Sarca
In my top five reads of 2007! I remember this book causing controversy when it was released 10 years ago. The true story of how J.D. Salinger encourages 18-year-old Maynard to move in with him, and a year later he tells her to “pack her things,” without explanation. I really enjoyed this story. This isn't so much the story of her relationship with Salinger, but her life before, and how her life changed after the relationship ended. Heart-wrenching and beautiful. A great read.
[bc:The World Below 886263 The World Below Sue Miller http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179186656s/886263.jpg 1029502]The second Sue Miller book I cracked open. I remember that I read this as the SARS outbreak was wrecking havoc in my community. At this time I was working in a hospital kitchen and had to wear masks and surgical gowns to protect myself from a potential threat of getting SARS or spreading it to others. This book seemed to parallel how I felt suffocated by the costume I had to wear while doing my job, especially the imagery of the Grandmother in this story who was institutionalized for TB back in the 1920s. Also, the description of the town submerged in water, particularly the part of looking through the surface of the water and seeing the church steeple below the water's surface haunts me.
This memoir by Neil Peart takes the reader through his solo travels through North America on motorcycle while he overcomes the grief from the loss of his partner and teenaged daughter within months of each other. I swear, I think I cried at some point in every chapter. Descriptively written and very honest. Highly recommended.
One way I can gauge whether I really like a book is if I would be interested in rereading the tale. This book is one of those. I am not even sure what year I read this story (I'm guessing 2002, but who knows), but I remember I borrowed it from my Mum, and that I was at the camp, reading this by the lake (no better place, imo...). While I was Gone was my introduction to Sue Miller, and it has since invited me to read other Miller titles (The Good Mother, the World Below).
So here's the tale: In 1968, Jo was married but decides to wontonly abandon it all to go live a bohemian life under an alias and live in rooming house with some people. All this seems inconsequential when we are spun forward to her current life: she is now a veterinarian, married to a Pastor of a church and has three grown children. But one of her flatmates happens to move into her little town and thus drudges up memories of her past when, while living in the rooming house, something so heinous happened that causes her current life to unravel.
This book happens to be an Oprah Book Club selection...even though I'm really not a fan of Oprah, she has chosen some interesting reading selections. If you hate Oprah, just pretend I didn't say anything and read this book on its own merits. While I Was Gone is great book, not so much for suspense, but for a flowing prose that easily gets you lost on summer afternoons by the lake.
I had never read anything of Ramsey Campbell's before, so I had no idea how or what he wrote. I found this book, was interested in the synopsis, and that was that. I can say that I have never been so bored out of my mind by a book written in the horror genre in my whole life. The prose was hard to get into, and, if memory serves, the synopsis on the back of the book was far removed from the story I was reading. I gave the book up and lent it to a friend who also felt the same. Maybe his short stories are better?
I first read this book in 1997. Being a RUSH fan, I was eagerly anticipating this book's release, and I was not disappointed. The man takes us on a journey through West Africa- on a bike!! His experiences were so thoughtfully written, and it didn't take me long to breeze through this memoir. I have since read it twice more. It's certainly one of his best.
Here's a weird story: this book was at our elementary school library and either my sisor I had taken it out once and never brought it back. I'm not sure how this happened, but a total clean-out of our stuff (closets, under bed, toy box, etc) we found the copy of Treehorn. I think I still have it somewhere...
Gorey's drawings totally scared and intrigued me as a kid. This story was a little funky: Treehorn (odd name for starters) is shrinking (literally) and everyone notices, but no one will pull their heads out to help the poor kid. I suppose the story is a metaphor for life, but for a scaredy cat like me growing up, I thought that I could also shrink.
I read this book after watching the show, and maybe that is unfair of me. But, simply put, I didn't enjoy it and didn't finish it. I totally admit that I enjoyed the show more, and totally admit my critique might have been different had I read the book first and watched the show later.
Terrible. Mostly it was the writing that wasn't good. Why did it take two people to write this? The story itself was very tongue-in-cheek, and I get that. But the writing was just BAD.
Re-read this after many years. I had originally rated it 4 stars...now? 2. It was depressing. The characters were all completely unappealing right down to the children. Very patriarchal and misogynistic. How did I make it through this book back then??
My sister got this book for x-mas a long time ago, and I was fascinated by the stories it told, particularly ghost stories, spontaneous human combustion and others. The stories and pictures would frighten me, but I'd continue reading. I have since acquired my sister's copy and pull it off the shelf from time to time.
This was a good project in theory. It intrigued me that someone would dedicate an entire year to the task of cooking every single meal in a Julia Child cook book. Questions were raised when I first started the book: Did Julie survive the year? Did she resent her project eventually? Alas, I really couldn't get past her neurotic ways. I've also decided I don't really like reading about the process of cooking. I did, however, want to read more about Julia Child's history, but that desire could fulfilled reading some other book about Julia. I didn't finish this.