false 30 450 415 true 5706949 read 2 true 5036123 currently-reading 33 true 5036122 to-read 32 false 7260652 chick-lit 29 false 7260599 memoir-and-biography 26 false 5044916 favorite-fiction 25 false 7260519 historical-fiction 23 false 5044888 travel 19 false 5044893 france 19 false 5766020 ireland 18 false 5044890 food 17 false 5044920 favorite-nonfiction 11 false 7260529 historical-nonfiction 6 false 8486158 short-stories 5 false 7260559 art 4 false 7260532 mystery http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74796752 to: The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Paperback) by Muriel Barbery
This book was so much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. After the first several chapters, dense with philosophical ramblings and no sign of a plot, I nearly gave up and set this book aside. In the end, I'm glad I finished it, but it wasn't at all what I'd imagined.

The story revolves around a middle-aged concierge, Renee, who maintains an exclusive apartment building in Paris. A widow, she locks herself away in her apartment and spends her days reading philosophy texts and watching movies. An unlikely friendship develops between Renee and 12-year old Paloma, a tenant whose extreme alienation from her family has led her to devise a suicide plot. Into this world comes Monsieur Ozu, a Japanese man who moves into the building, befriends Paloma and beings courting Renee. He challenges all of their predetermined ideas about class, society and propriety.

To be honest, I'm still turning this book around in my head. I didn't really care for the protagonists (particularly the insufferably self-absorbed Paloma) and only started to appreciate them at the very end of the book. I found a lot of the dialogue horribly pretentious. And yet, I was touched by the ending and appreciated the discourse on class warfare. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67411328 to: Hell Is Other Parents: And Other Tales of Maternal Combustion (Paperback) by Deborah Copaken Kogan
bookshelves: short-stories
Really disappointing. I think Kogan used this book as an opportunity to get back at every parent who has ever pissed her off and every former friend with whom she needs to settle a score. These stories are not about those frustrating moments in parenting that we can all laugh at or nod along with. These are personal incidents, unique to Kogan's privileged life, that really have no bearing on anyone else's experience.

Mad because a parent chose to involve the school in a conflict her child was having with your child instead of calling you up and handling it quietly? Well, write a story about what a crap parent she is and how deeply disappointed you are that she would handle things in such a regrettable and immature fashion.

Mad because your college roommates forced you out of their house and stopped talking to you senior year? Write a story about it, complete with a list of each and every one of their character flaws and your smug assertions about why they do not recognize you as a true and enduring friend. Seriously!

Mad because people call you a stage parent when all you're trying to do is let your kid be a movie star? Write a story about it, defending your choice and namedropping INCESSANTLY. Go ahead, write a list of each and every celebrity you have met and note how many times each of them said your child was a brilliant, genius, prodigy, boy wonder, etc.

I'm being a little harsh here, but come on. What was the point of this book? It is not relatable, not funny, not poignant and does not share any significantly interesting musings on the nature of parenthood. The only thing I really came away with is that hanging with Kogan must be a real chore. But pretend it's not, or else she'll write a story about what a bitch you are. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77099623 to: The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3) by Dan Brown
We all know that Dan Brown isn't a very good writer. The Da Vinci Code was good, guilty fun, but it isn't great literature. Angels and Demons belongs on the trash heap, as far as I'm concerned. So why read The Lost Symbol? I guess it was one of those "everyone else is doing it" things. Just call me a lemming.

The first half of this book was SLOW. So slow I nearly gave up on it several times. It was an absolute chore to read. Finally, it picked up and I was able to finish the final chapters quickly. Implausible and ridiculous are the words I'd select to describe this book, without the guilty pleasure factor of Da Vinci Code. I wasn't interested in any of the characters or the mystery at hand. Can someone please tell Dan Brown to stop using italics in every single paragraph? It is so annoying. Also, why must the bad guy always be some crazy, deformed freak of nature? It just makes everything too obvious. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as criticism goes, but two of the more irritating points for me.

Anyway, I thought this book sucked. I wish I hadn't bothered. But at least I got this book from the library and didn't contribute to the piles of money Dan Brown must roll around in all day. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77099591 to: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (Hardcover) by David Grann
This book tells the story of Percy Harrison Fawcett, an explorer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, who became obsessed with discovering an ancient ruin in the jungles of the Amazon. The desire to find this legendary city, called Z, consumed him. When he disappeared in Brazil, along with his son Jack, a thousand theories about his demise and rescue missions devoted to his rescue were born.

The author tells the story of PHF's life, from his unhappy early years, to his contented marriage and his increasing need to be in the jungle. He is at once superhuman, seemingly immune to the ills and dangers of the Amazon, and all too fallible, believing his own hype and taking unnecessary risks.

I found the whole topic fascinating and Fawcett's desire to locate Z quite compelling. His combination of obsession and egotism was such a recipe for disaster, and the fact that so many people have gone to Brazil to look for him after the fact is truly astonishing. This era of exploration and the swashbuckling, Indiana Jones-style adventurers of the Royal Geographical Society were new to me and I was pretty engrossed. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77686946 to: I Was Amelia Earhart (Paperback) by Jane Mendelsohn
I Was Amelia Earhart is a slim little novella, but the writing style is so dreamlike and interesting that it really made me slow down and savor each word. Mendelsohn's writing is beautiful and spare, with no words wasted.

Written from Amelia's perspective, this book tells the story of Earhart's final flight and what transpires after her crash landing on a remote island. It's pretty fascinating to see what this author imagines was inside Earhart's head and what she experienced after her disappearance. The relationship between Earhart and her navigator, the drunken Noonan, is central to Earhart's tale and evolves as Earhart accepts her castaway status. I enjoyed this story and a glimpse into what might have been. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56143757 Erin's review of Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities
by Alexandra Robbins

Well, clearly you had a bad experience with the Greek system, so I'm not going to try to change your mind. However, some would argue that benefits to belonging to a sorority include community involvement, playing an active role in campus life, leadership opportunities and lifelong friendships. It's not the right choice for all people, but it is for some. This book chose to disregard all potential positives in order to present an incredibly one-sided narrative. That's just bad writing. My comments are not so much about Greek life as they are about the book, which I found amateurish and not worth reading.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78771921 The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Hardcover) by David A. Kessler
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78213843 Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Hardcover) by Bill Buford
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77911362 Not Where I Started From (Paperback) by Kate Wheeler
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77907237 Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories (Hardcover) by Lore Segal
bookshelves: to-read
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