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August 16
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Sarah
marked as to-read:
Infinite Jest: A Novel (Paperback)
by David Foster Wallace
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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August 13
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Sarah
is currently reading:
The Possibility of an Island (Vintage International)
by Michel Houellebecq
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Sarah
gave
to:
Woman on the Edge of Time (Mass Market Paperback)
by Marge Piercy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2008
Sarah said:
"It has been a long time since I've read a Piercy book, and I am glad I found this one at the library. Woman On the Edge of Time crosses multiple ages and cultures, and calls into question notions of reality. The protagonist, Connie, is a diagnosed sc...more
It has been a long time since I've read a Piercy book, and I am glad I found this one at the library. Woman On the Edge of Time crosses multiple ages and cultures, and calls into question notions of reality. The protagonist, Connie, is a diagnosed schizophrenic recently readmitted into a mental hospital. Life inside the hospital is dire - treatment is nonexistent, doctors are unavailable.
Fortunately for Connie, she has one form of escape. She's a catcher, and is able to speak with people from a future time, and through this ability is able to travel with them in their land, while her body remains unconscious in the hospital. She develops friendships in the future that she is unable to develop or maintain in her own time. As she learns about lives in the future, the novel becomes a platform for Piercy to comment on the disposable nature of our own lifestyle. While the novel was written in 1976, most of this commentary is relevant today.
As the novel progresses, the actual real thread of the novel becomes increasingly blurred. Is Connie truly crazy? Was she admitted under false pretense by a family unwilling to deal with her idiosyncrasies? How do we know if anyone is crazy or sane? Does it even matter? Is it truly possible to connect with the future? Can we correct our own mistakes before they harm our descendents? Piercy plays with each of these questions in different ways, repeatedly calling into question what is actually real in the novel.
Overall, this novel was excellent. I found it to be well written, thought provoking, entertaining, and repeatedly surprising....less
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August 07
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Sarah
marked as to-read:
Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel (Hardcover)
by Austin Grossman (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 30
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Sarah
marked as to-read:
It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music (Hardcover)
by Amanda Petrusich
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 25
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Sarah
gave
to:
DEAD CRAZY (paperback)
by Nancy Pickard
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in July, 2008
Sarah said:
"Oh, Nancy Pickard. Yet another simple, ridiculous, laugh out loud funny murder mystery. I'm always a tiny bit embarrassed when I check a Nancy Pickard book out from the library, and hope that I will see no one I know until the book is checked out and...more
Oh, Nancy Pickard. Yet another simple, ridiculous, laugh out loud funny murder mystery. I'm always a tiny bit embarrassed when I check a Nancy Pickard book out from the library, and hope that I will see no one I know until the book is checked out and safely stowed in my tote bag.
Pickard's books are sheer candy and Dead Crazy might be the most extreme of the many I've read. The underlying story about the lack of options for the mentally ill in our society is serious and should be considered, but unfortunately it is hard to examine when the plight is described by narrator (and protagonist Jenny Cain). It is a large job for one narrator to draw attention to a societal failing while she is already occupied with food, her physique, men, and the general ways that she delights those around her, so Cain cannot be faulted for spending less time on the mentally ill and more time on herself.
As I said, candy. Possibly the best part of the book is when Jenny, after discovering a murder, rambles for one long paragraph on an unrelated topic. She then says something to the effect of "Murder makes some people weep, and other people throw up. It makes me digress."
As a story, Dead Crazy was fast moving, entertaining, clever at times, and included a not completely unsurprising twist at the end. I enjoyed every moment spent reading it, although I laughed at the ridiculousness of the story just as often as I did the narrative. It definitely is not a great work of literature. But sometimes you just need candy....less
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Sarah
marked as to-read:
Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert (Paperback)
by Marc-Antoine Mathieu
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 24
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Sarah
gave
to:
He, She and It (Mass Market Paperback)
by Marge Piercy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 17
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Sarah
gave
to:
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel (Paperback)
by Gregory Maguire
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 08
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Sarah
gave
to:
London: The Novel (Paperback)
by Edward Rutherfurd
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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(good) Horror Films
— 55 members
— last activity 11 hours, 18 min ago
