Carla
I was disappointed. The book lacks insight for Brent's behavior; he doesn't even seem curious about why he set himself on fire. He also doesn't seem to have much understanding for the effect his actions had on his parents and his older brother. Instead, the book focuses on his becoming aroused during physical therapy, which nurses might want to have sex with him, and what famous people reached out to him. At fourteen, Brent was obsessed with girls, his own sense of humor, and himself. There does not seem to be any adult perspective in this book, written in adulthood. Instead, Brent seems to think his attempted self-immolation now makes him special. As a therapist, and as a reader, this approach saddens me.
This is the weakest, by far, of the books about and by the Warrens. The reason: the writing caliber, combined with weak editing. Misplaced commas abound, and sentence structure is, at times, odd. At some points the prose is strangely florid:The silence in that valley of shadows is shattered by the echoes of the tragedy carried on the murmuring winds.I recommend [b:The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren 1139129 The Demonologist The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren Gerald Brittle http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wlRQ5KlpL.SL75.jpg 1126397].
Glad I went to Heck!
This book, thanks to Bronson Pinchot's skillful narration, and to the sly cultural references sprinkled throughout, was one of the best audiobook listens I've ever experienced. I commute to see my clients, and this book was more than welcome company at work. Cannot wait to listen to its sequel!
Chopped stars off my rating after reading [b:Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties 43015073 Chaos Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties Tom O'Neill https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543561687l/43015073.SY75.jpg 66837472]. Bugliosi was not only a stalker and a woman beater, but he committed so many deliberate legal errors in the Manson trails that the defendants deserve new trials, and he should have been disbarred. What I read in [a:Tom O'Neill 623923 Tom O'Neill https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s book about his suppressed evidence and created motives, findings verified by attorney Stephen Kay, horrified me. No matter what the Manson defendants did–and what they did was horrible–they deserved fair trials. And they didn't receive them by half, thanks to Bugliosi. There are proven lies in Helter Skelter.Verily, I am shooketh. And disgusted.
I'll let part of [a:Stephen King 3389 Stephen King http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg]'s blurb on the back cover speak for me:Sharp Objects isn't one of those scare-and-retreat books; its effect is cumulative. I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights.
I cannot recommend this series enough, nor give it high enough praise:1. [b:A Great and Terrible Beauty 3682 A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle, #1) Libba Bray http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1284558475s/3682.jpg 2113193]2. [b:Rebel Angels 51428 Rebel Angels (Gemma Doyle, #2) Libba Bray http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266459948s/51428.jpg 1696926]3. [b:The Sweet Far Thing 127459 The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3) Libba Bray http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266478069s/127459.jpg 3072872]
It engrossed me with its concept, and with its imagery. I kept thinking, “I can see this as a movie!”. Lo and behold, it has been filmed (trailer; ,Netflix).
What ruined it for me was the ending. Not the plot's ending, but the actual ending of the novel, the last few lines. In a horror novel that invokes the epic struggle between good and evil, evil beings should not be “shoo!”‘ed away.
“Shoo!” Really?
My complaint about Connelly's detectives: their horrible taste in women. It's distracting. McCaleb or Bosch falls completely for a needy/pushy/damaged/mentally ill/selfish/fill-in-the-blank woman, and I, as the reader, am distracted from the actual mystery at hand by my thoughts of why? and don't let her do that to you!
I've just read two different articles about Pelzer's work, and now my take is: I am glad I read this book, and I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to read the rest of them. Certain quotes disturbed me:
But there is a creepier reason for Pelzermania. He has turned child abuse into entertainment. Pelzer likes to be known as the guy who “makes child abuse fun.” He repeatedly refers to himself as “Robin Williams in glasses.” His public appearances are manic and joking, filled with imitations of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton. He craves a career in stand-up comedy. (If Schadenfreude is joy at others' sorrow, what is joy at your own?)
Pelzer frequently purchases his own books for his signings at a discount and then sells them at list price. It is not clear whether these sales alone keep his books on the best-seller lists. The big bookselling chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders, as well as huge stores like Wal-Mart and online sellers like Amazon, refuse to release specific sales numbers. So if they sell 10,000 copies of ‘‘A Child Called ‘It''' in a week, there is no way to know whether that was made up of bulk sales or the combined individual sales from all their stores. Still, those 10,000 books would be tallied for best-seller purposes.
It feels really strange to give this four stars, stating, therefore, that I “really liked it”. It gave me the creeps, it made me uncomfortable, it made me sad. But I am glad I read it...and, as much as someone could, I did really enjoy reading it.
Do I think O.J. Simpson killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman? Yes.
Do I think the murder scene in chapter 6 of this book is hypothetical, as stated by Simpson? No.
This book was exactly what I expected and wanted it to be: a relaxing read. If you read a book with “Gossip” in the title, and expect [b:East of Eden 4406 East of Eden John Steinbeck http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309212913s/4406.jpg 2574991] or [b:The Great Gatsby 4671 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1273944449s/4671.jpg 245494], you're going to be sorely disappointed...and as disgusted as other reviewers here on Goodreads. Otherwise–have fun! That's what books like this are for!
I was pleasantly surprised by this library book, since I'm have uneven experiences with XRX's knitting books. While the patterns are enjoyable, the photography is often...odd.
Alexis Xenakis likes to use the same models repeatedly in the same book, so that nearly every pattern might be worn by That One Blonde Lady. He also tends to go for artsy, fashion shots, instead of simple, clean photos that show the knits. Some of his models, therefore, often looks angry or pouty, which works sometimes in high fashion, but not in a knitting book. Not for me, anyway.
The photography, with a few exceptions, was not what I'm come to expect from XRX, and rather just showed each design in one, clean, face forward shot. Much more enjoyable to browse for possible patterns. I definitely will be working some of these.
I wanted more details on a few facts. For instance, Davis stated that no evidence wrt mitigating circumstances was given, per Darlie Routier's instructions to her attorneys. Mitigating circumstances were the only thing standing between her and the death penalty! No reason is given.
On the whole, though, this is an excellent book about the case, and gets more to the heart of motive than other works about the murder of Damon and Devon Routier.
Robert Graysmith does not understand his subject, a woman with whom he's admittedly been “obsessed” for decades. Let me list the ways:1. He states Marli Renfro is modest. –> On nude shoots, she always does long, limbering exercises in the nude in front of cast and crew. She is a nudist who enjoys being watched.2. He states Renfro is in no way pretentious or vain. –>On the Psycho shoot, she once got dressed in some of her most expensive clothing and lingered for thirty minutes in the shower set after hours, in hopes someone would notice that she was as stylish as Janet Leigh.3. He states Renfro is so unassuming that she doesn't even care that she is famous (in a loose usage of that word) or has been an admired nude model –> When Graysmith finally met Renfro, he ran into her thanks to Ebay, where he and she both were searching for pictures of Renfro. Renfro admitted she was amassing a collection her own nude shots.4. He states that she is unique, that Renfro looks like nobody else. –> One photograph of Renfro included in the book looks like Marilyn Monroe. A couple of pictures of an aged Renfro look remarkably like Frances Fisher.Basically, I find Renfro insufferable, an arrogant, self-absorbed woman who seems to believe that Psycho's success was due to her, a body double, rather than Janet Leigh, or Anthony Perkins, or Alfred HItchcock. I was enthralled by Graysmith's books investigating the Zodiac murders: [b:Zodiac 105760 Zodiac Robert Graysmith http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1297734691s/105760.jpg 1258126] and [b:Zodiac Unmasked 9205947 Zodiac Unmasked Robert Graysmith http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283378822s/9205947.jpg 101943]. This book left me disappointed and, frankly, irritated. I'm sorry I was ever introduced to Marli Renfro.The murder victims of Henry “Sonny” Busch, a real-life Norman Bates, have been overshadowed by repeated descriptions of Renfro's nipples. A true shame.