en-US Mon, 25 Mar 2024 06:02:54 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 282766 Scarlet Sister Mary shocked readers with its sensual portrayal of a black woman's private life, but it was universally lauded for its honesty and courage. The first edition sold more than one million copies worldwide, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1929.]]> 376 Julia Peterkin 0820319562 Mary 0 to-read, to-read-pulitzer 3.13 1928
author: Julia Peterkin
name: Mary
average rating: 3.13
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read, to-read-pulitzer
review:

]]> 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Mary 5 read-pulitzer 3.88 1993
author: Annie Proulx
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2008/11/01
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
This was so wonderful that I feel terrible for the next few things I read, that they'll be compared unfairly. Woman Wonders Why All Books Not As Good As This One.
]]> 331597
William Blake saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.

Considered the greatest 20th century novel written in English, in this edition Walter Gabler uncovers previously unseen text.]]> 657 James Joyce 0394743121 Mary 4
If you are tackling Ulysses for the first time, I'd recommend taking a class (while reading the Blamires book simultaneously). If you're in NYC, NYU has one every semester, and it was extremely helpful to talk it out every week, and also to have some structure and deadlines (and a sense of wanting to get my money's worth), without which I'm sure I never would have finished the book.]]> 4.26 1922
author: James Joyce
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2010/04/01
date added: 2016/09/03
shelves:
review:
It's hard to give a rating to this book. I liked a lot of the ideas and I respect the work that went into it, but reading it was a chore, not a pleasure. I might read it again in the future, but next time I would prefer to listen to the recording.

If you are tackling Ulysses for the first time, I'd recommend taking a class (while reading the Blamires book simultaneously). If you're in NYC, NYU has one every semester, and it was extremely helpful to talk it out every week, and also to have some structure and deadlines (and a sense of wanting to get my money's worth), without which I'm sure I never would have finished the book.
]]> 8306857 In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024027 Mary 0 to-read 4.28 2011
author: Veronica Roth
name: Mary
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27209384
As they travel west, encountering superheroes, monsters, time travelers, and robots, Val and Alex are drawn into the orbit of the comic-con regulars, from a hapless twentysomething illustrator to a lesbian comics writer to a group of cosplay women who provide a chorus of knowing commentary. For Alex, this world is a magical place where fiction becomes reality, but as they get closer to their destination, he begins to realize that the story his mother is telling him about their journey might have a very different ending than he imagined.

A literary-meets-genre pleasure from an exciting new writer, A Hundred Thousand Worlds is a tribute to the fierce and complicated love between a mother and son—and to the way the stories we create come to shape us.]]> 368 Bob Proehl 0399562214 Mary 0 to-read 3.76 2016
author: Bob Proehl
name: Mary
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1221381 The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son’s fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 287 Cormac McCarthy Mary 2 read-pulitzer 3.92 2006
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Mary
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2008/11/01
date added: 2015/06/26
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
A bombastic parable that left me wanting a whole lot more.
]]> 4907587 472 John Ajvide Lindqvist 0312355297 Mary 1
Maybe I'm not a big enough horror or vampire novel fan. Maybe blood makes me queasy, so it's a bad idea for me to read a book filled with graphic images involving it. Maybe I just hope that books will be good, no matter the genre.

Why is it set in 1981? Is this year more significant to a Swede? There is the brief mention of the Soviet submarine that ran aground, so okay, so is communism like vampires, is maybe that the importance of the year? Or is it just 1981 so there can be a Rubik's Cube? Was Kiss very popular in Sweden? Why can't this just take place in the "present"? Why use a Morrissey song as the title if the song didn't come out until years after the book takes place?

What happened to Oskar? How did he change over the course of the book? That should be a really important aspect, the whole crux of the story. We meet him as a lonely, bullied kid. By the end, he is dependent and allegiant to a monster eunuch. He just gets hollowed out to "let the right one in," as far as I can tell. And he better tell his mom where he's going, the empty little accessory to murder.

]]> 4.04 2004
author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2009/02/01
date added: 2015/05/20
shelves:
review:
This book was a gross, exhausting chore.

Maybe I'm not a big enough horror or vampire novel fan. Maybe blood makes me queasy, so it's a bad idea for me to read a book filled with graphic images involving it. Maybe I just hope that books will be good, no matter the genre.

Why is it set in 1981? Is this year more significant to a Swede? There is the brief mention of the Soviet submarine that ran aground, so okay, so is communism like vampires, is maybe that the importance of the year? Or is it just 1981 so there can be a Rubik's Cube? Was Kiss very popular in Sweden? Why can't this just take place in the "present"? Why use a Morrissey song as the title if the song didn't come out until years after the book takes place?

What happened to Oskar? How did he change over the course of the book? That should be a really important aspect, the whole crux of the story. We meet him as a lonely, bullied kid. By the end, he is dependent and allegiant to a monster eunuch. He just gets hollowed out to "let the right one in," as far as I can tell. And he better tell his mom where he's going, the empty little accessory to murder.


]]> 174750 The Cider House Rules is the heart-wrenching story of orphan Homer Wells and his guardian, Dr. Wilbur Larch. With nods of affection to both David Copperfield and Jane Eyre, Irving's novel follows Homer on his journey from innocence to experience, brilliantly depicting the boy's struggle to find his place in the world. Irving also wrote an Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1999 film adaptation of the novel that starred Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, and Charlize Theron.]]> 587 John Irving 0345387651 Mary 4 4.01 1985
author: John Irving
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/09/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 26919 Continental Drift is a masterful novel of hope lost and gained, and a gripping, indelible story of fragile lives uprooted and transformed by injustice, disappointment, and the seductions and realities of the American dream.]]> 410 Russell Banks 0060854944 Mary 2 Affliction.]]> 3.88 1985
author: Russell Banks
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 2009/12/01
date added: 2014/07/25
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars. I love how he writes, but this story was just not very good. There's so much research and detail that went into it, so many grand ideas about the American Dream, but it was like reading the instruction manual for modern American ennui. Such a let-down after Affliction.
]]> 9920
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas.

In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece.]]> 343 Truman Capote 0375507906 Mary 3 4.16 1966
author: Truman Capote
name: Mary
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2006/09/01
date added: 2014/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 2389 6 Herman Melville 0143058096 Mary 4 3.47 1851
author: Herman Melville
name: Mary
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1851
rating: 4
read at: 2005/07/01
date added: 2014/02/11
shelves:
review:
I didn't think I'd like this, but turns out I do! True, some parts are a little longer than they maybe need to be, some parts a little dry, but when it's good, it's very very good, and the writing is like poetry.
]]> 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 Mary 2 gave-up
I read half of it, and felt really impatient the whole time, skipping whole pages, and then I realized that I didn't have to keep going, which is as spiritual a moment as I could hope to get from this book. ]]> 3.94 2001
author: Yann Martel
name: Mary
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves: gave-up
review:
It's not that it was bad, it's just that I wish the tiger had eaten him so the story wouldn't exist.

I read half of it, and felt really impatient the whole time, skipping whole pages, and then I realized that I didn't have to keep going, which is as spiritual a moment as I could hope to get from this book.
]]> 17162 Do I dare disturb the universe? Refusing to sell chocolates in the annual Trinity school fund-raiser may not seem like a radical thing to do. But when Jerry challenges a secret school society called The Vigils, his defiant act turns into an all-out war. Now the only question is: Who will survive? First published in 1974, Robert Cormier's groundbreaking novel, an unflinching portrait of corruption and cruelty, has become a modern classic.

A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year]]> 267 Robert Cormier 0375829873 Mary 5
I read an interview in which Cormier was asked if he thought the lesson is too dark, and he said that it's just the truth. The world is evil and there's nothing you can do about it, but he thought that trying to fight against it is the most important thing you can do, even though you're going to fail anyway.

On a side note, I met him once before he passed away, and he was not what I expected. For someone who writes such dark stuff, it was shocking to meet someone who may have actually been Santa Claus! He was the sort of guy who must have been someone's favorite grandpa.]]> 3.50 1974
author: Robert Cormier
name: Mary
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2013/12/06
shelves:
review:
This is one of my favorite books. I never read it as a kid, but I've read it several times now as an adult and it's still so beautiful. The writing is stark and concise, and so is the story, which is one of the most difficult plots to describe. This is one of those where you talk about the theme more than the actual story: "It's the best book about good and evil that exists," you tell someone, after trying to outline a chocolate sale at a religious boy's school that ends in a sadistic boxing fight.

I read an interview in which Cormier was asked if he thought the lesson is too dark, and he said that it's just the truth. The world is evil and there's nothing you can do about it, but he thought that trying to fight against it is the most important thing you can do, even though you're going to fail anyway.

On a side note, I met him once before he passed away, and he was not what I expected. For someone who writes such dark stuff, it was shocking to meet someone who may have actually been Santa Claus! He was the sort of guy who must have been someone's favorite grandpa.
]]> 9644151
For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to search for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.]]> 466 Mike Mullin 1933718552 Mary 0 to-read 3.99 2011
author: Mike Mullin
name: Mary
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12680907
But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisers, who have run the country on her behalf since Leck's death, believe in a forward-thinking plan: to pardon all of those who committed terrible acts during Leck's reign; and to forget every dark event that ever happened. Monsea's past has become shrouded in mystery, and it's only when Bitterblue begins sneaking out of her castle - curious, disguised and alone - to walk the streets of her own city, that she begins to realise the truth. Her kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year long spell of a madman, and now their only chance to move forward is to revisit the past.

Whatever that past holds.

Two thieves, who have sworn only to steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, who possesses an unidentified Grace, may also hold a key to her heart . . .]]> 576 Kristin Cashore 0803734735 Mary 0 to-read 3.99 2012
author: Kristin Cashore
name: Mary
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50906
From the Twin Bing to the Idaho Spud, the Valomilk to the Abba-Zaba, and discontinued bars such as the Caravelle, Marathon, and Choco-Lite, Almond uncovers a trove of singular candy bars made by unsung heroes working in old-fashioned factories to produce something they love. And in true candyfreak fashion, Almond lusciously describes the rich tastes that he has loved since childhood and continues to crave today. Steve Almond has written a comic but ultimately bittersweet story of how he grew up on candy-and how, for better and worse, the candy industry has grown up, too.

Candyfreak is the delicious story of one man's lifelong obsession with candy and his quest to discover its origins in America.]]> 256 Steve Almond 0156032937 Mary 3 3.77 2004
author: Steve Almond
name: Mary
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 448873 Instead of Three Wishes, the first book by Megan Whalen Turner. Her second book more than fulfills that promise.

The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities. What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

Megan Whalen Turner weaves Gen's stories and Gen's story together with style and verve in a novel that is filled with intrigue, adventure, and surprise.]]> 280 Megan Whalen Turner 0060824972 Mary 0 to-read 3.86 1996
author: Megan Whalen Turner
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 818056 607 J.K. Rowling 1551929767 Mary 4 I'm happy with how it ended. 4.56 2007
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mary
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2011/09/23
shelves:
review:
I'm happy with how it ended.
]]> 402093
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, ShĹŤgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, ShĹŤgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: ShĹŤgun.]]> 1152 James Clavell Mary 0 currently-reading 4.38 1975
author: James Clavell
name: Mary
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/12/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 53645 282 Ruth Reichl 0767903382 Mary 4 4.08 1998
author: Ruth Reichl
name: Mary
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2010/12/18
date added: 2010/12/19
shelves:
review:
I'd love to be a whole lot more like Ruth Reichl, walking into shops and becoming best friends with the people inside and accumulating all their favorite recipes. I think I'm off to a good start, since we basically have the same kind of insane mother--though, thankfully, my dad does the cooking.
]]> 38180 On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.]]> 296 Nevil Shute Mary 4 Bleak! 3.95 1957
author: Nevil Shute
name: Mary
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2010/10/01
date added: 2010/12/05
shelves:
review:
Bleak!
]]> 271074
Tree of Smoke was the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.]]> 614 Denis Johnson 0374279128 Mary 1
Recently I heard Michael Cunningham talking about how authors often say they're not writing for the reader, but for themselves, and it's Cunningham's belief that they should be working for the reader instead. I thought a lot about that while reading Tree of Smoke, and I'm left wondering if Denis Johnson was writing for anyone at all.

As a reader, I'm certain he wasn't writing for me, not for my enjoyment or enlightenment. And what could he get out of such nonsense? At some points it felt like how I wrote essays in the third grade, when I didn't want to repeat myself and wanted to seem smart, so I looked to the thesaurus for grand and regal and sumptuous and opulent words. (See what I did there? That's annoying right?) At other points I couldn't even tell from whose perspective those ridiculous words were coming. The narration was distracting, the point of view muddy. Finally, what's the point? That war is hell? That the government is twisted? That there can be salvation? Thankfully all those ideas are available in better, and much less trying, books.]]> 3.60 2004
author: Denis Johnson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2010/12/02
date added: 2010/12/02
shelves:
review:
I can't believe I slogged through the whole thing.

Recently I heard Michael Cunningham talking about how authors often say they're not writing for the reader, but for themselves, and it's Cunningham's belief that they should be working for the reader instead. I thought a lot about that while reading Tree of Smoke, and I'm left wondering if Denis Johnson was writing for anyone at all.

As a reader, I'm certain he wasn't writing for me, not for my enjoyment or enlightenment. And what could he get out of such nonsense? At some points it felt like how I wrote essays in the third grade, when I didn't want to repeat myself and wanted to seem smart, so I looked to the thesaurus for grand and regal and sumptuous and opulent words. (See what I did there? That's annoying right?) At other points I couldn't even tell from whose perspective those ridiculous words were coming. The narration was distracting, the point of view muddy. Finally, what's the point? That war is hell? That the government is twisted? That there can be salvation? Thankfully all those ideas are available in better, and much less trying, books.
]]> 4339 Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977.

From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time.

Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.]]> 260 Michael Herr 0679735259 Mary 0 to-read 4.22 1977
author: Michael Herr
name: Mary
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3974 Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.

When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape.]]> 769 Dan Simmons 0316017442 Mary 1 gave-up
"That persistence alone isn't enough to transform a bad idea into a good one is probably the chief lesson of the Franklin expedition in particular and the quest for the Northwest Passage in general. The attempt to produce a massive historical novel isn't, of course, a folly on that level. The quest for the Big Book is neither as heroic an endeavor nor, fortunately, as lethal. ('The Terror' won't kill you unless it falls on your head.)"
]]> 4.06 2007
author: Dan Simmons
name: Mary
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 2010/09/19
date added: 2010/09/19
shelves: gave-up
review:
Good golly. There was so much promise here: the ill-fated Franklin expedition, now with a monster! I finished reading the book at page 271, and I only wish the book had ended at that point as well. This review in The New York Times says everything I'm thinking, particularly:

"That persistence alone isn't enough to transform a bad idea into a good one is probably the chief lesson of the Franklin expedition in particular and the quest for the Northwest Passage in general. The attempt to produce a massive historical novel isn't, of course, a folly on that level. The quest for the Big Book is neither as heroic an endeavor nor, fortunately, as lethal. ('The Terror' won't kill you unless it falls on your head.)"

]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Mary 5
I don't love how this series wrapped up, exactly. It was just as murky and difficult morally and ethically as the other books, and Katniss of course had to be the one struggling with all that. But I kind of wish she could find a stance on something, in the end. She made a few decisions, yes: She decided to kill Coin instead of Snow. Does that represent what she feels about war and all the horrors that she's been through? Or was she just still confused about what Snow told her?

Another decision she made: She said yes to the new government putting on another Hunger Games. Nothing's going to ever change, she admits, so is that the real choice she's made--to give up? It seems completely out of character for Katniss, who has only had clear thoughts about how innocent people should not be casualties of war. Because the idea came from Coin, is that why she trained her arrow on her instead of Snow?

She doesn't choose between the clearly evil (though yes, it's still complicated) Gale or the now-insane-but-recovering lap-dog Peeta. She ends up with Peeta. Her actions got her there, but not by her choice. She admits that they work together better in an opposites attract kind of way, but it all seems a little too much like just giving in. She is, in the end, if she's making a choice at all, doing exactly what Gale said she'd do and picking the guy who'll help her survive.

Still, the series as a whole was so much fun to read.

I wonder if any of my friends who've finished it have an idea why she voted yes for the "Capitol's Kids" Hunger Games? ]]> 4.10 2010
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Mary
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/03
date added: 2010/09/03
shelves:
review:
Hm. I'm not sure what to say. At least the cat survived?

I don't love how this series wrapped up, exactly. It was just as murky and difficult morally and ethically as the other books, and Katniss of course had to be the one struggling with all that. But I kind of wish she could find a stance on something, in the end. She made a few decisions, yes: She decided to kill Coin instead of Snow. Does that represent what she feels about war and all the horrors that she's been through? Or was she just still confused about what Snow told her?

Another decision she made: She said yes to the new government putting on another Hunger Games. Nothing's going to ever change, she admits, so is that the real choice she's made--to give up? It seems completely out of character for Katniss, who has only had clear thoughts about how innocent people should not be casualties of war. Because the idea came from Coin, is that why she trained her arrow on her instead of Snow?

She doesn't choose between the clearly evil (though yes, it's still complicated) Gale or the now-insane-but-recovering lap-dog Peeta. She ends up with Peeta. Her actions got her there, but not by her choice. She admits that they work together better in an opposites attract kind of way, but it all seems a little too much like just giving in. She is, in the end, if she's making a choice at all, doing exactly what Gale said she'd do and picking the guy who'll help her survive.

Still, the series as a whole was so much fun to read.

I wonder if any of my friends who've finished it have an idea why she voted yes for the "Capitol's Kids" Hunger Games?
]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Mary 5 4.34 2009
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/08/30
date added: 2010/08/31
shelves:
review:
What I like about The Hunger Games was how it tackled various ideas about love. Catching Fire sort of stinks at that, though: Gale or Peeta, I'm not sure why she cares about either, except that they represent decent parts of her past. I appreciate the ambiguities and confusion she faces, reflecting what a normal teenager might experience, made worse by the deadly consequences of all of her actions. And that's what I liked most about the second book--the growing conflict within Katniss about who she's supposed to be, and what choices she should make. Growing up is all about decision making, but luckily for us, our choices aren't usually so life or death.
]]> 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 Mary 4
It was interesting to read this the same year as Ulysses. The various writing styles of each section is clever, but it doesn't do anything to further the characters like it does in Ulysses. Each section here is written in a different style because that's the time period and the situation of the character, not necessarily because it reveals something particular in that character.

The movie version is, mark my words, going to be awful. Good luck with that, Tom Hanks!]]> 4.02 2004
author: David Mitchell
name: Mary
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2010/08/24
date added: 2010/08/25
shelves:
review:
Engaging, but just not emotional. The writing is perfect. The characters are perfectly crafted, too. The concept, however, seemed to distract from the whys of the story: why is this happening now, in this format, and why is it important that they're all connected? What is at stake for these characters? All the answers are too large and metaphysical. Cheekiness from the characters about theirs and each others' lots is a cop-out. Finally, being left with the enormous ideas that we're all here to eat or be eaten is an awful lot to chew on. But it was a fun meal while it lasted.

It was interesting to read this the same year as Ulysses. The various writing styles of each section is clever, but it doesn't do anything to further the characters like it does in Ulysses. Each section here is written in a different style because that's the time period and the situation of the character, not necessarily because it reveals something particular in that character.

The movie version is, mark my words, going to be awful. Good luck with that, Tom Hanks!
]]> 166997
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.]]> 292 John Williams 1590171993 Mary 0 to-read 4.36 1965
author: John Williams
name: Mary
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 77554 The Stone Diaries is one ordinary woman's story of her journey through life. Born in 1905, Daisy Stone Goodwill drifts through the roles of child, wife, widow, and mother, and finally into her old age. Bewildered by her inability to understand her place in her own life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography. Her life is vivid with incident, and yet she feels a sense of powerlessness. She listens, she observes, and through sheer force of imagination she becomes a witness of her own life: her birth, her death, and the troubling missed connections she discovers between. Daisy's struggle to find a place for herself in her own life is a paradigm of the unsettled decades of our era. A witty and compassionate anatomist of the human heart, Carol Shields has made distinctively her own that place where the domestic collides with the elemental. With irony and humor she weaves the strands of The Stone Diaries together in this, her richest and most poignant novel to date.]]> 361 Carol Shields 014023313X Mary 4 read-pulitzer 3.89 1993
author: Carol Shields
name: Mary
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2010/08/08
date added: 2010/08/10
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
I didn't love reading this, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the whole thing. I like the pretense, how the narrator describes all these scenes and deeply personal inner thoughts that she has no chance of actually knowing, and how that points to the perceptions she thinks people have of her, and how that's all some of us ever really know of ourselves--what we think others think of us. She skips over huge periods of time, her memory is selective, and the picture we end up with of her life is just that, scattered, full of inconsistencies, and difficult to trust.
]]> 63461 416 Larry McMurtry 075283455X Mary 3 4.15 1975
author: Larry McMurtry
name: Mary
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2010/07/22
date added: 2010/07/28
shelves:
review:
Very fun, very McMurtry, and therefore very easy to read. The second part was like an extended epilogue, though.
]]> 250542 384 Joe Keenan 0316013358 Mary 4 3.87 2006
author: Joe Keenan
name: Mary
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2010/07/08
date added: 2010/07/28
shelves:
review:
This was fun and surprising--the plotting was nicely paced and went places I didn't see coming. And it was a lot like watching "Frasier," which is fortunate, since I love that show.
]]> 366524 Call It Sleep, his first novel, in 1934, it was greeted with critical acclaim. But in that dark Depression year, books were hard to sell, and the novel quickly dropped out of sight, as did its twenty-eight-year-old author. Only with its paperback publication in 1964 did the novel receive the recognition it deserves. Call It Sleep was the first paperback ever to be reviewed on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and it proceeded to sell millions of copies both in the United States and around the world.

Call It Sleep is the magnificent story of David Schearl, the “dangerously imaginative� child coming of age in the slums of New York.]]> 462 Henry Roth 0374522928 Mary 0 to-read 3.82 1934
author: Henry Roth
name: Mary
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 347143
That was all Ruth had said. Even now, when she’d had months to come to terms with the fallout from this remark, she still marveled at the power of those four words, which she’d uttered without premeditation and without any sense of treading on forbidden ground. (p. 11)

Thanks to an off-hand remark made during a class discussion of oral sex, sex-ed teacher Ruth Ramsey finds herself a target of the Christian evangelicals who are increasingly influencing the schoolboard of suburban Stonewood Heights. Forced to attend remedial sessions with a smug “Virginity Consultant,� Ruth is isolated and alone, caught in the polarized red-versus-blue landscape of present-day American suburbia. It’s like “living in a horror movie,� she thinks, � The Invasion of the Body Snatchers , or something. You never knew who they were going to get to next.� Divorced and sharing custody of her daughters with her ex, and sometimes attempting a futile date, Ruth spends many a lonely weekend wondering how her bleak existence came to be.

Then one morning at her daughter’s soccer game, Ruth meets Tim Mason, a cute forty-something volunteer coach. Ruth feels an instant attraction to Tim, but when he draws the girls together for a spontaneous prayer circle after the game, she angrily yanks her daughter away from the proceedings, placing herself once again in the sights of the evangelicals.

But Ruth has another unexpected she can’t seem to get a handle on Tim, her supposed adversary, who keeps appearing at her front door. A recovering addict whose bottoming-out cost him his home and his marriage, Tim found his way to the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth through the intervention of Pastor Dennis, the charismatic preacher who put Tim’s shattered life back together in an approximation of happiness. Thanks to Pastor Dennis, Tim is now married to Carrie, a fellow Tabernacler who is attractive and attentive, if robotic. He plays guitar at the weekly prayer sessions in a sanitized reenactment of his days in a Grateful Dead cover band. He holds a respectable if unfulfilling job as a loan officer, well aware of the irony of the post for a man with his history. He is grateful for the help he has received from his church community and Pastor Dennis. But he can’t shake the yearning for something more, and a nagging attraction to that troublesome sex-ed teacher....

With The Abstinence Teacher , Tom Perrotta wades into the murky waters of contemporary American suburbia, fully deploying his proven gift for describing the panic lurking beneath its seemingly placid surface. Already widely known to book and movie audiences for his scathing satire mixed with remarkable compassion in works including Election and Little Children (both adapted for film, Little Children garnering Perrotta an Oscar nomination), this novel once again proves, as declared by the Los Angeles Times , “Perrotta’s balance of humor and pathos has no equal.”]]> 368 Tom Perrotta 0307356361 Mary 3 3.25 2007
author: Tom Perrotta
name: Mary
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2010/06/23
date added: 2010/06/24
shelves:
review:
This would have been a much better short story.
]]> 3110 Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other—a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue—it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and—the author's favorite� historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.]]> 258 Sarah Vowell 074326004X Mary 4 3.93 2005
author: Sarah Vowell
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2010/05/18
date added: 2010/06/24
shelves:
review:
I'm sad that I've already forgotten all of the presidential trivia that I read in this. Damn you, Swiss cheese memory!
]]> 2195289 From the author of the novel, The Clasp, hailed by Michael Chabon, Heidi Julavits, and J. Courtney Sullivan. Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays from Sloane Crosley is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory.

From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions -- or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.

The pony problem --
Christmas in July --
The ursula cookie --
Bring your machete to work day --
The good people of this dimension --
Bastard out of Westchester --
The beauty of strangers --
Fuck you, Columbus --
One-night bounce --
Sign language for infidels --
You on a stick --
Height of luxury --
Smell this --
Lay like broccoli --
Fever faker]]> 230 Sloane Crosley 159448306X Mary 3
Some of the others had their moments, but mostly they felt limp and like they were missing something essential. Also, all the '80s nostalgia was pretty irritating.]]> 3.47 2008
author: Sloane Crosley
name: Mary
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2010/05/06
date added: 2010/06/24
shelves:
review:
The first story was hilarious.

Some of the others had their moments, but mostly they felt limp and like they were missing something essential. Also, all the '80s nostalgia was pretty irritating.
]]> 133488 Enter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a beautiful Tonkinese girl. Nurse Nellie and her French planter, Emile De Becque. The soldiers, sailors, and nurses playing at war and waiting for love in a tropic paradise.]]> 384 James A. Michener 0449206521 Mary 3 read-pulitzer 4.05 1947
author: James A. Michener
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1947
rating: 3
read at: 2010/04/28
date added: 2010/06/24
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
The curt sentences take a lot of getting used to.
]]> 595038 Ulysses. Harry Blamires helps readers to negotiate their way through this formidable, remarkable novel and gain an understanding of it which, without help, it might have take several readings to achieve. The New Bloomsday Book is a crystal clear, page-by-page, line-by-line running commentary on the plot of Ulysses which illuminates symbolic themes and structures along the way. It is a highly accessible, indispensible guide for anyone reading Joyce's masterpiece for the first time.]]> 253 Harry Blamires 0415138582 Mary 4 3.98 1988
author: Harry Blamires
name: Mary
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2010/04/01
date added: 2010/05/13
shelves:
review:
A helpful chapter-by-chapter overview for a first-time reader of Ulysses. It doesn't get too deep, but neither will you the the first time you read that book.
]]> 3627264 262 Peter Donahue 1892034034 Mary 4
Also, since it's based on a real building (at 3rd and Blanchard, it is now used as student housing for the Art Institute), it was a nice bonus to be able to see it and put it in context.

]]> 4.14 2000
author: Peter Donahue
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2010/02/15
date added: 2010/02/24
shelves:
review:
I was preparing for a trip to visit Seattle for the first time, and I wanted to read something about or based in the city. The Seattle Public Library's website has . The Cornelius Arms was exactly what I was looking for: a collection of stories based in the recent past about several tenants of a downtown Seattle apartment building. The stories examine all kinds of aspects of what living in that city has been like over time, and what it has and could become. Reading it was like sitting down to dinner every night for weeks with different locals, and learning about the place through their conversations.

Also, since it's based on a real building (at 3rd and Blanchard, it is now used as student housing for the Art Institute), it was a nice bonus to be able to see it and put it in context.


]]> 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Mary 0 3.79 -700
author: Homer
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 0
read at: 2010/02/03
date added: 2010/02/24
shelves:
review:
It's hard to rate The Odyssey. It's like a more-fun version of the bible. So it's interesting, a little exciting and gory at times, but also pretty boring in a lot of places. Difficult to read on an empty stomach, as they spent 40% of the time feasting. Impossible to read without getting Police songs stuck in your head constantly.
]]> 1629601
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer and possibly a criminal mastermind. This is the story of how she got that way.

Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer. Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew's lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.]]> 345 E. Lockhart 0786838183 Mary 4 3.81 2008
author: E. Lockhart
name: Mary
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/13
date added: 2010/01/27
shelves:
review:
Sweet and funny, and turned into quite a pro-feminist thing without being preachy.
]]> 2767052
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Mary 5 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2010/01/10
date added: 2010/01/11
shelves:
review:
Many books (and other things) have covered politics, society, and the media the same way that The Hunger Games does. But I've never seen a better description of the confusion and ambiguities of every kind of love--from a mangy cat all the way to a stranger you're supposed to kill.
]]> 112322
Depressed and depleted, Ian is almost crushed under the weight of an unbearable, secret guilt.ĚýĚýThen one crisp January evening, he catches sight of a window with glowing yellow neon, the CHURCH OF THE SECOND CHANCE.ĚýĚýHe enters and soon discovers that forgiveness must be earned, through a bit of sacrifice and a lot of love...


A New York Times Notable Book]]> 337 Anne Tyler 0449911608 Mary 4
One minor problem with Saint Maybe is that the last major character introduced towards the end of the book is a little flat--not so bad, but it just stands out against so many brilliantly developed characters. ]]> 3.88 1991
author: Anne Tyler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/06
date added: 2010/01/07
shelves:
review:
Once for an MTV awards show, Ben Stiller played the role of Bruce Springsteen in a spoof of the show "FANatic" where he was interviewing Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs. He asked Puffy the same thing I would ask Anne Tyler: "Why are you so awesome?"

One minor problem with Saint Maybe is that the last major character introduced towards the end of the book is a little flat--not so bad, but it just stands out against so many brilliantly developed characters.
]]> 2159001 Melita arrives at the Sharps� farm in a see-through T-shirt and strappy platform sandals that show off her drawn-on “tattoo.� With her caramel-colored skin, stylish clothes, and urban attitude, Melita seems as different from Phoebe as two teenage girls could be. Through the summer, the girls grow to know each other. As their friendship develops, confusing feelings also begin to emerge. Could their friendship be deepening into something more?]]> 185 Lisa Jahn-Clough 0618447911 Mary 4
Lisa was my professor for several classes at Emerson, so maybe it seems like I'd be overly positive, but I think it made me even more critical while reading this--I know what kind of things she expected from our writing, and so I counted on that same level of quality. This definitely lives up to that.

Also, this book's dedication is probably as close as I'll get to ever having any books dedicated to me, even in a vague and general way, so that's pretty awesome. ]]> 3.23 2004
author: Lisa Jahn-Clough
name: Mary
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/01
date added: 2009/12/29
shelves:
review:
Really, really sweet. A great story with a main character who is perfectly developed and easy, I'm sure, for a lot of girls to relate to. As she struggles with her identity, she is surprisingly self-aware about growing up, but it is a pleasure to get there with her.

Lisa was my professor for several classes at Emerson, so maybe it seems like I'd be overly positive, but I think it made me even more critical while reading this--I know what kind of things she expected from our writing, and so I counted on that same level of quality. This definitely lives up to that.

Also, this book's dedication is probably as close as I'll get to ever having any books dedicated to me, even in a vague and general way, so that's pretty awesome.
]]> 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]> 416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Mary 5 4.38 1987
author: Alan Moore
name: Mary
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2009/12/01
date added: 2009/12/22
shelves:
review:
Too many characters to keep track of at first, but once you can keep everyone straight, this is amazing.
]]> 39910
Ěý
Co-founder of the legendary Brother Juniper’s Bakery, author of ten landmark bread books, and distinguished instructor at the world’s largest culinary academy, Peter Reinhart has been a leader in America’s artisanal bread movement for more than thirty years. Never one to be content with yesterday’s baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for extraordinary bread.
Ěý
In this updated edition of the bestselling , Peter shares bread breakthroughs arising from his study in France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary college kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by more than 100 step-by-step photographs.
Ěý
You’ll put newfound knowledge into practice with fifty master formulas for such classic breads as rustic ciabatta, hearty , old-school New York bagels, and the book’s Holy Grail—Peter’s version of the famed ,Ěý as well as three all-new formulas. En route, Peter distills hard science, advanced techniques, and food history into a remarkably accessible and engaging resource that is as rich and multitextured as the loaves you’ll turn out. In this revised edition, he adds metrics and temperature conversion charts, incorporates comprehensive baker’s percentages into the recipes, and updates methods throughout. This is original food writing at its most captivating, teaching at its most inspired and inspiring—and the rewards are some of the best breads under the sun.]]> 320 Peter Reinhart 1580082688 Mary 4 4.28 2001
author: Peter Reinhart
name: Mary
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
Holy fucking bread! Great book! I don't have the counter space to make nearly as much as I'd like to, but I'm trying.
]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 Mary 0 to-read 3.82 1884
author: Mark Twain
name: Mary
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:
Started it, but I wasn't feeling it. I probably should have read this in high school, but it was never assigned. Maybe I'll start it again later...
]]> 12497 Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN 9780375706677

In his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones.

One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law–in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell–can contain.

As Moss tries to evade his pursuers–in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives–McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.
No Country for Old Men is a triumph.]]> 309 Cormac McCarthy Mary 3 4.15 2005
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Mary
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2007/09/01
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
Though exciting and fun at times, this was a little too macho and uneven for me. Most of it will translate so easily into a movie, which is due out soon, and I will probably enjoy that (especially since it's by the Coen brothers)--depending on how they deal with the last 50 or so pages of the book. Once the action ends, it turns into moral exposition time, which perhaps should have been built better into the action. The world is evil, I get it.
]]> 46799
Read her diary.

Enter her world.

You will never forget her.

]]> 213 Beatrice Sparks 1416914633 Mary 1 3.75 1971
author: Beatrice Sparks
name: Mary
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1971
rating: 1
read at: 2000/03/01
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
I read this for the first time in college as part of a reading-intensive young adult lit class, and it was the worst of the many, many books we read. For one girl in the class, it was the only book of the many, many we read that she actually liked, solely because it was the only one she morally approved of (man, how she loathed Weetzie Bat). She went on to become our slacker school's valedictorian. She was a poet and used the word "tapestry" too much in her writing. I think all of this is quite reason enough to stay away from this book.
]]> 184644
Even the most homey of the recipes are very special. Dorie’s favorite raisin swirl bread. Big spicy muffins from her stint as a baker in a famous New York City restaurant. French chocolate brownies (a Parisian pastry chef begged for the recipe). A dramatic black and white cake for a "“wow� occasion. Pierre Hermé’s extraordinary lemon tart.
The generous helpings of background information, abundant stories, and hundreds of professional hints set Baking apart as a one-of-a-kind cookbook. And as if all of this weren’t more than enough, Dorie has appended a fascinating minibook, A Dessertmaker’s Glossary, with more than 100 entries, from why using one’s fingers is often best, to how to buy the finest butter, to how the bundt pan got its name.]]> 528 Dorie Greenspan 0618443363 Mary 5 -fruit tart
-linzer cookies
-honey nut brownies
-pie crusts (great essential recipe)
-fruit tarts
-lots more, this book is a monster!]]> 4.22 1980
author: Dorie Greenspan
name: Mary
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
This is such a handy book to have around--these recipes are great. So far, I've made:
-fruit tart
-linzer cookies
-honey nut brownies
-pie crusts (great essential recipe)
-fruit tarts
-lots more, this book is a monster!
]]> 111102 265 Peter Carey 0375414983 Mary 3 3.42 2003
author: Peter Carey
name: Mary
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
As for the real events this story is based on, I might have liked to read non-fiction account in The Ern Malley affair instead--though the literally fleshed out part of that story in My Life as a Fake is fun and fascinating. And as for a book by Peter Carey, I think I'll do better to read one of his that's more on the mark, as what's not great about this book is made much better by such a nice narration.
]]> 10570 352 Frank Portman 0385732910 Mary 3 Time when I was in a gynecologist's waiting room. So who knows what I was thinking when I put it on my to-read list that day.

Anyway.

Overall, it is a pretty successful YA novel about a few months in a high school geek's life. The plot flows along quickly, there are little shots of humor throughout, and some unexpected things occur. I can't help disliking the voice, though. It's a distracting device to write in the voice of a teenager, and it's difficult not to sound a little wrong and phony (ha--that's for all the Catcher stuff in the book). ]]> 3.56 2006
author: Frank Portman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
First of all, I read a review of this book in some magazine like Time when I was in a gynecologist's waiting room. So who knows what I was thinking when I put it on my to-read list that day.

Anyway.

Overall, it is a pretty successful YA novel about a few months in a high school geek's life. The plot flows along quickly, there are little shots of humor throughout, and some unexpected things occur. I can't help disliking the voice, though. It's a distracting device to write in the voice of a teenager, and it's difficult not to sound a little wrong and phony (ha--that's for all the Catcher stuff in the book).
]]> 13457 Think Like a Chef, Tom Colicchio has created a new kind of cookbook. Rather than list a series of restaurant recipes, he uses simple steps to deconstruct a chef's creative process, making it easily available to any home cook.He starts with What's roasting, for example, and how do you do it in the oven or on top of the stove? He also gets you comfortable with braising, sautéing, and making stocks and sauces. Next he introduces simple "ingredients" -- roasted tomatoes, say, or braised artichokes -- and tells you how to use them in a variety of ways. So those easy roasted tomatoes may be turned into anything from a vinaigrette to a caramelized tomato tart, with many delicious options in between.In a section called Trilogies, Tom takes three ingredients and puts them together to make one dish that's quick and other dishes that are increasingly more involved. As Tom says, "Juxtaposed in interesting ways, these ingredients prove that the whole can be greater than the sum of their parts," and you'll agree once you've tasted the Ragout of Asparagus, Morels, and Ramps or the Baked Free-Form "Ravioli" -- both dishes made with the same trilogy of ingredients.The final section of the books offers simple recipes for components -- from zucchini with lemon thyme to roasted endive with whole spices to boulangerie potatoes -- that can be used in endless combinations.Written in Tom's warm and friendly voice and illustrated with glorious photographs of finished dishes, Think Like a Chef will bring out the master chef in all of us.]]> 272 Tom Colicchio 0609604856 Mary 4 4.01 2000
author: Tom Colicchio
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
This is a great way to look at cooking--not through recipes, but at the whole picture. Though, his whole picture includes a lot more lobster and foie gras than mine.
]]> 622018 "I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else." So writes Bob Dylan in Chronicles: Volume One, his remarkable book exploring critical junctures in his life and career.

Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York is a magical city of possibilities -- smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With the book's side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.

By turns revealing, poetical, passionate and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan's thoughts and influences. Dylan's voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.]]> 293 Bob Dylan 0743228154 Mary 1 4.01 2004
author: Bob Dylan
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
One of the books I did not finish in 2006. It is a difficult read!
]]> 1898
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.]]> 368 Jon Krakauer Mary 4 4.24 1997
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
So scary! I read some parts with my eyes closed.
]]> 14050 537 Audrey Niffenegger 0965818675 Mary 1 3.90 2003
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Mary
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at: 2005/08/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Blech. Maybe my heart is black and hardened? Maybe I am too cynical? Maybe this is the first book of an author who tried to get every last thing they know about into it?
]]> 19485
When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.]]> 336 Paul Auster 0571212182 Mary 2 3.89 2002
author: Paul Auster
name: Mary
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2002/12/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Sometimes he gets a little too misogynistic for me to enjoy his work; this is one of those times.
]]> 740112 416 Heinrich Eduard Jacob 1558215751 Mary 0 to-read 3.79 1943
author: Heinrich Eduard Jacob
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:
I started this in Jan 06, and then gave up during jury duty the following month. I'd like to start over soon.
]]> 4137 272 David Sedaris 0349113912 Mary 4 Fuck-it bucket. 4.01 2000
author: David Sedaris
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Fuck-it bucket.
]]> 431 The remarkable, acclaimed series of interconnected detective novels � from the author of 4 3 2 1: A Novel

The New York Review of Books has called Paul Auster’s work “one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature.� Moving at the breathless pace of a thriller, this uniquely stylized triology of detective novels begins with City of Glass, in which Quinn, a mystery writer, receives an ominous phone call in the middle of the night. He’s drawn into the streets of New York, onto an elusive case that’s more puzzling and more deeply-layered than anything he might have written himself. In Ghosts, Blue, a mentee of Brown, is hired by White to spy on Black from a window on Orange Street. Once Blue starts stalking Black, he finds his subject on a similar mission, as well. In The Locked Room, Fanshawe has disappeared, leaving behind his wife and baby and nothing but a cache of novels, plays, and poems.

This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition includes an introduction from author and professor Luc Sante, as well as a pulp novel-inspired cover from Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist of Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers.]]> 308 Paul Auster 0143039830 Mary 4 3.93 1987
author: Paul Auster
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 1998/05/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
City of Glass is one of my favorite stories of all time.
]]> 11298 353 Haruki Murakami 037571894X Mary 2 3.96 1982
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1982
rating: 2
read at: 2003/08/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't like his writing, but it's just not my taste. I can't suspend my disbelief enough to get into magical things like this.
]]> 11650 Pulitzer Prize Winner (1998)

In American Pastoral, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all the twentieth century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Seymour 'Swede' Levov—a legendary high school athlete, a devoted family man, a hard worker, the prosperous inheritor of his father's Newark glove factory—comes of age in thriving, triumphant post-war America. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.]]> 432 Philip Roth Mary 3 read-pulitzer
I feel like it can be broken down into thirds: the first third with Roth's reoccurring version of himself, Nathan Zuckerman, as a device for telling the story; the middle, about the Swede's life in New Jersey; and the end, where his life sort of falls apart at a dinner party. The middle was great, the best sort of Roth writing, unforgettable scenes and emotions. But the beginning took an eternity to slog through, and the narrator completely disappeared--I expected an interesting return at the end, something, but instead the end stopped short arbitrarily. ]]> 3.93 1997
author: Philip Roth
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2007/04/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
I know a lot of people love this, list it at the top of lists of the greatest works of fiction, but for me it's not up there. It was very good, but it missed too much and in too many places.

I feel like it can be broken down into thirds: the first third with Roth's reoccurring version of himself, Nathan Zuckerman, as a device for telling the story; the middle, about the Swede's life in New Jersey; and the end, where his life sort of falls apart at a dinner party. The middle was great, the best sort of Roth writing, unforgettable scenes and emotions. But the beginning took an eternity to slog through, and the narrator completely disappeared--I expected an interesting return at the end, something, but instead the end stopped short arbitrarily.
]]> 698034
But he gradually begins to suspect that his life - indeed his whole world - is an illusion, constructed around him for the express purpose of keeping him docile and happy. But if that is the case, what is his real world like, and what is he actually doing every day when he thinks he is guessing 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?']]> 255 Philip K. Dick 037571927X Mary 3 3.87 1959
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Mary
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
The beginning of this is a lot of fun. Intriguing and mysterious, it's slightly off-kilter, but not in the same way some other Dick books are--this is a little more grounded in reality, albeit one that's not quite right. Parts of the movie The Truman Show must have been inspired by this. When we finally get the explanation at the end it's not completely satisfying, but it was a fun ride getting there.
]]> 358865 304 Ehud Havazelet 0374299722 Mary 0 to-read 3.23 2007
author: Ehud Havazelet
name: Mary
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 14276 135 William Maxwell 1860464181 Mary 0 to-read 3.91 1980
author: William Maxwell
name: Mary
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127028 The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The protagonist of Booth Tarkington's great historical drama is George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled and arrogant grandson of the founder of the family's magnificence. Eclipsed by a new breed of developers, financiers, and manufacturers, this pampered scion begins his gradual descent from the midwestern aristocracy to the working class. Today The Magnificent Ambersons is best known through the 1942 Orson Welles movie, but as the critic Stanley Kauffmann noted, "It is high time that [the novel] appear again, to stand outside the force of Welles's genius, confident in its own right." "The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington's best novel," judged Van Wyck Brooks. "[It is] a typical story of an American family and town--the great family that locally ruled the roost and vanished virtually in a day as the town spread and darkened into a city. This novel no doubt was a permanent page in the social history of the United States, so admirably conceived and written was the tale of the Amber-sons, their house, their fate and the growth of the community in which they were submerged in the end."

Booth Tarkington (1869-1946), a prolific writer who achieved overnight success with his first novel, The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), is perhaps best remembered as the author of the popular Penrod adventures and Seventeen (1916). He was awarded a second Pulitzer Prize for the novel Alice Adams (1921).]]> 288 Booth Tarkington 1406935735 Mary 3 read-pulitzer
But none of this seems enough to bring the downfall of anybody's book club! In fact, I'd think it'd be terrific for a book club--the writing is pretty great, and there's so much to talk about! How are the characterizations good or bad? Is the ending believable or rushed, happy or measured? Is progress worthwhile, or were things really better when towns were smaller? And so on.

I'd like to see the Orson Welles movie, but it's not on DVD? I just requested that TCM send me a reminder email before the next time they air it, which is apparently February 24, 2020 at 12:30pm. Now I just have to get a DVR or the day off by then...

And I'm looking forward to eventually reading Alice Adams!]]> 3.76 1918
author: Booth Tarkington
name: Mary
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1918
rating: 3
read at: 2009/11/01
date added: 2009/11/18
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
This was a good, easy read, and a nice (if sometimes over exaggerated or unrealistic) profile of post-Civil War Americans and the hyperactive "progress" they'd put in motion. His writing is frequently funny, especially early on, which unfortunately made for a confusing tone when things GOT REAL. Ha. It's also often meandering, but then the denouement felt too quick. Additionally, the end was pretty hard to believe.

But none of this seems enough to bring the downfall of anybody's book club! In fact, I'd think it'd be terrific for a book club--the writing is pretty great, and there's so much to talk about! How are the characterizations good or bad? Is the ending believable or rushed, happy or measured? Is progress worthwhile, or were things really better when towns were smaller? And so on.

I'd like to see the Orson Welles movie, but it's not on DVD? I just requested that TCM send me a reminder email before the next time they air it, which is apparently February 24, 2020 at 12:30pm. Now I just have to get a DVR or the day off by then...

And I'm looking forward to eventually reading Alice Adams!
]]> 319964 On the Black Hill is an elegantly written tale of identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till the rough soil and sleep in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advances of the twentieth century.

In depicting the lives of Benjamin and Lewis and their interactions with their small local community Chatwin comments movingly on the larger questions of human experience.]]> 262 Bruce Chatwin Mary 3 4.01 1982
author: Bruce Chatwin
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2009/10/01
date added: 2009/11/06
shelves:
review:
Sweet, quiet, a little slow sometimes, but overall very nice. The end feels rushed by comparison, though.
]]> 6452538
Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought Roosevelt and Pinchot’s rangers, but the Big Burn saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in their favor and became the creation myth that drove the Forest Service, with consequences still felt in the way our national lands are protected� �  or not —� today.]]> 281 Timothy Egan 0618968415 Mary 0 to-read 4.05 2009
author: Timothy Egan
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 414298 391 Richard Russo 0375701907 Mary 3 4.01 1997
author: Richard Russo
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2009/10/01
date added: 2009/10/26
shelves:
review:
Russo is a master of character, and everyone in this book is definitely a character. Fun read, but not my favorite of his.
]]> 76401 The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition—published in both hardcover and paperback—Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.]]> 509 Dee Brown 0805066691 Mary 4
This affected me so much that one night when Dave came home after I'd already gone to sleep, I sat up, and--still completely asleep, mind you--I accused him of being "just as bad as the White People!" He said what, and I repeated myself, exact words, and then laid right back down. I don't remember any of this.]]> 4.24 1970
author: Dee Brown
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/01
date added: 2009/10/07
shelves:
review:
Really, really heartbreaking. What's worse is that reading this led to a lot of discussions about how this sort of story, basically the destruction of an entire people, has happened repeatedly throughout history all around the world. It's only recently, like with the Indians, that the ones who were being wiped out were able to get their side of the story heard.

This affected me so much that one night when Dave came home after I'd already gone to sleep, I sat up, and--still completely asleep, mind you--I accused him of being "just as bad as the White People!" He said what, and I repeated myself, exact words, and then laid right back down. I don't remember any of this.
]]> 543888 320 Kenn Kaufman 0618709401 Mary 0 to-read 4.27 1997
author: Kenn Kaufman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 72308 324 Jim Harrison 0671740679 Mary 5 4.18 1988
author: Jim Harrison
name: Mary
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2009/09/01
date added: 2009/09/15
shelves:
review:
The pace is sort of difficult. It's empty and quiet and you're standing alone in tall grass, then a torrent of insanity surrounds you. Warm sun and birds and then ghosts on a cloudy night. I wanted to read it all at once, but I wanted to make it last longer.
]]> 22584
When he finally found a man who would agree to counterfeiting such cards for him, that man turned out to be a police informer. And then Taverner found out not only what it was like to be a nobody but also to be hunted by the whole apparatus of society.

It was obvious that in some way Taverner had become the pea in in some sort of cosmic shell game—but how? And why?

Philip K. Dick takes the reader on a walking tour of solipsism's scariest margin in his latest novel about the age we are already half into.]]> 204 Philip K. Dick 1857983416 Mary 2 3.93 1974
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1974
rating: 2
read at: 2009/08/01
date added: 2009/08/24
shelves:
review:
What a poorly edited, meandering mess. How many themes are we supposed to consider? Why briefly introduce interesting ideas about authority and race only to drop them completely and pontificate trippily on love instead? I wish someone would take a pill that would make me wake up tomorrow having forgotten I read this.
]]> 146219 293 Steven Millhauser 0679781277 Mary 2 read-pulitzer 3.57 1996
author: Steven Millhauser
name: Mary
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1996
rating: 2
read at: 2009/07/01
date added: 2009/08/24
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
Terrific, surrealistic descriptions of fantastic underground lifestyle structures did not make up for Martin's dissatisfying, dragging race to the always-disappointing future.
]]> 1867925
While the story of coming up from the hood has been told by Antwone Fisher and Chris Gardner, among others, Snoop's tale goes far deeper into The Life than any previous books. And like Mary Karr's story, Snoop's is a woman's story from a fresh point of view. She defied traditional conventions of gender and sexual preference on the hardest streets in America and she continues to do so in front of millions of viewers on TV.]]> 240 Felicia Pearson 0446195189 Mary 0 to-read 3.64 2007
author: Felicia Pearson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 14595 A Time Out and Daily News Top Ten Book of the Year upon its initial release, Please Kill Me is the first oral history of the most nihilist of all pop movements. Iggy Pop, Danny Fields, Dee Dee and Joey Ramone, Malcom McLaren, Jim Carroll, and scores of other famous and infamous punk figures lend their voices to this definitive account of that outrageous, explosive era. From its origins in the twilight years of Andy Warhol's New York reign to its last gasps as eighties corporate rock, the phenomenon known as punk is scrutinized, eulogized, and idealized by the people who were there and who made it happen.
]]> 488 Legs McNeil 0802142648 Mary 5 4.19 1996
author: Legs McNeil
name: Mary
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/07/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 54827 All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is one of Larry McMurtry's most vital and entertaining novels.
Danny Deck is on the verge of success as an author when he flees Houston and hurtles unexpectedly into the hearts of three women: a girlfriend who makes him happy but who won't stay, a neighbor as generous as she is lusty, and his pal Emma Horton. It's a wild ride toward literary fame and an uncharted country...beyond everyone he deeply loves. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is a wonderful display of Larry McMurtry's unique gift: his ability to re-create the subtle textures of feelings, the claims of passing time and familiar place, and the rich interlocking swirl of people's lives.]]> 304 Larry McMurtry 0684853825 Mary 3 3.87 1972
author: Larry McMurtry
name: Mary
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 2009/07/01
date added: 2009/07/21
shelves:
review:
Fun and snappy. It's hard not to like anything McMurty does.
]]> 444734
There's the tipsy advice columnist who has a hard time following her own advice, the ex-con who falls for the same woman over and over again, and the soup-maker who tries to drink and cook his way out of romantic despair. Theirs are the kinds of stories about love and life that unfold late in the evening, when people finally share their secret hopes and frailties, because they know you will forgive them, or maybe make out with them for a little while. In this rich and engaging debut, each central character suffers a sobering moment of clarity in which the beauty and sadness of life is revealed. But the character does not cry or mend his ways. Instead he tips back his hat, lights another unfiltered cigarette, and heads across the floor to ask someone to dance.

A poignant exploration of the sometimes tender, sometimes deeply funny ways people try to connect, Later, at the Bar is as warm and inviting as a good shot of whiskey on a cold winter night.]]> 225 Rebecca Barry 1416535241 Mary 4 3.29 2007
author: Rebecca Barry
name: Mary
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/01
date added: 2009/07/21
shelves:
review:
What is lacking in plot is made up in atmosphere.
]]> 378579
"I love you, Beth Cooper."

It would have been such a sweet, romantic moment. Except that:

Beth, the head cheerleader, has only the vaguest idea who Denis is.

And Denis, the captain of the debate team, is so far out of her league he is barely even the same species.

And then there's Kevin, Beth's remarkably large boyfriend, in town on furlough from the United States Army.

Complications ensue.

Denis comes of age overnight in this exhilar-ating, endearing novel that reminds us why we can't wait to escape high school but can never leave it behind.]]> 253 Larry Doyle 0061236179 Mary 3
Sadly, Beth Cooper is a book that's been rebuilt--it's a plot that's overly familiar with characters we've seen time and time again. Geeks and popular high school kids mingling to wild results on graduation night! Will the geek get the cheerleader?! Will the cheerleader be different than all he had imagined?! Is there an overreacting boyfriend of the cheerleader?! Do the geek sidekick and cheerleader posse have secrets?! Sigh.

The laffs are more gentle than his more heady humor, but some are genuine and fresh. Seeing how beaten and degraded Denis can become is amusing, and learning that Beth is deeper than expected adds some depth to the book as well. It's a quick read with a lot of charm, but sadly it's nothing new.]]> 3.31 2007
author: Larry Doyle
name: Mary
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2009/07/01
date added: 2009/07/07
shelves:
review:
Cute, light, and easy, but this didn't live up to my high expectations. Doyle writes hilarious pieces for the New Yorker, and is credited for writing my favorite episode of Beavis & Butt-Head ("Nosebleed"), so when I heard his book was coming out, and that it would be a YA novel, man was I excited, it was like a book built specifically for me.

Sadly, Beth Cooper is a book that's been rebuilt--it's a plot that's overly familiar with characters we've seen time and time again. Geeks and popular high school kids mingling to wild results on graduation night! Will the geek get the cheerleader?! Will the cheerleader be different than all he had imagined?! Is there an overreacting boyfriend of the cheerleader?! Do the geek sidekick and cheerleader posse have secrets?! Sigh.

The laffs are more gentle than his more heady humor, but some are genuine and fresh. Seeing how beaten and degraded Denis can become is amusing, and learning that Beth is deeper than expected adds some depth to the book as well. It's a quick read with a lot of charm, but sadly it's nothing new.
]]> 2052
Librarian's note: this is an alternate cover edition.]]> 231 Raymond Chandler 0394758285 Mary 3 3.96 1939
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2009/06/01
date added: 2009/07/07
shelves:
review:
This was the first time a stranger on a train spoke to me about what I was reading.
]]> 77699 303 Anne Tyler 0449911594 Mary 4 3.81 1982
author: Anne Tyler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2009/06/01
date added: 2009/06/26
shelves:
review:
Maybe 3.5 stars. It's really good, but I felt like it was missing something. And it is a real downer. Though it's partially about how parents can be crazy and I finished reading it while I was visiting my crazy parents, so my opinion might not be fair or balanced.
]]> 432141 352 Veronica Geng 0395945577 Mary 0 to-read 3.95 1988
author: Veronica Geng
name: Mary
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 77239 766 MacKinlay Kantor 0452269563 Mary 5 read-pulitzer 4.10 1955
author: MacKinlay Kantor
name: Mary
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2009/06/10
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
Amazing. It's hard to read both in subject matter and in style--it requires a lot of attention, as time and place can change from paragraph to paragraph, and it's very, very long--but it is an incredible fictional testament to the worst offense of the Civil War. A lot of the scenes will linger for a long time.
]]> 1736739
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life � sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.]]> 270 Elizabeth Strout Mary 0 to-read, to-read-pulitzer 3.85 2008
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Mary
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/04/23
shelves: to-read, to-read-pulitzer
review:

]]> 48328 355 Richard Yates Mary 2 gave-up
4/15: I don't know if I will read much more of this. I'm about 100 pages into it, and really, this is opposite of why I read. This is like the Rabbit books, or Richard Ford, or hell, even the Cheever stories I've been slowly chipping away at--a reflection or extremely accurate depiction of how sad and bleak post-WWII American life is. I don't want to read that. I live through that. I read to escape that.]]> 3.92 1961
author: Richard Yates
name: Mary
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1961
rating: 2
read at: 2009/04/01
date added: 2009/04/16
shelves: gave-up
review:
4/16: Well, that's it, I'm done, I gave up. My subway ride last night got fucked and it took me over two hours to get home. There I was, angry, shuffled up and over and down again to the local track in an enormous mass of equally frustrated people, waiting for another train, waiting and waiting and hearing conflicting messages about the one I just got off. Waiting while six trains that aren't mine pass by, and finally giving up and getting on one that I'll just have to transfer off of later, and then I'm stuck on that, in the tunnel, under the river, for 40 minutes, the air turned off, starting to panic, thinking about the pressure of the water on the tunnel, hearing a dozen announcements that are too low and drowning in static to make out, seeing that the doors on the car are locked, how nobody could leave if someone vomits or gets violent, hoping that lady doesn't faint, and all I have to keep my mind off the fact that I may never make it home is this book that I had decided that very morning to give up on. When I finally got off the train at my stop, I left the book on a bench in the station, went home, and had a drink. As far as I could tell from the opposite platform, the book was gone this morning.

4/15: I don't know if I will read much more of this. I'm about 100 pages into it, and really, this is opposite of why I read. This is like the Rabbit books, or Richard Ford, or hell, even the Cheever stories I've been slowly chipping away at--a reflection or extremely accurate depiction of how sad and bleak post-WWII American life is. I don't want to read that. I live through that. I read to escape that.
]]> 368772 The Caine Mutiny and the hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life-and mutiny-on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II. In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has become a perennial favorite of readers young and old, has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.]]> 537 Herman Wouk 0316955108 Mary 4 read-pulitzer
And even though it was somewhat compelling, the love story subplot seems tacked on and largely unnecessary.]]> 4.26 1951
author: Herman Wouk
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2009/04/01
date added: 2009/04/15
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
Reading this was addictive. I just wanted to keep plowing through it. Leading up to the trial, I was as frustrated and stuck as the crew, really feeling like I could relate to the insane and unjustifiable behavior of authority. But then everything flips, and it becomes a book about perspective and perception, the regular world and the military world, and peacetime and war.

And even though it was somewhat compelling, the love story subplot seems tacked on and largely unnecessary.
]]> 1195268 320 Fuchsia Dunlop 0091918308 Mary 0 to-read 4.07 2008
author: Fuchsia Dunlop
name: Mary
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 26
And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set.

Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. Travelling around thirty-eight of the lower states - united only in their mind-numbingly dreary uniformity - he discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.

The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature - hilariously, stomach-achingly funny, yet tinged with heartache - and the book that first staked Bill Bryson's claim as the most beloved writer of his generation.]]> 299 Bill Bryson 0060920084 Mary 1 gave-up
That's it, I quit.]]> 3.82 1989
author: Bill Bryson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1989
rating: 1
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/03/24
shelves: gave-up
review:
I don't know how much longer I can go on reading this. It's like reading the transcripts of every Andy Rooney segment ever shown on 60 Minutes.

That's it, I quit.
]]> 19057 protect the diamonds
survive the clubs
dig deep through the spades
feel the hearts

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?]]> 357 Markus Zusak Mary 3
I know that the point is that we need to be more kind to the people around us in fleeting moments to make more of our own lives, but I'm sad that the connections he makes he is, mostly, so quick to abandon. I wish he'd keep meeting up with the priest, maybe jog once or twice a week with the runner, babysit for the ice cream lady, etc., but yeah, I know it's not possible. At least I'm sure he'll finish reading Wuthering Heights to that nice old broad.

Other than all that, there were some pretty touching moments that appealed to the part of me that cries because of sappy commercials. But they were original and surprising, so you won't feel as guilty as when you're taken in by those empty-calorie commercials.
]]> 4.03 2002
author: Markus Zusak
name: Mary
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/03/13
shelves:
review:
I had trouble understanding why this kid started sending all these "messages" just because he got a playing card in the mail. I also don't understand why he was calling them "messages."

I know that the point is that we need to be more kind to the people around us in fleeting moments to make more of our own lives, but I'm sad that the connections he makes he is, mostly, so quick to abandon. I wish he'd keep meeting up with the priest, maybe jog once or twice a week with the runner, babysit for the ice cream lady, etc., but yeah, I know it's not possible. At least I'm sure he'll finish reading Wuthering Heights to that nice old broad.

Other than all that, there were some pretty touching moments that appealed to the part of me that cries because of sappy commercials. But they were original and surprising, so you won't feel as guilty as when you're taken in by those empty-calorie commercials.

]]> 187020
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles� soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything� includes Miles himself. In Empire Falls Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace]]> 483 Richard Russo 0375726403 Mary 0 Nobody's Fool. Like, a year later, but it's still too close. It's the same book, essentially. Old male protagonist whose lady is with a more attractive man, diner in a cold, failing Northeastern town, eccentric elderly lady, daddy issues...and once the cop showed up I had to put it down. It's very funny, very well-written, but I'm going to need to try it again many years from now, after I've forgotten more about Nobody's Fool than I remember. ]]> 3.94 2001
author: Richard Russo
name: Mary
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2009/02/01
date added: 2009/03/03
shelves: to-read, to-read-pulitzer, gave-up
review:
Started to read this too soon after having read Nobody's Fool. Like, a year later, but it's still too close. It's the same book, essentially. Old male protagonist whose lady is with a more attractive man, diner in a cold, failing Northeastern town, eccentric elderly lady, daddy issues...and once the cop showed up I had to put it down. It's very funny, very well-written, but I'm going to need to try it again many years from now, after I've forgotten more about Nobody's Fool than I remember.
]]> 133803 245 Sy Montgomery 0345496094 Mary 4 3.97 2006
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2009/02/01
date added: 2009/03/03
shelves:
review:
Such a sweet book, with a lot of incredible porcine facts. Somehow I did not decide to stop eating pig after reading it, even though there was a reference to cannibals remarking that pigs taste just like "soylent green." The cannibals didn't say that specifically, but you know what I mean.
]]> 292408
Wallace Stegner's Pultizer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery—personal, historical, and geographical.]]> 569 Wallace Stegner 014016930X Mary 2 read-pulitzer
There's a lot to this book that I really like, but it's stuck on either end of a dull, tedious middle. ]]> 4.24 1971
author: Wallace Stegner
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1971
rating: 2
read at: 2009/01/01
date added: 2009/02/01
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
Toooo sloooow.

There's a lot to this book that I really like, but it's stuck on either end of a dull, tedious middle.
]]> 2731276
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires—spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

David Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes—the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain—create a riveting family saga, a brilliant exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.]]> 566 David Wroblewski 0061374229 Mary 0 to-read 3.64 2008
author: David Wroblewski
name: Mary
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 333901 “Every war has turning points and every person too.�

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary.

But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.]]> 194 Meg Rosoff 0385746776 Mary 2 3.47 2004
author: Meg Rosoff
name: Mary
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2008/12/01
date added: 2008/12/29
shelves:
review:
I just couldn't connect with this. The narrator is bratty, selfish, and inconsistent, and the few changes she conquers are like ones given to her by an author who'd thrown darts at a plot dartboard: anorexia, incest, war. And why did she have to have two names, Elizabeth-but-everybody-calls-me-Daisy? I understand that eventually it gives the incestuous cousin a sort of loose bond with her over his mute PTSD gardening, but come on, just name her Daisy and be done with it.
]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]> 335 Junot DĂ­az 1594489580 Mary 3 read-pulitzer Drown, it's about an extended family in America and their roots in a different country, and the narrator is a peripheral character that eventually reveals his own entanglement in the story.

Unfortunately, the equation didn't add up quite right. Connections were flimsy, ideas too broad and incomplete, devices distracting. There were so many great scenes, but they didn't fit together to form a greater whole, and they led to a conclusion in the final section that was not convincing, and left me feeling unconnected even to the few great parts that preceded.]]> 3.89 2007
author: Junot DĂ­az
name: Mary
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2008/12/01
date added: 2008/12/22
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
By design, this seems like it would be the perfect book for me: I absolutely loved Drown, it's about an extended family in America and their roots in a different country, and the narrator is a peripheral character that eventually reveals his own entanglement in the story.

Unfortunately, the equation didn't add up quite right. Connections were flimsy, ideas too broad and incomplete, devices distracting. There were so many great scenes, but they didn't fit together to form a greater whole, and they led to a conclusion in the final section that was not convincing, and left me feeling unconnected even to the few great parts that preceded.
]]> 387348
Librarian note: An alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.

]]> 496 Mary McCarthy 0156372088 Mary 0 to-read 3.69 1963
author: Mary McCarthy
name: Mary
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 436971 176 Ursula K. Le Guin 0380791854 Mary 3 4.14 1971
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2008/12/01
date added: 2008/12/09
shelves:
review:
I'd like George Orr to dream me up a puppy, but of course it would end up being some horrible zombie puppy that needs to eat my flesh to survive. Damn you and your uncontrollable effective dreams!
]]> 13376
At his coming-of-age party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard, "How old am I?...I know I don't have a birthday like humans, but I was born."

"You were harvested," Tam Lin reminds him. "You were grown in that poor cow for nine months and then you were cut out of her."

To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. A room full of chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium—a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico—Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA.]]> 380 Nancy Farmer 0689852231 Mary 3 4.08 2002
author: Nancy Farmer
name: Mary
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2008/10/01
date added: 2008/11/05
shelves:
review:
It's an ambitious YA/borderline sci-fi story with many intriguing social and moral quandaries, but what it has in issues it lacks in character development. Matt and the others waver between fully-formed, thoughtful but troubled people and sketchy approximations of what they should be. There are some really terrific scenes where the world is complete, believable, and resonant (Matt being held captive in a room filled with sawdust; his time spent in the working orphanage), but there are more that fall flat and feel rushed. Still, it's an imaginative, readable tale.
]]> 11466 304 Tobias Wolff 0802136680 Mary 3 3.97 1989
author: Tobias Wolff
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2008/10/01
date added: 2008/10/29
shelves:
review:
Eh. It was fine, but it certainly didn't grab me.
]]> 538059 Elbow Room is alive with warmth and humor. Bold and very real, these twelve stories examine a world we all know but find difficult to define.

Whether a story dashes the bravado of young street toughs or pierces through the self-deception of a failed preacher, challenges the audacity of a killer or explodes the jealousy of two lovers, James Alan McPherson has created an array of haunting images and memorable characters in an unsurpassed collection of honest, masterful fiction.]]> 288 James Alan McPherson 0449213579 Mary 3 read-pulitzer 3.71 1977
author: James Alan McPherson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 2008/10/01
date added: 2008/10/20
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
The writing is terrific, but my tastes tend toward sweet, funny, or reminiscent stories like "Why I Like Country Music" and "I Am an American" rather than the ethical and moral quandaries that are so many of the other stories.
]]> 256008 Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.]]> 960 Larry McMurtry 067168390X Mary 5 read-pulitzer
Okay one thing: the end of the pigs' story was a real let-down, which seriously made me want to write to Larry McMurtry to ask him about it. I read that when they were working on the script for the miniseries, the screenwriter Bill Wittliff received more letters about changing the story of the pigs than anything else. ]]> 4.54 1985
author: Larry McMurtry
name: Mary
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2008/09/01
date added: 2008/10/10
shelves: read-pulitzer
review:
This was so good. I can't think of much else to say.

Okay one thing: the end of the pigs' story was a real let-down, which seriously made me want to write to Larry McMurtry to ask him about it. I read that when they were working on the script for the miniseries, the screenwriter Bill Wittliff received more letters about changing the story of the pigs than anything else.
]]>