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the stranger
albert camus
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| 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). |
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reviewed by: kristen |
May 2002 [link] |
recommend
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observatory mansions
edward carey
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Francis Orme lives with his family and an assortment of lonely misfits in a crumbling apartment building called Observatory Mansions. He keeps a collection of stolen and found items in the basement (his “Exhibit of Love”), he wears white gloves at all times (when they get too dirty he saves them as an autobiography of sorts), and he earns his meager living as a living statue. His life and the lives of the other residents are thrown off balance when a strange young woman by the name of Anna Tap takes up residence in their building.
This is a really wonderfully sad and beautiful first novel by Carey (who’s also a playwright and an illustrator). Part gothic romance, part catalogue of obsessions; this is a very odd book, though it never comes across as gratuitously strange. Carey’s simple prose is really perfect here. This is a book that could have been painful or unpleasant to read but I found it a lot of fun and difficult to part with.
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
October 2004 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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don't sweat the small stuff - for women
kristine carlson
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Hell yes, I felt a bit silly checking this out of the library. My rationalization was that there might be some nuggets that would help my sister out. Also, I enjoy books for their title. I thought how funny it would be if I met someone I knew and they saw this book in my collection. Alas, I did read a bit of it, and scoff not. Sure it's very supermom-centric and tailored to those businesswomen, soccer moms who are losing their minds - but it's a very apt and able advice essay. I particulary liked the essay "Get Real" and thought I should send it to all in my family. Much of the essays are "couldn't have said it better myself".
So there - I've reviewed two books. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
December 2001 [link] |
recommend
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farm city: the education of an urban farmer
novella carpenter
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"Farm City" is a lot like a fav of mine, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", which explores small-scale farming as a means of self-sustainability. In "Farm City", author Novella Carpenter grows an oasis in an abandoned lot in the midst of crack dens and bodegas in Oakland, California. She starts with just fruit trees and vegetables but eventually broadens her farm to include bees, turkeys, chicken, ducks, rabbits and two pigs that she buys as piglets. The constant work that is involved is incredible but the payoff is rewarding and, at times, disappointing. A turkey flies over her fence into a junkyard and is ripped apart by a dog. Someone steals an heirloom-variety watermelon she was growing. And she has to deal with the fact that animals that she has named and cared for will ultimately wind up on her plate. Carpenter is witty, brave and – it has to be said – crazy, as well as a superb writer. This book will inspire you to eat differently and appreciate the food on your plate.
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2009 [link] |
recommend
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cathedral
raymond carver
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| This is a book I read from my roommate Kent’s collection. I love the voice and the stories. The prose is so spare and REAL. I used to be on this big time TRUTH and what is the REAL TRUTH kick. This book was one that I loved during that period. I also love that Kent told me Raymond was this normal working class guy who didn’t start writing until one day he was thirty five and sitting in a laundromat and noticed some guy and wrote about what he perceived his life was like. I think Larry Brown sounds a lot Raymond. The people that sublet our New York apartment from us while we were in Kansas City once said in passing they borrowed a book of mine. This one is missing, so I hope that it went to a good cause. Chris Longworth has since overpaid us for some utilities he owed, so I am totally not wanting it back. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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the wave
susan casey
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| 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. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2011 [link] |
recommend
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the devil's teeth
susan casey
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| 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! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2011 [link] |
recommend
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boy proof
cecil castellucci
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when i picked up this book, it was because I felt an instant connection with the title: "boy proof" was me in middleschool and highschool, there was no joking about it. When I started to actually *read* this book, the synchronicity of it all almost scared me. The main character is named Victoria, although she prefers to be called "egg" after her favorite sci-fi character.
Some notable quotes: "Boy proof. I have never been asked out. No boy has ever flirted with me. I am invisible to the opposite sex." (pg.6)
"During the trigonometry quiz, instead of solving any of the problems, I notice that the whole world is made up of angles and arcs. If I squint just the right way, I can make anything look like an angle...the bird in the air, outside the window, flying to the tree is unconciously measuring the arcs and angles. I can see the math all around me. But when it comes to putting it down on paper, I draw a blank. One thing I can answer for sure. I'm going to fail another quiz." (pg. 57)
"'Victoria, do you want to make some money for yourself?'
'Money is power in this corrupt world,' I say. 'What do I have to do?'
'You would be an Awkwardly Tall Elf,' Mom says. 'There are a lot of tall elves at the North Pole, and Santa is beginning to worry. It's only for one Saturday.' (pg. 69)
"That puts me right in my place. Pretty on the outside wins over pretty on the inside. I want to go home and leave them alone, but I'm downtown and I don't want to take the bus home. I wouldn't even know which bus to take from here." (pg. 99)
"Don't pull me out of the running yet, Dr. Gellar. I'm full of surprises."
"I know you are, Victoria," she says." (pg. 119)
"You know, Max. I've always been perceived as strange for one reason or another. I guess it's because of my overflowing amount of knowledge. Nobody seems to get what I'm talking about, so I just don't talk," i say.
"I know about that," Max says. "I call it loneliness." (pg. 137)
"There are more alien and monster doodles than notes and homework assignments written in my loose-leaf binder." (pg. 151)
"Max shoots his head forward and kisses my cheek roughly with his slightly dry lips. "See you" he says. He runs back to his car. He does see me. Because I'm not invisible anymore."
(pg. 196)
This book,as you may have gathered, seems to be slightly autobiographical (as in, of me). Which is really weird. But I really enjoyed it. And I dedicate it to my highschool self! |
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reviewed by: victoria |
October 2005 [link] |
recommend
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werewolves in their youth: stories
michael chabon
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I adore two other Chabon novels: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Wonderboys (the movie is also very good) and this collection of short stories is equally wonderful. Notable stories includes one where a boy believes himself to be a werewolf (he's also been Plastic Man, Titanium Man, Matter-Eater Lad) and has to be rescued by his only - if reluctant - friend, the narrator. Another favorite is one about a real estate agent showing a house to a couple and he keeps stealing things throughout the house until finally, he has so many things in his pockets, he actually jingles. The final story involves a bris and a baby being held and run with like a football - how can you go wrong with that?
Chabon's writing is full of tiny details and raw emotions that you rarely find in short stories. This is a collection not to be missed.
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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the yiddish policemen's union
michael chabon
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| 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? |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2007 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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the mysteries of pittsburgh
michael chabon
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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. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2007 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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my life in france
julia child
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A loving and spirited tribute to Child's time in France - where her life essentially began. Written by Child along with her grand-nephew, Alex Prud'homme, it starts with Child and her husband Paul's move to Paris in 1949 when she didn't know how to cook or speak French. By the time the book ends, she's a fluent Parisian and a famous cook, her cookbooks in every household. Her story is very inspirational - she didn't find her true calling until she was almost 40 - and the process of writing "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is explained in detail and is endlessly interesting. A lovely look at Paris and France post-WWII.
Two must read follow-up books are, of course, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and the wonderful Julia Child biography "Appetite for Life". |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2006 [link] |
recommend
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caramelo
sandra cisneros
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This is one of those works that makes you secretly wish you were from another culture (same feeling you get when you watch "Monsoon Wedding" or "Like Water For Chocolate", if you are not an Indian or Latino, that is). It's essentially about a large family of Mexicans and their immigration from Mexico City to Chicago. It encompasses three generations. The thing I love about the book is that it feels like you are reading a series of loosely interconnected short stories (there are 80 chapters), or anecdotes, which, when strung together, end up as an epic of sorts. For people like me that don't want their reading to be too painful, this one goes down easy, and becomes almost addictive. I mention the movies above, and now that I think about it, the book has more in common with them than I first thought. You find yourself fascinated with the color,the depth of the culture, and the incredible family bonds that hold this family together. And, like the examples, this book has the feel and charm of a fable.
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reviewed by: ericS |
November 2002 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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the hills at home
nancy clark
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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. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2004 [link] |
recommend
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an arsonist's guide to writers' homes in england
brock clarke
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| Wacky and entertaining is the only way to descibe this novel by the improbably named Brock Clarke. Sam Pulsifer gets out of prison at the ripe old age of 28 after serving ten years for accidentally burning down the Emily Dickinson House - with two people inside. He sets out to make a normal life for himself and almost succeeds until the son of the couple Sam killed shows up and vows to ruin his life as Sam did his. Suddenly, someone is setting fire to writers' homes all over New England, Sam's parents have become drunks and Sam has to make things right. Filled with funny and sad moments - one funny one being that after Sam burns down Emily Dicksinson's house, a disgruntled townie throws his size 12 Birkenstock through his parent's front window (Sam assumes the thrower is saving the other shoe to throw through the window another time) - the book is about confronting your past in order to clarify your future. The ending really takes a wild turn which wasn't all together satisfying but Sam is such an amusing, likable and wonky character, all is forgiven. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2008 [link] |
recommend
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a year in the merde
stephen clarke
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| A funny little fiction story drawn from Clarke's real-life escapades working and living in France. Marketing guru Paul West moves to France from Britain to help start up a chain of British tea rooms (his fame is from his success in setting up a chain of French cafes in Britain cleverly named "Voulez Vous Cafe Avec Moi" - so funny!) and encounters accents impossible to decode, crazy French manners (or lack of) and French bureacracy (or why co-workers can't be fired). In addition to sleeping with the boss' daughter he uncovers a bit of a scandel as his boss is buying mad-cow diseased beef instead of homegrown French beef for his restaurants. Alls well that ends well, as West finds a girlfriend and gets to open a tea room all his own. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend
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sweet and low
rich cohen
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A raucous trip through the history of sugar, saccharin, aspartame, the mob, and the Brooklyn royalty known as the Eisenstadt family, creators of Sweet 'N Low. Cohen, the disinherited grandson of Ben Eisenstadt, inventor of the sugar packet and of Sweet 'N Low, offers one of the truest portraits of the American family that I can remember, complete with crazy aunts and uncles, hidden vendettas, dangling-carrot games of witheld fortune, selective memory, and love with sharply delineated borders.
Though the author's proclamations are, at times, a bit too vast in scope to be trusted, Sweet and Low should be read by anyone struggling to get a grip on the strivings of the past four generations that have made America what it is today. Topics range from sugarcane to Goodfellas. A deeply funny, well realized, compulsively readable book. |
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reviewed by: mizalmond |
May 2006 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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gregor the overlander
suzanne collins
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I love Y.A. books. That said, this one is particularly enjoyable and imaginative, to the point of almost being more engrossing than HARRY POTTER. Yes, I know this may sound like heresy, but if you have a kid in your life (I.E. anyone around 20 years old or less ;) you should definitely share this book with them.
The plot: Gregor is an 11-year-old guy who is stuck with more than his fair share of responsibilities due to his family's hardships ever since his father left. While babysitting his sister and folding laundry in his apartment's laundry room, his attention drifts for a minute and Boots falls down a weird laundry chute...Of course, Gregor has to follow her. This chute leads them to an underground world, complete with enormous talking cockroaches, bats, spiders...and rats. There are also humans, who have adapted over hundreds of years to life under the earth. Even as Boots makes friends with the roaches and anyone else she meets, Gregor tries to escape but the attempt is cut short by meeting two killer rats. He is rescued by some of the humans; and they explain to him that he is a warrior foretold in prophecy to protect them from the emerging rat army. This book is engrossing–I read the first one in 30 minutes, I couldn't put it down–and very enjoyable. While it may be written for a basic reading level, I thought it was better caliber-writing than Dan Brown's in "ANGELS & DEMONS." |
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reviewed by: victoria |
August 2005 [link] |
recommend
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home cooking: a writer in the kitchen
laurie colwin
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| Colwin was hip to the food writing scene way before anyone else was. She wrote essays for Gourmet for a long time and in addition to a few novels, she published two books about food and cooking. There are just no words to describe how lovely her writing is. Whether she's talking about how much she hates grilling out (her take on it is that if it's nice enough to eat outside, it's nice enough for bugs) or writing about awful meals she's had (like a casserole served to her by a "genuis" which was comprised of crunchy half-done rice, pineapple rings and breakfast sausage. she was happy there was only enough for one helping) her writing voice is soft and sweet and her food musings are comforting and delicious. She says she is not a fancy cook nor an ambitious one, just a plain old cook but i find that her recipes look divine and her writing is so simple but strong. The saddest part is that she died at the young age of 48 from heart failure in 1992 so it's hard to believe she's not contributing her candid thoughts to the food world anymore. I am looking forward to devouring her other food book as well as exploring her fiction writing. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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happy all the time
laurie colwin
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| Since becoming hooked on Colwin's food writing, I decided to take a look at her fiction and I wasn't disappointed. "Happy All the Time" takes a look at Vincent and Guido, third cousins and best friends that grow up together and once they're established with careers in the city, they start looking for serious love. Colwin really gets down to the nitty-gritty of relationships - all our fears and jealousies and gives Vincent and Guido complex and wonderful women to marry. There's so much wonderful humor (like the guy who speaks "British Nautical World War Two slang") and the time that it is set in is wonderful too (people smoke in their offices!). I'm going to be brave and say that I found the characters and their eccentric little nuances a bit Salingerish (which is a good thing) which made the whole novel just brilliant and cozy. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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a big storm knocked it over
laurie colwin
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This is the second novel I've read by Colwin and I'm in love with her formula of sweet characters, honest thoughts and simple writing. This book centers on marriage and motherhood and the friendship between Jane Louise and Edie and it contains the single best paragraph about the early weeks of motherhood i've ever read:
"Motherhood is a storm, a seizure: It is like weather. Nights of high wind followed by calm mornings of dense fog or brilliant sunshine that gives way to tropical rain, or blinding snow. Jane Louise and Edie found themselves swept away, cast ashore, washed overboard. It was hard to keep anything straight. The days seemed to congeal like rubber cement, although moments stood out in the clearest, starkest brilliance. You might string these together on a charm bracelet of your memory if you could keep your eyes open long enough to remember anything. Jane Louise had found herself asleep standing up at her kitchen counter, and Edie reported that she had passed out on a park bench."
So brilliant, and with each book I finish by Colwin, I miss her more and more (she died in 1992). |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2006 [link] |
recommend
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heart of darkness
joseph conrad
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| This book was assigned to me way back in high school. I still remember it (good sign as I'm late twenties now). I should re-read it soon. I just remember as a relative child recognizing that this book was way above my head, but that I bet it contained a meaning of life. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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blow fly
patricia cornwell
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| The bazillionith book (really, the eighth or ninth) in Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta mystery series, it was by far the worst hunk of words ever. I really liked all the other Scarpetta stories. I wish I'd read the Amazon.com reviews before wasting an afternoon reading it. Poo. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
February 2004 [link] |
recommend
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generation x
douglas coupland
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| When Douglas Coupland toured my school (university of GA), this very interesting girl who embodied all I wanted to be was in a film project with me. She asked me if I wanted to go and see the reading at a local bookstore. I thought anyone who openly thought they were generation x were total weirdos. It was like saying you're cool and looking through magazines and what your friends wore to buy your clothes. I thought for a moment to give Doug and the generation a chance based on her (Megan’s) influential opinion, but I didn't until much later (like a year). How stupid of me. Basically, these two books are what I wish my life and friends could aspire to. I wish so wholeheartedly that these characters existed so that I could try and be their friend. These books are pretty much philosophy books to me. (I can't really remember much of the difference between them). Once again, I was so stupid to believe what the "they" said. My liking these books still draws ridicule, but I stand by my opinion. When I first got on the Internet, I tried to find Doug's e-mail address repeatedly (like a hobby) because I heard that if you actually wrote to him, he considered going to see you and have lunch. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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the skull of truth: a magic shop book
bruce coville
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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. |
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reviewed by: victoria |
August 2005 [link] |
recommend
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if you really want to hear about it: writers on j.d. salinger and his work
catherine crawford (editor)
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Since I harbor a long-time obsession with J.D. Salinger's writing and a long-time fascination with J.D. Salinger as a writer, this book was a natural fit for me. The twenty-nine pieces in this book offer writers' critical views, personal views and personal experiences of Salinger and it is just swell. Individually, the essays are lively and funny and interesting; together, the essays make-up a mini-biography of a brilliant, wonderful and crazy man.
I loved Sarah Morrill's "A Brief Biography of J.D. Salinger" who has taken bits and pieces of Salinger info and made them into a question/answer piece that is provocative and informative. In it she points out that "those who have made contact with Salinger appear to be among the most stupid people on Earth" and I couldn't agree more. Especially when you read the Salinger "interview" Betty Eppes wrote in 1981 for the Paris Review (she's a Tab drinker, for chrissakes). There's an excerpt from Joyce Maynard's telling memoir "At Home in the World" (I cringe at this inclusion because I didn't like the book and also, it gives me too much creepy information about Salinger that I just don't want to know) and an excerpt from Salinger's daughter's memoir who claims that Salinger has all his unpublished work organized and ready to be published after his death. While I don't plan on celebrating the man's death, I can't help but hope his death will mean a published Salinger story for this decade.
JB recommended this book to me and his wife, Joanna Smith Rakoff, has the best essay in the whole collection because it has the truest connection to Salinger as Smith Rakoff spent a year in 1996 as an assistant to Salinger's agent (and she's one of the few smart people that gets to meet him). One of her responsibilities was to read and respond to the letters written to Salinger that were sent in care of the his agent. Of course, she was supposed to respond with a form letter but her heart gets the best of her and one reason I loved this essay so much was that it reminded me of my favorite Salinger story, "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period", from "Nine Stories".
The writings included in this book span five decades and I loved reading the critiques of Salinger's work when it first came out as well as recent thoughts of his work and life. Salinger is a great and famous writer but being a recluse has heightened that fame so much so that we really DO want to hear about it. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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sarek
a. c. crispin
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| This is my second star trek book. I checked it out of the library as a joke to go along with the first joke star trek book that my lover bought me as a joke, but hey I like science fiction and mysteries...unless they're horrible and bland, I can read anything (see "the Stand" where I had to try seven or eight times before I could finish it). |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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the passage
justin cronin
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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! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2010 [link] |
recommend
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i was told there'd be cake
sloane crosley
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| These days, writing a book chock full of hilarious essays will not doubt get you compared to David Sedaris (which isn't a bad thing at all), but Sloane Crosley takes it to a whole new level in this collection of essays. She writes about everything from her days at summer camp (where they'd make torches out of a stick and a flaming maxi pad) to her work as an admin assistant to a book editor, a relationship that quickly goes sour (maybe it's because she made a cookie in the likeness of said editor). Her tale of moving between apartments and getting locked out not once, but twice in one day pretty much sums up both the convenience and inconvenience of living in the big city - all in all, an amusing and highly entertaining book. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend
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columbine
dave cullen
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i usually read a few books at a time, juggling at least one non-fiction and one fiction book. when i picked 'columbine' up, i didn't go back to the novel until i had reached the final pages of this one. i know that pulitzers are usually handed out to nonfiction books with more worldly themes, but i am not sure we'll see, in 2009, a more powerful, revealing, and insightful meditation on what is clearly a growing world phenomenon. after i finished 'columbine' and returned to the novel i had been reading, i was struck by that recurring notion that, although novels can teach us truths that cannot always be revealed in non-fiction, more often than not true stories are stranger, more complex, and more visceral than anything that can be dreamed up.
'columbine' is the culmination of journalist dave cullen's 10 years of on-the-scene coverage of the infamous school shootings. cullen is perhaps one of the leading experts on the event due to this dedication to understanding every aspect of the massacre, the killers, their victims, the media coverage, the local politics, the path that led to the tragedy, and its aftershocks. the book is scholarly and authorative without being bookish and clinical, yet it is also gripping and explicit without veering into typical true crime sensationalism. cullen skillfully weaves together, via fast fowards and rewinds and numerous scene changes, the months leading up to the events, the media fallout, the histories and outcomes of numerous key figures, until the final chapters which end with descriptions of eric and dylan's 'basement tapes' (videos of their rants and final words), and the incredibly eerie reconstruction of their attack through their last seconds before their suicides.
the most notable contribution cullen provides here (there are many notable ones) is perhaps the tearing down of the myths associated with the tragedy. everything we have been led to believe about columbine is wrong. the media created their own narrative, their own motives, and fleshed out the killers and their victims with whatever seemed compelling. the media ran with it and we ate it up.
these killings were not about anger towards a certain type of person. these kids did not set out to kill jocks, bullies, or popular kids. music and video games did not fuel these killings. both of these kids were not of the same mindset. the 'trench coat mafia' was a bogus angle. this was not meant to be a shooting at all. it was meant to be a bombing. their parents loved them. they were intelligent and social and had friends and jobs. they were like many kids you see every day at the mall or hanging out at the pizza joint.
this is the worst nightmare for parents of any children. yes, it would be terrible to lose your child to a school massacre, but imagine your own child as the one who massacred. either scenario is unimaginably horrifying. they why's never stop coming. quite honestly, there is not one ingredient to this particular event that could be considered key. what we had here was a perfect storm. two kids with two different personalities and two different mental illnesses. two kids with very different motives, who wanted two very different things out of life. could the events have been stopped? yes. was there any one event or sign that could have single-handedly indicated that these events were actually going to occur? it's arguable.the sad part is that this perfect storm included several missed chances by several figures and organizations to follow up, to potentially unearth evidence of a conspiracy to commit mass murder. or better yet, to get these kids the treatment they so desperately needed.
cullen has provided us with an invaluable dissection of one of the most elusive tragedies in american history. every parent, teacher, law enforcement officer, every principal would be well served to pick this up. |
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reviewed by: ericS |
May 2009 [link] |
recommend 4 thumbs up
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touching from a distance: ian curtis & joy division
deborah curtis
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| 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. |
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reviewed by: kelly |
August 2004 [link] |
recommend
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