Karla Eaton > Recent Status Updates

Omg this book is soooo relevant. 1) the debriefing on the role of prisoners is like a winners manual for the reality series Survivor! 2) Then Jerry remarks that those who broke down have extrinsic identities, not intrinsic. This is the exact conversation we had about Gatsby! Fascinating.

I am fascinated with how everyone in this scenario has bought into this, even to the point of manufacturing the scenarios of the "crimes" they committed. This makes me think of the lies the girls manufacture in The Crucible which they tell so often they start to believe it.

I am fascinated with how everyone in this scenario has bought into this, even to the point of manufacturing the scenarios of the "crimes" they committed. This makes me think of the lies the girls manufacture in The Crucible which they tell so often they start to believe it.

So many of the abuses and manipulations explicitly outlined in this novel resonate as aspects of Game of Thrones. The most prominent connection is what happens to Theon Greyjoy, who includes in his spiral down referring to himself as Reek, not unlike the depersonalization of numbering inmates, sexual humiliation, the act of submission to quell all rebellion, and the testing of "loyalty". So sad!!

Wow - how terrifying that in three days time, the men have so lost their identifies that they call themselves numbers rather than names when they meet with the chaplain. Terrifying how easily we are dehumanized and how easily others do that. The height aspect of leadership is also fascinating to me since I am married to someone 6'7" tall who jokes that 300 yeas ago he would have been king!

Wow - hard to read; the ugliness of the Rape of Rwanda and Nanking makes me physically ill. I completely recognize the reality of man making someone the "other" to create the psychology for this violence. We look at that in Ender's Game and The Crucible for example. I hate to think how often we do that in our world - like Muslims after 9/11 and how often the East hates the West.

This quote from the book resonates so strongly with our study of The Crucible to start the year: "It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable." The power of Satan and the retribution of God in the Puritan doctrine drove the people of Salem to easily identify the women as witches, fostering their evil treatment of these people that had at one point been welcome in Salem. Sad.

Wow - the first chapter opens up with a wonderful metaphor using an Escher tessellation as to emphasize the fundamental aspect of man - who is both good and bad all at once, striving to fight the dominance of bad over good. Thanks, Andrew. Really looking forward to reading this.

What delightful opening chapters. Ed Kennedy has the greatest voice, as does his friend with the crappy car. And how can you not like a guy who loves his old dog like Ed loves Doorman. The bank robbery scene is one of the most unusual chapters I have ever read. TICKLED with this so far!

I love first chapters like this - some wonderful level of confusion - what does it mean to be a carer? What is she choosing people for? What is special about her home town? You certainly get the creepy vibe because of the behavior, the narrator's story about the boy who was dying and wanted her to tell about her hometown because his memories were bad and hers were good, the way the boys treat Peter - we'll see!

I m going to Florence this summer for my daughter's graduation trip, so I chose this book to learn about the famous dome on the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore which is a centerpiece of the city. The first few chapters remind us the often failure of some sort is the key to success because had Fillipo Brunelleschi won the contest to make the bronze doors, he would never have been able to learn about architecture.

My husband knows this writer from Twitter, so I decided to read this book. It is the back story to why she is involved in Romeo and Juliet, starting several hundred years before the events of Shakespeare's play. It all starts with Faunus disguising himself to woo Mab so he can steal her white bull. He uses a Montague prince, probably Romeo's great, great grandfather, for help. This sets the whole thing in motion.

Everything is shifting in the life of these people and Charleston. The slaves are planning an imminent uprising, the Grimkes have changed drastically with the matron aging, turning meaner and meaner in her penury as the Southern aristocratic lifestyle decays, Sarah deciding between life in the north as a Quaker in Israel's home and her obligations to Nina and to her home. I worry most for Handful.

This book is perfect for me to read now because it coincides thematically with Huck. Sarah is the abolitionist buried in the slave holding family, but like Huck, she is still so shaped by the inherent racism of her society, she doesn't even realize it. When she finds Handful using her bathtub, she is shocked at her own internal rage, horrified to hear her mother's hate in her own mind. I like the honest text.

The chapter which starts on page 77 is heart-wrenchingly like The Yellow Wallpaper. Sarah has had her books taken from her, been assured she will not be educated, and has been described by her mother as a horse who gas been broken. She is so depressed they called a doctor. Shockingly, her mother commiserates with her but warns fighting her fate is futile. So sad. Like blacks relegated to subjugation with no choice.

This story is told through dual stories - Hetty. a slave also known as Handful, and Sarah, a white 11 year-old girl who has been forced to take Hetty as her slave. She does not want to be a slaveholder any more than Hetty wants to be a slave, but she is shackled by the racism and sexism of the time. Both girls are smart and brave, so the reader hopes they can overcome the control others have on them.

This book is fascinating and frustrating all at once because of the complexity. At this point the most quizzical aspect is the time issue. You realize when he is rowed ashore to collect the valise that years have passed. The power of the evil forces have grown exponentially, the people gave aged, and S's injuries gave healed. Was he in a coma? Is there a supernatural aspect to thus, like a time vacuum on board?

I may not be smart enough to read this novel. Yikes! Essentially 5 story lines at once. The best is the actual novel with all it's mystery. Why Re the sailors lips literally sewn shut? Who is the mystery woman at the bar who shows up at the factory riot? It will take me all of January to finish thus I bet!

OMG - this is the most complicated book I have ever read, bar none. There is the novel which is the source book, two annotations which are conversations around the source boo, the mystery inside the source book of the wet man with no memory captured by pirates, and the mystery of the author of the source book, as well as the documents stuffed inside the source book by the pair who are trading notes & their own lives!

I can't resist a new Grisham, especially when it gets the good reviews this one got. He follows a lawyer from an earlier novel, Jake from his well known work A Time to Kill. I needed some fluff to read over the holidays, so here I go...

Wow - this book is like reading a nightmare of lies but it is a true story where a man is sentenced to multiple life sentences when there should be doubt after doubt to the jurors. The most striking issue is the denied testimony of Helena Stoeckly and any testimony about her. There cannot be a rational coincidence that a woman resembling her is seen outside the crime scene and she confesses and it is all a lie.

I followed this famous murder case as a young teen. I later read the book based on the crime which proposed that the army doctor was guilty of killing his wife and daughters. This book represents the other view - that he is innocent and was persecuted and falsely prosecuted. So far, pretty compelling case that this was a travesty of justice by people with myopic view points. Fascinating!

Holy Moly! What a twist! This last chapter just epitomizes the phrase "be careful what you wish for"! I don't want to spoil this but Hal is in for a much bigger surprise than he expects with the DNA testing he requested. Also, as a reader, I am shocked at Paul and Cass now that Cass is out of jail. There is something going on with those two that moves beyond twindom.

I have been reading Scott Turow mysteries since I was in high school. He set this novel in a familiar place for his readers - the town where Sandy Stern practiced law for years. This novel deals with lots of those old characters but also new ones, so it is like old home week for me. Right now, Paul has filed a defamation suit against Dita's brother who is claiming Paul was part of the murder his brother confessed to.

Cool opening of the novel: the first chapter is a recounting of the start of the day when the murder occurs, as one of the twin brothers thinks that when he remembers that fateful day, it always starts with going to the festival thrown by the murdered girl's father, their close family friend. The second chapter jumps 25 years ahead to the parole hearing of the twin who admitted to the crime!

This book is cracking my up! First - the voices. Bernadette is so frantically stream of consciousness in her emails, she is a step away from the lady in the Yellow Wallpaper. I also relate to the snarky attitude of the women in this community who gossip and nag because anyone who has lived in a suburb has heard that in the carpool line! I suspected that there was some scam with Manjula which seems key at this point.

I have had lots of college age kids recommend this to me, so I decided to read it. I like the quirky way the book is created -- through emails, invoices, letters, gossip, and some direct entry from the girl, Bee -- so clearly not a normal narrative. The voice is fun, too. At this point, we see the Branch family as odd members of an elite community in Seattle. The big issue right now is the mom - not functioning well

On one side, Kinsey has been left a half million dollars from an uncle who was homeless whom she never knew. One the other side, there is a detective tracking a wayward wife who looks to be trying to catch her boss in illegal matters. I can't wait to see how the two stories come together. I love that Kinsey is going to learn about her past and reconcile her anger at being abandoned by her family when she was only 5.

This is a favorite series of mine. I have read every one, so I am tickled to get an update on Kinsey, Grafton's detective.

I love this line: "I wanted to reach behind my neck and unhook the flesh from the bone, open it along the zipper of my spine, step out of my skin, and fling it to the floor" (79). Who hasn't felt that way at some time or another? This is such a sad, sweet novel. I am finding so many everyday aspects which resonate with me. McDermott captures life's essence in the everyday happenings and conversations.