false 7 12 11 true 5655430 read 1 true 774260 currently-reading 0 true 774259 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73851284 to: To the Lighthouse (Paperback) by Virginia Woolf
Ahead of her time, even posthumously. Such an incredible book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73850104 to: Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table (Paperback) by Sara Roahen
To simply call this book a collection of essays on New Orleans food traditions is like saying Everest is a nice, little hill. Through Roahan's gorgeous writing, you smell and taste and see it all; and feel her longing for this wonderful city, too. Toward the end, she writes, "People love New Orleans like they love a person." I couldn't agree more, but if you didn't feel that way before reading this book, you will. Her writing has so much heart. Read it, read it, read it! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64524873 David's review of The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf
by William C. Davis

Thank you for your generous contribution to the Little Myth Society. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64078131 to: Paula Spencer (Hardcover) by Roddy Doyle
As with The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, the precursor to Paula Spencer, Doyle has an uncanny knack for inhabiting characters and creating a voice that never for a second makes you doubt that the narrator is this beaten-but-not-down woman; you never feel the author in her words, and that's pretty amazing. Doyle shows human resilience in the face of everyday pain and circumstance; the things that go on in people's lives that don't make headlines, but are real and difficult and painful struggles all the same. I love that he doesn't go for the easy, either; his main character is as unsentimental as they come, which makes you root for her all the more. Paula Spencer is raw and gorgeous. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46843992 to: Talk Talk (Hardcover) by T.C. Boyle
I always have the same problem with Boyle's novels--I LOVE his short stories--oh my god, I love his short stories--but his novels tend to feel like they meander a little too much in the middle, and it was the same here. I really liked the characters and the dilemma presented to them (e.g., communication and identity; who we are v. how people see us), but in the middle I found myself getting easily distracted, while the beginning and end held my attention completley. Still, there's no one like Boyle for finding a way to say things like no one else. He is, in my opinion, one of the most talented living fiction writers out there. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50819047 Netherland (Hardcover) by Joseph O'Neill
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46845038 to: The Lazarus Project (Hardcover) by Aleksandar Hemon
Hemon's beautiful use of words is all the more awing (or maybe depressing if you make your living as a writer?) when you realize that English isn't his first language. The post-9/11 setting of half the book none-too-subtly kicks home the "more things change, the more they stay the same" zenophobia that, awareness be damned, never seems to go away in the world. Also, his portrayal of the immigrant experience, both modern day and in the past, evokes all the requisite conflicting feelings of loneliness, hope, alienation, ambition, etc., with incredible vividness. When are we home? Who knows. The narrator never seems to really figure that out, even though he seems to choose Sarajevo over Chicago. That unsettled-ness, to me, seemed really true to the character, though; not a convenient sewn-up plot, and I really liked that about the book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46845134 to: Love Invents Us (Paperback) by Amy Bloom
Bloom will twist your insides with this story. Her radically imperfect, oddball, flecked and flawed, broken protagonist pinched my heart. Bloom's ability to not just describe place, but emotion as if it's as real a landscape as what's out your window floored me. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43110924 to: City of Refuge: A Novel (Hardcover) by Tom Piazza
Piazza did an fantastic job of showing New Orleans and drawing a picture of the intangible, immediate, uncompromising love some can feel for this city. I liked his use of parallel stories to show what happened just before, during, and after the hurricane, subsequent flooding, and government screw-ups, but also the bare-knuckle heriocs of average people, the incredible depression and sense of loss after being booted from home, and the big question of what home means to you. With that said, I think his greatest success was showing the pain, humiliation, and frustration of being forced from your home and the way he manifested that in SJ. Piazza's rendering of that character gave me as much insight into that situation as a truckload of NYT articles. The character of Craig, however, frustrated me. He felt forced and self-conscious and I could feel the author's hand in almost every move he made. Altough, to be fair, maybe that annoying awkwardness was purposeful to make you see he was and always would be the outsider he tried so hard not to be. That notwithstanding, it was a good read, and I certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to get a clear idea of what it must have been like to live in and be extracted from that lovely, mysterious, broken-down, resilient city post-Katrina, and find their way back again. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35117794 to: The Road (Hardcover) by Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy has an incredible gift for showing the intense tangibility of the most intangible of things--human emotion, love, and attachment. He strips the protagonists down to nothing, both figuratively and literally. Left with only each other and scavenging for anything to stay alive, the journey of this father and son through the ultimate bleakest-of-bleak post-apocalytic United States will stay with you long after you close the cover of the book. It also might make you simultaneously look around at all the unnecessary crap in your life, and hold onto your loved ones a little tighter -- not such a bad thing. I was blown away. ]]>