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dangling in the tournefortia
charles bukowski
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| I always get ridiculed for saying this, but I am a huge Bukowski fan. I pretty much feel at one with the world for some reason when I read his stuff. I mostly like the poetry. I was sitting in the new downtown Bristol Books in Wilmington, NC, just sitting in a chair reading a Banana Yoshimoto book, when I looked over and saw these neat books with no glitter, gloss or anything on their spine except Black Sparrow Press and titles and Charles Bukowski. I casually picked one up and fell in love. His writing seems REALLY REAL. Super truth. I asked my friend, Sinda (who worked there but often had too southern of a slant for me in her employee books. Sinda was a voice on some Japanimation that came through Wilmington. She totally fell in love with some guy like it was the totally soulmate thing. I heard he cheated on her in Oregon where they moved to start life afresh. She now lives in Wilmington again.) What she thought of Charles Bukowski, and she said that he was really bitter and so "gen X". I often don’t like the words "gen X", but I took her opinion like I normally did – with a smile and an ignore button (ever since she recommended "Geek Love" so adamantly. Oh it sucked.) |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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dear american airlines
jonathan miles
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| Some much wit is packed into this tiny book, you wish the author went on for a few hundred more pages. Written in the form of a letter to American Airlines (duh), Bennie Ford is trying his best to detail why there's more at stake than just his $392.68 after the cancellation of his flight to his daughter's wedding. He spends the night in the Chicago airport trying to work on his translation project and takes the time to bring American Airlines up to speed on his life. He has been out of his daughter's life since she was a baby and the surprise invite to her wedding was a leap of faith for both of them. And now, he will miss the ceremony and can only hope to make it to the reception. Bennie's honestly is endearing and some of the antics he pulls make you dislike him, but in the end you hope he gets his refund and more. Plus, I hope every airline executive reads this so they know just what a delay or cancellation does to a traveler's soul. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2009 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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deceptively delicious
jessica seinfeld
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The buzz on this cookbook is that Seinfeld is being sued by Missy Lapine, author of "The Sneaky Chef", who thinks Seinfeld plagerized her. The truth is, and Seinfeld eloquently points this out in a note on her web site, hiding veggies and fruits in other foods has been done for millions of years by millions of parents. Many of the recipes in Seinfeld's book are not new - her meatloaf recipe contains carrot puree; the Martha Stewart recipe I've been using for 10 years contains finely chopped carrots. It's not new, people. That being said, I did think the cookbook had some great recipes (a bunch can be found on Oprah's site: http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/jseinfeld
/recipes/jseinfeld_recipes_main.jhtml). I'm glad my library had the book because even though I liked it, it's not a book I want to add to my cookbook collection. I have to say that concerning both authors, I think it's funny that we have to "sneak" veggies into our kids; isn't there a way to just add veggies to our cooking without it being "sneaky" or "deceptive"? Strange times. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2008 [link] |
recommend
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deep blue good-by, the
john macdonald
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| I used to LOVE his 70’sish Travis McGee mysteries. I probably have already read most of them. It was all about a magnum "PI character" living on a Sarasota, FL boat solving mysteries. This series had moneyed ladies, sex, and plain old escapism. I wouldn’t at all call these high art, but they were a guilty pleasure. I believe this was my favorite of his series (all titled with colours – I love colours.) |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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dingley falls
michael malone
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| I wanted to love Dingley Falls especially to give props to an NC writer. It's not that it's bad but at 640 pages with what seems like a million characters (you know you're in trouble when there's a list of characters in the front of the book that you wish was detachable because you refer back to it so much) I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to finish it. This is the second time I've tried to read it. There are plenty of funny scenes and all of the characters are..well, characters. The life in a small town theme may seem overdone but I feel confident that I will eventually finish and love this book. Maybe you'll have better luck than me. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend
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dishing
liz smith
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| This slightly disjointed memoir from "America's Most Beloved Gossip Columnist" Liz Smith includes plenty of name-dropping chapters about meals she's shared with famous and the infamous. Featuring a rather scary photo of Liz on the cover as well as photos inside, it also has her favorite recipes. Not totally the food memoir you might be looking for, but skip around and you might find a chapter that suits your taste. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2005 [link] |
recommend
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disquiet
julia leigh
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| Disquiet is a funky, disturbing little book, but it's perversely hard not to finish in one sitting. Olivia arrives at her mother's French château with her two children after a 12 year absence, now on the lam from her abusive husband. Her brother and wife arrive soon after from the hospital after giving birth to a stillborn daughter and the wife has insisted the baby be brought home with the. Throughout the story, she carries the baby around as if it's still alive and can't be persuaded to have a burial. It's an eerie, spooky story of a seriously mucked-up family and the vivid imagery lasts long after the book has ended. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2009 [link] |
recommend
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divining women
kaye gibbons
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| Let me first say that I love love love Kaye Gibbons' "Charms for the Easy Life". I read it like 10 times a year. "Divining Women" is her first book in a few years and while it has all the simple details and lovely scenes and strong female characters, it was lacking the depth that her other novels have. This novel focuses on 22-year-old Mary who travels from D.C. to North Carolina just after WWII to help with her preggers Aunt Maureen who is married to her vile, jealous and spoiled Uncle Troop. Maureen has been beaten down by Troop's mental and verbal abuse for so long she can hardly stand on her own two feet. Mary helps her gain her strength to verbally and mentally fight back. All in all, a good book but it left me wanting more resolution at the end. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2004 [link] |
recommend
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don't get too comfortable
david rakoff
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If I could read David Rakoff essays in between every third book or so I would be a very happy girl indeed. I love his writing style and he's so so funny. I walk around the house still giggling about some line he's written (in this book it was "unwittingly hired a shithead". ha!)
In this collection, Rakoff takes on the luxuries in life and spins them as only he can - a ride on the Concorde, a tour of duty as a cabana boy in South Beach and others. The first essay, my fav, is a hilarious look into his escapades at becoming a U.S. citizen. Great great funny fun. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
March 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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don't sweat the small stuff - for women
kristine carlson
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Hell yes, I felt a bit silly checking this out of the library. My rationalization was that there might be some nuggets that would help my sister out. Also, I enjoy books for their title. I thought how funny it would be if I met someone I knew and they saw this book in my collection. Alas, I did read a bit of it, and scoff not. Sure it's very supermom-centric and tailored to those businesswomen, soccer moms who are losing their minds - but it's a very apt and able advice essay. I particulary liked the essay "Get Real" and thought I should send it to all in my family. Much of the essays are "couldn't have said it better myself".
So there - I've reviewed two books. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
December 2001 [link] |
recommend
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don't try this at home
kimberly witherspoon
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Once when I was 12 I baked this amazing, three-layer cake and as I walked it to my family's kitchen table, I tripped and the whole thing landed on the floor. I cried. It was a catastrophe to me but the chefs in this book wouldn't have even flinched - when they write about catastrophe they really mean it. One chef remembers working in Barcelona at age 15 and accidentally tipping an entire tray of cannelloni into a giant fish tank into the middle of the restaurant where the striped bass commenced a feeding frenzy. Crazy-assed Anthony Bourdain regales us with yet another saga of being doped up in a kitchen this time with ingredients but no menu from the hot-shot chef until the last minute. At the famed restaurant "21", chef Michael Lononaco recalls an impromtu feeding of Pavarotti that lasted into the wee hours of the night.
All the essays are lively and interesting and makes the common home-schooled chef feel a little smug in only having dropped a couple cakes here and there. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2007 [link] |
recommend
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down the nile: alone in a fisherman's skiff
rosemary mahoney
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| After a trip to Egypt, Rosemary Mahoney, avid rower and intrepid adventurer, sets out on a return trip with the intent on rowing 120 miles of the Nile River. The fact that this is nearly impossible for a foreigner, and a woman at that, does not deter her; in fact, it makes her even more determined. Interspersed with quotes from the diaries of travelers nearly 150 years before her, namely Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale (yes, that Flo!), Mahoney's voyage shows how much has - and hasn't - changed in Egypt. Her writing is engaging and witty and her subject is interesting as all get out. I can't wait to read her other memoirs – including one where she spent the summer as a valet to the acerbic Lillian Hellman. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
May 2008 [link] |
recommend
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dress your family in corduroy and denim
david sedaris
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I think that this newest collection of essays from David Sedaris is a bit darker than Me Talk Pretty One Day; it reminds me more of his Barrel Fever days. It still somehow surprises me that Me Talk Pretty and this new book can be found as THE books on airport terminal bookshelves. Sure they're funny, but I think they're a little risque for the average traveler from middle America, don't you?
That being said, it was still utterly enjoyable and wonderful. Unfortunately for me, a bunch of the stories were printed in Esquire the past few years so I had already read them but I am happy to have a copy of this on my bookshelf. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2004 [link] |
recommend
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drinking: a love story
caroline knapp
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| A memoir of her years as a functional alcoholic, this book alternately made me nod with recognition and surprised me with the things I had never though of before. Caroline Knapp's story of growing up upper-class, falling into anorexia and alcoholism, and somehow emerging from all of it, life a bit frayed around the edges, was devoured by me in the course of a weekend. An easy read on difficult subject matter. |
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reviewed by: liz |
November 2002 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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driving over lemons
chris stewart
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Charged with scouting out a possible property onto which an englishman and his wife might engage in the life-changing activity of stepping off the grid, Chris Stewart buys a dilapidated mountain farm on impulse and changes the course of his and his wife's life forever.
The trials of relocation, renovation, and assimilation in a foreign land devoid of modern conveniences are told with a wry, self-deprecating sense of humor made the nuts and bolts of his experience resonate with the romantic ideas the terrain and some of his neighbors tried to quash. The subtitle, An Optimist in Spain, is such an apt addition to the book I found myself flipping back to the cover on many instances where Stewart's optimism astounded me.
Also a deft writer of travel journals and accomplished shearer of sheep, Stewart's chronicle of his family's adventure is a must read for the do-it-yourselfer who romanticizes the idea of unplugging and taking on the challenge of self-sufficiency in a foreign land. |
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reviewed by: nate |
January 2011 [link] |
recommend
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dry
augusten burroughs
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The second memoir by Augusten Burroughs shows well the development of his writing skills. He is a story teller with a ton of stories to tell. Battles with creative compromise and the constant need and pining for an alcoholic beverage come through palpably in this book, making me want to either pour myself a stiff drink or never smell liquor again for as long as I live.
His life has all the tragic trappings of one of Chuck Pahlan..., Chuck Phallanu..., Chuck Palomi..., Chuck Pahlinchic..., Chuck whatever the fuck his name is books, especially Invisible Monsters.
It will be interesting to read Burroughs next books and I'm wondering if he's lived enough to write yet another memoir about his life given that he's only in his thirties. Read it and see if you don't think that his second book makes you as grateful you are you and not him the way his first book did so very well. |
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reviewed by: nate |
May 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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dune
frank herbert
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| I heard the buzz on this book in eighth grade. It had space, champions, and kings and queens. While I sort of liked this book, it was a bit too operatic, sophisticated, and impersonal for me. It was probably WAY over my head, but I don't think I'll be re-reading it any time soon. Maybe it would be a good book to read if you were very intelligent and alienated from society. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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dust
arthur slade
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| This book was really quite excellent and beautiful, like what would happen if you mixed a dash of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury with a heavy pinch of "The Pied Piper" and added a pinch of "The Grapes of Wrath." I highly recommend it. |
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reviewed by: victoria |
January 2006 [link] |
recommend
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