Actress
by Anne Enright
A Rewarding Read (11/5/2019)
Anne Enright is a brilliant writer and The Actress is a brilliant book that occasionally I had to struggle to finish. I'm so glad I did. It wasn't until the end that I fully appreciated the scope of the story. Ostensibly it revolves around the narrator's mother, a famous actress past her prime who descends into madness. And truly, the descriptions of the art and craft of acting are transcendent. But ultimately it is the daughter's story, the way her lifelong search for her father and the scars of loving her mother have reverberated throughout her entire life. It can even be read as one long love letter from the daughter to her husband after forty years of marriage and children, and in that it is incomparable. But who to recommend this book to? I really hesitate, knowing how it would have tried my patience when I was younger. I would say it's not a light entertaining read, but it holds great rewards for those willing to follow the author into the depths of human experience. And all along the way, that lovely Irish voice.
The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz
by Jack Fairweather
The Volunteer (5/23/2019)
The Volunteer is the most difficult book I've ever reviewed for BookBrowse. It is a vitally important piece of history about Auschwitz and the Polish resistance during WWII, which has been meticulously rescued from the cobwebs of time by author Jack Fairweather. His recounting of this bright bit of humanity during the most inhumane of times is as compelling as any work of fiction and certainly deserves to be remembered. I'm giving it only 4 stars because of the relentless way in which he narrates, page after page after page, the most minute details of the Nazi's brutality. It was so traumatizing to read that I could barely focus on the story. We should never grow numb to these horrors, but the graphic presentation of them can easily overwhelm all other narratives. That was the case for me with this book. I would highly recommend it, but only with that caveat.
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
by Anissa Gray
A Ravenously Hungry Reader (10/23/2018)
I really wanted to like this gorgeously-titled book. I wanted to like it so much that I read it twice, searching for what I thought I must have missed the first time. But I just ended up doubly frustrated. It's not for the author's lack of talent. Anissa Gray is an absolutely beautiful, fearless writer. I have no doubt that she's poised on the edge of a huge career in literary fiction. What doomed this book for me is its "too-muchness" - too many characters, too many issues, too many storylines, too many points of view - which ultimately left me unsatisfied with not enough of anything. (Ironic, given the title.) It almost started to veer into soap opera territory where, in lieu of authentic action, characters mostly just talked and talked and talked about the actions that mostly occurred "off-stage," switching from sister to sister to sister to husband's letters from prison and back again. It was dizzying. I wanted to identify with someone, follow someone's story, but they each kept slipping away, yielding to someone else's narrative, eventually beginning to all sound alike. Any one of the issues could easily have been the subject of an entire meaty book. I hope the author has the confidence in her next book to select just a few themes to explore in depth, trusting that all the untold stories she's bursting to bring to life will have their say, just not all at once. I'm not sure I would recommend this book to my friends, but I can hardly wait to read Ms. Gray's next novel.
America for Beginners
by Leah Franqui
Like Reading A Lifetime Movie (3/16/2018)
I think your appreciation for this book will depend on what you're looking to get out of it. If you want a feel-good, non-demanding story full of kind-hearted characters and happy endings, this is a pleasant, easy read. If a mixture of clichéd plot lines, wooden dialogue and painfully stereotyped scenic descriptions grates on your nerves, I would suggest taking a pass. Sadly, I fell more into the second category. I wanted to lose myself in the story but was repeatedly jarred to my senses by bad writing. I'm probably not the target audience for this book.
Force of Nature: Aaron Falk Mystery #2
by Jane Harper
What They Said (11/2/2017)
Almost anything I could write would be repetitive of my fellow BookBrowse five-star reviewers, with all of whom I agree completely. So I will just add this. Jane Harper writes mysteries as if they are the highest literary art form. If you like mysteries of any kind, you will love this book. If you like character-driven fiction, you will love this book. If you like to read books, you will love this book. I give Force of Nature my highest recommendation and sincerely hope the third book in the Aaron Falk series is nearing publication, as it will be hard to wait for more from this supremely talented author.
Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After
by Heather Harpham
A Bittersweet Read (6/16/2017)
Heather Harpham's memoir is undeniably written with grace and charm, a joyful celebration of her life's blessings. But I wonder if I'm the only reader who has experienced her story in different and far more tragic circumstances: a sister who had not one but two children with critical illness, a father who left and did not pay child support, years of working a night job, sleeping two hours a day in a hospital chair, grinding financial need and the constant improvisation of family support, and finally losing both children. This experience can't help but inform my reading of Happiness, which I have no doubt will become a bestseller. I rejoice with Heather that her precious daughter lived and her love story had a happy ending. But she seems somewhat oblivious of her privileges in life, financial and otherwise. Reading her memoir felt a bit like listening to a wealthy person exult over winning the lottery.
The Second Mrs. Hockaday
by Susan Rivers
Mesmerizing Story, Brilliant Author (12/5/2016)
Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down until the last haunting sentence rang in my mind like a bell. It's that good! Other reviewers have summarized the plot so I won't dwell on it here. I would point out, though, that it brings home the sheer cruelty of slavery, and white people's casual acceptance of that cruelty, in a way few books have managed to do without preaching. The horrors of the Civil War are also made immediately felt through the characters' lives in quiet but such graphic prose that it made me feel I was understanding it for the first time as a fellow human being rather than a student of history. Best of all was the powerful depiction of the love between Placidia and Major Gryffth, in language so moving you understand at once this is one of THE great love stories and that whatever happens in the end will be shaped by this unyielding love. The author's brilliance shines in the taut plotting and pacing of the story but also in her development of every single minor character. They are all fully alive; it is a whole complete world. You will want to dive in and not come up for air until the very end! One beautiful passage at the end of the book stays with me and seems particularly relevant perhaps to our current political moment: "So much blood has been spilled that redemption may be out of reach in the end. Maybe all we can hope for is to be so exhausted by hate that we settle for the ceremonies of reconciliation." p. 236 (advance copy) I can hardly wait for Susan Rivers' next book!
News of the World
by Paulette Jiles
A Little Gem (8/22/2016)
I'm not a big fan of historical fiction but News of the World is as compelling as any contemporary novel I know. 1870's Texas - what a seething cauldron of issues and peoples! (Not unlike our own time.) How interesting to view it through the wry voice of a senior citizen war veteran and a damaged but plucky 10-year old girl. Top-notch author Paulette Giles deftly spins a tale of adventure that asks big moral questions while it entertains. She also describes the beauty of the land with the eye of a true naturalist. Her prose is really lovely. Also lovely: the nifty map of Texas enclosed with the book. I highly recommend this book and think it would be especially suited to book clubs. The Ten Cent Shootout alone is worth the price of the book!
The Life of the World to Come
by Dan Cluchey
Virtually unreadable (4/9/2016)
It's distressing to have to give a book only one star, but this particular book worked hard for it. It was clunky, pretentious and boring, and then it would get truly awful. I've been reading a lot of really good fiction lately, much of it featured on BookBrowse. But this - this hurt my brain.
Darling Days: A Memoir
by iO Tillett Wright
Mind-blowing and heart-expanding (3/29/2016)
This is a brilliant memoir, unlike any I've read in recent memory. It unfolds in 51 chapters, each a vivid snapshot of one incident or stage in the author's life from birth to the time she leaves her mother's home in her early twenties. To me the effect was more like being engrossed in a play than reading a book, which is fitting since the author, iO Tillett Wright, has been an actress since she was a tiny child. Her story is unconventional and heart-wrenching in the extreme, but it is also transformative and very moving. iO not only survived the shocking circumstances of her childhood to become her authentic self, she is also able to comprehend her flawed but loving parents in their full humanity. This book deserves a wide audience.
Fear of Dying
by Erica Jong
Erica, what have you done?! (5/4/2015)
This was a hugely disappointing read! It's barely a novel, more a 60-year old woman's long, whiny monologue about not wanting to get old and die. There are other characters in the book, two-dimensional at best, and things are described as happening from time to time - parents dying, a husband's heart attack - but they don't come alive, they're just pieces of the scaffolding on which to hang the monologue. Which is just embarrassing. A gorgeous 60-year old actress (retired now only because she refuses to play women her age!), married to a billionaire who loves her deeply, basically has a temper tantrum because she can't also have the free and easy sex of her youth with strangers. Already, it sounds like a really bad romance novel. Also, she wants the Fountain of Youth. She wants immortality. She wants her mother's pink pearls. She wants the satisfaction of all her desires immediately, like a two-year old, with no consequences. At age 60, this is just demeaning. It would be wonderful if Jong wrote all this in order to show the narrator achieving a resolution of growth and wisdom and humility. Not to mention gratitude! A tiny bit of this occurs when she finally agrees to find joy in having sex only with her husband (!) but overall the author writes as if her greed, her blind materialism, her vanity, her lack of compassion, her sheer sense of entitlement are not only acceptable traits but actually positive ones. This may reflect the values of some segments of society, but it insults the lives and experiences of a vast majority of women facing aging and dying today. Jong seems to mistake fear of dying for love of living. They're not the same thing at all.
Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir
by Jamie Brickhouse
Stupid when wet (3/25/2015)
I found this book to be just one more soppy memoir about a deeply narcissistic man and his dysfunctional, of course "larger than life" mother, his hedonistic romp through the gay sex scene of Manhattan, and his routine, almost textbook descent into alcoholism, rehab, and sobriety. This is ground that has already been covered so thoroughly and so well by other writers and screenwriters - gay, straight, and other - that it would take a true artist to add to the picture. Jamie Brickhouse is no artist and there is nothing new here, except maybe the sheer depth and scope of his self-absorption, which is truly amazing. He even brags about how well he writes. Not true. I needed a drink myself to get through the book. I mean no disrespect to the author's personal life journey, but I'm just not interested in learning about and validating every last sordid detail of it. I felt used.
Vanessa and Her Sister
by Priya Parmar
A real stunner (10/15/2014)
Hmm, so apparently we didn't invent free love in the '60s!
Other reviewers have amply described this book's style and contents. I would just add two observations. One, you will never look at Virginia Woolf the same way again. Though many references are made to her mental illness, the book gives the overwhelming impression that Virginia torments her sister Vanessa out of a lifelong, deep-seated and very mean-spirited jealousy, up to and including destroying her marriage. For me this put a severe tarnish on Virginia's halo as a feminist author. Equally troubling is the omission of the sexual abuse both sisters suffered at the hands of their half-brothers, George and Gerald Duckworth. Since these men were included in this intimate tale, this information seems highly relevant. Having said that, this book was an absolute joy to read. Quirky, clever, heart-rending, original. The author, Priya Parmar, has a poetic flair that is highly suited to "channeling" the voices of the Bloomsbury Group. I highly recommend this book even if you don't know these people or think you care about them.
How the Light Gets In: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #9
by Louise Penny
There is a Crack in Everything (7/13/2013)
This is a lovely book by a deeply compassionate and seasoned author. Although this was my first Inspector Gamache mystery, I had no trouble following the many plot lines from earlier books, which were deftly woven throughout the story. And her characters. They are just incandescent! My favorite: the seemingly bitter and demented old poet, Ruth, and her companion duck, Rosa. The story is tightly plotted, but Penny writes from a very emotional place. The pacing feels slow, almost contemplative at times, and she lavishes a great deal of attention on small details. This had the effect for me of dissipating any real buildup of suspense, which is why I gave the book four stars instead of five. It was still a very rewarding read.
Peking to Paris: Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World
by Dina Bennett
Slow going (3/31/2013)
As a lifelong fan of adventure travel, I really looked forward to this book. Not even 50 pages into it, though, I realized my mistake. It's not about the travel, it's all about the author and she's a diva. No matter how charming and self-deprecating she is about her inability to use a GPS, there is still an undertone of whininess and entitlement that permeates the entire book. She portrays herself as exactly the type of American traveler I dread encountering abroad. The book was far too thin on actual people and places visited along the way. I had a hard time finishing it.
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