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July 16
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Becca
is currently reading:
Falling Under (Paperback)
by Danielle Younge-Ullman
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Becca
gave
to:
Moby-Dick (Paperback)
by Herman Melville
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Becca said:
"Blerg!
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June 28
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Becca
gave
to:
Dear Diary (Hardcover)
by Lesley Arfin
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Becca said:
"This book jumped off the shelf from me at the library and I finished it less than 24 hours after I picked it up. I loved the premise that a woman would print her teenage diary entries and then go back and interview the girls who tormented her and the...more
This book jumped off the shelf from me at the library and I finished it less than 24 hours after I picked it up. I loved the premise that a woman would print her teenage diary entries and then go back and interview the girls who tormented her and the boys she crushed on to get their take on things.
Alas, it's much better in concept than execution. Most of the interviews yield no insights, as her frenemies usually have no memory of the events she wrote about and instead just reminisce about that time they all got wasted, remember?
With its Vice Publishing imprint and a forward by Chloe Sevigny, the book seems to dare its readers to question its cool quotient, but exposing one's humiliating past in a memoir is hardly virgin territory at this point. Many books and stage plays and blogs have done it with more wit, humor and analysis.
Even Arfin herself seems to doubt her premise mid-way through the book, as she desperately promises her readers that things will get more interesting once she starts doing heroin in the latter chapters. Not so much. If there's a memoir genre that's been rehashed more frequently than the tortured suburban adolescence, it's the rehab-relapse-rehab experience. ...less
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June 08
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Becca
gave
to:
What It Is
by Lynda Barry
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended to Becca by:
Bust Magazine
recommended for: Rachel
read in June, 2008
Becca said:
"So awesome I wish I could give it six stars.
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June 07
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Becca
gave
to:
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It (Paperback)
by Barbara Sher
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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May 16
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Becca
gave
to:
All the Pretty Horses (Border Trilogy, Vol 1)
by Cormac McCarthy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Becca said:
"Really good writing and it definitely made me crave the desert. Still, it was hard for me to connect to the story itself. I felt like I was watching everything happen at a remove. I wished the characters would take me into their confidence, but they...more
Really good writing and it definitely made me crave the desert. Still, it was hard for me to connect to the story itself. I felt like I was watching everything happen at a remove. I wished the characters would take me into their confidence, but they're cowboys, so they're not much for talking.
...less
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May 12
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Becca
gave
to:
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (Paperback)
by Julie Powell
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Becca said:
"I grabbed this one looking for something light after "The Road." I can't say it made me a fan of French cooking (detailed descriptions of calf-foot jelly and boiled lobsters were rather off-putting) but it did make me a fan of Julie Powell....more
I grabbed this one looking for something light after "The Road." I can't say it made me a fan of French cooking (detailed descriptions of calf-foot jelly and boiled lobsters were rather off-putting) but it did make me a fan of Julie Powell. I can completely appreciate embarking on a self-constructed, hair-brained challenge like cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for no other reason than you suspect there's something missing from your life. ...less
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May 04
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Becca
gave
to:
Housekeeping: A Novel (Paperback)
by Marilynne Robinson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Becca said:
"I had very high expectations for this book because so many people have told me they love it. That was probably a recipe for disappointment.
"Housekeeping" has undeniably beautiful prose and a touching story, but it also made me realize ...more
I had very high expectations for this book because so many people have told me they love it. That was probably a recipe for disappointment.
"Housekeeping" has undeniably beautiful prose and a touching story, but it also made me realize how much I like dialogue. Some writers, like Cormac McCarthy or John Steinbeck, are spare with dialogue in the same way they're spare with other aspects of their writing. They deliver toned, stream-lined plots that don't need conversation to stay lively.
In this book, dialogue and action are edged out by great swaths of still-life description and metaphor. I found myself frustrated by a desire for the writer to stop waxing poetic about ghosts and lake ice and get back to the story already. After three-page stretches of scene description, I started skipping whole paragraphs in search of the actual narrative. I almost never do this when I read, and the resulting guilt made me rush through the book much faster than it deserved.
Look, book, it's not you. It's me. The NY Times loves you. My friends love you. It has to be me. No, it's you. No, it's me. No. ...less
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April 23
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Becca
gave
to:
Babyji (Paperback)
by Abha Dawesar
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008
Becca said:
"This one has been hanging out in my "to read" pile for a long time while I've struggled to surrender my ego with Eckhart Tolle and Steve Ross. Last week, I OD'd on self-improvement (again) and picked it up for a quick, escapist read.
&q...more
This one has been hanging out in my "to read" pile for a long time while I've struggled to surrender my ego with Eckhart Tolle and Steve Ross. Last week, I OD'd on self-improvement (again) and picked it up for a quick, escapist read.
"Babyji" follows a young lesbian high school student in India as she determines what she wants from her future. It had very little to do with the coming-out process, and much more to do with college selection and the tricky dynamics of new sexual relationships. The prose didn't set my brain on fire, but by giving a voice to Anamika - a confident, butch, sexy and intelligent Indian teenage heroine, Abha Dawesar has added a rare perspective to the growing genre of GLBT lit for young adults.
...less
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April 06
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Becca
is currently reading:
Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There's Nothing to Worry About (Paperback)
by Steve Ross
bookshelves:
currently-reading,
stuck-halfway-through
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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