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October 02
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Feral
gave
to:
Dry: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs
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my rating:
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June 27
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New comment on Feral's review of
The Inner Circle
(see all 2 comments)
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June 22
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Feral
gave
to:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Gilbert
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my rating:
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Feral said:
"I didn't want to read this book, because I somehow found out it was popular. But then I read it anyway, and I liked it OK. Sometimes I wanted to just reach in and slap her, but other times I was genuinely moved. There was a good amount of personal...more
I didn't want to read this book, because I somehow found out it was popular. But then I read it anyway, and I liked it OK. Sometimes I wanted to just reach in and slap her, but other times I was genuinely moved. There was a good amount of personal honesty in it that was compelling. I didn't trust the "eat" and "love" parts, because they seemed both seemed like just more empty ways of filling in emptiness. But as stories, they were good, if not as parallel spiritual solutions. Sometimes the author would make kind of summary spiritual pronouncements -these were what evoked the slapping feeling in me. Summary? What I mean is that head-chopping-off word. That has vanished from my dictionary. I obviously went into it with my "outsider" prejudice in full flower....less
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Feral
gave
to:
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam (Paperback)
by Andrew X. Pham
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my rating:
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Feral said:
"I just sort of liked it. The voice was about 75 percent full of heart, so he seemed a little withdrawn and jaded to me. Mostly you understand why, in the telling of the story. The writing is beautiful in places. It's the story of a Vietnamese fam...more
I just sort of liked it. The voice was about 75 percent full of heart, so he seemed a little withdrawn and jaded to me. Mostly you understand why, in the telling of the story. The writing is beautiful in places. It's the story of a Vietnamese family, on the side of the South Vietnamese in the war, who escape when the North Vietnamese take over. The writer skillfully flashes from the story of their life in Vietnam to their experience as immigrants in the U.S., with a bike trip to and through Vietnam told as travelog as the back-drop and experiential coming-to-grips with it all of the author/main character. I just sort-of liked it, but I'm really glad I read it, if that makes any sense....less
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Feral
gave
to:
Bones of the Master: a Journey to Secret Mongolia (Paperback)
by George Crane
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my rating:
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Feral said:
"Reading this book was a very mixed experience. It's the story of an american poet who is neighbor to a buddhist monk from Mongolia who escaped the ravages of the cultural revolution (in the 60's?). The monk's story of escape is woven in flashbacks ...more
Reading this book was a very mixed experience. It's the story of an american poet who is neighbor to a buddhist monk from Mongolia who escaped the ravages of the cultural revolution (in the 60's?). The monk's story of escape is woven in flashbacks through the course of the book. The relationship of the two poets is explored, and then they both go back to Mongolia so the monk can build a shrine to his teacher, so then it becomes travelog. Which I don't know how to spell. The thing is, I found the american poet character a little disagreeable, and since the story is told in his voice, there was an edge of not really trusting/liking the author, who doesn't seem to like himself either. Whether this is intentional as fiction, or whether it's just not a clear voice, I don't know, but it made me feel a little unsettled throughout the reading. You can't help but like the monk, though, and he is not painted in pedestal strokes. He is straightforward and funny. The interest for me came in with the revelation of the Ch'an (?sp) tradition which pre-dated the Zen tradition. The Mongolian monk was Chan. The american poet was a zen practitioner. So then there is conflict when the zen american watches the practices of the Chan monk which range from zen sensibility to witch doctor, pagan, herbal medicine, casting out of demons, conjurer, etc. As in Tibetan buddhism, evidently in Mongolia the buddhists embraced much of the preceding pagan culture. Then zen guy is blow away by this. Lots of little zen-ish poems are interspersed throughout the story - which you'd think would make a poet reader happy. But mostly I'm not drawn to sparseness of language in poetry - maybe this is why I wasn't fond of the author/main character, whichever he was. Or maybe it was because he was a little sullen and priggish. I hope the authors never read these things. ...less
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Feral
gave
to:
High Fidelity (Paperback)
by Nick Hornby
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my rating:
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Feral said:
"Better than the movie. Pretty amazing to read a man being pretty darn honest about being a man. It was funny and well-written. It didn't change my life, but I'm glad I read it.
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Feral
gave
to:
The Inner Circle (Hardcover)
by T.C. Boyle
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Feral said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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June 21
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Feral
gave
to:
The God of Small Things (Hardcover)
by Arundhati Roy
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my rating:
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Feral said:
"I just finished this book and loved it. I meant to read it a long time ago, just after I finished a short story by the author. I think I instinctively waited until I'd had enough therapy to read this book. It's really one of the best I've ever rea...more
I just finished this book and loved it. I meant to read it a long time ago, just after I finished a short story by the author. I think I instinctively waited until I'd had enough therapy to read this book. It's really one of the best I've ever read. She uses language like a jazz poet - the way Ondatje does in Coming Through Slaughter, and in a different style, the way E. Annie Proulx does in Shipping News. I marvel when poet/fiction writers pull this off - this cheeky non-prose fiction - language morphed around, but always in service to the story. And in this book, deeply in service to the complex range of emotion scaled from sea-bottom to Everest. If you have any raw nerves lying around, this book will find them. It's one of those few books that fundamentally woke me up, and made me want to write to wake up more. ...less
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May 26
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Feral
gave
to:
Common Herbs for Natural Health (Herbals of Our Foremothers)
by Juliette de Bairacli Levy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Feral said:
"I must have an earlier edition because there is no cheesy picture on it. I have carried this book around with me for years, at least 20. Periodically I read it like a novel. I don't remember any of it, except now maybe I will because I have a gard...more
I must have an earlier edition because there is no cheesy picture on it. I have carried this book around with me for years, at least 20. Periodically I read it like a novel. I don't remember any of it, except now maybe I will because I have a garden and I'm growing some of the herbs. But there is something in the voice and the writing style in this book that comforts me. I don't really read it for the valuable information. I just find it soothing. I'm not much of a reader of non-fiction. I think this woman is somehow a print guru for me. I think reading this book adjusts my chakras or some such thing. She introduces the herbs kind of like they are people. You get a feel for their personalities. She tells you how the Arab bedouins or the gypsies, or the Mexican indians used them. And she knows this because she lived with all these peoples. I have a kind of allergy to styles which have a "new age" feeling. Maybe it's because the author is a vet, and treats animals with herbs. Maybe it's because there's a bit of british in her english, or because she plants Rosemary in Galilee where she lives. Anyway I come back to it again and again for reasons that are more literary or spiritual than herbal. ...less
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