 |
P
fat girls and lawn chairs
cheryl peck
|
|
| Liz recommended this hilarious collection of essays and I truly laughed outloud through out the book. Peck writes about life as a plus-sized, gay woman living with her cat, Babycakes and includes lots of anecdotes about her family as well as the adage about how fat girls need to avoid lawn chairs at all costs (if you have to ask why, you'll never understand.) Mingling in with the essays are also original poems that prove Peck is an all-around talented writer. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
some book by m. scott peck
m. scott peck
|
|
| You know how Gary who recommended the way of the peaceful warrior said he had a psychic fixation blah blah blah? Well the guy who recommended this book to me acutally piqued my interest with his claim of fixation towards me (he is the last to do so). Greg was sort of my mentor as he was 27 to my 24. He told me a fascinating thing that still interests me: that I would know some secret thing at 27 that I didn't know then at 24. I'm a month away from 28 and still don't know what that is. I read this book |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
|
the club dumas
arturo perez-reverte
|
|
| The Club Dumas is a rich, adventure thriller taking place in the rare book world and features the writers Dumas, the occult and The Three Musketeers. Lucas Corso is tasked with finding information about an old manuscript as well as a book that supposedly summons the devil. The trail takes him to Madrid and Paris with a mysterious stranger tailing him the whole way. A bit hard to follow, but a very smart and strangely intruiging book. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
November 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
funny that way
joel perry
|
|
My name is Kristen, and I’m shallow… I picked this book from the long line-up of new non-fiction because of its cover. It was a beautiful pink and orange striped cover with a nice-looking man upon it. This was one of several books I picked up. I tried reading it once, and it didn’t take. I wasn’t desperate for reading material, so I read this book last. It’s an easy read because it’s in an essay form. This was very David Sedaris-y but much much gay-er. I found it to be like Michael Mouse from "Tales of the City" writing a gay essay book.
At first Jack’s style of writing got on my nerves. It was too cutesy, smarmy, and gay. But infectious. I picked it up again and happened upon a surreal moment: he was writing about the lame gay bar scene of Wilmington, North Carolina (which is where I live). Oh how funny! Then even better, in a further essay, he THANKED me for reading his book by saying if there was any straight person reading his book, he wanted to thank them for their open mind. Of course I felt guilty then for initially thinking his writing too gay (and in the final analysis, it’s no Tolstoy – although I haven’t read but five deep pages of Tolstoy before it got a bit dark for me).
This was a great subway, beach, summer read. Of course it’s quite possible to read it in the winter as well as anything gay can be made deep.
|
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
June 2001 [link] |
recommend
|
special topics in calamity physics
marisha pessl
|
|
| Lots of reviews for this book call it "showy" and "wordy" and while it is both those things, Special Topics is also very intelligent and bold. It's a crazy story which centers around Blue van Meer and her professor father who move around the country at a startling rate so the dad can teach at different colleges. As a sort of high school senior year gift to her, dad resolves to stay in one town for a whole year and teach at a nearby college. At her private school, she is invited by a teacher to join a group that meets at her house after school and on weekends, kids that are privileged and strange and intriguing. The teacher, Hannah is mysterious as well and the whole story tumbles into this whodunnit maze with a dead teacher, flashbacks to Blue's dead mother and this crazy, crazy, crazy storyline about a group called The Nightwatchman - I admit I got a little lost at the end. What kept me reading was the unbelievable amount of references to books and movies (old, new and everything in between). I found it hard to believe the author is only 28 because she's clearly, freakishly well-read. Despite the wild turn of events at the end, this was an immensely enjoyable read. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
nineteen minutes
jodi picoult
|
|
| If you can get past the schmaltzy cover (my husband thought it was a self-help book) you'll find a riviting story about a columbine-style school shooting and a social commentary on who's to blame. It only takes Peter Houghton nineteen minutes to shoot up his high school and change lives forever in the town of Sterling, New Hampshire. The book explores different ideas on who is to blame - the naive parents? The school administration who turned their backs on kids getting bullied? Violent video games? The shooter who was a victim of vicious bullying his whole life? Or all of the above? The characters are richly drawn and there are moments that are heart-wrenching. There are many details that mirror that of the Columbine shooting but the "surprise" ending reminds you it's just a novel after all. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
September 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
vernon god little
dbc pierre
|
|
| I picked up this Booker Prize winner somewhat reluctantly after reading reviews that enjoyed the assiness of the author, "Dirty But Clean Pierre". The book is a kind-of diary of a Texas youth who sees his young, gay, best friend kill a number of people in his high school after a particularly embarrassing Chemistry class. He's accused of being an accessory to the murder and, after several failed attempts, flees to Mexico. The book captures the despondancy of youth and the influence that the media can have on crimes that happen in small towns. It gets creepy when people start voting for who goes next on Death Row. I don't think it should've gotten the Booker but it was an engaging read. Doesn't make Pierre any less of a wanker, though. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
July 2004 [link] |
recommend 9 thumbs up
|
bell jar, the
sylvia plath
|
|
| Read this as I was in the depths of depression and desperately wanted some company. I really loved the parallels that it had to my life, but it just wasn't biting enough for me. As has been my meter for books read in the past, this book didn't stay with me. Unlike, Confederacy of Dunces (which granted I JUST read last year) this book has no retention value with me. I DO remember how she thought all the girls around her (wait it's coming back to me) were silly, and she/them slutted around, but in the end it just wasn't the depressing companion I wanted (I later found out the "Rituals" or Bukowski book were [see earlier review]). People tell me that she put her head in an oven - how's that for depressing - but I guess I wanted more. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
April 2000 [link] |
recommend
|
the seven stages of motherhood
ann pleshette murphy
|
|
Since Pleshette Murphy was an editor at Parents magazine for 10 plus years, this reads very much like a book-length article on parenting - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The stages begin at pregnancy and go right up to when your child is eighteen. Filled with lots of funny anecdotes from lots of moms, this book definitely made me feel better about some of the feelings I've been having and some of the phases Ella is going through. I felt better, that is, until I read about the stages that come after toddlerhood, especially when talk turned to the teen years being alot like toddlerhood. Gulp. At any rate, an easy, breezy read if you're into the parenting books. Pleshette Murphy's Web site also has some nice excepts from each stage.
|
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
selected poems of li po, the
li po
|
|
| Great great and more great. I remember reading a reference to a poem by Li Po in a poem I read in high school English. The fragment has stuck with me ever since. Excellent retention value. I'm not usually a poem fan, but here you have it…my favorite poems. Life, love, philosophy all in easy to read short poems. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
|
my name is asher lev
chaim potok
|
|
| I read this book for a book club that my friend invited me to. I don't really like book clubs but we had a lively discussion about this story. Asher Lev is a Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn with an amazing talent for art that his parents rail against from day one. While Asher goes on to become a critical success, his relationship with his parents gets more and more strained. Will his magnum opus be the straw that breaks the camel's back? (The answer is yes and it takes a long time for the book to get there.) |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2005 [link] |
recommend
|
julie and julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen
julie powell
|
|
I have been waiting for this book to come out for about a year and a half now - ever since Julie Powell's "The Julie/Julia Project"' blog ended with the news that she would be writing a book. I loved the blog. I was a little less enchanted with the book. Too much backstory, too many random stories about her friends' love lives and not enough mention of the cooking! Also - and I didn't like this about her blog either - she was working for a government agency that was dealing with rebuilding after 9/11 and although it was a crappy admin-assistant job and they way she talks about 9/11 is just crass and unfeeling.
If you followed the blog, the book is a fine enhancement of it; if you didn't read any of the blog, you may not enjoy the book at all (or you may love it since you don't know what you're missing!). I really wanted to read more about the recipes and more about the cooking of those recipes but many were left out of the book.
All in all, a very clever concept that has launched what I now call the "blog-to-book phenomenon" and taken Powell from aspiring actress and lowly temp to freelance writer - she's even written a couple of (really great) pieces for The New York Times. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2005 [link] |
recommend
|
crawling at night
nani powers
|
|
I was perusing through the new books at the library, and I
must say I judged this book by its cover. It’s very tasteful
with orange and pink stripes of different widths covering a
black and white photo of a naked asian girl. When I read the
flap (something akin to watching the giveaway previews of a
movie, but something I’ve learned to do as I have to carry
these books a mile back to my house) and it said that the
book covered longing and miserable lives in New York, I was
hooked. Turns out this is another one of those portraits into
miserable lives books. Who knew? Hmmm, I rather liked the
ambiance of the book as I’m quite interested in asian culture
and repressed desire and alcoholism and loss, but it was
similar to that Wally Lamb book in that it left me with just a
bleak trashy aftertaste. The desperate freedom felt by the
characters and the desperate restraint felt by others was a
good aspect of the book. The resolution of all this delusion
and longing was my favorite part. There’s a lot of sex and
despair. I’m not saying that this book sux, but I probably
won’t remember anything but the haunting ache of the sushi
chef later. It was well written, but perhaps a tinge shallow
and antiseptic. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
April 2001 [link] |
recommend
|
the wild trees
richard preston
|
|
| This has been one of my favorite books recently, only because it takes a topic I know nothing about – Redwood trees – and not only gives me all the information I could ever want to know, makes me become completely enamored. Preston profiles several people in the Pacific Northwest who are obsessed with Redwoods – obsessed with climbing them, finding the biggest ones and protecting them. The exhilarating descriptions of the 300 foot (or more) trees is incredible and the devotion the people in the book have for the trees seems weird at first but as you learn about the trees, becomes understandable. On many occasions I've have made it known to my household that a future vacation will entail climbing a Redwood (okay, maybe just viewing a Redwood). |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
|
the clumsiest people in europe : or, mrs. mortimer's bad-tempered guide to the victorian world
todd pruzan
|
|
Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer was a children's book writer in the mid-1800's who left her native England twice and yet was somehow able to write a whole book about all the different peoples of the world. Oh, did I mention that she is a bit of a misanthrope? Initially, this is a fun, ironic book with all her snide comments about people who aren't Christian (she really hates Islam) or white, but gradually the fun wore off after page after page of her critical commentary on everyone else – and worse when you realized that this book was written as a guide for children.
|
|
|
|
reviewed by: rich |
April 2005 [link] |
recommend 3 thumbs up
|
the crying of lot 49
thomas pynchon
|
|
| Hey, I tried to read this book. Someone a long time ago recommended it. I finally remembered to get it when I saw it at the library booksale. I must have started it four times. On my fourth time, I even got as far as page 67 or so. I just don't like books like these. It seems like a tooo clever social commentary with nothing holding it up but cleverness. Merely my opinion. I also don't read Tom Robbins books anymore. I'll leave room though that I could have just not "gotten" "The Crying of Lot 49". |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
June 2001 [link] |
recommend
|
|
|
|
|
|
