Such a beautiful book. A story about love, regret, hopes, and movies. What could be better? That makes it sound kind of corny, but I liked it. I'm try Such a beautiful book. A story about love, regret, hopes, and movies. What could be better? That makes it sound kind of corny, but I liked it. I'm trying to think of profound things to say, and that's about it. Highly recommend. ...more
I read this because I loved the chapter in Imagine on Pixar and I love Pixar. This was an interesting and informative history and it read really quick I read this because I loved the chapter in Imagine on Pixar and I love Pixar. This was an interesting and informative history and it read really quickly. I found it engaging even though a lot of the technology talk at the beginning of the book went right over my head. Lots of behind the scenes machinations and intrigue. ...more
We listened to the audio book version on a drive from Illinois to Pennsylvania, which was a good setting for contemplating hiking at least as many mil We listened to the audio book version on a drive from Illinois to Pennsylvania, which was a good setting for contemplating hiking at least as many miles. As Jenny's review highlights I'm sure a lot has changed on the Appalachian Trail (AT) since the writing of this and it sounds like most of it for the worse in terms of trees and wildlife. Bryson (as in his other books) remains funny and informative clearly adding a lot of his own research into the book. I like that Katz who initially seemed like he would be nothing more than a dismal failure turns into a comic companion.
However, throughout the book I couldn't help but make the comparisons to Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. The most notable difference between the two experiences is money. Namely that Bryson as an established author had money with him on the trail and it provides a fair amount of comfort. It's hard not to read this book after reading Wild and feel that when the tough got going, Bryson opted out. That might seem like harsh criticism from someone who in no way plans to undertake a task of that magnitude. By Strayed's own admission she was bullheaded about her plans to hike the PCT, and plenty ill-prepared at that. Still despite trouble and hardship (and the damned pack) she pressed on in part because she didn't have a lot of other options. Still it's hard not to see the effect that a fall-back money cushion has on the psyche. When Strayed stops she is normally counting coins to shower, sometimes struggling to find a place to stay and buy some real food. Bryson and Katz pop off the trail every few days, and no mention is made of how much their food and lodging cost. It's an interesting and stark comparison between the two books and their eventual outcomes.
Still Bryson's book is funny, engaging and informative like his other travel books and takes more of a contemplative turn in the later half of the book. This audio book was read by the same guy who read Notes from a Small Island and I highly recommend either of those audio books for a long drive....more
An awesome social satire about the world of WASPs and a wedding on a small island in Cape Cod (the summer home). It's funny and insightful. It's lovel An awesome social satire about the world of WASPs and a wedding on a small island in Cape Cod (the summer home). It's funny and insightful. It's lovely like a cold lemonade on a hot summer day.
"The Van Meters were so charming at first...Winn wore bow ties and pocket squares and attacked all parts of his life with a certainty and precision that Domnique found reassuring. There were no weeds in the Van Meter garden, no unmatched socks in their laundry room. A tennis ball hung from a string in the garage to mark the exact location where the car must be parked. The milk was thrown out the day before it expired. Yet everything they did - played tennis, cooking dinner, making friends, getting dressed - seemed effortless. Years had to pass before Dominique could see the strain they placed on themselves or, rather, what their grand goal was. They wanted to be aristocrats in a country that was not supposed to have an aristocracy, that was, in fact, founded partly as a protest against hereditary power."
I wish I had waited and read this before I was going to a wedding or making a trip to Cape Cod (or in an ideal world, a combination of both). I would also encourage pairing it with Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor as a way of better understanding the world that Winn Van Meter is so tied to and the world his younger daughter in part does not understand and wants to escape. It would also pair nicely with That Old Cape Magic. ...more
I remember spotting this book on a rainy day while killing some time in a Northampton bookstore with a friend of mine post our five year college reuni I remember spotting this book on a rainy day while killing some time in a Northampton bookstore with a friend of mine post our five year college reunion. I loved the look of the book (go go book cover design gadget) I loved the pink and the people and the names of the novel's, intoxicating when read all together in one breath - Bad News, Never Mind, Some Hope and Mother's Milk. I took a picture so I could remember to hunt for it at the library. Then I read a recommendation for the book from Ann Patchett on the :
"I wound up reading all five books in five days (each one is short.) The last time I had such an all-encompassing one-author book binge was when I read John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom novels straight through. Every second sentence in the Patrick Melrose cycle was one that I wanted to write down or read aloud to my husband. These books made me reconsider issues of family, responsibility, entitlement, depression, addiction, and life in general. They also made me think about what makes great writing. They’re brilliant books, especially when read straight through. I would not have been happy to wait years between the publication of each volume. As much as I loved them, I have to warn you: they’re very strong. They’re not going to be for everyone, but they were certainly for me."
And then Ann Patchett's review in the Gaurdian -
So basically a casual interest in the look of a book turned into a real desire to track down a copy. It took a while to finagle one from Inter-Library Loan, but I'm glad it finally came through. In four novels about one person and ostensibly about the same thing, Patrick and his relationship to his parents, they return to the subject and drill at it from different times and angles. My least favorite was the second novel "Never Mind" which details Patrick's drug use in detail, all those needles makes me nauseous. Aside from that, I really enjoyed the last two novels. Now I want to track down the fifth novel, "At Last." ...more
These essays are a collection of newspaper columns written by Ephron in the 1970s, and as one reviewer put it, they are a tough read if you don't happ These essays are a collection of newspaper columns written by Ephron in the 1970s, and as one reviewer put it, they are a tough read if you don't happen to be living in New York in the 1970s. It's an unfair critique, but because she is so often commenting on small (or large) scandals that occurred at the essays are dates. But they are also funny. There's some over-lap with the essays in Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women. ...more
So glad I finally got around to reading this one. I've heard it mentioned a lot, and I think I tried to read it once in Middle School as part of the A So glad I finally got around to reading this one. I've heard it mentioned a lot, and I think I tried to read it once in Middle School as part of the Accelerated Reading program (AR, anyone?) and never made it past the first chapter. I'm glad I waited. But I will also say that it starts off (the first two chapters) in a sort of confusing way, the classic first line is perfect, but describing the dream is more tricky. I really liked it but it also felt like it took awhile for things to really get going. Off course I was reading late one night, hit the half-way point and it starts taking off like a rocket and I couldn't put it down. Also I expected there to be plot twists but the twists were not exactly what I was expecting, which I loved. Anyway, highly recommend. Would be an awesome rainy / snowy day book, or read near any kind of fire or any trip to the English country side. ...more
I loved this book. The story revolves both around the slowing of the Earth's rotation and the sixth grade life of our narrator, Julia, a sort of shy t I loved this book. The story revolves both around the slowing of the Earth's rotation and the sixth grade life of our narrator, Julia, a sort of shy tomboyish girl from California. It's sort of hard to explain why this juxtaposition works so well. There's the quiet horror of "the slowing" (punctuated by the narration being told in constant flashback from some point in the future) buttressed up against the every day struggles of a coming of age in the suburbs novel - friendship, parents, loneliness, isolation and wondering if that cute boy likes you back.
There are quotes like this: "In the cosmetics isle, fifty feet of shelving displayed in glittering packages all the powders and the polishes and the creams, the shimmer sticks and the eyebrow pens, the tweezers and clippers and razors that, I had begun to suspect, if applied in the correct combinations, might begin to transform me into a girl more lovely and more loved."
I both wanted to read through this book in one sitting and slowly savor it. Highly recommend....more
One of my professors recommend this to me, he said it was an amazing book. It's more a 2.5/3 for me. I guess I just didn't find any of the information One of my professors recommend this to me, he said it was an amazing book. It's more a 2.5/3 for me. I guess I just didn't find any of the information that interesting or particularly revelatory. Definitely not my favorite or most recommended cultural studies book. ...more
I agree with Jenny's review I thought the first half of the book was really compelling and I couldn't look away, but the second half was less compelli I agree with Jenny's review I thought the first half of the book was really compelling and I couldn't look away, but the second half was less compelling, not completely "meh." But once certain information is discovered, it all seemed down hill to me. It was still an interesting and compelling read, and stylistically interesting. ...more
Ok, first of all Jasper Fforde creates an alternate world reality like nobody's business. This book is about a world ruled by everyone's color perceptOk, first of all Jasper Fforde creates an alternate world reality like nobody's business. This book is about a world ruled by everyone's color perception, Eddie Russet (the narrator) "belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means." Because this is the first book in a trilogy, a lot of this seems to be setting up the world of Chromatocia and central conflicts that will make up the second two books. Still this is a fun read. If you aren't familiar with Fforde's Thursday Next series, then it's hard to explain how Fforde creates sideways world's that are completely believable often because they contain traces of our own that have bee slightly skewed.
I personally enjoy that in Shades of Grey the main currency are merit badges and points, so it seems kind of world run by Boy Scouts. It's hard to really describe what makes the book so much fun, but I like that he allows the characters and the world to speak for themselves without too much explanation.
2024 re-read: I re-read this because the second book in the series was finally being released and I realized I read this forever ago and didn't remember the finer details. I did like it on the re-read although I found it more dry and less funny this time through. ...more
This is interesting as a sort of time capsule back to 1972 and the feminist movement. She's writing at a moment when a lot of things are being negotia This is interesting as a sort of time capsule back to 1972 and the feminist movement. She's writing at a moment when a lot of things are being negotiated and figured out, debates that seem so far away to read about them now. There were a couple of these I really liked, I found the essay on her 10 year reunion at Wellesley interesting (spoiler alert - she wasn't a fan of the place) and the essay on her mom's mink coat.
This book is also annoyingly hard to find given that it was reprinted not that long ago, but has again fallen out of print. Check for a used copy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble and people are attempting to sell copies of the 2000 reprint for $100-$200. I got my hands on this one from my local library, an endorsement to why those things exist and should be supported. ...more
Just so we're clear, I liked The Corrections and struggled to get through Freedom making it through the later by sheer force of will, and it left a ba Just so we're clear, I liked The Corrections and struggled to get through Freedom making it through the later by sheer force of will, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I also like to use Franzen as my post-boy for someone who writes fiction about families and relationships, but because he's a man it's considered "serious - cover of Time Magazine - literature" instead of "chick-lit."
That being said, I really like his non-fiction. There's something way more accessible about it and I just like it more. There's a mix of longer form pieces in here and some literary criticism. Easily worth reading alone for his memorial speech at David Foster Wallace's funeral which left me with a big lump in my throat. ...more
So i read this in high school, junior year maybe, but I did not remember much of it. I wished I had tried to do a plot summary before I started readin So i read this in high school, junior year maybe, but I did not remember much of it. I wished I had tried to do a plot summary before I started reading it again, because most of this was brand new information to me. Also I think the quality of the writing style was completely lost on me the first time around. Either way, I am now properly excited for the movie this winter. ...more
I loved this book. I loved the description of pre-War New York, and the jazz clubs and the excess of gin consumed over the course of the pages.
There' I loved this book. I loved the description of pre-War New York, and the jazz clubs and the excess of gin consumed over the course of the pages.
There's also this: "“In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.� Yep. Truth. ...more
So I will admit I was mainly drawn into this book by the cover, I actually love that image / design. The description looked interesting enough, so I d So I will admit I was mainly drawn into this book by the cover, I actually love that image / design. The description looked interesting enough, so I decided to give it a go. I found this book instantly captivating. It is a reworking of "The Age of Innocence" (have not read that one, reading now). For me it wasn't so much about the plot as the getting there. Beautifully and richly drawn, I felt like I knew these characters and their world immediately. There are some criticisms in some Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ reviews I saw that called "all the Jewish stuff" offputting since "they didn't know about the subculture, and couldn't relate to it." I think that's a load of crap. She does a fair amount of explaining, but I love that there are Yiddish words she leaves untranslated, obviously I didn't know the exact meanings, but I had a pretty good idea.
One of the things I really liked about it was the main conflict of the novel, which is a better and more satisfying way to live - a small tight community in which generations never leave and everyone knows everyone and everything all of the time, or the move away from home set up life away from family. In the end, I don't think she anoints one side the winner, but presents the promises and pitfalls of each. I will say this ending did not go the way I thought it might, and while it seemed initially disappointing, I also really liked it. ...more
So, without meaning to, I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble and just sat down and read the whole thing. I was familiar with Matt/Liz/Maddy's sto So, without meaning to, I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble and just sat down and read the whole thing. I was familiar with Matt/Liz/Maddy's story from coming across Matt's blog years ago. Especially if you are familiar with the blog, this is well trodden ground. That doesn't make it less heartbreaking or effecting, but it is the same old story of how life, death and grief makes fools of us all. If anyone you know died an unexpected death the themes are all similar. And so it goes. ...more
This book was given to me by a friend and recommended. Once I got into the book it read really quickly. It's your typical historical fiction with a heThis book was given to me by a friend and recommended. Once I got into the book it read really quickly. It's your typical historical fiction with a heavy romance thread. I have to admit I think the book's title gives the eventual ending away, so there's not much suspense. Still the world of the book, 15th century India, full of harems, emperor's, jewels and fighting is an interesting one, richly and lushly detailed in the book. It's a fun read. ...more
Here's the thing, this book has an annoying way of contradicting itself. The main premise seems to be that we know very little about how creativity works (before reading this book, one would imagine) and yet he just seems to offer every solution. Sometimes insight works! (take a shower! go for a walk!) But you also need to work really hard! As one of the other reviewers pointed out, he also seems to be shilling for certain companies, which can begin to get annoying.
He does make a really interesting point about how since we value athletic talent, there's a whole feeder system set up to support it and he says we should do the same thing for creative talent, and he's right. ...more
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