http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/219514 en-US Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:09:08 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 31684118 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:09:08 -0700 Review27532786 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532786 The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683947 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:07:46 -0700 Review27532648 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532648 The Omnivore's Dilemma (Hardcover) by Michael Pollan
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683877 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:07:13 -0700 Review27532589 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532589 In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Hardcover) by Michael Pollan
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683654 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:05:31 -0700 Review27532412 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532412 The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683554 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:05:01 -0700 Review27532337 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532337 Eleven Minutes: A Novel (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683494 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:04:41 -0700 Review27532290 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532290 By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31683383 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:03:52 -0700 Review27532206 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27532206 Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 30959185 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:02:45 -0700 Review26972039 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26972039 to: The Witch of Portobello (Hardcover) by Paulo Coelho
So different, and yet the same: this book appealed to me in the way of The Secret History, A Shadow of the Wind and a handful of others. Which is to say, I stayed up late reading it, I woke up early. I took actual lunch breaks and ate while reading while scribbling in my book, dog-earing pages and thinking of all the people I needed to give my copy to once I finished. Of course, I can't--it might make me blush for anyone to see the underlined passages in a fiction book, even if it is touching on religion, spirituality and self-awareness...
I read The Alchemist a few years ago, right before a move. Encouraging and well-timed, I remember walking about on a parking garage roof in the Soma talking to my Dad on the telephone, rehashing the plots and spoils of this novel. I loved it, the simplicity, the way it read with the disciplined, carefully spaced austerity of the Bible—it was a very satisfying, uplifting read. And, because it was a work of fiction, I could take it seriously. It provided, like a really complex wine or something akin, time to simply THINK it over.
Here was a book of fiction, yet with profound thoughts and complicated ideas BROCHING spirituality, a topic I certainly dwell on consistently, yet, despite my ability to talk rather incessantly, is rarely an issue I bring to the fore ground of any conversations. It’s too important and differently interpreted by too many people. And, it’s nice to know that even I can be discreet about something…
However, while the Alchemist was as uplifting and an ultimately helpful tool for me, giving strength and courage to be optimistic, personally spiritualized, etc.: it was, always, a book I liked and little more. I remembered it in a few job interviews, or when moving became particularly stressful, underlined a handful of passages for my boyfriend and suggested he read it (he didn’t). The way to succeed personally is to keep getting up. Good advice.
But The Witch of Portobello…was something different. Not since Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, for one, have I been so impressed with a male ablity to write for the female brain. Paulo Coelho is fifty-nine years old, but I have to say, I have a bit of a crush. He marvels at women, their built-in-intuition and self-awareness. In fact, his adoration and respect for women, completely evident throughout this novel, truly made me proud to be one. I can’t remember ever feeling that way before—proud due to the interpretations of man. All to frequently it’s questions like, “are you on your period?” that nearly drive me to commit mass murder—the simple implication that my opinions are null and void to a serge in hormones? On the contarary, Coelho suggests what I’ve often thought: it’s precisely those differences that make women important, “witch-like” (used in the positive sense), intuitive, thoughtful. Coelho suggests this is the gift of The Mother, whatever God there is, etc.
Fiction or not, in a world bombarded with body image, terrible role models (for the love of god, is it THAT strange Angelina has so many kids? Didn’t Mia Farrow do it twenty years ago? How quickly we forget)—and, in lieu of this novel, I began to think, because it was implied—in a world full of so many distractions, perhaps this is directly accountable as a reason for our (women’s) confusion and lack of self-awareness?
This novel also plays mightily on the relationships of women (and women and men, women and mothers, women and children…etc.). One mentor relationship spawns between two women who “love one another” but do not like each other personally. The idea is incredible to me, one, because to admit I do not value someone is particularly difficult for me personally, and two, because it is so very “final.”
These testaments to not “liking” each other come from two very enlightened women—both are in a place to respect their opinions, rather than drag them around to the point of rot. They’ve already taken the time to contemplate everything about themselves; therefore, they can make personal choices much more quickly than the average.
And, through it all, Coelho manages to thread the historical sinews that keep me coming back for more, much like The Secret History. Athena, Gaia, Dionysus, ritual, dance, Saint Sarah de Kahli, Gypsies and Transylvania. He even manages to squeeze the Ukraine and radiation. Honestly, I can only speak from my personal interests, but I’m a huge sucker for historical accounts of…not even powerful women, but really admirable women. This novel really provided an alternative reality, because, I find that if you’re not overtly religious, we fall back on religions “fanaticism.” Joan of Arc can’t be blessed by God if I’m not totally sure there is a god, so she must just be nuts, Sylvia Plath’s life and work are over-shadowed by her death and the love “triangle” surrounding it…and so on and so forth. I didn’t really like the character of Athena that much—truth be told. Unable to completely remove me from me, I knew that she would grate on me, that if I knew her personally I would try to out speak her, shine her, charisma her—but God, wasn’t it nice to just, sit back and read about the hardships of someone else’s path to personal discover? Even if it is some one so…intense I might not want to pal around with them, but can just…use their example, even if fictional, as an opportunity to trust my instincts?
In short, this book was more than a book for me, even though I know that’s all it was—a work of fiction. But, for me, it meant something and provided example and structure, sort of a bit of a “teacher” and “protector” in the pages of a book.
]]> 30988645 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:44:50 -0700 Comment1194377 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25320263 Jamie's review of America Day by Day
by Simone de Beauvoir

Ha. If nothing else the frequent omission of her hang overs makes me question her reliability as a narrator even further..."I can hardly count the whiskey's on two hands..." ]]> 30959248 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:08:51 -0700 Review26972085 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26972085 The Gathering (Paperback) by Anne Enright
bookshelves: to-read
]]>