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Howard Dean: In His Own Words
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How to Make an American Quilt
Hmmm ... yes, I liked it. Some parts were captivating and heartbreaking ... the "instructions" chapters were a little tiring for me ... but perhaps they served as a literary device to help build suspense and anticipation for the story chapters. Each woman in the quilting circle had a unique story of love, dreams, ambitions, and family ... I enjoyed them all, and I related most to the stories of Hyacinth Dodd and Marianna Neale. A good book!
Seabiscuit
One of the most well-written books I've read in some time! Truly engrossing! The author took so many pains to make this a truly historic biography. It was wonderful the way she wove together the lives of the people who believed in Seabiscuit ... in a tremendous outpouring of faith, courage, and heart. The story of Seabiscuit was so amazing ... but most of it would have been lost forever, had it not been for the efforts of a certain insightful and tenacious writer, historian, and throughbred racing enthusiast. How lucky we are! Thanks to Laura Hillenbrand, this wondrous little story from 65 years ago has been preserved for enjoyment and appreciation by all, including poor souls like me who otherwise may never have even heard of Seabiscuit. I'm so thankful that Ms. Hillenbrand wrote this book. It was truly wonderful.
The Whale Rider
This book was a gift from my dear friend Howell. A lovely story about people in a New Zealand village struggling to move into the future (and reconcile the seemingly unavoidable sins of the present) while keeping in touch with their traditions and heritage. I liked getting a glimpse into this culture. Ihimaera is a fascinating and endearing writer, and the character development was simple, yet genuine and evocative. I'd like to read some of his other books.
Animal Husbandry
My mom gave me this book to read ... it's not the most well-written book I've ever come across, but some patches of dialogue resonated with me. Unfortunately much of the so-called humor is stale, and even the writing was often shockingly sophomoric, and I can only hope the editors left those parts in as a joke, but even so, it wasn't funny. The only times I laughed were when I found myself identifying with some of the characters ... the narcissistic commitment-phobe males! Oh dear! To borrow a line from the book, "What will become of me?"
Julia Butterfly
What a beautiful and inspirational true story. I'm amazed by Julia Hill's diligence, intelligence, spirit, and strength of character. She's a modern-day superwoman!
The Geography of Nowhere
PHEONOMENAL! I wish everyone in the United States would read this book, cover to cover. I completely agree with the ideas expressed here!
Fast Food Nation
I expected this book to spend more time on things it didn't cover and less time on things it covered in great detail. For example, I am very concerned about the enormous waste generated by the fast food industry, at great expense to our current and future environment, and somehow this point seems drowned out by the endless pages of worker issues. Still, this is an important and worthwhile book (well-researched and, for the most part, superbly written). My favorite chapter is "Home on the Range."
The Brothers Karamazov: Book 1
POSITIVELY DELIGHTFUL! I love the character development and the suspense building up toward some kind of murder or something! Dostoevsky has assembled such an interesting cast of characters for this book. It's wonderful, so far!
She's Come Undone
I was spell-bound by this book. The paperback cover says it's "hilarious"--and while it's true that the style of writing is very witty and charming, most of the events covered are too tragic for this book to be anything like "hilarious." I didn't even like the book for the first 50 pages or so, but somehow I got sucked into Dolores' life and really began to care about her and wanted to see what would happen. Also, I like the way this book flavors Dolores' life with popular culture and current events familiar to all baby boomers (i.e., events/culture from the late 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's). Kind of like Forrest Gump--hey, I wonder if the screenplay writers got some of their ideas from this book? Anyway, this book was a true gem! I recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid to really get INTO a book and become fully engrossed!
The Pleasure of His Company
Although quite concise, this book furnishes great insight into President Kennedy's life, as perceived by one of his best friends.
Autobiography of a Yogi
An amazing book, filled with fine story-telling. Humorous, spiritual, and daring. But is it possible to sanely believe all the happenings in the book, literally? I wonder!
Dune
I really liked this book at the beginning. I like the descriptions of how people survive on the desert planet and the scheming and politics behind things. But in the second half of the book, the plot just dragged on and on, and then poof! it just wrapped itself up real suddenly at the end. I didn't like that at all. Oh well!
Strip Tease
My friend Karla complained bitterly when the Strip Tease movie came out because apparently the book had been so amazingly funny and the movie just wasn't. I never saw the movie, but 5 years later, while strolling thru the bookstore, I remembered what she said and decided to get the book. As it turns out, 5 years was probably just too much of a build up. True, it was very quick and light reading and funny enough for a few chuckles out loud. But nothing close to "funny as hell" as the cover promises. And for those who might be thrown off by the title (or maybe the movie?), you won't find any naked women to ogle in there ... it's text only, a twisted story of corruption in politics, law enforcement, and, yes, strip clubs in Florida. It actually has some funny scenes come to think of it. I give it one cascar�n! :-) The Fellowship of the Ring
It took me awhile to read this one. Most of the time there didn't seem to be very much going on. The feeling in this book is that the characters are always waiting and dreading--although some very important things happened at the end of the book, they weren't as big as what you would expect from all the earlier dreading and waiting. Because this book is the 1st part of a trilogy, I think the "thing" is that it simply is not meant to stand alone. I'm sure I will have a greater appreciation after I read the other 2 books.
Kent State: What Happened and Why
Now the first 300 or so pages of this book present some majorly dry reading! The beginning was so terribly slow, I can't believe I kept going. But it really picked up with the description of what actually happened on the big day and what each of the four kids were doing up until they got killed, etc. Also I was very intrigued by the aftermath and the reaction of society. For example, did you know that many parents were saying "they should have killed them all"?!!? (Meaning, all the students at the university when the National Guard was present.) Yeah, the description of the attitudes of people AFTER the killings was absolutely riveting, for me. And I must admit, reading all the hundreds of boring pages at the beginning PROBABLY helped me understand and appreciate the "riveting" stuff at the end. I'm not sure whether to give this one cascar�n or two. If you're just going to read the last third of the text, I will give it two. But for someone reading the whole thing, I'll give it just one.
Blott on the Landscape
This book was a birthday present from the eternal Englishman Mike Jones. It's real quick reading. I laughed so much during the first few pages, I'm sure people on the BART train thought I was schizofrenic. But after awhile I think I just got tired of the same humor being blasted at me, page after page. By the end of the book, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, I just wanted to get to the end. But I still recommend it because it was pretty darn funny before I got desensitized to it. BTW, it's a satire about some corrupt folks trying to build a highway and equally corrupt folks trying to stop them, so it's pretty good for those of us in the "transportation profession"!
The Hobbit
Since the Lord of the Rings movies will be coming out soon, I figured it's time to finally start reading Tolkien's masterpiece trilogy. To do things right, I decided to start with the magical prelude known as The Hobbit ... I had read it back in 7th grade English class but that was a pretty long time ago! I think I enjoyed it even more the second time around! It's a very imaginative and fun book. I'd say it's pretty satisfying. The main thing I don't like about it is there are no female characters to speak of! Maybe in Middle Earth the females do not believe in going on exciting and dangerous adventures or quests. Too bad for them! But it's OK, I do realize this was written over 50 years ago. (Strangely enough, there wasn't even some kind of weak female character like a damsel in distress!) But I still give this TWO cascarones ... it's a pretty good book! One good thing about it is that it tells an entire story from beginning to end and doesn't make you feel obligated to read any of the subsequent Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Girl, Interrupted
A very quick read--well-written and interesting. The quickness of the read definitely influenced the high rating for this book! That is, if it only takes a tiny bit of effort, it's not hard for the book to be worthwhile, now is it?
Watchers
Suspenseful and well-written page turner. Not very profound, just fun reading.
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