The Moor's Last Sigh
by SALMAN RUSHDIE
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (14 January, 1997)
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Editorial Review

In The Moor's Last Sigh Salman Rushdie revisits some of the same ground he covered in his greatest novel, Midnight's Children. This book is narrated by Moraes Zogoiby, aka Moor, who speaks to us from a grave in Spain. Like Moor, Rushdie knows about a life spent in banishment from normal society--Rushdie because of the death sentence that followed The Satanic Verses, Moor because he ages at twice the rate of normal humans. Yet Moor's story of travail is bigger than Rushdie's; it encompasses a grand struggle between good and evil while Moor himself stands as allegory for Rushdie's home country of India. Filled with wordplay and ripe with humor, it is an epic work. ... Read more

Reviews (74)

great style, but plot overload
I read this book last minute for an English project, and, although perhaps I would have enjoyed it if I read it more lesurely, I found that by pg 300 I was screaming for it to end. The wrting style is very interesting, although Rushdie did seem to lose it in the middle of the novel and was just telling a story. At the end of the novel we learn why the main character is writing, and it seems to me that Rusdie excuses himself for stretching out the book as much as he does.

If I read this again it will be in a few years, when I have the power to put it down for months at a time so I can get over being sick of each and every one of his family members.

A brilliant but not exactly enjoyable read
Rushdie is clearly brilliant, and The Moor's Last Sigh is the work of a genius.I freely admit to having missed a substantial portion of the book; it simply went over my head.I enjoyed the talent of the writer and the thousands of clever connections and tricks of the book.Nevertheless, I found myself absolutely unable to develop true fondness for any of the characters; I really cared very little what happened to them.Most of the time, this included the protagonist, though occasionally I did feel sympathy or slight affection for him.Finally, I found the plot a bit weak.There were one to many twists thrown in until I found myself asking what, exactly, is the point of this whole book?

Typical... too typical
"The Moor's Last Sigh" begins promisingly set in the rich cultural melting pot, that was Portugese India. Rushdie has made it a habit to analyse India in bits and pieces, one at a time with each novel. It is now the turn of the Malabar and one of the earliest roots of colonial India, that has come to deserve his attention. The focal point of the story isMoraes Zogoiby, the nodal leaf of the da Gama-Zogoiby family tree, with enough colours in his blood to make a rainbow pale in contrast. It seems to be a faithful allusion to India's "royal family apparent" - the Nehru-Gandhi clan, members of whom are frequently and rather brusquely alluded to. Getting through the first 150 pages is a joy ride. For those who perceive the intricacies of Indian history, the allusions are stark and vivid.

As any experienced reader might expect, Rushdie chips in with his now-branded magic realism with references to the supernatural, the unknown, the ambiguous, the pathetic fallacies, and the coincidences with his bewitching word play.The story meanders, twists, turns and sometimes cascades in typical Rushdie style, as the scene cuts to Cochin, then to Bombay (Rushdie's Oedipus Complex??) and finally to Andalusia. You meet more startling characters, expose more personalities, descend to the dark dungeons of humanity, and gain an insight into the secretive, alternative world that deceives and betrays the posh, exterior facade. Again, characteristic to Rushdie is the hapless narrator, the insecure, victimised, ugly, yet omniscient incarnate who speaks to you in the first person.

Rarely, would you feel a Rushdian character very simple to comprehend. Uma Saraswati, Moraes's lover, Abraham Zogoiby, his father, Aurora, his mother, his sisters, his grand-parents, his grand-uncles - all intricately woven and presented in a picture so complex that you feel that years of translucent history cannot have mystified simple lives so much. Rushdie's genius in exploring human values and emotions is evident and only to be expected. But, as you go panting and wanting more and more of it, the denouement comes too quickly and too abruptly. The demystification that you wait for so long, never takes off. Rushdie takes the easier route to deal with the problem - by destruction and it is this tried and tested Bollywood formula that wrecks the boat. It was my experience of "a burning head and a parched tongue." If this is what Rushdie wanted you to know, well, that is another twist, but a very unconvincing one. Maybe the sea hath dried up?

That being my initial peeve with the work, I realised later that this is not his only pitfall. Rushdie, with this novel might stand accused (not without reason) of being stereotypic. You come across too many things (sometimes one per page) that remind you of an earlier occurence somewhere in another of his works. The techniques and formulae are pretty old. Self-plagiariasm is an excuse that a creator of Rushdie's stature cannot afford with his readers. This was the fourth work of Rushdie I set my hands on, having already read "The Midnight's Children","Haroun and The sea of stories" and "The Ground beneath her feet". Having thorughly enjoyed the other three, I felt Rushdie flatters to deceive in this one.

Beginners to Rushdie - this is one book you can afford to skip. Old wines are in the cellar. Check them out first. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679744665
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Sagas    5. Fiction / Literary    6. Reading Group Guide   

An Imaginary Life
by DAVID MALOUF
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (28 May, 1996)
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Reviews (14)

"Brilliant short novel about civilization"
A brilliant short novel about civilization and it's relative disadvantages. It is ostensibly about the poet Ovid's exile from Rome in the fist century A.D. and his developing relationship weather feral child on the outskirts of the empire: Civilization vs. Nature. The importance of language in the novel is questioned, makes a good departure for a book group that will discuss the impact of words. We used Malouf's flowing novel to launch our book club, and the discussion touched on various topics such as Ovid, religion, Roman history.

Amazing
This is an extraordinary, fascinating, and deeply moving book.Malouf brilliantly takes Ovid's exile to the furthest outpost of the Roman empire and makes of it a beautifully written, beautifully executed meditation on imagination and "what it is to be human."It is a strangely liberating book, for, to quote the text, "We are free to transcend ourselves.If we have the imagination for it."

Fully Human!
Excellent tale, seeking to define qualities that make one human.Social graces, intelligence, superstition, one with nature.And who better to question the concept but an outstanding poet, whom we know of two millenia after his death.Who was fully human, the boy or the poet, or the villagers?Give me the poet any day. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679767932
Sales Rank: 212829
Subjects:  1. 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D    2. 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.    3. Exiles    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. Literary    7. Malouf, David - Prose & Criticism    8. Ovid,    9. Poets    10. Fiction / Literary    11. Ovid   

My place
by Sally Morgan
Average Customer Review:
Unknown Binding (1990)

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Reviews (15)

Poorly written but interesting
Reading the other reviews on here, I find it interesting to note that just about everyone gives it either 5 stars or 1 star, but there's almost nothing in between. It's quite true that it is a poorly written book - the writing is dull and prosaic, and there's little to recommend it from a literary point of view. Had I not had to read it for a class, I doubt I would have bothered finishing it. The narrative of searching and redemption which runs throughout is so predictable and cliché that I have the feeling that if this had been an American story it would have been snatched up by Oprah's Book Club long ago. Having said that, however, I think there are some important things about this book that probably need consideration.

More than the book itself, what I find interesting is that this was a huge bestseller in Australia. And I mean HUGE. She may well be the highest grossing Indigenous author in the country, although I'd be guessing. The fact that so many people read the book says something about the mood of White Australia over the last twenty years, with this country trying to come to grips with its shameful past. I've inclined to believe that most of this is an attempt to ease collective white guilt than actually taking steps to reconcile and compensate for over two centuries of oppression. Sally Morgan's book is popular, I think, because she doesn't actually challenge her audience to move much beyond their comfort zone, and the construction of Aboriginality that she presents is quite problematic, stereotypical, and firmly entrenched in the past.

The book has attracted quite a lot of controversy in Australia, mostly in academic circles, but occasionally this rears its head in the mainstream media (for example, the issue of the Drake-Brockmans demanding DNA testing to prove Morgan is not descended from their ancestors). The idea of the 'truthfulness' of the book is largely a question of genre more than anything else: is it an autobiography or a non-fiction novel? 'My Place' raises a lot of questions about how we define these categories, and about the nature of history and memory work.

People might be interested to know that the book also attracted a considerable amount of backlash from the Aboriginal community itself: she is often criticised for asserting an Aboriginal identity that, by her own admission, she did not grow up with. Unaware of her Indigenous origins for most of her youth, she claims her Aboriginality without ever having lived with what it really meant to be Aboriginal in the 1950s-70s. Because she has fairer skin than the stereotypical Aboriginal person, she had the luxury of pretending to be of a different nationality - an option simply not available to many Indigenous Australians - and was thus not subjected to the same level of prejudice which she might otherwise have been.

If you're interested in Australian history and Aboriginal issues you should probably read Sally Morgan's 'My Place', not because it's good writing, but because it has certainly been a landmark in the recent history of Australian literature. However, I also suggest trying to lay your hands on some of the material which critiques Morgan's work in order to gain a more balanced perspective of Indigenous Australia. Alternatively, for an all-round better account of what is now known as the Stolen Generation, try Doris Pilkington's 'Rabbit Proof Fence', or the film by the same name. If read with a critical mind, 'My Place' is worthy of a look, but it is highly problematic taken at face value.

fails the basic test of literature
Stories about the historical oppression and continual discrimination against Aborigines should be told, but it is unfortunate that Morgan is one of those to do it. The book fails as literature simply because it is boring and very poorly written. As such, it does nothing to advance the Aboriginal cause here in Australia, and unfortunately, plays right into the hands of the redneck Hansonites and their views of white racial superiority.

A story with history behind it
I enjoyed "My Place." As an American from the Midwest, the only things I knew about Australia were what I learned in a college foreign politics class centered on Australia and New Zealand. I never sought out more information until I met an Australian friend who inspired me to learn more about his country. And he suggested this book.

I've started reading but just can't seem to finish "The Fatal Shore." But Sally Morgan's book gave me a feeling of reading fiction with some history behind it. I know that all her "facts" aren't to the tee. While I am not Native American, I live in South Dakota, where the Native Americans have been subject to much of the same treatment. This really opened up my eyes of what it must be like to live as Aboriginal, or part Aboriginal, Native American or part Native American in the modern day world. And how we've progressed to get where we are...if you can call it progression.

I think Sally Morgan does a great job of getting you in the story of her growing up, and then tying it all together with the dictated stories from her great uncle, mother and grandmother.

Reading "My Place" has made me eager to learn more about the Aboriginal culture, maybe a deeper knowledge. I believe I really enjoyed this book because it wasn't a straight history book. While it isn't as thick, it reminds me of another text that tells the history of London through a handful of families.

I recommend "My Place."From someone who doesn't have time to read 400+ page books, this one kept me turning the page. It was enlightening ... Read more

Isbn: 1559700548
Sales Rank: 2473688
Subjects:  1. Family    2. Morgan, Sally   

The Princess Bride: S Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
by William Goldman
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (12 September, 1987)
list price: $7.99 -- our price: $7.99
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Editorial Review

The Princess Bride is a true fantasy classic.William Goldman describes it as a "good parts version" of "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure."Morgenstern's original was filled with details of Florinese history, court etiquette, and Mrs. Morgenstern's mostly complimentary views of the text.Much admired by academics, the "Classic Tale" nonetheless obscured what Mr. Goldman feels is a story that has everything: "Fencing.Fighting. Torture.Poison.True love.Hate.Revenge.Giants.Hunters.Bad men.Good men.Beautifulest ladies.Snakes.Spiders.Beasts of all natures and descriptions.Pain.Death.Brave men.Coward men. Strongest men.Chases.Escapes.Lies.Truths.Passion. Miracles."

Goldman frames the fairy tale with an "autobiographical" story: his father, who came from Florin, abridged the book as he read it to his son.Now, Goldman is publishing an abridged version, interspersed with comments on the parts he cut out.

Is The Princess Bride a critique of classics like Ivanhoe and The Three Musketeers, that smother a ripping yarn under elaborate prose?A wry look at the differences between fairy tales and real life?Simply a funny, frenetic adventure?No matter how you read it, you'll put it on your "keeper" shelf. --Nona Vero ... Read more

Reviews (559)

Will make you smile until it hurts
I bought this book a day ago, and read it from cover to cover without stopping. This is probably the most charming book that I have read. Get a copy, and read it to someone you love.

The perfect book which gave birth to the perfect movie.
I have no problem admiting that "The Princess Bride" is my favorite movie of all time. I was a little skepticle about reading the book because I didn't want to ruin my love for the movie. Boy, was I ever wrong.
This book is just what the doctor ordered for any fan of the movie. It has all of the character background information that the movie lacks, not to mention continuing past the end of the movie....until the birth of Buttercup's Baby. It is true that the book is much darker than the movie (i.e. Pit of Dispare = Zoo of Death), but it's not distasteful. After finishing the book, I put it away with a new love for the story, but I did not loose any love for the movie since it is so different in mood and detail that the book.
I have read the book a few times now and every time I do, I then immediately watch the movie with equal zest. The book is a fabulous read for anyone with a passion for a great story.

Witty and charming
This is one of those other little gems that slipped under the radar when I was growing up.Once again, I remember the movie, but never knew that it had come from a book first.I must have seen the film a hundred times (thanks to USA network, TNT and the like).However, it wasn't until a few weeks ago, that I actually seeked it out in its true form, almost 15 years later.

What I was amazed with, was the faithfulness of the film to the text.They were almost dead on, with all the scenes, and especially the dialogue.Some things, as normal, were altered a bit or changed, but for the most part, what you see in the film (minus extra exposition and some character development) is what you read in the book.

It is a good read, filled with great dialogue and wittiness.Yet at the same time, some of the authors "intrusion" into the text can be a little distracting at times.And at others, it is neat to hear him talk about how certain ideas came about, that directly affected the "film" version. Now that i've read it, when I view the film, I can honestly say they were dead-on with the casting.The personalities they picked, were excellent.

If you are interested in going a bit beyond the movie, and seeing some extra info about Buttercup and Wesley, its a great little read (depending on what edition you get).And you can really see, just how honest/faithful they were, and careful, when bringing it to the big sreen. . .years ago. ... Read more

Isbn: 0345348036
Subjects:  1. Fantasy    2. Fantasy - Historical    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Fantasy    5. Fiction / Fantasy / General   

Farmer Boy (Little House)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (14 October, 1953)
list price: $6.99 -- our price: $6.99
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Reviews (54)

Still great after all these years!
I loved this book as a little kid and had the pleasure of reading this to my third grade class. They absolutely loved it! Wilder makes her characters come to life in a way that few authors are able to do. She created a mental picture of every detail of little Almanzo Wilder's daily life that you felt like you knew him. My students couldn't get enough of it and some have started to read the rest of the series.

Although references to Native Americans seem outdated (we live on a reservation) this book is still relevant for today's modern child and I will continue to recommend it to readers young and old alike.

Great book!
This is the 3rd book in the original Little House Series.

It tells the story of Almanzo Wilder, a little boy who would grow up to be Laura Ingalls' husband.
Read all about how this industrious family had to keep a full-fledged farm running, no matter what. Yet they still manage to have loads of fun, especially when their parents leave for a week! From making candy to snowball fights to going sledding to finding a wallet with several hundred dollars inside, this book will keep you on your toes!

My Favorite of the Series
This is my favorite book of the series.I'm not sure if I like the horses, or the food they eat, or the trouble they get into when alone for the week, or the gift of Starlight from his father at the end, but I love reading this book most of all the books in the series.I read it twice.It is great.I think boys would like it too because it is about a boy and growing up.

I have written several Amazon reviews before but I just turned 13 so I can now write a review without using the kid form.I can't wait to get a real name badge when I am old enough to have a credit card. ... Read more

Isbn: 0064400034
Sales Rank: 80926
Subjects:  1. Children's 9-12 - Literature - Classics / Contemporary    2. Children: Grades 4-6    3. Classics    4. Country life    5. Family life    6. Farm life    7. Fiction    8. Historical - United States - 19th Century    9. Juvenile Fiction    10. Lifestyles - Country Life    11. Lifestyles - Farm Life & Ranch Life    12. New York (State)    13. Wilder, Almanzo    14. Family    15. Juvenile Fiction / Historical / United States / 19th Century    16. Wilder, Laura Ingalls   

Like Water for Chocolate : A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
by LAURA ESQUIVEL
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 October, 1995)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Reviews (395)

Truly delicious and inspiring...
This a heart-wrenching and compelling novel in which we learn about the main character, Tita's life through chapters represented by the twelve months of the year.For every chapter there is a different recipe from Tita's family cookbook.These recipes relate the food to each of the characters and the magic that the food Tita prepares has over tbem.Esquirel uses the recipes to express the inner thoughts and feelings of all the characters.I thoroughly enjoyed this "easy-read" novel and would recommend it to anyone.Each relationship created in this novel touched me in a different way, Esquirel makes it easy to relate to at least one of the characters... it's hard not to hate Mama Elena!For example, she was the reason why Tita and Pedro had to suppress their inner love for one another, and clearly expressed her ideas to Tita telling her own daughter she thought she was a waste of life!If you're looking for a novel that captures the reality of family issues and an inner love story this is a great book.This review was written by Rebecca Garthwaite from Mercy High School, CT.

Like Water For Chocolate
Like Water For Chocolate is an exciting love story intertwined with monthly recipes. The main character, Tita, is a strong and passionate woman who is told by her mother that she cannot marry her true love, Pedro. Her relationship with Pedrois what makes the story. The story of their love is exciting and full of passion. Tita also has a passion for food, and when she cooks, her emotions go into the food and effect everyone that eats it.I loved the book, and i highly recommend it to anyone!

Divine!
I had this book assigned to me in my English class. At first I didn't think that I would like such a wacky mushy love story, since I'm really into adventure, but this book turned out to be the book that has changed my whole opinion on life. It's inspirational, witty, and extremely hilarious, like when Gertrudis sets the bathroom on fire and runs away naked with a revolutionary soldier. There are parts where you can laugh out loud and parts that will make your eyes water. It's also fun because there a specific recipes that you yourself can experiment with. I recommend this book for all non-romantics, in hopes that they will see the light. ... Read more

Isbn: 038542017X
Sales Rank: 5455
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General    5. FICTION-GENERAL    6. Gastronomy    7. Love Stories    8. Spanish (Language) Contemporary Fiction    9. Magic realism   

Bridget Jones's Diary
by Helen Fielding
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (27 May, 1998)
list price: $22.95 -- our price: $16.07
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Editorial Review

In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridgetconfides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not tomention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideousin every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72!There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, hereBridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss.But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The bosseven contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.

At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyishpublishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to findInner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight awaywhen wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother hastricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concernfor her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far asshe's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's yourmarriage going? Still having sex?'"

This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performanceanxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's"emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, forinstance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while ourheroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "atragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the LondonIndependent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokessimultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair,self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't soundhalf as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style.She is the NancyMitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. Onthe other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us allabout it for years and books to come. --Kerry Fried ... Read more

Reviews (1042)

Interesting and alot of fun
If you like romantic love stories with comedy then you should read this book. Bridget Jones is a very funny young women who thinks she has all the answers.I recomend this book to young women who are determined to change there self image ,change bad habbits , and find a functional relationship . As you learn about bridget jones and her hilarious ways you will find your self having alot in common with her.

Someone turned my life into a Book!
This book reminds me so much of my life that I couldn't believe it!I instantly fell in love with the book and Bridget Jones.

Very well done Helen Fielding!

There is a God and he does shine down upon us quirky types too!Lah!

Can't wait to buy the next movie "Edge of Reason"

So annoying, shallow, whiny, -- and yet we root for her!
Much has been written about both this book and the movie it spawned, but briefly, the book is a glimpse into a year in the life of Bridget Jones, as revealed by her diary.She starts the year, as so many of us do, by listing her New Year's resolutions, and then uses her diary to track her progress.Her weight and alcohol, cigarette, and calorie consumption begin each entry, along with number of obsessive thoughts, times she dialed 1471 (Brit equivalent of *69 to see who last rang you), etc.

I started off thinking how shallow, ridiculous, insecure, irritating, and immature Bridget and her friends were.They seemed to earn my disdain on every page: wailing about being thirty-something and single, how men are beasts, and yet also how dull the Smug Marrieds are.And yet, as I went through Bridget's year with her, I started to almost kind of like her.And I even saw myself in her sometimes (though was loath to admit it).And I definitely started to root for her.

The diary style lets you hear a character in a natural voice, with abbreviations, slang, and cussing.It's also a good primer for British slang, though you have to get most of it from context, which was kind of fun.

In the end, it's just a silly, fun book about a character who, if you look past the high exaggeration of her flaws, is not that different from any of us.

I liked Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, also by Fielding, a little better, mainly because the main character had a bit more depth and a bit less whining to her. ... Read more

Isbn: 0670880728
Subjects:  1. England    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Humorous    6. Humorous stories    7. Jones, Bridget (Fictitious cha    8. Jones, Bridget (Fictitious character)    9. Popular English Fiction    10. Single women   

Bridget Jones : The Edge of Reason
by HelenFielding, Helen Fielding
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (28 February, 2000)
list price: $24.95
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Editorial Review

Fans of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary will recall that at the end of that sly and funny version of Pride and Prejudice, singleton heroine Bridget landed her Mr. Darcy at last--Mark Darcy, that is. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason picks up four weeks later, and already the honeymoon is over. In addition to discovering that the man of her dreams votes conservative, left-leaning Bridget is also feeling just a mite uncomfortable with the realities of sharing bed and board with another person:

V. complicated actually having man in house as cannot freely spend requisite amount of time in bathroom or turn into gas chamber as conscious of other person late for work, desperate for pee etc.; also disturbed by Mark folding up underpants at night, rendering it strangely embarrassing now simply to keep all own clothes in pile on floor.

But all of these problems pale to insignificance with the arrival on the scene of Rebecca, a beautiful, man-hunting arch-nemesis with "thighs like a baby giraffe" and absolutely no girlfriend code of ethics when it comes to poaching another woman's man. Before long, Rebecca's manipulations, Bridget's own insecurities, and a string of misunderstandings (starting with a naked Filipino boy in Mark Darcy's bed and ending with a suggestive valentine from Bridget's dry cleaner) result in "128 lbs. (good), alcohol units 0 (excellent), cigarettes 5 (a pleasant, healthy number), no. times driven past Mark Darcy's house 2 (v.g.), no. of times looked up Mark Darcy's name in phone book to prove still exists 18 (v.g.), 1471 calls 12 (better), no. of phone calls from Mark 0 (tragic).

Fortunately, Bridget has plenty of other problems to distract her. Her mother has returned from a trip to Kenya with a young Masai in tow--to her father's consternation; her best friends Jude, Shazzer, and Tom are all trapped in dating hell themselves; her apartment is in shambles thanks to a dotty carpenter; an unreliable ex-boyfriend has just reentered her life; and now someone is sending Bridget death threats--could it be Mark Darcy?If Bridget Jones's Diary was a modern riff on Pride and Prejudice, its sequel borrows several themes and devices (not to mention a section heading) from another Austen novel, Persuasion. And as in Austen's fiction, here the journey is the destination.A happy ending for Bridget and her pals is a foregone conclusion; how they get there, however, will have you on the edge of your chair--if you haven't already fallen off of it laughing. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Reviews (459)

Great book ... Much better than the movie
I read this book way before the First Bridget Jones came out on dvd. This is a great book, and they should have been smart and made the movie about this. I wish she had more than the three books!!

Edge of my reason
Well, the first book was a laught, but Bridget really does get a bit too dump for me.At her age I really expected her to have a bit more reason, and common sense.Her lack of straight forward thinking drove me up the wall in different parts of the book, and her friends became more of a nausance than a support system for her, driving her in all the wrong directions. I really had very high expectations for this book, and I have to say that allthought I enjoyed parts of it, all and all it was a drag to read.

Hurrah!
By the time I had finished Bridget Jones's Diary, I decided that I rather liked Bridget Jones, despite her endless shallow, self-centered, annoying whining about how horrible her life was.

So when I read this book, I was fully involved in her life, once again rooting for everything to come out OK, or at least not too badly.

This book is in a somewhat similar style to the first -- that is, like a diary -- however it is far more narrative.Because there is a lot more to narrate, quite honestly!

Bridget finds herself right in the middle of a classic farce, complete with misunderstandings, miscommunications, missing letters, missed planes, and plenty of misadventures.It was all great fun, while also being very soap-opera-like, in that you couldn't wait to start the next chapter because the last one ended with a cliffhanger.

I almost couldn't put the book down until I'd found out what happens to our poor heroine.Does she finally find the man of her dreams, or at least inner poise?How about spiritual epiphany?Well, I'm not telling; you'll have to read for yourself. ... Read more

Isbn: 0670892963
Subjects:  1. England    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Humorous    6. Humorous stories    7. Jones, Bridget (Fictitious cha    8. Jones, Bridget (Fictitious character)    9. Single women    10. Fiction / General   

How Stella Got Her Groove Back
by Terry McMillan
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 May, 1996)
list price: $23.95 -- our price: $16.77
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Editorial Review

The author of Waiting to Exhale checks in again with a fresh, exuberant novel. Stella Payne is a Superwoman who has everything--except a man to rock her world, something she's convinced she can well do without. On a spur-of-the-moment Jamaican vacation she meets Winston, a man half her age, and finds, to her dismay, that her world is indeed well and truly rocked. Stella soon realizes that she's come to a cataclysmic juncture in her life, one that forces new and difficult questions about her passions and expectations. ... Read more

Reviews (232)

Enjoyable Light Reading
This was an enjoyable and comical story of an older woman going on vacation and having a fling with a young man.It was well written and the characters were well portrayed.

book better than movie
once again, i read this book years befoe the movie came out and i'm happy i did b/c the book was so much better. the ending was better and the plot was better. her best freind (whoopi goldberg's character in the movie)wasn't even alive in the book at all. she went to jamaica by herself when she met winston. but i think you should all read the book b/c it leaves you more emotional that the movie.

Good!
Like a previous reviewer I also listened to the audiobook recording of How Stella Got Her Groove Back which was written by Terry McMillan who also narrates the audio recording and I thought the story was very entertaining. How Stella Got Her Groove Back is about a 42 year old woman named Stella who goes to Jamaica and gets involved with Winston a guy in his 20's and I thought this audiobook was pretty good and I recommend it and the next time I get to a used book store I will look for the paperback book! ... Read more

Isbn: 0670869902
Subjects:  1. African American women    2. Americans    3. Divorced women    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Jamaica    8. Popular American Fiction    9. Modern fiction   

Lolita (Vintage International)
by VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (13 March, 1989)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Editorial Review

Despite its lascivious reputation, the pleasures ofLolita areas much intellectual as erogenous. It is a love story with the power to raise both chuckles and eyebrows. Humbert Humbert is a European intellectual adrift in America, haunted by memories of a lost adolescent love. When he meets his ideal nymphet in the shape of 12-year-old Dolores Haze, he constructs an elaborate plot to seduce her, but first he must get rid of her mother.In spite of his diabolical wit, reality proves to be more slippery than Humbert's feverish fantasies, and Lolita refuses to conform to his image of the perfect lover.

Playfully perverse in form as well as content, riddled with puns and literary allusions, Nabokov's 1955 novel is a hymn to the Russian-born author's delight in his adopted language. Indeed, readers who want to probe all of its allusive nooks and crannies will need to consult the annotated edition.Lolita is undoubtedly, brazenly erotic, but the eroticism springs less from the "frail honey-hued shoulders ... the silky supple bare back" of little Lo than it does from the wantonly gorgeous prose that Humbert uses to recount his forbidden passion:

She was musical and apple-sweet ... Lola the bobby-soxer, devouring her immemorial fruit, singing through its juice ... and every movement she made, every shuffle and ripple, helped me to conceal and to improve the secret system of tactile correspondence between beast and beauty--between my gagged, bursting beast and the beauty of her dimpled body in its innocent cotton frock.

Much has been made of Lolita as metaphor, perhaps because the love affair at its heart is so troubling. Humbert represents the formal, educated Old World of Europe, while Lolita is America: ripening, beautiful, but not too bright and a little vulgar. Nabokov delights in exploring the intercourse between these cultures, and the passages where Humbert describes the suburbs and strip malls and motels of postwar America are filled with both attraction and repulsion, "those restaurants where the holy spirit of Huncan Dines had descended upon the cute paper napkins and cottage-cheese-crested salads." Yet however tempting the novel's symbolism may be, its chief delight--and power--lies in the character of Humbert Humbert. He, at least as he tells it, is no seedy skulker, no twisted destroyer of innocence. Instead, Nabokov's celebrated mouthpiece is erudite and witty, even at his most depraved. Humbert can't help it--linguistic jouissance is as important to him as the satisfaction of his arrested libido. --Simon Leake ... Read more

Reviews (409)

A masterpiece indeed
With all the current reviews that have discussed about every possible aspect of this novel and its solid place among the greatest books of the 20th century, there is little reason to add my additional 2 pseudo intellectual cents here.

With a clear foundation in his fatherland's classics Nabokov has left the world a masterpiece of a twisted and abusive relationship. On top of that he provides a road trip Odyssey through this country that is still dead on in many aspects.

Thanks to the masterful after word it would be unwise to delve too deeply into the potential symbolism contained in this art. Like all great art a reductionist approach to understanding will only diminish enjoying the big picture.

Thanks to the current bestseller "Reading Lolita in Tehran" the original has received renewed attention. I wonder how long it will take readers in the Middle East to see the similarities between the relationship between Humbert and Dolores and between W and their nations.

Magnificent
The book "Lolita" is often considered pornography and is censored in many schools. However, this is a product of prejudice and "judging a book by its cover". The book only states that Humbert had sex with Lolita but never describes the actual action of sex. Yes, it does describe a twelve-year-old girl's body parts and the sexual desires a 40-year-old feels, but this is just to illustrate the mind of a madly-obsessed man. The idea of a new highly-controversial topic and Nabokov's excellent use of prose surely makes "Lolita" one of this century's best books.

"Lolita" is about passion, obsession and love. It is never pornography that is used to entice one's sexual desires. Nabokov came up with this topic to show the nature of human's minds and their psyche. The book shows how strong a person's obsession might reach and that it might conclude in ruining one's life when obsession is uncontrolled. Humbert, the main character, failed to restrain his overflowing emotions and this resulted in statutory rape and murder. However, his flowery tone and writing seems to induce the feeling of disgust because Humbert or Nabokov expresses the acts so positively and it seems that Humbert didn't do anything wrong. This is an act of humans trying to justify and defend themselves. When people write or talk about themselves, they tend not to write negatively but positively. This book shows a perfect example of this. Nabokov's writing is so convincing and beautiful that people might even feel sympathy for Humbert. Readers who read this book carefully cannot hate Humbert because the tone is so positive towards him and negative towards his enemies and adversaries. It makes us seem that Quilty and Charlotte, examples of the victims of Humbert's madness, are bad and that they are suffering Humbert when Humbert may be the one who has caused all the problems. Nabokov is surely a master in prose-writing.

This book is magnificent, interesting and entertaining. It is difficult and somewhat boring but if it is carefully and slowly read, consuming all the details, the book becomes very easy and extremely enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this book and I feel that it would be a pity to not read such a great book.

Fascinating exploration of power, love, and self-deception
Writing from prison where he is held on trial for murder, Humbert Humbert recounts his obssessive passion for 12-year-old Lolita.Fleeing a bad marriage from France to America, Humbert rents a room from Charlotte Haze where he becomes obssessed with Charlotte's daughter, Dolores (aka, Lolita).While Lolita is away at summer camp, Humbert marries Charlotte.When Charlotte discovers Humbert's diaries and their lacivious fantasies about her daughter, she is enraged and runs out into the street where she is struck by a car and killed.

Humbert fetches Lolita from camp, takes her to a hotel where they begin their sexual relationship before he has even told Lolita her mother is dead.He then takes Lolita on a year-long journey across the US in an effort to avoid the discovery of their relationship and any intervention by the authorities on Lolita's behalf.

At the end of the year, Humbert settles down with Lolita in the town of Beardsley where he sends her to an upscale private school for debutantes.Humbert and Lolita battle fiercely over her allowance and her behavior with boys, culminating in Lolita's insistance that they go back on the road.

Humbert complies and quickly figures out that he and Lolita are being followed.Lolita's suspicious behavior suggests to Humbert that she is complicit in this and her sudden disappearance leads Humbert on a chase to find Lolita and exact revenge on her new lover.

As a novel, Lolita is intriguing on many different levels.The book is so disturbing because Humbert is so decidedly NOT crazy.It's certainly true that age of concent is cultural and that some children (what Humbert calls "nymphets") do radiate a certain
unconscious charm and sexuality.

But don't get stuck in the trap of thinking of this book as about sex or as an apology for child molestation. The real source of Humbert's madness is his narcissism, his obssession with carving Lolita up into body parts in his mind, with the transitory
nature of innocence.

It's a fascinating study of a manipulative abuser who truly believes he loves his victim. Particularly how Nabokov emphasizes Lolita's power in the situation because the abuser needs the abused (possibly for self-definition? Does Humbert even know who he is if he doesn't have a nymphet/victim that he can control
by allowing his obssession with them to, in fact, control him?)

Lolita should never be considered pornography. First because that allows the role of sex to take too much emphasis over other aspects of Humbert's relationship with Lolita and his own wounded psyche. Notice Humbert NEVER describes the sex act in the book. We know a few places where it happens but it's entirely left for us to infer. Porn is never that subtle, not even soft core. This book isn't a masturbation aid; it's the mind of a man so obssessed with the girl he loves that he has made that girl a figment of his own imagination.

Second, the novel doesn't serve the same purpose as pornography. Not just because the book isn't a masturbation aid, but because pornography relies on deceiving its consumer, giving a false impression and false "high" in place of the real experience. Usually with sex -- naughty, dirty scenes that stimulate arousal without any of the real-life messiness of sex (no worries about impotence or being able to orgasm or accidentally being squashed or having your hair pulled by your partner), all the things that make real sex so much fuller and more real than porn images of sex.

Whether Lolita "led him on" depends on how reliable you think Humbert is as a narrator. It struck me that Humbert was scrupulously honest, but deluded by his own narcissism. Which means his facts about Lolita would be meticulously correct, but his interpretation of them would not be.

We have to assume that Lolita was neither innocent nor virginal. Humbert wasn't her first partner and he wasn't even her first adult male partner. Spontaneously and passionately French kissing an adult isn't the usual way teenage girls exhibit their crushes on grown men. Lolita definitely knew how to seduce and how to manipulate (e.g. Humbert denies raping her at first, but by the end of the book believes that he did rape her forcibly as she
claimed; we're never told for sure what the truth is, but Humbert's compulsive personality seems to suggest he isn't hiding any facts, so I concluded from this that Humbert is so obssessed with Lolita that he eventually accepts her accusation as the truth). Knowing to manipulate by accusing a man of rape is not
indicative of a demure and innocent child. This kid not only knows how to play a grown woman's game, she knows how to play a scarlet harlot's game! At age 12!

And this is where it gets sticky and challenges all our ideas about victimhood. Because Lolita is undoubtedly Humbert's victim. The real Lolita (whoever she is) doesn't exist for Humbert. He
sees in her only what he wants to see - the object of his passion and obssession. We assume too easily that victimhood is an either/or proposition -- either one is pure, blameless, and deserving of unqualified sympathy OR one is complicit, guilty, and cannot be considered a victim. Real life is messier than that.And Lolita challenges it. Because she's by no means an innocent little girl, but she is ALSO a victim. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

But I don't see how we can doubt Humbert loves Lolita.This is a guy who can ramble for three pages about the downy hair on his beloved's arm. He's passionately in love with her -- the problem is, he never really SEES her, despite his meticulous recall of every inch of her body. The trouble with a narcissist is that they can't see anything except through the filter of themselves and in relation to themselves.

I suppose it's possible to argue then that a narcissist isn't capable of real love. But I think that would be a dismissive by-product of our therapeutic culture that likes to box every human experience into neat, diagnosable packages. Mostly for our own comfort -- if THEY are crazy, it means *I* am not. And it's not that simple. Granted, we aren't all capable of child molestation nor as extreme as Humbert, but we're all capable of being so enamored with something that we can't see it for what it really is. Humbert's narcisstic blindness is tragic for both him and for Lolita.

Lolita has been criticized as not only too salacious for the masses, but as an anti-American screed -- Humbert symbolizing Europe and Lolita symbolizing America and the overall story symbolizing Europe victimizing and screwing (literally) America.

Nabokov vehemently denied that he had any anti-American intent in writing Lolita. In fact, he said it pained him to be accused of anti-American sentiment and that he purposely set the novel in the US because the beauty of American landscapes made a good backdrop for Humbert and Lolita's affair.Obviously, he pokes fun of some of the commercial, consumerist, and low-brow aspects of American culture.But only Americans who confuse defensiveness for patriotism would really consider this anti-American.

This novel shouldn't be summed up as "a love story" anymore than it should be summed up as "a sex story". It's both, but it's so much more challenging than either.It's a moving and fascinating exploration power, love, and self-deception. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679723161
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Erotic fiction    3. Fiction    4. Girls    5. Literary    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Literature: Classics    8. Love stories    9. Middle aged men    10. Fiction / Literary    11. Reading Group Guide   

Naked
by David Sedaris
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1998)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.17
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Editorial Review

Hip radio comedy fans and theater folks who belong to the cult of Obie-winning playwright/performer David Sedaris must kill to get this book. These would be fans of the scaldingly snide Sedaris's hilariously described personal misadventures like The Santaland Diaries (a monologue about his work as an elf to a department store Santa) seen off-Broadway in 1997. In a series of similarly textured essays, Sedaris takes us along on his catastrophic detours through a nudist colony, a fruit-packing plant, his own childhood, and a dozen more of the world's little purgatories. ... Read more

Reviews (346)

Laugh out loud
Sedaris makes me laugh out loud with stories you have to share with anyone who will listen.I've read all of his books (except Hercules) and this one and Me Talk Pretty are hilarious!

funny
this was my first introduction to this guy and i love him! i wish i could be that prosaic about my own family! listen to the audio, laugh out loud, scare your co-workers, FUNNY!

Love it
By far one of David Sedaris' best pieces.Could not stop laughing! ... Read more

Isbn: 0316777730
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Form - Essays    6. General    7. Humor    8. Humorists    9. Humorists, American    10. Sedaris, David    11. Biography & Autobiography / General   

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
by Melissa Bank
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 2000)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

Jane Rosenal, the narrator of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, is wise beyond her years. Not that that's saying much--since none of her elders, with the exception of her father, is particularly wise. At the age of 14, Jane watches her brother and his new girlfriend, searching for clues for how to fall in love, but by the end of the summer she's trying to figure out how not to fail in love. At twice that age, Jane quickly internalizes How to Meet and Marry Mr. Right, even though that retro manual is ruining her chances at happiness. In the intervening years, Melissa Bank's heroine struggles at love and work. The former often seems indistinguishable from the latter, and her experiences in book publishing inspire little in the way of affection. As Jane announces in "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine": "I'd been a rising star at H----- until Mimi Howlett, the new executive editor, decided I was just the lights of an airplane."

Bank's first collection has a beautiful, true arc, and all the sophistication and control her heroine could ever desire. In "The Floating House," Jane and her boyfriend, Jamie, visit his ex-girlfriend in St. Croix, and right from the start she can't stop mimicking her beautiful competitor, in a notably idiotic fashion. "I'm like one of those animals that imitates its predators to survive," she realizes--one of several thousand of Bank's ruefully funny phrases. But even as Jane clowns around, desperately trying to keep up appearances, she is so hyperaware it hurts. Again and again, the author explores the dichotomy between life as it happens and the rehearsed anecdote, the preferred outcome. In The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, even suburban quiet has "nothing to do with peace." Bank's much-anticipated debut merits all its buzz and, more to the point, transcends it. --Kerry Fried ... Read more

Reviews (543)

So much better than expected...
This book is such a wonderful read. I had a copy sitting around my house for quite a while, assuming it was another light-weight chick lit book. I was saving it for one of those days when you don't want to think. Was I surprised. This is not light-weight or brainless. This book is about being a woman and trying to figure out your way through the mess of work and love and family and all the complications in between. I love the way the book is written, a series of connected short stories that span Jane's life from fourteen to her mid-thirties.

Wow!
I saw that lots of readers didn't get why this book was so acclaimed - I'm not one of them. I loved this book, and the way the stories wove together. I have to admit that I liked it even more when the story hit its groove and stuck together more like a novel, but the idea of inter-related stories was a nice change. There were no laugh-out-loud moments for me, and it lacked the dumbed-down slap-stick-y situations that seem prevalent in chick lit these days, which I appreciated. The stories were so realistic, the characters real, and the obserations about life hit home. One of my all time favorites that I will read over and over again for years to come.

Wow!
I know some readers don't get why this book received such acclaim, but I'm not one of them. The inter-related stories kept me turning the pages, but I have to admit that I really liked when the novel finally fell into its groove and seemed more like a book with a consistent story. I think Banks is an amazing writer and story teller, and loved how she portrayed her characters and their lives. They're human, interesting, flawed and entertaining. I am absolutely one of the people who loved this book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0140293248
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General   

Babyhood
by Paul Reiser
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 August, 1998)
list price: $6.99 -- our price: $6.99
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Editorial Review

Fans of television's Mad About You and its star, Paul Reiser, will be delighted with his second foray into the self-deprecating self-help genre. Couplehood, his first book, leads logically to this next phase--Babyhood. In a chatty voice Reiser takes us from the "Maybe someday we'll have kids" step into the deep-sea dive of commitment.

Babyhood begins on an airplane, with Paul and wife blissfully unencumbered by children. They are seated across from the young parents (graying before his eyes) of a terrorizing 2-year-old and a screeching infant. This sobering reality manages magically to pale in a transcendent moment of the baby's bliss, uncomplicated by drool or colic, and the two decide: "Now."

Well, more or less now. First they try to get pregnant, making expeditions to the bookstore to case out the shelves of baby books; then there are the bouncy reflections on who is, after all, cut out to parent ("I don't know if, for example, Mozart actually had kids, but certainly there is no record of him ever leaving the office early to coach Peewee Soccer League"). Later comes the account of sibling rivalry between the newborn and the family dog, and why women make better moms than men. Babyhood manages to provoke thought about the important questions of when and why to have children, many of which are answered in the book's endearing details. ... Read more

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Reviews (50)

So funny I couldn't breathe
I first read this when I was 14, I've always been interested in mommyhood. There was this one part where he write about dressing his baby... I laughed for about 15 minutes straight, and I just could not stop. This book is so refreshing and maddeningly funny. I can read this over and over. An absolute favorite.

Such a cute book!
I was having some kind of post-partum anxiety or something - really stressed and worried, etc.A friend had given me this book and I began reading it each day.It was so cute and funny and something any new parent can relate to.I felt like Paul Reiser was my friend - he seems to be such a nice guy!Anyway, this light reading was a welcome change from the 100 baby care books that I was obscessing over.I was so afraid of doing something wrong! Well, my baby is doing fine and almost a year old now!And I look forward to reading this cute little book again sometime.I would also love to give it as a gift.

Not for facts, just for laughs:CLASSIC baby book!
I read this first MANY years ago during my first two babies... I guess it must be about 10 years later and Reiser's gentle, loving humour is still funny & fresh throughout this, my third pregnancy.I also love it because it's from a dad's perspective, so you don't get mired down in all the whining that all us mommies tend to do (even the funniest of it).Reiser is cute and clueless but touchingly genuine throughout the whole experience; this is one you'll read over & over and even maybe pass on to others as they embark upon this madcap journey into parenthood... ... Read more

Isbn: 0380728729
Subjects:  1. American wit and humor    2. Anecdotes    3. Artists, Architects, Photographers    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Form - Essays    7. Humor    8. Infants    9. Infants & Toddlers - Infants    10. Parenthood    11. Parenting - General    12. Humor / Essays   

Chasing Down the Dawn
by Jewel Kilcher
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (03 October, 2000)
list price: $24.00 -- our price: $24.00
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Reviews (36)

Jewel Fans Will Enjoy This Book
This books is a compilation of experiences and stories from Jewel's childhood up through adulthood, as well as experiences from the road.I find her childhood and upbringing in Alaska fascinating so I had a hard time putting the book down.She shares with the reader bits about her relationship with her family and friends, the glamour and gloom of being on tour, and how she became the artist she is today.As you'll read from the book you'll see her talent was in her genes.There are wonderful photographs from her childhood up through adulthood and her writing seems to come right from her heart.I really enjoyed the book and insight into her life and recommend the book to fans who enjoy Jewel's music.

Jewel's Life and World
This is a sort of autobiographical journal by Jewel. She talks about growing up in Alaska, her early beginnigs as a singer, songwriter and musician, and her life on the road on tour. Many personal anecdotes in here which Jewel fans will find interesting. You'll get a good sense of how Jewel thinks and feels about her rise to fame, and just about things in general, including past events and memories which she recounts from her life. And yes, she's very intuitive and thinks a lot. The book is illustrated throughtout with Jewel's simple and delightful little drawings. There are also lots of beautiful photos in this book.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

Chasing Down The Dawn
Chasing Down The Dawn (by Jewel Kilcher) Reader Review
Harper Entertainment, 2000
Reviewer: Karen Unglaub from Noble High School, North Berwick, Maine.
The autobiography Chasing Down the Dawn, by Jewel Kilcher, is notes and paragraphs about Jewel's life from when she was 10 until she was 18. It tells about her parent's divorce and how it was a total shock. How she and her 2 older brothers and her dad moved far away, leaving there mother standing sobbing. All to start a new life, and get on with the old one. She and her father would go into clubs and sing together a few times a week. Jewel met a few, lot of unusual people, but they helped open her eyes to the variety of life. She would talk amongst the men and women, and they gave her respect, because she was a very mature young lady. She writes a lot of short poems that are separate from the usual text; she includes a lot of her own drawings in the autobiography too.
She encounters first love, and leaves him. She always needed more than just a boyfriend to pretend to love her. She thought she was in love with him. She was only in love with the idea of being in love, and had to leave him to find her real prince in shinning Armour. (She has also a book of poems, A Night Without Armour) Her father began going to bars quite frequently to sing and meet ladies. She would accompany him and sing by his side on stage. Her father protected her from ridicule.
Not until she was sixteen, that she ventures out into bars all alone to sing and earn her way out of poverty, for just one day. She made just enough money to cover her bus tickets food and then she kept the left over few dollars, and used it for what she had to. Her father trusted her and knew that she was very mature, and allowed her to go out on her own and experience club life of her own. She got gigs, because she was cute, refreshing and had a folk style that was different than the grunge that was in that era. Her name finally was spreading around the cities, and she was signed to a label to make an album, and go on tour. She now was getting noticed in the street, while she was trying to write in peace and quite. It would frustrate her; she had pressure from the label to keep writing all of her new songs. She liked to write about people, so she would watch people on the street, and jot down poems and phrases. It got so hard once she was getting recognized, because she lived to stay in the hidden and watch from the sides. Now she couldn't look at them secretly, because they were already looking at her!
She would go back home to Alaska, and feel very uncomfortable; her father would want her to join the village's hot shower outside. That was held at her house. They made a shower. She would not join. She would go after. They also had to share a phone line too. She would share it with 7 different families, and she felt that they were always eavesdropping. Also of the other hand, she felt most relaxed at home after she felt the most relaxed at home, in her fathers many acres. She was free to write and not be noticed by anyone at all, except the cattle. She got accustomed to famous life, and was thankful. The autobiography leaves off with her talking about life. "Life is all about rhythm... And Time is not a line, it's a loop."
Strengths
This autobiography is very detailed and had many poems that provide a deeper insight about her life. The book does what it should; it invites you into her life, shows you around and lets you out with a goodbye. This book has many photographs. It shows the good and the bad. Life on the road without makeup after being awake for 20 hours. And her in a field laying in the grass with one of her many horses. She shows pictures of life in the city, and life in the country. It shows random people, and her most loved ones. She includes a lot of her own art in the book too. She draws pictures of naked women, that are bearing their souls, nothing to hide and completely honest and pure.
Weaknesses
The autobiography is not in chronological order. It bounces from thought to thought, as her mind does. She questions herself, and contradicts herself quite often, and left me still to wonder how she is feeling. The only feeling I can conclude is confusion, much like I was when I read the book. She touches on subjects that she never went back to, but it kept you wondering, much like life does. Aside from the normal text, I liked the format of the book. The font was big enough to read, and wasn't boring. It had a different look to it; you didn't feel like you were reading a "boring book for English class". But the format was also mixed up; it would jump from a chapter to a whole bunch of pictures in the middle of nowhere, but an interesting experience. Looking at the experience of reading this, I think that it mad me look more at the world and what feelings that I am going through, and that everyone is different, but more the same. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060192003
Sales Rank: 364934
Subjects:  1. 1974-    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Composers & Musicians - Pop    5. General    6. Jewel,    7. Literary    8. Performing Arts/Dance    9. Poetry    10. Popular Music    11. Rock musicians    12. Singers    13. United States    14. Women   

Kittens in the Sun
by Hans Silvester
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 October, 1999)
list price: $19.95 -- our price: $13.57
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Editorial Review

A respected photographer whose previous books include the bestsellers Asleep in the Sun and The Mediterranean Cat, Hans Silvester has captured the imaginations of readers worldwide with his unique and endearing photographs of the cats of the Greek Islands. He returns to this sun-drenched setting once again with Kittens in the Sun, focusing on the youngsters of the furry set:

Even as they begin to explore the world around them, the kittens grow rapidly into little cats. Clumsy at first, they begin to investigate their surroundings. Curious and playful, bursting with energy, they encourage one another to venture further and further away from home.

The breathtaking beauty of the islands serves as the ideal backdrop for these frolicking felines, whose daily to-dos--including pouncing, playing, and, of course, lounging--are expertly documented by Silvester's trained eye. And while they'll soon grow to be independent cats, this brief moment in their tender and all-too-cute lives will forever live in Kittens in the Sun. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Animal lovers should know about the plight of these animals
All of Hans Silvester's photography books of cats, dogs & kittens in the Greek Cyclades Islands are lovely examples of fine photography.As a fine art photographer myself, I respect Mr. Silvester's level of skill and artistry, and I find his other books very beautiful.

However, when I first became aware of his book about the cats and dogs, I was thoroughly dismayed by his choice of subject matter and the way he has chosen to portray the lives of these creatures as idyllic and carefree.

Having been to these Greek islands, I have learned firsthand that the large majority of these poor animals are ignored, injured, or mistreated by people there-anything but "respected."The photographer has omitted portraits of the true conditions for most of the stray dogs and cats in Greece-crippled, starving, dying of thirst, hurt or maimed, with the humans around them barely taking notice.

The full horror of the story was revealed to me by locals on the islands.Each year, the cats & dogs are allowed to breed uncontrolled, because tourists are fond of seeing the cute animals around town and on the beaches.At the end of each tourist season, as many of them as possible are rounded up and killed (I couldn't bear to learn how), until the following year when the ones that survived begin the cycle all over again.I found this same story on all the islands I visited, including Mykonos, and I was so appalled that I shortened my stay and left Greece altogether.

The situation is a tragedy, and my feeling, as a photographer and animal lover, is that Mr. Silvester should not be misrepresenting the conditions of the cats and dogs on these Greek islands, especially when it is for monetary gain.I hope animal lovers around the world will agree, and send a message to anyone who profits in any way from the suffering of these dogs and cats in the sun.

If you love cats, these books are for you
I recommend all of Hans Silvester's books of cat photography. You get lots of photos and relatively little text, so they are perfect for those of us who just want to look at interesting, artistic photos of cats. Plus you get a glimpse of life in the Greek islands, so you can pretend you areenriching your mind while you ooh and aah at the images of furry felines.And if you read the text, you actually will learn about the cats and thepeople who share the islands with them.

GREAT
Picked it up in the bookstore & couldn't put it down! What great pictures, I rushed home & ordered it from Amazon! : ) ... Read more

Isbn: 081182571X
Subjects:  1. Cats    2. Cats - General    3. Cyclades    4. Greece    5. Kittens    6. Pets    7. Photoessays & Documentaries    8. Photography    9. Pictorial works