lisa's reviews
Reading is the only thing in the world I am good at. A lifetime of reading, fifteen years of working in bookstores, and libraries, and an obsession with the written word makes me qualified enough to talk someone's ear off about books. Now I am getting more ARCs than I have room for in the house. Let me get back to reading them!
I spent more than a week picking up this book and reading a few paragraphs, only to put it down after deciding it was too heavy for me. Finally I decided to sit down and read ten pages before deciding to give up completely. Before I knew it I had read 62 pages, and was so involved in the story that I couldn't imagine doing anything else but reading it. It was very, very sad. It was sad all the way through the last pages, but it was so well written, and so heartfelt. The characters were completely believable and although at times the prose was a little much (I skipped whole paragraphs when I decided I didn't care about every tiny detail that didn't seem that important to the story) overall this was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The author's notes at the back referred to a lot of books he had read about Chechnya, some of which I am eager to read also.
Reading Laurie Notaro can be a breath of fresh air, especially after reading a lot of heavy novels, and serious non-fiction. Some of her essays seemed a little off (those were the ones I skipped, like the one written like a screenplay) but most of them were funny and fun to read. There seemed to be a lot of typos in my copy (it was NOT an ARC) but editing issues aside, I really enjoyed reading this. How does she keep ending up in these kinds of situations?
I really liked some of this book, especially the chapter about dreams (which was most of the reason I picked this up in the first place) although parts of it were very boring. Ironically, this is a great book to read while falling asleep since parts of it make your mind wander, and reading about falling asleep seems to put ideas into your head....
I feel so happy that so many YA books coming out this year are historical fiction about independent girls who don't fall in love in one day, who have believable adventures, and make an amazing journey of self-discovery. Belle Epoque is one of these books, even based on a short story from 19th century Paris. (Which I am looking forward to reading; I have never read short stories by Zola.) Descriptions of Paris and its exciting new toys of the time, including the Eiffel Tower and the camera were fun to read, and I really liked the ending.
There are much better books about this same subject. The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, or anything by Michael Pollan are a million times better than this book. There were so many statistics and facts, and long descriptions of boring experiments. In between all this dry recitation there were some interesting facts and interviews, but a lot of it felt like a rehashing of better written books (like the ones mentioned above), and I gave up after the sugar section. I gave it two stars (as opposed to one star) because I feel this is an important subject to discuss, and I appreciate someone writing another book on it, especially one that ended up on the NYT bestseller list.
This book reminds me of Notes on a Scandal, but not nearly as engaging......After trying for almost a week to make my way through this drivel I finally just skimmed through it to get to the amazing end I was promised. Of course, by that time I was just tired of the whole thing, and so the ending was very much a let down. I was sick of the characters and the voice of the novel fairly quickly.
Ok, I haven't actually tried any of the specific recipes of the book, but I have tried lots of other variations of the same recipes. These are the classics of American sweets, many of them old favorites that I love. And there was plenty of new goodies that I have never eaten, or never had a good recipe to try for myself. The history of all these good things to eat was icing on the cake (pardon the pun), and this could be my new go-to dessert cookbook! Excellent read, even if I never tried any of the recipes!
Chitra Divakaruni's writing keeps getting better. I found this to be my favorite book of hers so far, especially since she didn't succumb to certain plot twists I was sure she would do, and it wasn't overwritten with flowery sentiments like her earliest books. I thought the ending was a little too neat and tidy, but I enjoyed it anyway.
A good concept for a story, but the writing was a little dull. I found myself skimming over a lot of it, but I loved how this was a modern, twisted fairy tale that reminded me of the Grimm brothers, with a wry sense of humor. Some parts of the story seemed a little implausible, a little unrealistic, but so do the best fairy tales.
Don't Throw It Out: Recycle, Renew, and Reuse to Make Things Last
Some useful information, some ridiculous information, but a good book to have on the shelf when you are desperate to find a way to fix things, or just for ideas on ways to stretch the budget, or the life of your products.
At a first look this is a book about a loudmouthed man growing up in America, with a bunch of other loud men. But digging deeper, this is a story of boy coming of age in the 90's, the same time as me. Eddie Huang won me over with his pure love of hip-hop. YESSS!!!! I also remember the day Tupac died, the first time I heard The Chronic, Wu Tang Clan, and Bone Thugs, and listening to Digable Planets, Mos Def, and A Tribe Called Quest in my room late at night. His views on race and identity are interesting, his dialogues are hilarious, and I ended up tearing through this book in two days.
Interesting, but flat. Since a sociopath doesn't have emotions, this obviously wasn't meant to be a heartfelt memoir, but the simple laying out of the facts got very boring sometimes and I found myself skimming over many paragraphs. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about the upbringing and day to day life of a so-called sociopath.
A great memoir, some of it about coming of age in the Westboro Baptist Church, and some of it about growing up with the parents who were sucked into the church's orbit. Lauren Drain obviously grew up with insecure and immature, but extremely smart parents, and her book doesn't disguise this fact or pander to make you feel sorry for her, even though you do. I hope her brother and sisters come around to her some day, since it seems like the church won't survive for long with their crazy isolation and rules.
I enjoyed this book until the end when the whole thing felt more and more scattered.
I'm sorry, but there is nothing original about a story about women coming of age together, and continuing to share their ups and downs forever after. I tried to make it through this one, but it felt like every other feel-good story of female friendships.
