoil. For example, some recipes call for a teaspoon of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles. Who buys a can of chiles for one teaspoon of the sauce? What do I do with the rest of it? In a professional kitchen, that's probably not an issue, but it is for me. The dishes I've made from this book have been tasty, but the level of work and prep required for most of them makes this a "special occasion" sort of cookbook.]]>
author: Crescent Dragonwagon
name: Amy
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 01/16/08
shelves:
review:
A behemoth of a book, chock full o' thousands of recipes and clever alterations, written in a friendly and cheerful voice (though tinged with unintended sadness throughout -- her partner of many years, whom she mentions on almost every page, was killed in a bike accident as the book was going to press. She explains the situation in the intro but chose to leave all references to him in the text in present tense). I just wish I liked this book more.

The main problem for me is the scale of Dragonwagon's dishes. I'm sure these worked well when she owned an inn in the Ozarks, but a two-person household just won't go through the required ingredients before they spoil. For example, some recipes call for a teaspoon of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles. Who buys a can of chiles for one teaspoon of the sauce? What do I do with the rest of it? In a professional kitchen, that's probably not an issue, but it is for me. The dishes I've made from this book have been tasty, but the level of work and prep required for most of them makes this a "special occasion" sort of cookbook.
]]> 12654407 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:53:50 -0800
author: Nava Atlas
name: Amy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 01/16/08
shelves:
review:
Quick, easily adaptable recipes that work well for work nights. Introduced me to the wonderful world of frittatas. They are so easy to make! Who knew?
]]> 12654023 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:50:57 -0800
author: Nava Atlas
name: Amy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 01/16/08
shelves:
review:
I could never make a tasty vegetarian soup until I got this book (it was a gift from my pal Nan many years ago). I use it all the time, especially in winter. The recipes range from quick dinners to cook-all-day stews; my favorites are the tomato four-grain and the tomato-lentil-barley, both hearty cold-weather soups that freeze well for leftovers. There's also a handful of recipes at the back for breads, muffins, and crackers to accompany the soups and Atlas' amusing illustrations throughout.
]]> 10545521 Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:44:04 -0800
author: Alex Kotlowitz
name: Amy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 02/07
date added: 01/15/08
shelves: gapers-block-book-club, reread
review:

]]> 12441581 Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:59:25 -0800
author: Linda Chandler
name: Amy
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/13/08
shelves: crafty
review:
A great how-to on wire work, with clear instructions and illustrations.
]]> 10919592 Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:57:06 -0800
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Amy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/13/08
shelves: comix
review:
I plowed through this today in anticipation of the movie, which opens Friday. Although it was a quick read, like the first volume it's not exactly breezy. Fundamentalism is always grim. Most of the time I found Satrapi courageous and strong, but her occasional thoughtlessness was appalling (did she really not understand why turning an innocent man in to the fundamentalists was a bad idea?). I also could have done with fewer anecdotes about her teenage drug use and more about her return to Iran. But these are minor quibbles for a powerful and powerfully told story.
]]> 11297626 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:02:29 -0800
author: Kate Chopin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1899
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 12/30/07
shelves: reread
review:

]]> 11289059 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:14:45 -0800
author: Brian Hall
name: Amy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 01/98
date added: 12/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 10908006 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:12:06 -0800
Minus one star for containing nothing about bears. Either they're a threat to this nation or they aren't, Mr. Colbert. Pick a side -- we're at war!]]>
author: Stephen Colbert
name: Amy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/30/07
shelves:
review:
It's like having Stephen Colbert in your head! Should tide folks over until the end of the WGA strike, provided the strike only last another day or two (it's a quick read).

Minus one star for containing nothing about bears. Either they're a threat to this nation or they aren't, Mr. Colbert. Pick a side -- we're at war!
]]> 11209036 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:44:44 -0800
author: Ethan Canin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 12/29/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11209034 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:44:38 -0800
author: Ethan Canin
name: Amy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 12/29/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11208994 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:43:53 -0800
author: Amy Hempel
name: Amy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 03/95
date added: 12/29/07
shelves:
review:
Good, but just didn't stick with me like her short stories.
]]> 11208929 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:42:52 -0800
author: Amy Hempel
name: Amy
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 12/29/07
shelves: reread
review:
Beautiful stuff. Hempel came to my college in 1991 or 92 and read "The Most Girl Part of You," and since then I've been hooked on her wry, exquisite prose.
]]> 11208587 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:39:33 -0800
author: Amy Hempel
name: Amy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 12/29/07
shelves: reread
review:
Minimalist yet weighty. Stories short enough to read on the train but emotionally resonant enough to unnerve you all day. "Nashville Gone to Ashes" is one of my favorite short stories ever.
]]> 11192063 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:55:19 -0800
(Fun fact: One of the questions in here is mine, but I'll never tell which one!)]]>
author: Dan Savage
name: Amy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 10/98
date added: 12/28/07
shelves:
review:
Excellent advice from the man.

(Fun fact: One of the questions in here is mine, but I'll never tell which one!)
]]> 11191465 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:46:45 -0800
author: Glen Baxter
name: Amy
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 01/90
date added: 12/28/07
shelves: comix
review:
Found on a remainder shelf in a Kalamazoo bookstore, this book continues to freak me right out. Glen Baxter is a deeply disturbed man who draws deeply distubed cartoons, many of them about cheese, facial hair, imperiled fruits, and colonial Englishmen. Edward Gorey + Rudyard Kipling x Crazy = Glen Baxter.
]]> 11191133 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:33:52 -0800
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Amy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 08/07
date added: 12/28/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11190956 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:31:38 -0800
I said good day!]]>
author: Bill Watterson
name: Amy
average rating: 4.87
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 12/28/07
shelves: comix
review:
Best xmas present ever. If you do not like Calvin and Hobbes, we have nothing more to say to each other. Good day.

I said good day!
]]> 11144759 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:27:37 -0800
author: Adam Langer
name: Amy
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 02/08
date added: 12/28/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11100876 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:26:52 -0800
A right load of self-serving codswallop. Allegedly a biography, but written by McCartney's best friend and spattered throughout with manipulative treacle and unnecessary one-upsmanship with a dead man. Blech.]]>
author: Barry Miles
name: Amy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1997
rating: 1
read at: 09/98
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:
Did you know that Paul -- not John -- was actually the cool, arty, intellectual Beatle? It's true -- just ask him!

A right load of self-serving codswallop. Allegedly a biography, but written by McCartney's best friend and spattered throughout with manipulative treacle and unnecessary one-upsmanship with a dead man. Blech.
]]> 11100677 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:20:16 -0800
Yes. ]]>
author: Roy Carr
name: Amy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 12/98
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:
Did you know the Beatles were planning to do a film version of "Lord of the Rings," with John Lennon as Gandalf? Wouldn't that have been weird?

Yes.
]]> 11100601 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:18:32 -0800
author: Mike Evans
name: Amy
average rating: 3.20
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 06/88
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11100391 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:14:51 -0800
author: The Beatles
name: Amy
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11100277 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:12:57 -0800
author: Stefan Fatsis
name: Amy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 01/05
date added: 12/27/07
shelves: wordnerdery
review:

]]> 11100088 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:09:47 -0800
author: James Thurber
name: Amy
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 12/27/07
shelves: reread
review:
Oh my god, this book is funny.
]]> 11100001 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:07:18 -0800
author: James Thurber
name: Amy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11092201 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:19:09 -0800
author: Elizabeth Smart
name: Amy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11071175 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:27:03 -0800
author: Glen David Gold
name: Amy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 02/04
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:
A zippy little page-turner about magicians, the death of Warren G. Harding, and the invention of television. Perfect for a rainy weekend or long plane ride.
]]> 11071106 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:14:51 -0800
author: John Kennedy Toole
name: Amy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1980
rating: 1
read at: 02/93
date added: 12/27/07
shelves:
review:
Just couldn't finish this book, probably because at the time I was working with a guy who behaved almost exactly like Ignatius (smartypants jerkass, believed himself intellectually superior to everyone, still lived with mother) and it felt like being trapped with him 8 hours a day, then going home and reading his diary for fun. Perhaps I'll try again some day. Or perhaps I'll just keep reading books I enjoy.
]]> 11057317 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:15:29 -0800