T
take the cannoli
sarah vowell
Ah, Sarah Vowell. If she wasn't such a funny writer we'd all think she was a total freak-o. This compliation of essays have appeared on Salon.com, GQ and you may have heard some of them on NPR. Vowell expounds on high school band, learning to drive at the age of 28 (with Ira Glass as a teacher) and the wonderful cheezyness of Disneyworld.
My favorite essay was about making mix tapes back in the day - who doesn't love a mix tape? The title references her obsession at one time with the movie "The Godfather" and how she couldn't stop watching it. Highly amusing and readable.
reviewed by: lisa may |  September 2005 [link] |  recommend


ted williams: the biography of an american hero
leigh montville
They really don't make biographies much better than this. And I know what you're thinking: Another boring book about a boring guy who played boring baseball. It's not that at all. It's a great character study about an enigmatic character. A guy who hit the baseball like noone before him and who nobody has matched since.

This is a man with a mouth like a sailor, who would string seven or eight curse words together in normal conversation (his favorite word was 'syphillitic'). This is a man who, despite serving in two wars (and crash landing a plane instead of ejecting in hopes he might save his legs for baseball), laid down some of the most towering numbers in the history of the game. This is a man who was not a great father, not a great boyfriend or husband. He was far from perfect. He was restless most of his life, always pushing himself to be great at hitting (and fishing, after he retired). This is a man who was nearly destroyed by his own son. This is a man who was cryogenically frozen when he died (this resulted in a bitter family feud between Williams' children -- his son was accused of manipulating an unwitting Williams into changing his will).

It is argued that perhaps Joe DiMaggio was the greatest hitter of all time. That will probably never be settled. But I can guarantee you that a DiMaggio biography could never be this compelling or this heartbreaking.

I would end by saying "you will enjoy this book whether or not you are a fan of baseball," but that would just make it sound like another one of those boring baseball books.
reviewed by: ericS |  June 2004 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


tender at the bone : growing up at the table
ruth reichl
Ruth Reichl, NYT restaurant critic and Gourmet editor, whips up a wonderful memoir. Her book tells of the people and places that influenced and helped nurture her love of good food. She begins with her mother who famously sent 20+ people to the hospital with food poisoning during her brother's engagement party to her chance meeting with Marion Cunningham who brought her into the fold of foodies. Many of the chapters are followed by recipes of the dish in the story which is a sweet bonus.
reviewed by: rachel |  March 2005 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the $64 tomato: how one man nearly lost his sanity, spent a fortune, and endured an existential crisis in the quest for the perfect garden
william alexander
In this funny and thoughtful compilation of essays written about his family's move to an old farmstead in the Hudson Valley, William Alexander sets out to turn his yard into a mini-farm land only to find that it's hard, demanding work. At times, his fruits and veggies are snatch up by wild animals in the blink of an eye, leading Alexander to resort to guerilla tactics. His wish for organic produce is shattered when he realizes that organic produce is ugly and the bugs eat up the organic produce leaving nothing for his family. In the end, after many lessons learned, Alexander tallies up costs of yard construction, garden tools and supplies, costs of seeds and the work involved and figures that one heirloom tomato costs him $64. The local farm stand is looking mighty good right about now.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2009 [link] |  recommend


the accidental connoisseur
lawrence osborne
Subtitled "An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World". Osborne admittedly has no palate for wine and so he takes off around the world to visit vineyards in France, Germany, Italy and California to find out just what makes wine so special. He finds out that it's combination of dirt, grapes, weather, location, individual taste and perceptions - basically, everything under the sun. And while he doesn't actually aquire a super sensitive taste for wine on his journey (one taster claimes he can taste "chicken coop" in a wine. very strange.), he gets to drink an awful lot of fine wine (a 1998 Opus One which can be $100 (a Cab blend) to $2k (Cab Sauvignon) a bottle), meet some very interesting people (Robert Mondavi or, as Obsborne calls him, Bob Mondavi) and see some gorgeous vineyards to boot.

(Thanks to Rich Robot for this lovely birthday gift...now where's my Opus One?)
reviewed by: lisa may |  September 2005 [link] |  recommend


the areas of my expertise
john hodgeman
This crazy-assed book is chock-full of stuff John Hodgeman "knows". Favorites include "Seven Hundred Hobo Names" (I like "Freak le Freak, the Freakster" and "McCurk, Who May Be Found by the Card Catalogue" - really, there's too many awesome ones to write down) and the list of "Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks for Hands" ("F. Roosevelt - his hook was actually a wheelchair"). In between giggling, you'll shake your head and mutter "what the hell?". Very wacky and very fun.
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2007 [link] |  recommend


the barnum museum
steven millhauser
As much as I've always enjoyed Millhauser's work I've always found something a little aloof about him. I always saw him as more an idea over character author. This great little collection of stories has me changing my tune. The first story, "A Game of Clue", is a great example of slow disclosure storytelling, as the reader learns about a dysfunctional family sitting around playing....well, a game of Clue. Millhauser describes in minute detail the interaction of the siblings sitting around a porch table on a summer night inter-cut with the adventures of the character within the game itself. There’s a great story about a man who imagines another human being into an existence, a lonely man who becomes obsessed with the image in a postcard, and an amazing story about what was going on in Alice’s head as she fell down the rabbit hole. Highly imaginative and readable, I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.
reviewed by: JohnLawton |  August 2004 [link] |  recommend


the beekeeper's apprentice
laurie r. king
The summer I turned 10 I started reading all the Agatha Christie novels my grandma had at her house (which was like 100) and ever since, I've always had a penchant for mysteries and detective stories. That's why I especially liked this book. The novel hooks up Sherlock Holmes (presupposing that he was a real person, not a fiction character) with a 15-year-old female "apprentice". Mary Russell is an orphaned heiress (aren't they always?) and Holmes teaches her the ways of the detective world while the duo works to solve cases around town. The biggest case comes when they are being stalked by a psycho trying to kill them. An intriguing and creative story line that is short, sweet and a breeze to read - this is the first book in a series of seven other "Mary Russell Books".
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2005 [link] |  recommend


the best american travel writing 2004
jason wilson
A collection of - duh - the "best" American travel writing from 2004 from periodicals like The New Yorker, Travel and Leisure and National Geographic Adventure. While it contains a great piece by the New Yorker's Tad Friend about tour Paris on a Segway, most of the pieces you may have seen before but each essay is a quick read that you can revisit over and over.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2005 [link] |  recommend


the big love
sarah dunn
This comedic look at love jumps right in when Tom runs out to get mustard for a dinner party and doesn't come back and Alison starts ruminating over "the big love". The story never reaches the depths the reader would like to see but is filled with funny scenes and monologues that are true to life. The ending is typical - doesn't anyone get sick of the girl ALWAYS getting the guy?
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2005 [link] |  recommend


the billionaire's vinegar: the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine
benjamin wallace
At times, this book is less about the controversial Jefferson wine bottles and more about the unique and kooky world of wine collecting, which keeps the story interesting and alive. In 1985, a bottle of 1781 Lafite etched with the initials "Th.J" (thought to be the initials of Thomas Jefferson) sold at auction for $157,000 to Kip Forbes, son of Malcolm Forbes. The bottle was supposedly one of a cache found in a bricked-up cellar in Paris and bought by wine enthusiast Hardy Rodenstock. Rodenstock ends up selling many of the wines and making a lot of money from them but there are many doubts surrounding the bottles. Ones that are opened and tasted are often deemed too "young" to be so old. The historians at Monticello claim that there is no record of Jefferson purchasing the wine and he was scrupulous about record-keeping (in fact, he kept multiple ledgers of his expenditures containing all the same info). Even more fascinating than the Jefferson bottles, are the wine collectors of the world - eccentric and rich with wine cellars containing thousands and thousands of bottles. The book expounds upon a New Yorker article from 2007 about the Jefferson bottles and oenophiles in general. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/03/070903fa_fact_keefe

It appears that this book will be made into a movie. I wonder what wunderkind will play the 1781 Lafite?
reviewed by: lisa may |  November 2009 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the binding chair: or, a visit from the foot emancipation society
kathryn harrison
It's hard to begin to describe this book since it's full of so many nooks and crannys, each with it's own story. This historically rich book centers around May - we meet her when she's in her 60s but the story goes back and forth as she grows up. May is a strong-willed, opinionated and free-spririted Chinese woman who, at the age of 5, had her feet bound. Contrary to popular belief, binding doesn't stunt the foot's growth - binding actually breaks the foot so it's more or less folded in half. The chapter about her first binding at such a young age is excruciatingly sad. After a bad arranged marriage, May escapes to Shanghai where, as a prostitute, she meets Albert Cohen, a member of a Jewish - Australian family living and working (very successfully working) in China. They eventually marry and have a child that accidentally drowns which haunts them forever.

Rich details and images propel the story of May's relationship with her husband, her troubled relationship with Alice, her favorite neice, and sad moments of death and sensual moments of love. A great novel with great female leads but an unfortunate and disappointing ending.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2006 [link] |  recommend


the birth of venus
sarah dunant
This almost never happens to me with a book, but alas, to does happen: I could not not not finish reading this book! It captured my attention at the beginning (covent, dying nun who reveals a tattoo snaking from her shoulders to her stomach and thus we begin our story) but it slowed down so much right around the time we meet a freaky artist sneaking out of his patron's house at night to either visit prostitutes and/or murder people (it takes a LONG time to find out which). The young main character (who may or may not be the old nun at the beginning of the book) marries a man who is actually in love with brother (and everyone but she knows). And she might be in love with the artists. As long has he's not a murderer. And on. And on.
reviewed by: lisa may |  May 2007 [link] |  recommend


the blond baboon
janwillem van vetering
This wins as the most amazing mystery ever read. It's a fast
read and full of all the Zen stuff that get's me a goin. Once
again, set in lovely Amsterdam. This is best read when you
want to remember summer and "Rear Window" and garden
parties and integrity. I read it and the buzz from reading it
stayed with me for days. That is something that has never
before happened. (Except for that vexing Fountainhead
book).
reviewed by: kristen |  January 2001 [link] |  recommend


the book thief
markus zusak
It's hard to reconcile with the fact The Book Thief is classified as "young adult" since it's written on such a highly emotional level. Narrated by "Death" (who is kind and witty), the story takes place in Germany during WWII and thus explores the Holocaust and human hatred and bravery. The book thief is Liesel, who goes to live with foster parents when her mother can no longer care for her. Death "meets" her when he collects her younger brother after a fatal illness and becomes a bit intrigued when she steals her first book, a guide to digging graves. From there she only steals three more books but it spans several years and what seems to be several lifetimes. Her foster parents hide a Jew in their basement and protecting him becomes a sacred thing for the family. As things near the end of the war, the story turns very tragic but then ends bittersweetly – it's a tearjerker to say the least, but in a novel narrated by Death, would else would you expect?
reviewed by: lisa may |  December 2008 [link] |  recommend


the botox diaries
janice kaplan
I do enjoy my chick lit but this was a stinker from the beginning. This dual written book (Lynn Schnurnberger was also an author) is about a rich, L.A. producer and her regular old mom-type friend as they jet around and deal with affairs, the botox revolution and othe preppy probs. It is slow, boring and crummy. I frowned so much at the drowning plot that I found myself needing a little Botox, too.
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2005 [link] |  recommend


the brief wonderous life of oscar wao
junot diaz
This one of the best books I've read in a long time. Diaz presents us with the brief but wonderous life of Oscar de Leon (you learn about the Wao part later in the book) and the most interesting aspect is that in order to learn about Oscar, you must first learn about his grandmother, his mother, his sister and his native land, the Dominican Republic. The story is practically a primer on the DR's long and riotious history of crazy dictators and violent government. It's also a beautiful testament to the strength and spirit of Dominicans. Told through a hilarious, slangy, hip narrator (Oscar's old roommate) and full of Spanish words I had to look up, one quarter of the book is footnotes! Love is all to Oscar and he risks his life going after it. Memorable characters and a deeply moving and memorable book.

Check out some of Diaz' writing in The New Yorker archives, including an excerpt titled same as the book. Unfortunetly, most of his fiction is not online yet.
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2007 [link] |  recommend


the cigarette girl
carol wolper
Looking for a trashy-trash novel for the subway or beach? Look no further, my friend. The Cigarette Girl is as mindless and fluffy as it gets. A Hollywood screenwriter shows us the ins and outs of the bidness and the L.A. scene. Possibly the only book I've ever read with the line "I'd crawl across shards of glass to suck his..." well, you can figure out the rest. Remember: fluff and trash are often needed to cleanse your reading palate.
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2003 [link] |  recommend


the clothes they stood up in and the lady in the van
alan bennett
Don't let the fact that this book by noted playwright Alan Bennett is a Today Show book club choice deter you - these are two very entertaining stories.

The Clothes They Stood Up In is a fiction piece centered around Mr. and Mrs. Ransome who, upon returning to their flat after going to the opera, discover that everything (everything! rugs! toilet paper! clothes! the stove! the casserole in the stove!) has been taken from their home. So the story follows them as they work to piece together their home and find out that maybe they aren't who they think they are without their material possessions. There's bit of a whodunit aspect with a mix-up between someone else in their building with the name Hansome and they end up getting all their stuff back in the end, but their lives have changed for many reasons. My favorite detail is about the sturdy and grim Mr. Ransome who finds that the thieves have stolen the old hair coloring of Mrs. Ransome's that he had hidden away and was using to dye his beard. He's too embarrassed to ask Mrs. Ransome to get some more and won't go to the pharmacy himself so he quickly turns grey. Very well written and thought-provoking.

The second piece is non-fiction and is about Miss. S and the van she lives in. For a while it is parked on the street where Bennett lives but he ends up inviting her to park it in his garden and so begins an almost 15 year reluctant “friendship” between Bennett and Miss. S. The van is chock full of stuff from decades of living, including food, clothes and garbage. It does not smell good. But Miss S. is oddly endearing if not a bit crazy and doesn't find anything wrong with having lived in cars for so long. In the end, Miss S. dies and Bennett finds out snippets of her former life but nothing that would explain her affinity for living in vans.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2006 [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


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 complete cartoons of the new yorker
robert mankoff
Weighing in at almost 9 pounds, this sucker is the ultimate coffee table book - if not a coffee table in and of itself. Over 600 pages of New Yorker cartoons from the past 80 years AND two cds with all 68,647 cartoons ever published means you'll get your cartoon groove on for a long time. I browsed through looking for my favorite cartoonists (Roz Chast and George Booth) and then I sat down and obsessively looked at each page every free moment I had over one weekend. It's fun to see that what was humorous back in the early decades, like a son returning home from the war dressed in uniform and his Upper Westside mother exclaiming "Why, you poor child. You're running right over to Brooks Brothers.", is still funny now. A great gift for a New Yorker lover or a cartoon lover in general.
reviewed by: lisa may |  September 2006 [link] |  recommend


the confessions of max tivoli
andrew sean greer
Max Tivoli was born with a rare complication: mentally he ages like the rest of us but on the outside he ages backwards. When he was born, he looked like a little old man but his body grows younger as his mind grows older. When he's 70, he looks like a 12 year old boy. The story is told as Max writes out his memoirs before his mind gets too old. He tells his lifestory, recounts his one true love and ruminates over the frustrations of watching everyone grow old around him while he gets younger. He reaches a golden age of looking like he's in his 20s but actually being in his 40s but this stage doesn't last for long and the results are heartbreaking. Although this is a Today Show Book Club book I still highly reccommend it - the prose is breathtaking and the story is truly original.
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2005 [link] |  recommend


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


the da vinci code
dan brown
this book has been on the ny times bestseller list for a while and all i know is that when i first requested it from the library, i was like 119 on the list. that was about 6 months ago. so i read it and loved it and there you go. it's a conspiracy thriller - a religious conspiracy thriller and i love nothing more than to slightly discount my catholic upbringing. anywho, this book begins with a murder in the louvre and involves cryptograms and riddle-poems and a scavenger hunt all concerning a secret that has been protected since the time jesus himself was on his first pair of birkenstocks. the best part? although it's a work of fiction, apparently all the facts are true. the secret societies, the history behind many of da vinci's paintings, the secret life of jeebus, etc.

it won't give you the religious heebie-jeebies (unlike the career-finder book i accidentally checked out that will lead me to the career god thinks i should have. oy) or anything - it's very interesting and mind-boggling and exciting and well-written. the author's web site is a pretty good start but make sure you don't read everything or some secrets of the book will be given away!
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2003 [link] |  recommend


the day i turned uncool: confessions of a reluctant grown-up
dan zevin
Please read this book. Zevin's chronicle of his slide from twenties "cool" (although he claims never to have been "Fonz-like" to being with) to thirties "uncool" is a laugh out loud gas. I particularly identify with his confessing that he didn't go out one weekend because he heard the parking could be precarious - this happens to me. Also, while he and his wife don't have children, they have a surrogate daughter in the form of Chloe, his dog that he takes to Petco so she can pick out a treat from time to time. He says "I can't believe I've turned into one of those people that talks about their friggin' dog all the time". Heh. Anyway, if you enjoy super short essays about moving on and growing up, you'll pee your pants over this one.
reviewed by: lisa may |  November 2003 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the death of sweet mister
daniel woodrell
I've become obsessed with reading everything Daniel Woodrell has ever written. This is book two in my journey and it's just as thrilling and crazy as the first one I read.

Sweet Mister, or Shug, is a chubby 13-year old who lives with this overdoting mother, Glenda, in the caretaker's house of a cemetery (they're the caretakers). Glenda has a creepy no-good boyfriend named Red who enlists Shug in his criminal deeds in addition to verbally and mentally abusing him. Shug's mother is always talking of a better life for the two of them, yet her "tea" (rum and Coke at all hours of the day) insures that they will be stuck in their hopeless situation in MO for a long time. Glenda sets her sights on a rich guy, Red mysteriously disappears and the death of Sweet Mister isn't a real death, but one of innocence and any hope of normality. Woodrell's storytelling is so freakin' brilliant and chilling that I just can't recommend his books enough.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2009 [link] |  recommend


the debutante divorcee
plum sykes
I'm sure I said this same thing about Syke's first book "Bergdorf Blondes" but how can you pass up a book by an author named Plum?

Extra super fluff read about New York jet-set gals that, once they land the man of their dreams, dream of the day they become glam divorcees. Read it for the silliness, read it because you'll never worry about your chanel clashing with your prada and finally, read it on vacay between People magazine and your next sunscreen application.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2006 [link] |  recommend


the devil in the white city
erik larson
This gripping true story successfully blends both the challenge of creating a temporary dream city at the turn of the nineteenth century and the horror and discovery of the US's first serial killer. The construction of Chicago's White City is anxiety inducing and kept me reading long past bedtime. Interesting portraits of influential architects abound (Daniel Burnham who designed the Flatiron bldg in NYC among many others, Olmstead who designed Central Park in NYC and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and Mr. Ferris of the famed Wheel) and Larson is able to recreate the exchanges between parties effectively and with sensitivity. He did a LOT of research, and without the internet. Can you believe that even the Titanic and Frank Loyd Wright are in here too? The portrait of the killer is almost secondary to the work of the White City but it provides a nice relief when the talk of meetings and budgets becomes too much.
reviewed by: Eve |  July 2004 [link] |  recommend 3 thumbs up


the devil wears prada
lauren weisberger
Although this book hasn't been released yet, Weisberger has nailed a 7 figure hollywood deal. Reading the book, it's not a big surprise, this is a perfect story for a blockbuster - a Working Girl for the 00's. A sure fire launch for the next Reese Witherspoon. Supposedly based on her experiences working for Anna Wintour (Vogue, baby), "The Devil Wears" chronicles the life of a haried small town college grad enslaved to the sadistic editor of the ficticious and thinly veiled "Runway" magazine. This book is a fun, quick read, but predictable in a Bridget Jonesie kind of way. Don't expect too much from it - best enjoyed on a beach or a subway.
reviewed by: raquel |  March 2003 [link] |  recommend 5 thumbs up


the devil's teeth
susan casey
Unfortunately, I read this book while in Cape Cod and every time I stuck my toe in the ocean, I pictured one of the behemoths in this book taking off my foot (and more). After seeing a documentary about great white sharks around The Farallon Islands, Casey heads out just off the coast of San Fran to visit the biologists studying these monsters of the deep. What follows is a gripping account of great white shark habitats as well as conservation efforts on The Farallons. The book ends on a bit of a bummer – a storm causes the sailboat Casey was staying on to unmoor and head off to sea never to be seen again which in turn causes some turmoil for the biologists on the island (one biologist ends up losing his job). A great adventurous read!
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2011 [link] |  recommend


the disastrous mrs. weldon
brian thompson
This book drew me by the cover as well. It had a sensuous painting of an enigmatic looking Victorian woman. What a joke! It was fun getting to know this woman (The book is sort of a summation of Mrs. Weldon’s twelve-volume published memoirs); however, I didn’t finish the book. I got about three quarters of the way through and found I didn’t really care what happened to her, but she sure was a vainglorious card.

The author did a nice job of being fascinated with Mrs. Weldon and translating that to reader. Very nice slice of life book, but as she was no one I knew a thing about, I don’t care about legal history of fighting for rights of the insane, or care about singing, it wasn’t wholly satisfying. I did enjoy seeing a rare, diary-like glimpse of a real
reviewed by: kristen |  June 2001 [link] |  recommend


the dress lodger
sheri holman
this is an excellent historical fiction read set in england circa 1831. the main character is the "dress lodger", a prostitute that rents a fancy dress and a room from her john. the dress is supposed to get her a higher class of client. chock full of body snatching (the dead and the living) and mucho cholera, add this dark and velvety novel to your reading list.
reviewed by: lisa may |  February 2003 [link] |  recommend


the effect of living backwards
heidi julavits
I wanted this book to be great. I was intrigued early on by the author’s eye for detail but in the end the narrative got lost in those details. The story is told by Alice who is on a flight from Morocco with her soon to-be-married sister, Edith. The flight is taken over by a rag-tag group of hijackers lead by a blind man named Bruno. Nothing is as it seems and the book pushes the idea that you can never really know what is happening around you, with your sister who you have always rivaled and also with yourself. Alice has to decide if she will finally be who she really is or will she continue to follow the “good girl” role she has always played. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure which one she chose.
reviewed by: rachel |  July 2003 [link] |  recommend


the empty mirror
janwillem van der wetering
Although a friend of mine said that proclaiming yourself a Buddhist marks you as an obvious non-Buddhist, I’m merely saying that Buddhism is the path I’m investigating right now. It makes the most sense and offers the most to me. My beloved mystery author, Janwillem van der Wetering, has also written three books on Zen Buddhism. On a lark, I decided to have a gander. “The Empty Mirror” was excellent and the first book on Buddhism I’ve ever read. It’s an account of the author’s stay in a Japanese monestary as a lay guest. He knew no Japanese and not a soul in Japan “not even a mother’s friend’s cousin”. He rang the bell at the gate (which turned out to be a bell only used for monestary business) and began. One of my favorite passages in the book is the one where he feels proud for being detached enough to be aware that he was dressing sharp to impress a girl and then being aware enough that it was ridiculous for him to dress for a girl but that he was aware and then being aware that he was aware of being aware and how annoying it was that no one can realize how aware he is but himself (or something like that). I also love the way the book ends. It’s just a great, easy to read book. It’s not at all preachy or somewhat dull like my second book on Buddhism that I’m reading. If this wasn’t the most lively or exciting review, please realize that I’m trying to wean myself off caffeine. It’s Monday at work after a long spell of not working, and it’s raining.
reviewed by: kristen |  July 2001 [link] |  recommend


the final confession of mabel stark
robert hough
This little ditty jumped off the library shelf as I was walking by and I'm sure glad I took her home. This is an amazing historical fiction account of the best tiger trainer in the world - and one of the few female trainers. The other interesting facet in this book is circus life of which this book gives a first hand look. Very funny and very moving, I admire the hell out of Mabel Stark and her audacious and large life. A final chapter at the end from the author details what aspects of the book were fiction and which were historical, plus all his research involved. Seventy-seven thumbs up! (That's a circus freak, for sure!)
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2005 [link] |  recommend


the flight of the creative class: the new global competition for talent
richard florida
This book is really interesting. If you're reading this & you live in New York City, Minneapolis, Toronto, San Francisco/San Diego/Los Angeles, or Austin: congratulations! You live in one of the good "creative" places, and chances are, you are one of the lucky 30% in creative occupations. For people in the rest of the United States: tough luck. Economist Richard Florida points out that in this post-industrial economy, it's creativity that is the new currency, and the United States has only a few areas where creativity flourishes. The rest of the U.S. is in a quagmire. Florida argues convincingly for allowing more foreign college students to study in the U.S., and points out that we should be doing more to attract & retain what creative people the U.S. has, rather than allowing them to immigrate to Toronto, Sydney, Helsinksi, Paris, etc. Florida also makes the point that the U.S. isn't necessarily polarized as "blue state vs. red state": it's polarized as idea-based-economic-area vs. broken-down-industry-economic area. A very interesting read, even though it's got a lot of math in it (I skipped over the math bits).
reviewed by: victoria |  August 2005 [link] |  recommend


the fortress of solitude
jonathan lethem
Jonathan Lethem abandons the taut structure of 1999’s brilliant Motherless Brooklyn with a sprawling novel that’s all over the map. I must admit part of the rush of reading this book is the feeling the reader gets that at any moment this could all derail and turn into an enormous train wreck. To Lethem’s credit he manages to hold the whole thing together. The book covers, graffiti artists, the crack epidemic, punk rock, gentrification, and of course super powers all in less than 600 pages (with numerous shifting narrative perspectives) and none of it ever really seems forced. I found the protagonist to be slightly off and hard to connect with, but overall I found this a very compelling book, one that managed to surprise from page to page. A fine tale of loss and constant change.
reviewed by: JohnLawton |  October 2003 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the four-chambered heart
anais nin
I have a to admit to a strange fascination with Anais Nin. She is responsible for inciting me to loads of wild behavior and ideas, but I shan't blame her. I enjoy her having existed.

The four-chambered heart is a lush and gorgeous book. It entails a relationship - an affair. I would hazard a guess that it would be with henry miller, but who knows... The prose is a bit over-ripe, but just so in me humble. An example: "they had reached a perfect moment of human love. They had created a moment of perfect understanding and accord. This highest moment would now remain as point of comparison to torment them later on when all natural imperfections would disintegrate it."

Having finished this book finally, now I'm struggling to read my first ernest hemingway since schooldays: "the garden of eden". Apparently, this was the last book he wrote before he off-ed himself. Ah death, so interesting.
reviewed by: kristen |  February 2005 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the garden of eden
ernest hemingway
I am prolific as a pig and am going to review 'the garden of eden'.
It was my first 'big girl' reading of an earnest hemingway story.
Previously, I had thought of him as a big blusterer who wrote about hunting and macho stupid crap. I had read the biography of Hadley Hemingway. Recently, I had seen his work room in key west when my family did our 2004 key west christmas.

That said, I am haunted still by the tendrils of 'the garden of eden'.
It had tons of drinking and pondering. The book reminded me greatly of 'tender is the night' by fitzgerald. As a crazy woman myself, i am drawn to books about men who tragically bloodily love us.

Money was no object, the couple in the book wandered wherever they wanted. Dark and light were always a factor. At one point, (and I rarely life up over the literal when I'm reading - much to my stupidity) I wondered if the three characters were metaphors for the narrator.

I adored the ending.

This book was published after papa's suicide.
reviewed by: kristen |  February 2005 [link] |  recommend


the glass castle
jeannette walls
This book was featured on all the morning shows when it came out in March because the author is a msnbc.com contributor and also because, currently, her mother is a squatter in a building on the lower East Side (her father died a few years ago be he, too, was a squatter). In this sad memoir, Walls tells of growing up poor, being on the run from debtors and "the Mob" (according to her father) and what it was like to be raised by two creative yet completely incompetent people. At times moving, but mostly infuriating, the story culminated with her family living in WV with no indoor plumbing and her alcoholic father stealing money from his own children. The kids eventually escape to NYC where the parents soon follow and end up squatting in buildings for the rest of their lives (the kids go on to prominant jobs and live in real houses with real food - in essence, they live in reality). Walls grew up eating cat food, maggoty meat and pinto beans for weeks on end. Parental tales like this make me wish people needed a license to have children.
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2005 [link] |  recommend


the glass castle
jeannette walls
There has been a slew of memoirs recently by people who survived bizarre childhoods. Memoirs about people who are plopped down on this earth into circumstances that we cannot imagine, and coming out relatively unscathed (or at least functional enough to write intelligently about it and make a living). Running With Scissors, Chicken, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius are a few that come to mind.

The Glass Castle will certainly appeal to anyone who appreciated any or all of the above, although it lacks the stylized narratives, ironic detachment, and wit of those. I mean that in a good way. Jeannette Walls' writing is more akin to Mary Karr, or Sylvia Plath for that matter. She tells her story the way she remembers it, full of the vivid details of her strange, nomadic upbringing, without judgment or self-pity. Her parents, who were alternately self-absorbed, vacant, delusional, wonderfully insightful, loving, destructive, and eccentric, are perfect examples of the grey area that is missing from so many book characters, fiction or non.
Walls writes about her and her siblings challenges of practically parenting their own parents and each other as if it was simply part of their life. Not to be pitied, but simply the way it was, and the way that they needed to act in order to not be torn apart as a family. The amount of detail in Walls' narrative and remembered dialogue is astounding (and so effective that you forgive her if she is embellishing). Each chapter is laid out as a remembered anecdote which, through her ability to underscore universal human truths, result in effective stand-alone short stories.

But taken as a whole, The Glass Castle is a wonderful work. I bought this book for my mother on Mother's Day. It certainly isn't your typical soft and fuzzy hallmark moment, but it illustrates perfectly the importance of family, of overcoming adversity, and of the great lengths we will go to in the name of family. It also reminds us how lucky we are for having a family that is not as troubled as Walls'.
reviewed by: ericS |  May 2005 [link] |  recommend


the grapes of wrath
john steinbeck
this was one book i never had to read in school and i decided that maybe, just maybe, that was the reason i was so aimless in my career decisions. alas, it is not. the grapes of wrath was heralded as "shocking" when it was first published in 1939 with steinbeck's portrayel of a dirt-poor, post-depression family moving west to california to escape the dust bowl.

i often read about how amazing and incredible this book is and while i found it descriptive and interesting and heart-wrenching it was in no way amazing or, as one amazon.com reviewer quipped, "astounding". i understand that it's historic and steinbeck won the pulitzer for it and all that but jeesh, gimme a break.

i DID read the pearl and the red pony when i was in junior high school, both by steinbeck. suffice to say, i was not happy about those either.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2003 [link] |  recommend 4 thumbs up


the handmaid's tale
margaret atwood
As I am one left out of most social circles, IE, life, I didn't know anything about this book at all until I read Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake," which apparently came out like twenty years after this one did.

"Oryx and Crake" was great, but that's not what this book review is about.

However, there are many thematic elements that are similar between the two. "The Handmaid's Tale" takes place in the very-soon future, I would guess maybe a few years from now. In this alternate-future, a civil war has caused the government as we know it to be replaced by a militaristic dictatorship that exploits women at all levels of society.

The book is told from the point of view of Offred, a Handmaid, belonging to one of the social castes that has the responsibility of reproducing children for the leaders of the new world.

You can think of this book as a kindof feminist "1984." Just as 1984 did, the story of Offred's life serves as a warning for the possible future we face if psycho Christians are allowed to run around unchecked.

All in all it was a fantastic and, clocking in at only 395 pages (small, paperback), a quick read. Highly recommended.
reviewed by: frost |  November 2004 [link] |  recommend 5 thumbs up


the hills at home
nancy clark
hmmm. the hills at home. what to say? for starters, this is a novel with confusing character names: betsy, becky, little becky, alden, andy and later in the book, pet and pat (thankfully they make only a brief appearance). despite the names, they are endearing characters in a great, old, new england town (aptly named "towne").

all in all, an enjoyable book but a bit slow in the beginning. the various extended hill family members all make their way back to great-aunt lily's rambling house outside of boston for the summer but summer turns into fall and fall into winter and no one leaves. they get jobs and enroll the kids in school and you got yourself a nice little story. it's a bit like the show "the real world": where people stop being nice and start being real.
reviewed by: lisa may |  February 2004 [link] |  recommend


the history of love
nicole krauss
A really wonderful book with eccentric and endearing characters. The main story weaves between the unlikely to cross lives of two New Yorkers - Leo & Alma.

Leo is a writer turned locksmith. As a young man he escaped the Nazis from his home country of Poland. Though his life was saved he has spent most of his time trying to understand all he has lost- his family, Alma- the true love of his life, a son who doesn't know he exists and a manuscript supposedly lost in a flood.

Alma is a teenager who has also experienced a lot of loss in her young life. Her father died when she was young. Her family depended greatly on him. Since his death her mother has been distant and her young brother interests involve mostly his calling as the Messiah- which he tries to fulfill by building an ark in a vacant lot.

Alma's mother receives a request from a stranger to translate a obscure book, “The History of Love”- the main character of which Alma was named. What starts out as an innocent ploy by Alma to get her mom a date begins to unravel decades old secrets that in the end come together very touchingly.

I can't recommend this book enough.
reviewed by: rachel |  June 2005 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the immortal life of henrietta lacks
rebecca skloot
Rebecca Skloot spent close to ten years researching and writing this book about the infamous HeLa cells that scientists use in research. These cells have also allowed scientists to make strides in a multitude of areas and have cured diseases far and wise. The problem? When these cells were harvested from Henrietta Lacks in the 50s, she was a black woman dying of cervical cancer and was never asked consent. Subsequently, all these years, labs have been paying for the cells and her family has lived in poverty with no health insurance almost their whole lives. The successes in health that her cells have afforded the medical industry have been incredible, yet the story of her family is very sad: she and her husband were first cousins, one of their children was institutionalized and the family never made contact with her again, abuse and crime ran rampant in her family yet her life was the single most important cog in medical advancement. It would've been nice to read that her family at least was given free health insurance or to have read that they were compensated after the book was published but that has yet to happen. Money was donated for a proper headstone for Henrietta Lacks, which means she can finally rest in peace.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2010 [link] |  recommend


the king in the tree: three novellas
steven millhauser
This latest offering from Steven Millhauser is an enjoyable little volume. The first novella entitled “Revenge” is unlike anything he’s done before. A compulsively readable account of deception, betrayal, and as the title implies: a bit of revenge. The title story “The King In The Tree” is a retelling of the Tristan and Isolde story and it is just beautiful. Told from the point of view of the loyal steward who serves the King made cuckold it hits the reader with a novel’s share of storytelling in a mere one hundred pages. The only weak link (and it’s still a pretty good link) is the middle novella about Don Juan. While the concept of Don Juan going to England in the twilight of his years (thirty years old...gasp) and falling in love for the first time is great; Millhauser seems to be unable to resist the urge to recycle some old ideas, this story reads more like his greatest hits. All in all, this is another great entry from a very talented writer.
reviewed by: JohnLawton |  September 2004 [link] |  recommend


the kite runner
khaled hosseini
The Kite Runner is unlike any book I've ever read wholly because it's about Afganistan and Middle Eastern culture. The story is bittersweet - it revolves around a wealthy father and son and their father and son house servants - they are all best friends except for the money and cast difference. Amir is the rich son and Hassan is the servant son and both adore flying and "running" kites. Kite competition is huge in Afganistan by which the flyer tries to cut down other kites with glass-encrusted string.

There occurs an event that forever changes everyone's realtionship and then the Russians move in and a few years later, the Taliban, and all hell breaks loose. In that time, the wealthy father and son have moved to San Francisco and lost track of the servant friends. Years pass, Amir gets married, his father dies and then, one day, a phone call beckons him back to Afganistan to "make everything good" again.

I feel guilty saying that the ending got a little over the top for me, but it did. Still, it's an amazing book, so heavy with sadness and hope. Plus, the look into the Afgan culture is incredible and for that is worth reading despite some of the darker parts of the novel.
reviewed by: lisa may |  December 2005 [link] |  recommend


the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world
a.j. jacobs
A.J. Jacobs, editor at Esquire magazine and NPR contributer decides to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica just for the heck of it and he chronicles it in this book. It takes him a year to read the 32 volume set which has a staggering 65,000 entries! Jacobs arranges his book in alpabetical order beginning with "a-ak" and ending with "zywiec". Of course, he doesn't include every entry but there's quite a few. He lets us in on the most interesting facts (Descartes had a thing for cross-eyed women, the long list of people that married their cousins throughout history and ways to get into the Britannica as he sees it: get beheaded, explore the Arctic, write some poems or design a font) and basically drives his wife and family crazy for a year with his little encyclopedia tidbits. Throughout the book is a narrative of his life, he and his wife's fertility woes, side field trips to the Britannica offices in Chicago, an adult education class on speed reading, several Mensa events as well as the mother of know-it-all excursions - an appearance on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (apparently, not Jacobs, since he leaves with only a thousand bucks).

An exceedingly hilarious read - I couldn't stop reading some parts outloud to anyone within 10 feet of me it was so funny. Of course, you know it's going to be funny since Jon Stewart wrote a blurb for the book jacket. Now, if I could only memorize it and get myself on Jeopardy!
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2005 [link] |  recommend


the known world
edward p. jones
I finished this book two weeks ago (it won the Pulitzer in 2004 but I overlooked it all this time) and it has taken me this long to digest this complex and incredible novel. It is often compared to Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and while I think "Beloved" is an amazing book, that comparison does not do "The Known World" a bit of justice. This story differs from other slave narratives as most of the action revolves around Henry Townsend, a former slave who now owns slaves himself (which apparently is an over-looked phenomena of Southern history). His parents worked to free themselves, but under the tutelage of his former Master, Henry learns to be a slave owner and eventually builds his own plantation and stocks it with slaves. After his death, his wife tries to maintain peace on the plantation but fails and the reprecussions are felt with each character. Set in Manchester County, Virginia, the storyline often jumps back in time and into the future so sometimes you find out that someone is going to die or free themselves far in advanced of when the event happens. I found it difficult to sometimes keep the timeline and characters straight but the compelling narrative, historical references and rich prose make this a fantastic read.
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2007 [link] |  recommend


the little friend
donna tartt
You might remember her from her last book, "The Secret History", which made a big splash about ten years ago. This new one is kind of a Southern gothic murder mystery set in the 1970's, involving a girl who is trying to figure out the unsolved murder of her brother, who was found hanging in the back yard (she was a baby at the time). This is being touted as the new "it" book, and with its distant cousin, "The Lovely Bones" being so hot, I suspect this will be as big, or bigger. It is written with great detail, great character development (a huge ensemble of aunts, siblings, and other members of the community), and some of the best dialogue I've seen in a long time. It's being compared to Dickens and Faulkner and other greats, and so far I don't think that's too far off base. You kind of get the feel, when reading this, that people will be reading this generations from now.
reviewed by: ericS |  November 2002 [link] |  recommend


the little stranger
sarah waters
You delve into "The Little Stranger" knowing it's a ghost story and for me that meant I spent the entire time quaking in my boots wondering what was going to pop out of the shadows of the decrepit and run down Hundreds Hall mansion. Hundreds Hall is where the Ayres live – Mrs. Ayres, son Rod and daughter Caroline (both in their 20s). The brother suffered some injuries in the war as well as a nervous breakdown of sorts. With very little money, they're trying to maintain the old house as well as keep two servants so that they still feel like a distinguished family. The narrator, Dr. Faraday, is called out to the house late one night as their young servant Betty has falling ill. It turns out to be a little homesickness but Betty declares something isn't right in the house. Is it the spirit of Mrs. Ayres first daughter who died at age six of diphtheria? Is it the old house itself? Neither the reader nor the characters are sure but strange happenings occur at an alarming rate. One thing is for sure - Waters' writing is thrillingly spooky, even right up to the very last sentence.
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2009 [link] |  recommend


the lobster chronicles: life on a very small island
linda greenlaw
This second book on fishing details Greenlaw's life as a lobster fisherman (as she notes in her first bestseller "The Hungry Ocean" - I am a woman. I am a fisherman... I am not a fisherwoman, fisherlady, or fishergirl. If anything else, I am a thirty-seven-year-old tomboy. It's a word I have never outgrown.)

For seventeen years she was the captain of a boat that fished for swordfish. Now she returns to the island she grew up on in Maine to harvest lobsters and possibly settle down - which proves to be difficult since there are only 40 full-time residents on the island, Isle Au Haut. Filled with interesting stories about the townspeople and facts about lobstering this quick little read is very satisfying.

You should read "The Hungry Ocean", too.
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2003 [link] |  recommend


the lost city of z
david grann
David Grann throughly researched this adventurous tale of Colonel Fawcett and his dream of finding the Lost City of Z, rumored to exist in the Amazon. After several journeys to map South America, Fawcett finally sets out to find "Z" and is never heard from again. That was over 80 years ago and since then numerous people have set off in search of Fawcett's remains or whereabouts or to find "Z" themselves and some of them have also never been heard from again. Grann eventually makes his way into the Amazon to meet with a tribe that claims to have last seen Fawcett all those years ago. Grann's modern day trip (with modern conveniences like a satellite phone) juxtaposed with Fawcett's early travels is fascinating - it's hard to imagine what Fawcett and his party endured during his explorations. Even more fascinating is that the tribe is virtually unchanged from Fawcett's time. This story was apparently just optioned by Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures. Fun!
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2009 [link] |  recommend


the lovely bones
alice sebold
This book will haunt you until the last page and then it will haunt you some more. I tried to resist reading this book after reading the first chapter in The New York Times Book Review and was just a little creeped out by it. But, I saw it at the library and decided to give it a whirl.

Wow.

The story is of 14-year old Susie murdered by her neighbor, her body never to be found - just an elbow. She narrates the story from heaven, her heaven - as it turns out heaven is different for everyone and you get a roommate and a counselor. Along with Susie, we watch from heaven as her parents and siblings and friends grieve and watch the murderer pretend it never happened and watch as everyone else experiences what Susie never will - love, growing up, life and heartbreak.

A truly amazing book. Every sentence has its place and is so purposeful that I often found myself gripping the book so tightly that my fingers were white. It's also the first book I've ever cried over. I cannot recommend it enough even though it will leave you feeling satisfied and sad and vulnerable all at the same time.
reviewed by: lisa may |  May 2004 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the maine massacres
janwillem van der wetering
I’ve read so many of these Grijpsta and De Gier books that I tend to get a bit smarmy. While they are yards and leagues way better than most books I read (mysteries and non-mysteries), this particular book was the worst of the series I’ve read. It was interesting only in the fact that it took place in Maine. I’m glad I read it, because I’ll be reading all the books in the series, but you don’t have to. (I wouldn't even have reviewed it - as it's not a burning hot book - except that I wanted to contribute to my body of work here on happyrobot.)
reviewed by: kristen |  May 2001 [link] |  recommend


the many lives & secret sorrows of josephine b.
sandra gulland
A fantabulous historical fiction novel, the first in a series of three books, following the complex and rich life of Josephine Bonaparte, Napoleon's wife. Told through diary form, we meet her at age 14 and the first book takes us through the French Revolution and up to the time she meets Napoleon. It is quite an intriguing adventure - history buffs will love it for the wonderful details from that time period; fiction fans will love it for the incredible story and in-depth characters. Can't wait to devour the next two books!
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2005 [link] |  recommend


the mind murders
janwillem van de wetering
Oh so wonderful. If you’ve read my archives, you realize that I greatly admire this wonderful series by Van Vetering. This is an exceptionally good mystery. It combines elements of life’s journey as well as the puzzle of what happened to a drug dealer who was murdered in such a vexing natural way. This is once again set in lovely Amsterdam (I just bet it’s lovely). It’s an earlier book than the ones I’ve read before, and I like that as it gives me vital background to these characters who actually develop over the course of the books. Amsterdam must be a good place as I’ve loved two books set there (this series and "Rituals"). This book would be a good read just about any time, but may be best when you’re in a world weary mood.
reviewed by: kristen |  December 2000 [link] |  recommend


the mysteries of pittsburgh
michael chabon
This is Chabon's first novel, which was a bestseller when it was published in 1988. According to Wikipedia, it was his Master's thesis which was sent to a literary agent by Chabon's professor and earned Chabon an unheard of $155k book advance.

Like all reviewers, I have no choice but to call it Gatsby-esque as it follows Art Bechstein on his quest for love during his summer off from college. But in this updated version, Art has to choose between funky and quirky Phlox or flirty and flamboyant Arthur. It's a bit of a strange dilemma, not one that he can share with too many people, especially his kingpin, mobster of a father. The book is filled with all of Chabon's amazing prose, one of my favorites taking place in a bar where the characters have just ordered pickled eggs: "As long as bars continue to served pickled eggs, " he said, licking his fingers, "there is reason to hope." Don't you just love it?

This is a book begging to be made into a movie which is good since it's currently in production; the only downside is that the unfortunate Sienna Miller is playing a main character and that fact alone threatens to ruin the whole film.
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2007 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the namesake
jhumpa lahiri
The Namesake is a wonderful story about an Indian family, the Gangulis, making their way in the United States - from the early years of Ashima and Ashoke's marriage, through the birth of their children - Gogol and Sonia - through deaths and grief and happiness - a 25 year journey. It centers a lot around Gogol - named for a Russian author (which is very not done in Bengali culture) who hates his name and changes it before he goes to college. Subsequently, as he gets older he learns the true meaning of his name and as hard as he tries to forget it, it always follows him.

Lahiri shares Indian culture and customs which is one reason her books are so lovely. Her characters are so real one would expect to find their email addresses at the end just so you could drop a line and see what they're up to.

The saddest thing for me was to finish this novel and know that so far, Lahiri only has a book of short stories out there in addition to this novel. Her writing is so comfy and simple that I could continually read her forever and I can only hope that she is hard at work on more more more.
reviewed by: lisa may |  September 2006 [link] |  recommend


the nanny diaries: a novel
emma mclaughlin
(By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus)
If you've ever been a nanny or baby-sitter, the first chapter of this book you will recognize as being right on target. The nanny "interview" where you have to pretend you care that the kid is allergic to everything from strawberries to air. The kid who is smarter, more educated and speaks better French (and English, for that matter) than you. I was once a nanny for a kid who's favorite food was "frimp (shrimp) and tortellini". Jesus.
Anyway, the book is a cute little read. You can tell it was written by two people since there seems to be some depth missing. For example, the main character (her name is actually "Nanny") gets into a relationship with a guy in the building where she works. I didn't really see it evolve very much and then - bam- they're dating and he's calling her from his safari in Africa. And while the story becomes a bit predictable, it's a nice end-of-summer-one-last-beach-read. I hope the authors have no intentions of ever working as nannies in New York again - they give a pretty scathing description of NYC upper crust. All in all, a good one to get when it's in paperback or to get out of the library.
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2002 [link] |  recommend 3 thumbs up


the partly cloudy patriot
sarah vowell
If you don't already love Sarah Vowell, there's nothing to be done with you as she's just the wittiest, nerdiest, loveliest girl writer out there. I love her obsessiveness with history, I love hearing her kooky voice in my head as I read about her Thanksgiving visits with family, about attending the inaguration of G.W. and weeping because it's her right as an American and an essay about growing up a twin.

I saw a bumper sticker recently that said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" and I'm glad that Vowell is around, being politically outraged, being funny, being smart and sharing it all with us.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2006 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the passage
justin cronin
I started The Passage having no idea what I was getting into – at 600 plus pages, it's no short story and just after I finished it, I found out it's the first of a trilogy, which is good and bad. Good because the ending left me puzzled but bad because if it's as long as the first, I'll need to quit my day job to finish the series.

This is a vampire book, people. But these aren't vampires you'll fall in love with a la the Twilight series. These are monsters. A freak government experiment to prolong life goes wrong and turns the science experiments into freaks that spread a deadly virus and hunt for victims at night. The virus spreads across the country launching an apocalypse where very few survive. After the initial infection, the story picks back up about 80 years after the virus where communities are few and far between and they survive by having stadium lights on over their communes all night long. Except they're losing power more and more frequently and are in dire need of finding somewhere else to live.

There's very much an end-of-the-world, coming-of-Christ storyline to this book. A young girl that was part of the experiments is the only one that didn't turn into a vampire – in fact she's not aging and is immune to the vampires (although she can hear their thoughts). She is meant to save the world except how exactly that will happen is a mystery to be told in the follow-up books. Pretty sure this is being made into a movie right this second!
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2010 [link] |  recommend


the perfidious parrot
janwillem van wetering
I can't say enough about these boys (the detective team in the book). I feel so lucky to have found a series of books that combine my favorite reading material: searches for the meaning of life, camaraderie, foreign locales, and a good mystery. I rented this book on tape from the library a while back to listen to on the way to visit my sister. Ugh. It was awful - like hearing Garfield the cartoon cat's voice for the first time when they had that show on TV: it wasn't anything like I imagined, and now I can't remember what I imagined. I just read them in my head with that voice. Anyhoo, I didn't finish the tapes, and recently found them in book form in the library (after searching in vain last year). I have this new system of finding books (since I have few friends who read and recommend books to me) where I just browse the shelves under a letter I like that day. I was in the doubleyou's and found "wetering" , and there they all were. I read the book, and liked it. It wasn't anywhere near "The Maine Massacres", but it was a good book.
reviewed by: kristen |  November 2000 [link] |  recommend


the portrait of mrs. charbuque
jeffrey ford
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque is a novel set in 1893 New York City. Portrait artist Piambo is commissioned by a strange blind man to paint the visage of Mrs. Charbuque...the kicker? Piambo is not allowed to see her. He must paint what he thinks she looks like as she tells stories of her life from behind a screen. The price she'll pay is three times what he would make in a year. Through all this, a madman claiming to be Mrs. Charbuque's husband is stalking Piambo and a gruesome disease is killing street women: They die as blood weeps from their eyes. Part historical fiction, part mystery, part romance, part comedy and all engaging. Superb!
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2003 [link] |  recommend


the principles of uncertainty
maira kalman
I love love love Maira Kalman. Ella has her "Max" children's books (Max Stravinsky. Poet. Dreamer. Dog) and we get such a kick out of them, especially "What Max Ate from A to Z". I also eagerly await the latest installment of her "And the Pursuit of Happiness" blog on the New York Times site. "Principles of Uncertainty" is the printed version of her first NY Times blog in book form and it's just wonderfully inspiring and sweet. With Kalman in the world, it's nice to know that someone is paying attention to (and photographing and drawing) stuff like tassels on furniture and couches on sidewalks and numbered tickets found on the ground. And she can link her collection of sponges from around the world to Abraham Lincoln and somehow wrap it all up with embroidered lines from Goethe's "Faust" and it all makes sense. In one of the her chapters she mentions a honey cake that only four people in her family make and I thought to myself "Oh, great. Now I have to stalk Maira Kalman to get that honey cake recipe". And you want to know what she went ahead and did? She included that recipe in her book appendix. It has tea and cocoa in it. Don't you just love her already?
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2009 [link] |  recommend


the radleys
matt haig
"The Radleys" join the seemingly never-ending parade of vampire novels yet this one is set in the English ‘burbs and features Peter, Helen, Clara and Rowan Radley, a run-of-the-mill family leading a normal life. Except for one thing: they're vampires. At the start of the book, the kids don't even know the family secret – they just think they have to wear A LOT of sunblock during the day. One night, Clara is attacked by a classmate and winds up doing what vampires naturally do and all hell breaks loose in town. Peter's brother shows up to "help out", but since he isn't an "abstainer" and doesn't keep quite as low a profile as the rest of the family, their secret eventually gets out with disastrous – and surprising – consequences. Excerpts from "The Abstainer's Handbook" are sprinkled throughout the darkly humorous book. Are these Radleys related to Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird"? Hmmmm. Interesting fact: I read this on my Nook and there was a typo in the title at the top of every page: it read "The Redleys" which was funny since they're vampires - get it?
reviewed by: lisa may |  March 2011 [link] |  recommend


the return of the king
j. r. r. tolkien
Ahhhhh I had drawn out the reading of “Return of the King”. I wanted it to linger –to linger. And it did linger. I was only a quarter of the way into it when Mark went away for his week-long commercial. I only read a bit of it – and only when I was feeling lucid and bored and willing to focus (which lemme tell ya..). Finally, on Saturday, it was a rainy, cold day with a long walk behind me, and my belly filled with warm tea and homemade bread and jam that I began to plow. I surprised myself by finishing the book in record time. Apparently there are many many appendices in the back. So, where I thought I was 3/4 of the way into the book, I was actually nigh on the end. It's hard to describe what I feel after reading these books. I suppose a great kinship and admiration to the author, a sadness of things passed… Yes, to me (as with reading Moretta of Pern as a youth) when it was all done it was the passing of a way of life and of “archetypes” that was so sad – that along with the awful realities that the “bad, dark, evil” in humans brings out. It was a very topical book to me. I am very glad that I have read them and feel very strange to have only read them at this particular time in my life – and by strange I mean bizarre.
reviewed by: kristen |  February 2002 [link] |  recommend


the road
cormac mccarthy
This is a tricky book. It's not one to gush about or to say you love love love it or to recommend it to everyone you know - a sad, devastating tale of the post-apocolytic world isn't for everyone. But it IS an incredible story told through incredible writing and a few days after finishing it, I am still thinking about it - I even went back and re-read the ending because it's just so crushingly sad. The book centers around "the boy" and "Papa" as they traverse their way across the country after some sort of end of the world scenerio (you never find out what actually happened but there's plenty of other gory details that fill that void). You find out they've been traveling for years in search of "the good guys" because now the world is filled with bad guys, other people trying to survive through murder, cannabalism and pillage. It's suspenseful and moving and I found it hard to put it down because when I did, I couldn't stop thinking about it. There's a reason why it won the Pulitzer this year with messages of good and evil and a possible foreshadowing of where the world could be headed; it's a depressing tale, for sure, but one that begs to be read.
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2007 [link] |  recommend 2 thumbs up


the russian debutante's handbook
gary shteyngart
meet vladimir girshkin - 25-year old russian emigre - looking for the quintessential american dream of life, love and happiness. now watch him get mixed-up with a wealthy russian known as the "fan man" (he socializes with two fans of the oscillating persuasion) and ultimately land in prava (the paris of the 90s) as a member russian mafia. along the way you meet his girlfriend challah, his grandmother guarding the trees of his parent's yard and the foot of a gargantuan stone statue of lenin - what more could you want in nabakov/ holden caulfield story? full of heart and mind, this witty, wicked and brilliant novel has been a bestseller and new york times notable book. run, do not walk, to the nearest bookstore conglomerate and buy it.
reviewed by: lisa may |  December 2003 [link] |  recommend 2 thumbs up


the schwa was here
neal shusterman
Anthony Bonano is an adolescent living in Brooklyn who makes friends with the mysterious, quixotic Calvin Schwa. Like the original meaning of "Schwa"--as in, "the faint vowel sound in many unstressed syllables of the English language", for example, the e in overlook--Calvin is invisible to most people. They use Calvin's near-invisibility to make money with dares, until one dare gets them involved with Crawley, the eccentric, wealthy and unpleasant old man of the neighborhood. He forces them to walk his 14 dogs, and while doing so, introduces them to his blind niece, Lexie. Adolescent love-triangle torment ensues, as does a crisis of identity for Calvin, who finally discovers what happened to his mother and how/why she mysteriously "dissappeared..."
Not as good as Shusterman's other work, like The SCORPION SHARDS trilogy, but it's an alright book.
reviewed by: victoria |  May 2005 [link] |  recommend 2 thumbs up


the secret life of bees
sue monk kidd
I thought I had already read this book but it turns out I had read "Bee Season" and was getting the two mixed up. "The Secret Life of Bees" spent a million weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list and has been the belle of a million book clubs for the past two years. Well, I thought to myself, how good can it be? It's SO good, it's breathtakingly perfect.

Set in the 60s in South Carolina, we meet 14 year old Lily Owens as she's watching bees swarm around her room - they've apparently taken up residence in the walls of her room. Lily lives on a peach farm with her emotionally distant father, T. Ray (she doesn't even call him "Dad") and their black cook/maid/nanny Rosaleen. Lily's mother died when Lily was four after an accidental shooting of which, apparently, Lily pulled the trigger. It's a mystery that shrouds the entire story. After Rosaleen spits on the shoes of some white folk, she and Lily hightail it out of town and take refuge with the "calendar sisters" - August, June and May. There, Lily learns to keep bees, harvest honey and finds out that family isn't about blood relation and love is found in the most unlikely places.

The prose is beautiful, the story is bittersweet and funny and I predict this will be made into a movie by Oprah very soon.
reviewed by: lisa may |  November 2005 [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


the sisters grimm
michael buckley
The Sisters Grimm is an awesome juvenile fiction series about the Grimm Family – as in the folk tale-collecting Grimms. In modern day society, the heirs of the Grimms – sisters Sabrina and Daphne along with their Grandmother Relda – are tasked with keeping all fairytale characters and creatures - called "Everafters" - within the confines of the Town of Ferryport. While an enchanted spell does most of the work, the Grimms are needed for assorted mysterious goings-on – for example, the secret cult of the Scarlet Hand, who has kidnapped Sabrina and Daphne's parents. Fairytale characters far and wide make clever and witty appearances in this series – Prince Charming is the Mayor and is actually not all that charming; Snow White is a grade school teacher and also teaches self-defense classes; Fairy Godfathers show up on book four as Mobsters complete with brass knuckles and pin-striped suits along with dozens of other fictional references. While it's all great fun, the stories are tinged with a dark side – violent clashes between characters and some unsettling plot twists (at one point Sabrina and Daphne are sent to live with a foster parent – a newly out of prison convict that murdered seven people with a pipe. Eeek) Very "grimm", indeed.
reviewed by: lisa may |  February 2010 [link] |  recommend


the skull of truth: a magic shop book
bruce coville
I. Love. This. Book.
at only 195 pages, you really should take some time out of your day to check this one out. Of course, the first book that I ever read by Bruce Coville was "Jeremy Thatcher," which is part of the same series as "The Skull of Truth," and which changed my life...anyways, if you want a book that is seriously profound, funny, heartwarming, and just plain great, I'd suggest "The Skull of Truth." Plot: Charlie Eggleston has gotten into the habit of fibbing–a lot. He lies to everyone, and generally it's kept him out of trouble...until one day, when he stumbles into Elive's magic shop and picks up the Skull of Truth. Which is actually the skull of Yorick, of "alas, poor Yorick" fame–and Yorick's spirit is cursed to remain attached to the skull, forcing anyone near the skull to tell the truth. Including Charlie, his whole family, his friends, and the guy who wants to destroy the local marsh to build an industrial park on it...when Truth is unleashed, anything can happen.
reviewed by: victoria |  August 2005 [link] |  recommend


the spellman files
lisa lutz
This novel is so wacky and funny and hip that I'm hooked for life and can't wait until the next installment comes out. In it we meet the Spellmans, a family of private investigators that could use some serious therapy. Main character Izzy has dating problems (as evidenced by her wonderful lists of what was wrong with everyone she's dated); there's her younger sister Rae who has too much time on her hands and is just too smart for her own good; and there's Mr. and Mrs. Spellman who think it's perfectly fine that their children go on stakeouts. Finally, Uncle Ray - drunk, crazy Uncle Ray - rounds out the cast of nutty players. The Spellmans are great investigators but when one of their own goes missing, the tables are turned and they get a taste of their own medicine.
reviewed by: lisa may |  May 2007 [link] |  recommend


the stones are hatching
geraldine mccaughrean
If I could turn *one book* into a movie, this one would be it. And the visuals would be amazing--not in the least because this book has some of the most stunning verbal imagery I have ever read.

Any book that begins with the disclaimer that "All the creatures, dangers, legends, and magics described in this book were, until very recently, accepted as real and true by ordinary people living and working in a civilized and Christian Europe" is a quality, quality book.

The story, set in 1919 post-W.W.I. England, begins with Phelim Green, a 12 year old boy who lives with his irascible and abusive older sister Prudence. While she's gone to market, he discovers that their home in the countryside has been invaded by small, almost-Neanderthal-like beings called "Glashans" and a filthy little man called the Domovoy who lives behind the house's stove. These bizarre small people are seeking shelter from the "Black Dog", and they tell Phelim that he is "Jack o'Green" and that he is the only one who can save them from the impending terror of the Stoor Worm. Confused and afraid, Phelim is kicked out of his house by the glashans & the Domovoy, and forced to walk across England's countryside. On the way, he meets Sweeney, the 'fool' who lost his wits because of the horror of war; the Obby Oss, whose utterly bizarre antics are pretty darn cool; and Alexia, his helper and a girl who lost her shadow to the Devil (and who's exactly half-way to being a witch). Phelim is terrified by the responsibility and expectations that everyone holds about him as "Jack O'Green," and he refuses to believe the stories that "the stones are hatching", even as he sees the monsters/creatures that run over the countryside. The descriptions of these monsters/creatures are incredible; once you've read about the Ushtey, Drac, Boa, Coreianieid, Merrows, or Nucklelavee==well, they're just plain scary. And cool.

This story is so full of twists and turns that you never know what to expect; it's so above the average 'fantasy' book that it blasts J.K. Rowling's books out of the water. Absolutely amazing book.
reviewed by: victoria |  September 2004 [link] |  recommend


the story of edgar sawtelle
david wroblewski
For me, books that are on any sort of "list" automatically make me suspicious because nine times out of ten, I end up not liking them. "Edgar Sawtelle" was no different. The writing was incredible and I loved the world Wroblewski made – the fictional breed of "Sawtelle" dog, the mute Sawtelle and all that he and his family stood for. But then things went all wonky for me – the dad dies and his ghost appears basically telling Edgar that he was murdered and Edgar runs away after accidentally killing a family friend – really crazy unexpected stuff. Everything was barreling toward the end and when it got there I was like "THAT'S what happens?!?!" In reading some recent reviews, I see that it's supposed to be a modern take on "Hamlet" which makes things a little clearer to me but in the end I was sadly disappointed with all the hype.
reviewed by: lisa may |  February 2009 [link] |  recommend


the stranger
albert camus
I read this about a week ago. My lover was gone for weeks, and I was alone in my lil' hovel with barely myself for company. I started looking for books within my own collection that I hadn't read or needed to re-read. This is one that Mark bought. To me, "The Stranger" is a fine little book. It's very easy to read and definitely deals with those feelings of alienation from society that you've been wanting to get out. Besides, it's a piece of literature. One of the reasons I both read it and was reluctant to read it was because of the build-up. This book is a classic - a counter-culture classic. In my thoughts, if this had been "The Lost" by Anab Foster I'm not certain how I would have felt about it. As it was, this book I read was entitled "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. I've read it. I got the thought. I'm simpatico. I probably didn't "get it" (dam).
reviewed by: kristen |  May 2002 [link] |  recommend


the sweetness at the bottom of the pie
alan bradley
In this unique new series, we meet Flavia de Luce, 11-year-old resident of Buckshaw, a crumbling old estate in England. Flavia is a prodigious lover of science and mystery who delights in tormenting her older sisters only because she's a little jealous that they remember their deceased mother and she doesn't. Their father is a bit of a recluse and so Flavia spends a lot of time on her own in her "lab" or scouting around town. That is, until a dead bird with its beak stuck through a stamp winds up on their front door. And a body appears in their garden. Flavia is on the case! One refreshing aspect of the book is that it takes place in the 50s, so there's no technology bogging it down. Flavia is adorable and such a little spit-fire, one can't wait to find out what her next case will be.
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2010 [link] |  recommend


the tender bar
j.r. moehringer
In anyone else's hands, The Tender Bar could be a long and dull story about funny alcoholics in a neighborhood bar, but Moehringer has brought us a tender and hilarious memoir of growing up fatherless and finding comfort in one of the town pubs where his Uncle Charlie tends. We meet curmedgeonly but kind drinkin' men with names like Fuck 'Em Babe (his catchphrase) and Bob the Cop who become alcohol-soaked father figures. Celebrations (like getting into Yale) and pitty parties (like the time Moehringer mistakes a pretzel cart fire for a hotel fire and phones it in to his editors at the NY Times) take place at the pub, not that anyone needed an excuse to visit. Moeringer takes us from growing up in Manhasset, moving to Arizona, going to Yale and finally becoming a writer. This book is a labor of love spanning a lifetime and a love letter to those who helped raise him.
reviewed by: lisa may |  March 2007 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the three imposters
arthur machen
I have no idea what are the other "weird tales" included in the amazon.com edition, but the book I was reading--which consists of only "The Three Imposters"--is an incredibly weird and very modernistic horror book, even though it was written in the 1890's-1900's. As the central protagonist around whom the entire disjointed story revolves, Dyson is an aspiring writer who takes a keen interest in observing human behaviors...he meets a series of strange people, who all recount to him bizarre vignettes. These two men and one woman--the three imposters of the book's title--are after the "man with the spectacles," and they will do anything to get him back in their evil grasp. Fairly creepy, and told in such an objective way that you almost feel that the narrator is sitting back, not at all horrified by the goings-on.
reviewed by: victoria |  June 2005 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the true and authentic history of jenny dorset: a novel
phillip lee williams
How could you resists a title like THAT?! This lovely book is funny funny funny. The narrator is a servant in the house of Dorset in South Carolina during the late 18th Century. He recounts the history of the madcap Dorset family and their nutty neighbors, the Smythes. The chapter titles are very McSweeneys -ish. For example, one of the chapters was about a servant that had gone missing and was titled "MR. DORSET ORANIZES A HUNT WITH THE FAMILY SMYTHE IN ORDER TO HUNT FOR DEER AND OLD BOB, HOPING TO BAG BOTH" (not the exact title, but you get my drift). Adventures include an ocean voyage to rescue Jenny from pirates that have supposedly kidnapped her and the British war on Charles Town (now Charleston). Altogether a beautiful book about family and friends and life.

The hardcover edition is out of print but the paperback is available for your reading pleasure.
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2003 [link] |  recommend


the wave
susan casey
The Wave can be filed under "Books That Don'tSeem Interesting But Turn Out To Be Riveting", especially as Casey takes us out into the ocean with her terrifying descriptions of rogue 350 foot waves blotting out the sky as well as the recounting of the biggest wave ever recorded, a 1,740 foot-high wall of water that mowed into the Alaska coastline in the 50s. The book is also a bit of a surfing biography, mainly of Laird Hamilton, surfer extraordinaire. Casey tags along as he and his crew go where the wind and surf blows them in an effort to ride the biggest waves in the world. The book also explores the science of waves and the effects of global warming as the culprit of all these "rogue" waves and the storms that are creating them.
reviewed by: lisa may |  August 2011 [link] |  recommend


the weird sisters
eleanor brown
The three Andreas sisters are each named for a Shakespeare character – Rosalind (As You Like It), Bianca (The Taming of the Shrew), and Cordelia (King Lear)–and they have a predilection for communicating through the lines of Shakespeare they learned from their professor father. They reunite at their childhood home to help take care of their mother recently diagnosed with breast cancer, but ultimately, they are home with their own baggage – Rose is afraid to leave home to live with her fiancée in England; Bianca has fled multiple indiscretions in NYC and Cordy has spent her life traveling where the wind blows her and now needs to lay down some roots. Told from the perspective of all three sisters, this is a funny and warm look at how individuals make up a family and how that defines who they are.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2011 [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 year of magical thinking
joan didion
It seems macabre to say that I was riveted to Joan Didion's slim memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" but I was. Her account of her husband's sudden death from a "massive coronary event" – although not so "sudden" as Didion's husband, John Dunne, had a history of heart problems – and the days, months and year that follow is moving and raw and so heart-wrenching (I'd like to think that Didion would find the use of "heart-wrenching" ironic). The title comes from her initial thinking of not giving away his shoes because he'd need them when he "came back". She spends everyday going over minute details from their 40 years of marriage to find some little moment that could've changed the outcome of their life together, hence, her "magical thinking".

As her husband dies, their daughter is also in a coma recovering from septic shock and during the year, she gets ill again, gets better and gets on with her life. Didion intermingles this emotional rollercoaster of life and death throughout the book. Just weeks before the book came out, their daughter fell ill again and died at the age of 39 but Didion chose not to edit any of the text. The hardest thing is that after reading this book, I now know what Didion is feeling after the loss of her only child. Certainly not an uplifting book, but I found comfort in Didion's airing of her emotions and thoughts about death and will file them away with my continually changing views of life and death.
reviewed by: lisa may |  March 2006 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the yiddish policemen's union
michael chabon
Forgive me if I go overboard - but I just adore Chabon's writing. His ideas are so fresh and his use of words is so new it's like he rummages around to find phrases and words that aren't used enough and spins them into incredible descriptions. One I've been carrying around with me for a week is this description: "When there is crime to fight, Landsman tears around Sitka like a man with his pant leg caught on a rocket. It's like there's a film score playing behind him, heavy on the castanets." Castanets! Has anyone mentioned castanets in writing in 400 years? It's brilliant and so is the rest of this crazy book. Taking place in fictional Alaska where Jew were banished in 1948 after the collapse of Israel, we ride along with Meyer Landsman who is trying to solve the mystery of who killed a man that may or may not be the Messiah. There's radical Jews, Landsman's ex-wife, a sacred red cow and alcohol and drugs mucking up the mystery as well. The intricately woven storyline spans generations, multiple characters and Jewish culture. My only so-called complaint is that the book would benefit from a character listing in the front and a Yiddish dictionary in the back. It's a funny little story, a bit sad, irreverent and perfect in everyway. How soon is too soon to go back and read it again?
reviewed by: lisa may |  June 2007 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


the zookeeper's wife
diane ackerman
This extraordinary story combines Ackerman's lovely talent for writing about nature and the amazing tale of the Jan and Antoinia Zabinski, who were running the Warsaw Zoo during WWII, where they helped hide hundreds of Jews fleeing the city. Ackerman uncovered many stories about the Underground resistance in Warsaw and describes many other courageous people in addition to the Zabinskis. She also writes about the Germans desire for not only cleansing the human race but also animal populations as well. The Zabinskis used ingenuity to feed themselves and those they hid in empty animal cages and in their home. At one point, the zoo was destined to be "decomissioned" but Jan persuades those in charge that it should be turned into a pig farm to supply the German troops with fresh meat (some of the meat was detoured to resistance forces and poisoned before being sent to German dining halls). There are harrowing moments for the Zabinskis but they preservered to help humankind because, as Jan put it, "it was the right thing to do."
reviewed by: lisa may |  January 2008 [link] |  recommend


things my girlfriend and i have argued about : a novel
mil millington
Mil Millington has been doing this "things my girlfriend and I have argued about" thing on his website for some time - and now has put it in convenient book form.
His new book is great fun to read. He has taken the basic gist of the website, changed the names around, and added plots and sublots that are stringed together with arguments that he and his girlfriend have.

His characters have some of the most clever and smart dialog - which may be one of the only problems I have with this book. Either everyone I know are clods, or Mil's friends have brains that can compute conversation and create dialog on the fly that teams of comedy writers would be proud of.
My other complaint is, I realize that the book's title is about he and his girlfriend and the things they argue about, but to be honest I began to tire of their constant arguing. I kept asking, "why are you with this girl? why did you have children with her? why did you even go on the second date?".
Otherwise, the writing is snappy and often very very funny - it's a fun "guys" book.
reviewed by: rich |  December 2003 [link] |  recommend


thirteen reasons why
jay asher
This young adult book has been making the popular rounds and it's an intriguing read. Hannah Baker, a junior in high school, kills herself; before she does, she makes a series of cassette tapes detailing the reasons why she came to this decision – thirteen people related to several different events. Clay Jensen gets the tapes and we experience the tapes along with him as he follows a map to relevant places mentioned in the tapes throughout town. It's a chilling reminder of how fragile – and cruel – teens can be. My one complaint is that some of the thoughts and dialogue are like nothing I ever remember from high school. I kept having to remind myself that they were in high school and not older but, times have changed and possibly I'm being naïve as to what kids are experiencing these days.
reviewed by: lisa may |  April 2009 [link] |  recommend


this is where i leave you
jonathan tropper
Judd Foxman has seemingly hit rock bottom – his wife cheated on him with his boss (he walk in on them in his own bedroom and things ended, "as these things do, with paramedics and cheesecake"), his soon-to-be-ex announces she's pregnant and his father passes away. His father requests that the intermittently-Jewish family sit shiva. As Judd, his two brothers, sister and mother hunker down for the seven day mourning period in the home where they grew up, they're forced to come to terms with their family dynamic as well as their personal lives. What's great about a novel like this is it takes the sad disappointments of life, pokes fun at them a bit and in the end, the characters all get on with their lives, profoundly changed but hopeful. Immensely funny and bittersweet, this will no doubt be turned into a movie even before the paperback is out.
reviewed by: lisa may |  October 2009 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up


tongue first: adventures in physical culture
emily jenkins
Emily Jenkins has shaved her head, gotten tattooed, gone to a nude beach, done heroin, taken a nap, been rolfed, taken sex lessons, gone to a public bath. Each of which has had their consequences. (People thought she had cancer when she shaved her head.) She writes about these experiences consequences and explores what they mean to us in this books short essays.
reviewed by: liz |  November 2002 [link] |  recommend


touching from a distance: ian curtis & joy division
deborah curtis
This book is a must for any die hard Joy Division fan not only for it’s appendixes that have complete set list and song lyrics but for it’s insight to the life and death of a troubled young man. The book is written by Ian’s widow and you learn that she was as much of an outsider as anyone to what went on in Ian’s head. His only means of communicating his problems it seams was through his lyrics. At the time of his death he was torn between his wife and child and his lover. The song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was the result of his torment. Even if that is the only thing you know about this band you would like this book.
reviewed by: kelly |  August 2004 [link] |  recommend


tropic of cancer
henry miller
I'm still trying to get Henry Miller although I DID love the ambience of this book. I remember getting mildly steamed up whilst reading this book, but I'll confess that although I know I've read this book, I don't remember a thing about it besides an elusive caribbean lady was isolated by a rich ogre husband/lover. That can't be good eh?
reviewed by: kristen |  September 2000 [link] |  recommend


truth machine, the
james l. halperin
This book was recommended by some slightly unscrupulous photographer that I met on a camping trip organized by Kristy Byrd. He said it was VERY VERY meaning-of-life. This book is about what happens when a machine which can discern whether someone is telling the truth is invented. Although the book wasn't poetry or anything, I would recommend it just because it has such an interesting concept of what life could be. When I finally read it, I thought it was again one of those interesting concepts fleshed out with soap opera characters, but this book sticks with me.
reviewed by: kristen |  September 2000 [link] |  recommend


twilight
stephenie meyer
So, I did it; I took the plunge and now I'm hooked like everyone else (everyone else 12 and up). I couldn't resist the hype of the Twilight saga and it's easy to see why: interesting characters, smoldering, unforbidden love and vampires! Sweet!

Bella Swan moves to Washington state to live with her father and falls madly in love with Edward Cullen, only to discover that he and his gorgeous family are actually vampires. Edward is in love with Bella as well but has to control his desire for her blood. I know, it sounds cheesy, and in many ways, it IS cheesy but it's so good. I don't know here Meyer gets off by being a Mormon housewife and writing bestselling books just for the hell of it (plus getting a movie deal) - what the hell? All I know is that instead of waiting weeks for the library copy of the second book, I ran out to the bookstore and bought it. I will probably be line at midnight next week for the fourth book to come out. Vampire love is the best
reviewed by: lisa may |  July 2008 [link] |  recommend 1 thumbs up



:: archives ::


sort by author
 A    B    C    D    E  
 F    G    H    J    K  
 L    M    N    O    P  
 R    S    T    V    W  
 Y    Z  

sort by book title
 1    A    B    C    D  
 E    F    G    H    I  
 J    K    L    M    N  
 O    P    Q    R    S  
 T    U    V    W  

  • Token Book Review
  • Haiku Record Review
  • 2 Sentence Movie Review


  • The way I see it: My Favorite Records of 2004


  • DVD Review
  • Old School
  • Books About Movies





    • Want to contribute a review?
    contact us




    © happyrobot.net 1998-2024
    powered by robots :]