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October 10
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Lisa
gave
 
to:
Old School (Paperback)
by Tobias Wolff
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Lisa said:
"It felt like self-indulgence on Wolff’s part, though not really in a negative way. He’s a careful enough writer to pull it off. But I got a strong whiff of a very reverential nostalgia for his younger self in the process of becoming both a writer...more
It felt like self-indulgence on Wolff’s part, though not really in a negative way. He’s a careful enough writer to pull it off. But I got a strong whiff of a very reverential nostalgia for his younger self in the process of becoming both a writer and a moral man. It’s a fond book, and although I’m not sure I liked how he handled the last section, it was still good and easygoing. His tenderness for the characters was especially sweet – I can’t remember the last time I read a book without a single dislikable person in it....less
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October 03
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Fuck-Up (Paperback)
by Arthur Nersesian
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Lisa said:
"Hey! What happened to the fucking thumbnail? Eh? I liked the thumbnail... it added life to my bookshelf.
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September 22
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Lisa
gave
to:
So Long, See You Tomorrow (Panther)
by William Maxwell
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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September 08
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel (Hardcover)
by David Wroblewski
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Lisa said:
"Stayed up half the night finishing it and… I really can’t be objective about this book. I said earlier how I was enjoying it purely as a reader and not a critic, but it goes deeper than that. It’s like Wroblewski had some kind of infrared Jungi...more
Stayed up half the night finishing it and… I really can’t be objective about this book. I said earlier how I was enjoying it purely as a reader and not a critic, but it goes deeper than that. It’s like Wroblewski had some kind of infrared Jungian checklist and somehow managed to find out all my childhood fantasies: benevolent and wise dog companion/nursemaid? Check. Super-intelligent semi-wild pack of devoted dogs that sleep with you at night? Check. I guess the only thing worse than being raised by wolves is wishing you were – as a kid I always had a fantasy of a wolf pack appearing on my street to take me away. I wanted a dog who would look out for me like Lassie. So this was like – pardon the crudeness of the simile – finding the porn that gets you off just right.
Even though there were problems – a series of transitions in the last quarter of the book that didn’t work well, and the last part in the barn wasn’t the climax or catharsis that I think the book wanted, and yeah, it was fat as a tick on a dog’s ear. But that didn’t matter much to me, honestly – I was so emotionally involved with the characters it was like being in love, in the way logic just flies out the window for a while. And it’s been such a long time since a book did that to me. I gave in, I did, I swooned.
Plus there’s a lot that was just right. His language is nicely suited to the tale, elegant and tuned into the natural world. Obviously I’m a dog person so I’m slanted that way in the first place, but I thought he wrote the dogs well. It’s always a treat to read someone who’s so carefully observed something that you have too. And much of the book flowed beautifully. But mostly it was the characters that moved me, people and dogs alike. Not necessarily their inner lives or motivations, which fluctuated all over the board in terms of plausibility – just the fact of them. They’ll stay with me a while. Lord, I cried so hard over Almondine I had to go sit outside for a few minutes with my arm around my own flesh-and-blood dog.
And the very last scene just called up my inner 8-year-old and made her happy. I couldn’t evaluate that dispassionately if I tried.
In the end I don’t really know what to say about this book that anyone else might relate to. All I know is it transported me, and it was a good ride. ...less
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August 23
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Lisa
gave
to:
New York in the 50s (Paperback)
by Dan Wakefield
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in September, 2008
Lisa said:
"The writing was somewhat artless, which was both good -- not gushy or overly romantic, which would have been the kiss of death for the subject -- but also not fiercely compelling. Still, overall it was a fun read. It relates to my job in a kind of ta...more
The writing was somewhat artless, which was both good -- not gushy or overly romantic, which would have been the kiss of death for the subject -- but also not fiercely compelling. Still, overall it was a fun read. It relates to my job in a kind of tangential and interesting way -- these are the old guys I work for -- so I was in the market for this kind of reminiscence. And the chapter on sex and Freudian analysis cracked me up....less
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Difficulty of Being a Dog (Paperback)
by Roger Grenier
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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August 22
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New comment on Lysne's review of
Places in the World a Woman Could Walk (Graywolf Rediscovery)
(see all 3 comments)
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August 01
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Lisa
is currently reading:
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (Paperback)
by Simon Schama
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 28
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Lisa
gave
to:
To the Lighthouse (Paperback)
by Virginia Woolf
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2008
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July 16
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Post-Office Girl (Paperback)
by Stefan Zweig
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
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