Ashley Ann read and liked Daniel's review of A Piece of Cake: A Memoir:

"Piece of Cake is a Piece of Crap. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

I picked this up from the express reads at the library. For some reason, the story seemed compelling at the time. It really should have been. A kid from my hometown of Los Angeles ...more Piece of Cake is a Piece of Crap. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

I picked this up from the express reads at the library. For some reason, the story seemed compelling at the time. It really should have been. A kid from my hometown of Los Angeles overcomes the untimely death of her mother, the nightmare of abusive foster homes, the degradation of prostitution, the dangers of gang violence, and finally her self destructive substance abuse on her way to becoming a lawyer. It sounds like a feel good story in but it isn't. It reads more like an illiterate, obnoxious crack head ranting for about 400 pages. All of the authors trials are glamorized and embellished. There are graphic descriptions of child rape, as well as repeated glorification of violence and drug use. Any feeling of sympathy you might have had for a young Cupcake disappear within the first 100 pages. You can't help but feel like someone this vile and caustic deserved most of what she got. The entire novel is made up of poorly composed dialogue peppered with profanity and poor grammar, a device I suppose she uses to show us how "real" she is. Until the bitter end, even as she is subjecting us to self aggrandizing tales of her rehab, and education at college and later law shcool, she still insists on keeping an abrasive and at times annoyingly paranoid voice that shows us just how little progress she's actually made. Is Miss Brown better off now than she was at the beginning of her tale? Yes. Are you better off for having read about it? Absolutely not.

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Ashley Ann read and liked Danica Malloy's review of A Piece of Cake: A Memoir:

"This is a great story, but even that can not make up for the horrible writing techniques. The author has had an amazing life and her story is truly amazing and leaves a feeling of hope for those who have friends or family involved in addiction. Howev...more This is a great story, but even that can not make up for the horrible writing techniques. The author has had an amazing life and her story is truly amazing and leaves a feeling of hope for those who have friends or family involved in addiction. However, she tends to ramble and repeat her situations to the point that the story becomes boring and redundant. Also, you can tell she is attempting to write in the way that someone in that situation would actually speak, but at the same time, she never seems to leave that horrible writing behind! I feel that if someone else had written this story for her and shortened it by about 100 pages (the repetitiveness)it would be much higher in my list of recommendations.(less) "

Ashley Ann read and liked Yosafbridg's review of Life on the Refrigerator Door:

""This is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold"
~WILL...more "This is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold"
~WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
I remember when i first encountered this poem~ninth grade Honors English (my all time favorite teacher~most inspirational~props again Mr. Mathis...) I seem to remember one of those painful sessions of analyzation~searching for meaning, symbolism, wondering if there were any right or wrong answers (which brings back nightmares of yet another teacher~this time college and sixteenth century poetry~everything i said and wrote~was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and somehow i could do better~it was the first time that i really understood what it felt like to be the "picked-upon-'dumb'-student"~absolutely hated it [this same teacher was also my English minor advisor and in advising sessions he was perfectly pleasant~nice even...) Anyway, couldn't this famous poem (and i do love the poem~perhaps just for its lovely simplicity) just be a note left on the kitchen table or the refrigerator door?
Alice Kuipers' first novel, life on the refrigerator door is just that~notes between a mother and daughter left on the refrigerator door (a somewhat refreshing form of communication in this day of cell phones, email, and im-ing). This is a wonderful book; its 220 pages can be easily read in less than a few hours, but the emotions will linger long after the last page is finished.
It is as touching (if not more so) for what is left unsaid as what is said. I have an advanced reader's edition which i picked up because it was there and it looked undaunting. Today while i was cataloging (ever the librarian, i) newly acquired books (unfortunately a few still accumulate though i have tried to curb certain impulses...) i picked it up, started reading and couldn't stop.
I never felt like Kuipers was constrained by her form and what went untold could be sensed through what was told. You know from the blurbs that all will not go well with these characters but it is still a most compelling read: short, sweet, and entirely moving...
I will leave you with one of Claire's notes to her mother:
"When I look at you
I see the woman I want to be
Strong and brave
Beautiful and free
Claire
P.S. I love you"
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