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wampeters, foma & granfalloons
kurt vonnegut, jr.
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| I've never read a Kurt Vonnegut book. I've either seen or wanted to see a movie version of "Slaughterhouse Five" with I'm thinking Julie Christie in the cast? I think I was afraid he would have the diarrhea of the mouth syndrome that so annoys me about Tom Robbins (and hell yes Myself). But kent let me borrow this amazing book on New Year's Eve whilst mark was out of town finishing up his commercial. This book may be out of print and thus just be on the lookout at yardsales and used book stores (or maybe www.21.northmainstreet.com (that website that "the writer's notebook" prarie home companion guy on npr always plugs). Anyway, I'm glad I didn't read it earlier because I would have thought I was copying him, but no, it appears that both kurt vonnegut, jr et moi seem to have arrived at the self-same conclusion. You'll have to read this book to see what I'm talking about. Discover the short essays/jewels in whatever order you do, but I personally am throwing out for discussion the theory that the essay entitled "In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself" (maybe this particular essay is availble online for free?) is a horrifying parallel to the self-same afhghanistan thing going on now. Indira's Net anyone? Please read it if you care. (And watch "Red" on some highdolla weeed for heightened "ohmigod" factor - blue, red, and white is the order I myself came upon this movie. THANK YOU VISION VIDEO in ATHENS, GA for existing.) |
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reviewed by: kristen |
January 2002 [link] |
recommend
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water for elephants
sara gruen
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| No doubt you've seen this book everywhere. It's all the rage. Is it worthy? Yes, as it's well-written and Gruen's topic of circuses in the 1930s is fascinating and well-researched. Jacob is the narrator and he's either "ninety or ninety-three". He spends his time at the nursing home recollecting his time with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, which he ran away with after his parents died in a car accident and left him broke and alone. He falls for one of the performers who is married to an abusive and crazy animal trainer and it sets off a sad, downward spiral of effecting many lives and results in the demise of the circus. There's a happy sub-ending and then a weird final ending - he runs away to the circus AGAIN at age 90 (or 93) - a little shmaltzy for me but it didn't make the book any less fantastic. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2007 [link] |
recommend
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way of the peaceful warrior, the
dan millman
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| This new age book was recommended to me by some dude named Gary who lived next to Kent and I when I first moved to Wilmington. I was going through my post college hangover in a town where my best friend just left because he was in love with my ex-boyfriend then my ex-boyfriend turned not ex then turned ex. Anyway, I was very low. This next door neighbor in these horrible college cookie cutter apartments, Gary, couldn't be avoided one day. He came over and introduced himself while I was drinking my Miller High Life 12-pack and listening to the radio (there was no tv in our apartment, and I hadn't yet gotten a job or found my bearings towards the library). Gary then developed some "psychic" fixation to me and told me how meant for each other we were. Normally, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, but I didn't feel anything but bitterness. Anyhoo, he recommended this book which he said was fabulous - absolutely great. He said the really awesome meaning of life part was at the VERY END. He said it all made sense at THE END. Gary said he laughed for a full ten minutes AT LEAST. I was intriuged, read it, didn't laugh, and can't even remember the ending. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
May 2000 [link] |
recommend
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way through the woods
colin dexter
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I read this book because the author was recommended to me
by an Englishman who scoffed at my like of the Ruth Rendell
series. This Dexter author is pretty good. He's somewhere
above the Richard Jury series that Martha Grimes writes.
This book was very satisfying in places. I enjoyed
the "character thrusts" that the author made such as
showing us that men do indeed appreciate women. It was a
nice little yarn. .. nothing too deep. A nice romp in the English
countryside. It all starts when a Swedish student goes
missing and she's hot hot hot! |
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reviewed by: kristen |
March 2001 [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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what i loved
siri hustvedt
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| It’s a mysterious painting that begins a lifelong friendship between art professor Leo Hertzberg and artist Bill Wechsler. Hustvedt’s novel details the lives of these two men and their respective families and how their paths become intertwined. Especially compelling are her detailed descriptions of the pieces that Wechler creates, becoming more complex as the novel progresses. The only minor gripe I have is that the third part of the novel detours in a wholly unexpected and somewhat mundane direction and seems at times like a different novel. That said, the novel manages to be a compelling page turner throughout, becoming an especially frantic one in the last hundred pages |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
June 2004 [link] |
recommend
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what the dead know
laura lippman
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| I love discovering "new" authors and Laura Lippman has a whole slew of books that play to my mysterious thriller side. "What the Dead Know" is her most recent and it's awesomely creepy. In 1975, two sisters disappear from a mall and are presumed dead. Thirty years later a woman is hospitalized after an accident and she is claiming to be one of the sisters and has a whopper of a tale to tell. Good detective work and the reappearance of the mother culminate in an even better tale. Several times in this book I find myself saying "Wow, I did not see that coming!"; the unpredictable ending was a satisfying surprise. Good beach/vacation read. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2008 [link] |
recommend
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what would jackie do?
shelly branch
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| I unapologetically am obsessed with the Kennedys and I ate up this fluffy, silly book with glee. I love reading that Jackie O would've loved Botox, would not hesitate to re-gift and raised her children to be anti-brats just by being involved and enthusiastic about life (okay, summers on the Cape helped, too). The book is easy to breeze through with chapters on make-up, home decorating, career and love. Lots of little tips at the end of the chapters just make you just for a second feel a bit more glam and a lot more Jackie even if you don't have a billionaire tycoon bank account. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend
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why i'm like this: true stories
cynthia kaplan
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| Kaplan has compiled this book of essays exploring her childhood and adulthood a la david sedaris. funny and touching, she writes about summer camp escapades and school dance nightmares as well as a wonderful essay on dealing with your parents getting older and the point when you realize that they are just human. skip around or read it all at once and ponder why you're the way you are. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
December 2004 [link] |
recommend
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wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the west
gregory maguire
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| I'm a little late in reading this, since it was already made into a Broadway musical, but this imaginative and engrossing read is worth the trip back to the published date of 1996. In "Wicked" we meet the WWoTW when she is first born - mean and green. We meet her sister and her college roommate- Glinda (destined to be Glinda the Good Witch). The story is very mystical and fantastic and other-wordly. This book makes you see the original Oz story and movie in a whole new light and you'll learn the WWoTW wasn't so wicked after all. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2005 [link] |
recommend
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winter's bone
daniel woodrell
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| The aptly named "Winter's Bone" truly is bone chilling. Woodrell writes about his native Ozarks in winter with such clarity that I found myself heaping on the blankets. It doesn't help that his backwoods characters are so poor that they lack adequate food, shelter and clothes making the tale even chillier. I desperately wanted to send 16-year old main character, Ree Dolly, warm clothes and a non-mentally ill mother who will take care of her and her younger brothers. The Dolly father is the best meth chef in the area and when he skips out on bail again, it's up to Ree to track him down. The only difference this time is that it's practically a matter of life or death since her father has put their ramshackle house and land on the line – if he doesn't show up to court, Ree and the family are out in the streets. Ree is just about the toughest female character I've ever come across – wise beyond her age, smart and determined. You pray through the whole book for her to come out a winner – and she does, but not without sacrifices. The book also portrays the near-clannish society of the Ozarks and it would be downright creepy if it weren't so damn interesting and well-written. I'm so excited to read Woodrell's other books that I don't even know where to start (actually, I do – it's "The Death of Sweet Mister". Read along if you want.). |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
May 2009 [link] |
recommend
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with a tangled skein
piers anthony
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| I came to this author by way of my new love of personality testing (I’m an INFJ and a 4). This author was listed as the same type of personality as me, and as I’m always on the lookout for new things to read, I looked him up. He was a fantasy author who had about two shelves of books. I sighed as I’m a sucker for fantasy and still have a lingering fear that reading it makes me a sci-fi geek (but as I’m a personality type four, I am fear based). I chose this book because it didn’t say "Fourth in the Dangor series" or "Dragon/Unicorn’s Plight". This book was really really good. It may be because I had such low expectations, but I truly enjoyed this thinly veiled fictionalized view on fate, spirituality, and unity of life. It wasn’t pure perfection. The human relationships were a bit sketchy and anesthetic, but the imagination displayed was great. The book deals with a beautiful but average woman who falls in love and gets more than a happy/lovey life. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
October 2000 [link] |
recommend
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women
charles bukowski
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| Now we should all have read my archives by now and know that I’m a perky, proud Bukowski lover. I probably even said something like ‘although he sure is a jerk to women, I feel he is an honest jerk and I like him". This book was a bit boring and gruesome. I borrowed this book from my friend Timmy. He was surprised that I wanted to read it. As I’m reviewing it right now, I do realize that in it’s long entirety, Women is a good catalog of a man screwing women who want to be screwed. Mostly I would have preferred that this book not be written, and I could have lived in my sheltered world thinking how wonderful Charles Buckowski’s short stories and poems and "Post Office". I’m much more into the "life is an amusing rat race – people don’t think" sentiment . |
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reviewed by: kristen |
October 2000 [link] |
recommend
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word
coerte v. w. felske
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| At first I thought this book was going to be a silly romp through silly Los Angeles and another one of those: Los Angeles can be categorized by three things: look at me, look at me, make me famous. But hey, I bit. It turned out to be a "Catcher in the Rye" for a jaded feller. There's an image of debauchery in the latter half of this big book that still makes me cringe. This is a great book if you are at an impasse in your life and wonder if you are going to be famous or a loser. Although the ending turned out a bit pat pat pat, it was still a very nice read. I liked how it changed gears like a ride from Los Angeles to the desert must change. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
October 2000 [link] |
recommend
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word freak: heartbreak, triumph, genius, and obsession in the world of competitive scrabble players
stefan fatsis
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This book was so delish. Wall Street Journal sport reporter Stefan Fatsis takes a year to infiltrate the world of scrabble competitions. Not only does he learn to play competitively, it’s the most interesting cast of characters since Happyrobot! I am a scrabble nut (yes, I have “Travel Scrabble” which I force my husband to play on flights and in hotel rooms) so I devoured this book. The most interesting bit of the story is that competitive scrabble players aren’t necessarily super-smart, they’re just strategic and have good memorization skills. They know hundreds and hundreds of words – but they don’t know what the definitions are. They know that “zoa” is an acceptable scrabble word – but have no idea how to use it in a sentence (other than “hey, I just made the word “zoa” for 1600 points!”)
Happy reading (and spelling)!
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reviewed by: lisa may |
November 2002 [link] |
recommend
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writings of marie de france
marie de france
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| I'm still looking for a book of these I can re-read from when I read her book for a course in college (then sold it back for a greatly-reduced amount but still money of course). From what I remember, Marie de France was like a Beowulf/Canterbury Tales-era author who had very wry stories. One of my theories about humans is that we were all pretty lucent and had the same problems as always like meaning of life, does love last, etc from the time our food/shelter problem was pretty well solved 'til now, BUT we haven't really progressed on any answers. I seem to have the idea planted in my subconcious that this Marie de France lady had some answers that I need to re-read. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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written on the body
jeannette winterson
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| This is the only other book by Jeannette that I really really like (although I have tried them all). This was my first Jeannette. I was leafing through employee picks at the old downtown Bristol Books (in Wilmington, NC) when I looked through another one of Niki's picks (she had the best taste although I find employee picks often dodgy). It was a hard bound edition. I was just killing time not really in the financial frame to buy, but the first page of Written on the Body made me look around the store - honestly mystified- as if some strange cataclysmic event had happened and some earth opening event was about to befall me. I was at the time living on $160 a week from my salary at Rare Cargo, so I would go into the store periodically (it wasn't in the library) to read more of the book. Finally, I saved enough to purchase it. The rest of the book never quite lived up to the first page, but it was a beautiful story of of red-haired woman (she always uses red heads) being pursued by a lover and what befalls. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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written on the body
jeanette winterson
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I LOVE THIS BOOK's OPENING.
I'll re-review this one. I was standing in the bookstore just perusing titles. I was in Bristol Books downtown and it had employee pick tags under books. Nikki seemed to have good taste, so I was reading her picks. One of them was this book (did you already guess?). I picked it up and read the first sentence. I got chills and looked around. UNDER NO INFLUENCE OF DRUGS, I thought someone was talking to me within my mind. I looked around the bookstore expecting a light to flash or something, but no, the world resumed to normal. I was very poor at the time, so I kept returning to the bookstore to read this passage until I could afford the book (not in library). I often recommend this book to heartsick friends as well. This one had a powerful start with a whimper end, unlike The Passion which had a slow slow start and very full, rich body. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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