 |
L
lady chatterly's lover
d. h. lawrence
|
|
| I read this because it had "lover" title and was famous for being a story about a woman who is trapped in her marriage. Oh yes, I've been trapped in a loveless relationship and only stayed together for the friends. I quite liked the book. It was banned in its day, and I can see why. It got me very steamed up (sexually oh yes). Not all consuming masterpiece, but a good, three-week book (as in you can easily put it down to pick it up later). |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
|
lamb : the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal
christopher moore
|
|
the bible mentions the birth or jesus and then his death at age 33 - what the hell happened in between that time? this book is written from the viewpoint of jesus - aka joshua's - best pal, levi who is called biff. for a recovering catholic like me, this book was the cat's pajamas. read-outloud-to-your-jewish-spouse funny and so kindhearted and smart, this book really moved me. i wish this was how we learned about the big J. it made much more sense and explaned more in one little book than 15 years of religious education could.
you gotta love a book that suggests "fuck 'em" as the 11th commandment, especially to those not onboard with the other 10.
thanks to liz for the recommendation of christopher moore books! |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2004 [link] |
recommend 3 thumbs up
|
last days of dead celebrities
mitchell fink
|
|
I was looking for something a little more gossipy from a book with this title; what I got instead was a fairly interesting look into the deaths of some famous people (to use the word "celebrities" is a little much) with their last days being somewhat banal and their deaths being really sad.
For the almost 24 hours before his death, John Lennon listened to a song Yoko had recorded over and over again. John Belushi died with some freaky woman who shot him up with speedballs (she was later immortalized in a song by her ex-boyfriend Gordon Lightfoot). David Bloom had just sent his wife a sentimental email about his love for her, their daughters and God before he died of a blood clot while covering the Iraq war. Other "celebs" include Arthur Ashe (died of AIDS as a result of a blood transfusion), John Ritter (died of a hole in an artery) and Margaux Hemingway (suicide - just like her great-grandfather, grandfather - Ernest, great-aunt and great-uncle died).
All in all, I wanted more macabre stories of stars dying glamorous and rock & roll deaths - not people dying from horrible diseases or dying away from their families or being shot. I can read the obits in the paper for that stuff. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
December 2006 [link] |
recommend
|
laura
larry watson
|
|
I've never done this before. I'm so lazy that I'm going to review a book
before I've read the whole thing. The first guy who slaughtered my heart
left me to go back to HIS Laura. I'm listening to American Music Club's
"Mercury" and reminiscing. I've just read something that reminded me of
how angsty I was AND I'm PMS-y. This book is perfect for my state of
mind. Just for the beginning chapters, it's worth it to pick up."Slap his face
if he should laugh. Push him down if he should want to run" ( a line from
the song I'm listening tooo) Turn it down (the music).... anyhooooooo, the
book is wunderbar. It has an excellent description of childhood summers.
It is surprising that I'm recommending this because usually I"m sooooo
particular on my SOUTHERN kitchy novels. Anyhoo, it's about a boy who
falls in love with his father's amazing mistress. She reminds me a lot of the
main character in the Bell Jar. TONS OF TIME LATER..... OK I've read 'til the
end. It was a really good book, but toooooo much of the whining coward
southern man in it. a la "Prince of Tides". |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
January 2001 [link] |
recommend
|
literacy and longing in l.a.
kaufman and mack jennifer and karen
|
|
In this novel we meet Dora, named by her book-loving alcoholic mother for Eudora Welty, and her twice-divorced life in L.A. At 35, she lives in a luxe high-rise and is running low on her trustfund. Ever since she was a child, she read books to escape and even now will hole up in her bathtub for days on end just binging on books. Her saviours are her sister, Virginia (named for Woolf) and her crazy friend Darlene (a teamster who made a bundle off of selling porno vampire-themed movie posters on the internet) and a new flame in Fred, the local bookstore employee. Despite Dora's flashy lifestyle, she is down-to-earth and eventually learns to live life outside of her book binges.
I never can comprehend books written by two people - sometimes they seem disjointed to me but this book is seamless and well-written. There are tons of great book references (there is a list of books at the end of the book that runs to four pages) and literary quotes at the beginning of each chapter, including one of my favs from Oscar Wilde: "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." This story teeters on fluffy chick-lit but is saved by its intellectual bookworm side - sometimes I feel the same way. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
little alters everywhere
rebecca wells
|
|
| This book was the book that was written before the magnificent Ya Ya book. It sort of sets up everything inadvertently (as I’m sure the writer didn’t know what Ya Ya would be). This book is one I recommend you don’t read. It was all ugly for ugly sakes. Granted there were some great Magnolia feelings and sweet molasses phrasings, but all in all it was another abused smart southern kid who embraces and is repelled by the South and moves to New York and gets drawn back by another sibling’s plight. It was a regurgitated "Prince of Tides". Hey, but if you want to read it, don’t let me stop you. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
December 2000 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
live from new york
tom shales
|
|
i didn’t read this book so much as skim through it reading excerpts from the people i wanted to hear from. it’s compiled in a strange way: each paragraph is a different person being interviewed. that’s why i found it so hard to completely read it all the way through. the underlying themes in the book are: how great lorne micheals is (i think he was just at the right place at the right time and am annoyed by him), how much drugs were on the set in the 70s and 80s and how much of it was a white boys club. read it, don’t read it, you’ll never miss it.
here’s an excerpt if you REALLY want to know.
|
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
March 2003 [link] |
recommend
|
lord of some rings
j.r.r. tolkein
|
|
| For a long time, I thought I had read this book when I was nine-ish (see review for "the Hobbit"), but no, it was "The Hobbit" I had read and I didn't read this one at all. I learned this when I watched that FUCKING amazing movie! I read the book mainly because I was curious at why greg and john hume were so insensed that Tom Bombidil was left out. Yes, this book is indeed a MEANING of life book, and I regret any slights I may have thrown it's way. I'm sorry. But, I think I can help rationalize a good reason why TB was left out. The only real reason I read the book is to see more EVEN more of the world that the movie appears to be just a brilliant teaser for. Get my drift? |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kristen |
January 2002 [link] |
recommend
|
loving frank
nancy horan
|
|
| Loving Frank is a wonderful historical fiction novel about Frank Lloyd Wright and his married mistress, Mamah Cheney. Not much is known in depth about their relationship - other then it was scandalous at the time since they were both married and had children - but Horan pieced together details from letters and newspaper articles. It is also a fascinating look at FLW and his design genius. I thought the sad ending had to be the author taking liberties with the story but some quick research showed the ending to be all true and thus making the book even more stunning and tragic. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2010 [link] |
recommend
|
lucky
alice sebold
|
|
| When Sebold is attacked and raped as a freshman at Syracuse University, one of the policemen that processes her case declares her "lucky" that she wasn't murdered. Sebold didn't exactly feel lucky at the time. This memoir gently tells of her coming back from the brink of something so crushing and reclaiming her life. She talks about the perceptions of her friends and family (for example, her father can't understand why she didn't fight her attacker off after he dropped his knife) and how it changed her. She ultimately sees her attacker on the street when she returns to school and is able to go to trial and see him sent to jail. If you read Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" you know how haunted and beautiful her writing is and this memoir is just as mesmerizing. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
May 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
lunch in paris: a love story, with recipes
elizabeth bard
|
|
Much like Cooking for Mr. Latte, Amanda Hesser's memoir of love and food, Lunch In Paris begins with a first date and first dinner and moves to more dates and more dinners and meeting family and getting engaged and then married, all the while living in Paris, she as an American, he as a native Frenchman. She writes about how maddening yet seductive France and the French can be – for example, how you're almost not a person in France unless you have a gas bill in you name (her then boyfriend thoughtfully added her to their apartment gas bill when they moved in together which helped later on when they wanted to buy an apartment). She also writes about the incredible food in France, yet the amazing slimness of French woman (always fascinating to read about). Included in each chapter are intoxicating recipes like molten chocolate cakes and summer ratatouille. Delicious!
|
|
|
|
reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2010 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
|
|
|
|
|
