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July 04
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July 03
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fleegan
gave  to:
Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found (Hardcover)
by
Allegra Huston
bookshelves:
non-fiction
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my rating:
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read in July, 2009
fleegan said:
"I so wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it because:
1. It was written by one of the daughters of film director John Huston.
2. She’s Anjelica Huston’s little sister.
3. The jacket flap made it sound like s...more
I so wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it because:
1. It was written by one of the daughters of film director John Huston.
2. She’s Anjelica Huston’s little sister.
3. The jacket flap made it sound like she’d be the normal one, compared to the rest of her family.
4. I thought it would be dignified and dishy at the same time. It was neither. It was boring.
Look, I’m not saying it’s bad, okay? A person’s story is their story, right? And sure, parts of everyone’s story are going to be sad, inconvenient, weird, boring etc. to everyone except that person and their friends and family. My story would be like that. Perhaps your story would too. And that’s why you or I would not bother with publishing our stories.
Ms. Huston probably has a really interesting story, but you’d not really know it because she presents herself as one of the dullest, uninteresting beings I’ve ever read about. And what’s worse? Her dull and uninteresting self is constantly comparing herself to all of the more famous, artistic, people in her family as well as the maids/nannies/secretaries/houseservants/whathaveyou and she comes off as a judgemental dweeb.
And it’s like this for the whole book.
She spends most of the book talking about her childhood (and it’s the same redundant thing over and over, and while I get that that’s how it went down, that still doesn’t make it interesting to read.), breezes through the teen years, barely glances at her twenties, and then it’s all, “oh, by the way I have a family of my own now. Would you like to meet them? Too bad, the book’s over.”
It’s a sad story, her mom dies when she’s 4, she has to go live with her father, John Huston, who, when it comes to his family, is basically, an asshole. She doesn’t grow up in an abusive place or anything, but there’s not a lot of emotion going on in this family. She gets moved around a lot. Her dad is always across the world shooting movies, her brother and sister are much older and have their own lives/careers. There’s a new step-mom every couple of years. Then she finds out Huston is her adopted dad and that her real dad is this guy in England and blah, blah, blah. All very dramatic, right?
Well, not the way she writes it. It’s very detached. And maybe that’s what she was going for? But it’s just this constant remoteness that begs the question, why even write it at all?
I kept thinking that eventually, towards the end, there would be this breakthrough where she would come into her own, find herself, get a hobby she enjoyed, SOMETHING. But there was nothing. It’s just one flatline after another.
And what’s sad is that I’m sure she’s a great writer. In fact, the last three or four pages, where she actually talks about her own family (husband and son), were written with a warmth and love that you could feel. She’s proud of her family. It’s great. It’s just a shame it’s only four or five pages.
Plus the ending felt rushed and vague. Like she wants you to know that she has a loving family now, she’s a mom, her husband is great etc. but she doesn’t really want to talk about them, you know? Like she wants to keep their life together private. Which, again, is fine, but still begs the question, why write/publish it in the first place?
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June 29
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fleegan
gave  to:
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia (Paperback)
by
Dennis Covington
bookshelves:
non-fiction
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
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June 23
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fleegan
gave  to:
Patty's Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America (Hardcover)
by
William Graebner
bookshelves:
non-fiction
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
fleegan said:
"This was some fascinating reading. It wasn’t just another book about the Patty Hearst debacle. It was way more than that. It was more like a cultural history of the ’70s using P.H. as a catalyst, (is that the right word?) for the ’80s and it’...more
This was some fascinating reading. It wasn’t just another book about the Patty Hearst debacle. It was way more than that. It was more like a cultural history of the ’70s using P.H. as a catalyst, (is that the right word?) for the ’80s and it’s New Conservatism and it’s Ronald Reagan.
Like I said, this isn’t just a book about P.H. and her life and times with the SLA. The author does a good job of giving the reader an overview of what happened, but the main point of the book is to take that situation and explain how it happened (mostly the outcome of the trial) and compare/contrast it to everything else that was going on at the time, things like: Korean/Vietnam POWs, Dr. Spock’s child rearing books, cults, religion, 1960s revolutions, loads of psychology… there are a ton of things discussed in this book and none of them are boring.
He spends most of the book (or maybe half?) on the trial itself. I was glad of that because it seems like the trial is glossed over a lot, or that it gets overlooked or something, but not here.
The only negative thing I can say about the book is that it’s written a bit academically, so it seems that maybe the author’s personality isn’t expressed? I’m not explaining that very well. The book was filled with cultural references but also it was a little dry. I would have appreciated some humor. Maybe not humor, but snark. And not snark for snark’s sake (I mean, gee, how hard is it to make fun of the ’70s?), because I think with this author the snark would be awesome and well-informed. Or maybe there was some in there and I missed it because the book was too busy making me think.
It took me a bit longer to read this book (and it’s not a large book) because it was just jam full of facts and notes. At times it was difficult for me to take it all in. I’d have to set the book down and do something else. And I can’t even say that’s a bad thing, because I’d find myself at work thinking about book all, “How on earth could any jury not have gotten stuck on reasonable doubt?!” or “I’ve never thought about it before but, YES, America DOES love escapees!” And we do! I thought about that all day at work yesterday.
I went from thinking about how many movies about prison breakouts we have (there’s even a show called Prison Break, right?), and how we even make the good guys out to be the bad guys so that we can cheer the bad guys who are trying to escape from prison, to thinking about Arkham Asylum in the Batman comics/movies/universe and how if the bad guys didn’t escape from Arkham then there’d be little point in Batman. And not only those senarios, but what about car chases? And then to try to break it down into it’s simplest form, you have one individual break out of the authority of another individual.
So while it’s not a simple read, I’d still say it’s a great read. By far one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time. Thank you, Mr. Graebner, for writing such a thought-provoking book.
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June 15
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fleegan
gave to:
Columbine (Hardcover)
by
Dave Cullen (Goodreads author)
bookshelves:
non-fiction
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
fleegan said:
"This book was great. Don’t get me wrong, it was a tough read. I cried more while reading this book than any other book I’ve ever read. But the writing was great, and that doesn’t often happen in true crime books, and it seems even more rare whe...more
This book was great. Don’t get me wrong, it was a tough read. I cried more while reading this book than any other book I’ve ever read. But the writing was great, and that doesn’t often happen in true crime books, and it seems even more rare when a journalist writes a true crime book.
Mr. Cullen, God bless him, has managed to take a horrific story and not only make you see the humanity of all sides of the story, but he also shows you loads of facts, and he somehow does that without bogging down the reader.
Lots of times if I read a book and there are too many characters in it I’ll get confused and I can’t enjoy the book. Mr. Cullen somehow takes the huge amount of people, makes every one of them important, and through his great writing and wonderful pacing does not lose a single character, no one slips through the cracks.
It’s an amazing piece of work. It’s not slipshod or hackey. In fact, as weird as it sounds it comes across as a labor of love. I mean, who would want to cover that story for 9 years? Most reporters would go and get the news and then move on to the next gig.
A lot of the book was about how the media got most things wrong (the boys weren’t bullied, they were bullies, it wasn’t the heavy metal music that made them do it, they had actually planned it out for a year. etc.), how the sheriff’s dept. covered up a lot of things, and how the survivors handled things and moved on. I think the book also does a good job of showing that the parents of Dylan and Eric had no clue that their sons were capable of such violence.
I was also glad that there were no pictures in the book. In lots of true crime there will be a section in the middle with gory pictures of crime scenes and such, and I’ll admit it, usually I’ll look at the pictures before I even start reading the book. I bet all true crime nerds do. But this book wasn’t like that, it didn’t need pictures. The book was well researched, had excellent writing, perfect pacing, very informative without being boring or dry. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes true crime, any parent/guardian of a teenager, and anyone who works at a high school. I’m not saying that those people should read so that they can prevent this from ever happeneing again. I think they should read it to see how improbable it would be to prevent that from happening.
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June 08
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June 04
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fleegan
gave  to:
The Last Gig (Hardcover)
by
Norman Green
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
fleegan said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Where the book first lost me (and I promise, I really wanted to love this book. I like hardboiled fiction and I like heroines! I wanted to be able to recommend this book to people at the library!) was when Martillo gets beaten up really bad and the doc is all, “you need to stay in bed for a week.” and instead after two days Martillo is back on the street, and the doc sees her again and is all, “I’ve never seen anyone heal so quickly.” And I swear I said aloud, “What the hell? Is this fan fiction?”
Martillo has a huge chip on her shoulder about having a crappy childhood and being poor and that’s great and all, I get it, but it’s mentioned roughly 40 times in the book.
The Redundancy Dept. called. They want their plot device back.
Dear Authors,
Quit beating readers over the head with the same shit over and over. WE GET IT.
Love,
Jaimie
Seriously, it’s okay to have a character with a chip on his/her shoulder. It’s even okay for that chip to be about his/her upbringing. And? It’s even more okay to have the chip about the upbringing be about how he/she was poor and/or wrong side of the tracks whathaveyou. However, if you’re going to mention this more than three times in a 300 page book it’s obviously REALLY important. And if it’s REALLY important IT NEEDS TO GO SOMEWHERE.
FOR INSTANCE, it can be used as a tool, which I think is how it was in this book. (like a, “hey, i was raised in the ghetto of brooklyn, i know not to park my car over there.” kind of thing.) But if that’s all that it is then it doesn’t need forty mentions. On the other hand, if the heroine realizes that hey, having a chip on your shoulder about things you can’t change is actually a weakness, and you can benefit and be stronger if you work through all of this, then yes, I can see how it would get mentioned a bit more. Especially if this is learned at the end and all, but this is not the case with this book.
In fact, what she learns about herself is far more disappointing. Basically, she thinks she could just be happy if she could just find a nice guy who will let her know that everything will be okay. And that’s what she gets. Well bullshit on THAT.
The Cliche Dept. called and… I don’t even have to say it.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if maybe a tough-as-nails young lady, who’s made it by on her own for lo these many years, who by the way, not only solves the mystery, but also gets to kick a little ass, also got to feel great about herself at the end? That maybe she could’ve learned that she’s actually awesome and that despite of her upbringing, despite of the odds against her (being living week to week, no formal higher education, dangerous job etc.), tht maybe she completes herself? And then, learning that she completes herself she can then go find a guy (or girl) and go have fun or have a meaningful relationship or whathaveyou? Is that so impossible? Is that so fucking impossbile that that can’t even happen in a FICTION BOOK?
No, some weenie gets to save her with a bottle of whiskey and a hug.
I did like the parts about the music business. Those parts seemed really knowledgeable and were generally interesting.
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May 28
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fleegan
gave  to:
The Black Path (#3)
by
Åsa Larsson
bookshelves:
scandinavian-crime-fiction
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my rating:
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read in May, 2009
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fleegan
gave to:
Sun Storm (UK title The Savage Altar) (#1)
by
Åsa Larsson
bookshelves:
scandinavian-crime-fiction
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my rating:
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read in May, 2009
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fleegan
gave to:
The Blood Spilt (#2)
by
Åsa Larsson
bookshelves:
scandinavian-crime-fiction
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my rating:
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