Sarah
This should count as reading at least 3 books because it's so huge. I would not recommend the audio as I found Solomon's narration a little grating, but this is quite a fascinating book all the same. I grew a little weary of the endless examples, especially in the first half of the book, although it's always a fascinating glimpse into how families work.
I'm really not a fan of short stories (bad English major!) but I enjoyed this collection. I think it could have been strong as a novel as well, if reconstructed. A good peek at the different lives led in a military base. I did feel one character, the one suffering from PTSD, could have been strengthened and portrayed more empathetically.
I have such fond memories of devouring these books as a child! Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well Harriet has fared in the passing decades. She certainly speaks to some essential truths of American childhood, including the distance and unknowability of parents (those mysterious creatures!) and the “mean girls” phenomena. Still, I'm afraid the book will be too slow and Harriet too upper-class to be a current classic.
I have to say that I much prefer the audio version of this book. Kimmel reads it and has a sweet voice that makes her childhood antics all the funnier. Listening while driving also makes the chapters, which are almost stand-alone essays, string together. By far one of the best-written memoirs I've read.
Is this supposed to be 21st century literature? I thought it was drivel. The world Eggers creates is too close to our own to avoid judgement, so I found myself yelling back at the audiobook and telling Mae to grow a brainstem, preferably attached to a spine. Why, oh why, can non one think for themselves in this novel? Does Eggers have such a low opinion of humanity that he paints us as one-dimensional and solely “progress” driven? I can't believe this book would receive much acclaim if written by a lesser known author.
An excellent kids' book, and worth a read by adults as well. Curtis touches on some important and underrepresented racial issues - our young heroine loses interest in reading when she doesn't see herself & world reflected in literature; teachers demonstrate a simmering prejudice. This books, as it deals with the Depression, feels especially relevant now. I did feel a strong disconnect between the first part of the book and the last half, after a series of tragedies hits the Malone family. I wish Curtis had done more to tie the novel together, but I fell in love with Deza Malone and her wonderful, strong, and loving family.
Another thoroughly charming addition to this series! The audiobook narrator does such a wonderful job of creating the characters through voice and I adore the little yips and howls of the “wolf children.” The mysteries of ancestry and curses deepen in this installment as Penelope and the children travel to Penny's alma matter for the C.A.K.E - Celebrate Alumni Knowledge Exposition.
Very close to a four-star book, actually, but I'm not feeling generous today :) I was completely swept up in the tragedy of Shannon's early life as she bounces between foster homes and suffers the indignity of not knowing who she is. Celona emphasizes the importance of family in creating identity, but Shannon cannot move forward until she understands her past. Things disintegrated for me towards the middle of the book, as Shannon struggles through adolescence. and though I appreciated the empathy and kindness of strangers towards the end of the novel, it felt a bit forced. And even though she forms the structure Y, Shannon's mom, Yula, didn't seem fully realized.
I don't know why I bothered to finish this book. It has potential, certainly, but fails to rise past the manuscript stage. Dulcie, a grad student in English lit, loves books, cats, and three-bean burgers. When another grad student in her program is murdered, Dulcie finds the mystery of his death intertwined with problems of authenticity in her own thesis. Unfortunately for the reader, Dulcie suffers from the humanities scholar's all too common malady - obsessive introspection. Clea Simon, the author, never let's us out of Dulcie's head, which is especially disconcerting since the book is written in the third person. My other bone of contention is the pacing. The murder takes place within pages of the opening chapter, Dulcie broods about it and her thesis for 200 pages, and then all is solved in three pages. Simon, I believe in an effort to spread suspicion among the characters, makes the characters needlessly complex but never gives them the substance to support such roles.
I started listening to this and had to stop about a quarter of the way through. This is a frankly depressing, and worse, hopeless, story. The girls are all born into the working poor, most from young, single mothers and many raised by grandmothers. Their lives are riddled with addiction, petty crime, drug abuse, and violence. I honestly could not keep track of the characters - the girls were living copies of their mothers, who never strayed far from their own mothers' bleak, bleak lives.
I couldn't see a reason to like or respect anyone in this book, so I just stopped. I'm not quite sure why this book received any acclaim - I thought death would come as a blessing after such a bleak life. Perhaps that's cruel, but I blame the author for not engaging my sympathies.
