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<![CDATA[Erica Bleeg installed the Goodreads Facebook Application]]>
http://apps.facebook.com/good_reads/
check it out »
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<![CDATA[Erica added 'Bucolics']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65586451
to: Bucolics (Hardcover)byMaurice Manning
Charming book of poems. I almost cringe to use the word charming because it almost sounds condescending, and yet this book is brave in how directly it addresses the entity Manning calls "Boss," whom I take to be God or whoever that mysterious force is that makes and unmakes all. The questioning is so guileless but intelligent. I almost felt like I was being led through all the unfiltered questions I have had for that nameless, elusive being, yet the author still managed to pose those questions and to challenge "Boss" lyrically, eloquently.
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<![CDATA[Erica added 'A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63563533
to: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Mass Market Paperback)byBill Bryson
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<![CDATA[new comment from Erica]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63563434
Erica's review of
Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories byElizabeth Strout
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<![CDATA[Erica added 'Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63563434
to: Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories (Hardcover)byElizabeth Strout
Oh, could not have been happier reading this book. So lovely there's another writer out there who is as generous and probing with her characters as Alice Munro.
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<![CDATA[new comment from Erica]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25079957
Erica's review of
Blood of the Liberals byGeorge Packer
Oh dear, I must change that. Thanks!
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<![CDATA[Erica added 'Unbowed']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25081537
to: Unbowed (Hardcover)byWangari Maathai
I love Wangari Maathai. Hands down, she's an inspiration, and whenever I hear her being interviewed on the radio, my ears perk up. Her autobiography has a promising start. The descriptions of where she comes from, the Kenyan highlands, are stirring. Yet once she gets into the education and work sections of her life, the narrative reads more like a catalogue, which makes me think the fault might be in me. I might not like autobiographies, for the genre often demands a good deal of listing, and given the amazing things she has accomplished, somehow she's had to find a way to fit it all into one book. Nonetheless, it's full of many important lessons in the struggle to reverse the consequences of environmental degradation in Kenya. Simultaneously, she chronicles the obstacles she faced as a woman, so women's struggle to gain socio-economic and political equality plays a strong role in her story.
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<![CDATA[Erica added 'Into the Wild']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25080183
to: Into the Wild (Paperback)byJon Krakauer
This one surprised me. I wasn't expecting I'd like it, but the author does an exceptional job of humanizing his chief subject, Christopher McCandless, and how he got lost in the wilderness. Krakauer helps us understand what McCandless struggled with and what he aspired to, while at the same time demonstrating that McCandless had limited experience in the way of outback survival. This is a sad and moving story to the end, largely because Krakauer keeps his focus on basic human struggles.
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