For some reason, I am slightly obsessed with the relationship of Ellen deGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Every time you see them together, they just seem so happy! I especially love Ellen. Last year, every day after school, I'd go to my parents' house to pick up Emerson and would end up sitting on their couch watching Ellen with them. With every show, you are guaranteed a laugh, but you are also likely to cry from the personal stories that Ellen features. Ellen's show is perfect: she focuses on positive stories and concludes her show every time with "be kind to one another." That is why I read her memoir, Seriously...I'm Kidding (hilarious, fun read!).
While watching Ellen, I saw her promoting her wife's book Unbearable Lightness, and I decided to give it a try.
This book is a memoir about Portia's struggles with eating disorders as she entered the Hollywood spotlight. With excruciating details and frankness, she describes her extreme dieting, her obsession with food, and her struggles with being famous. It provides an interesting insight into the lives of celebrities. It is very sad -- at one point, Portia reaches a weight of 89 lbs.
The book is very different from anything Ellen would write, but I enjoyed it very much.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
This book blew my mind!
It was one of those books that, as I read and especially after I finished it, I was desperate for someone to talk to about it. The concept behind the book was so fascinating to me...
This would be considered an "end of the world" book, but the world doesn't end with any of the popular methods: atomic bomb, natural disaster, aliens, etc. Instead, the world simply starts to slow in its rotation. The slowing, as it is called, is gradual at first. People start to notice extra minutes in the day. But the slowing progresses bit by bit until there are 24 hours of daylight and then 24 hours of darkness.
See?! Aren't you already curious? Could this happen? What would it hurt? How would we live?
These questions are all explored in the novel. The slowing affects so much more than I ever could have expected. Even society is split in half by those who choose to live by "clock time" and those who choose to live in "real time."
Throughout it all, the story is told from the eyes of a young teenage girl trying to get through the terrors of middle school. I think this choice of narrator helps to lighten what could be a very dark novel. While the world is trying to figure out how to live with this phenomenon, our narrator is also trying to figure out how to capture the attention of her first crush. I loved that, because I think any middle schooler would be the same way - interested in the horrors around them but still engrossed in their own lives as well.
It really is a book that I, at least, found fascinating. I am forever impressed by (and envious of!) novelists who come up with this new, interesting plot concepts and this one definitely blew me away.
If you read it, let me know what you think!
It was one of those books that, as I read and especially after I finished it, I was desperate for someone to talk to about it. The concept behind the book was so fascinating to me...
This would be considered an "end of the world" book, but the world doesn't end with any of the popular methods: atomic bomb, natural disaster, aliens, etc. Instead, the world simply starts to slow in its rotation. The slowing, as it is called, is gradual at first. People start to notice extra minutes in the day. But the slowing progresses bit by bit until there are 24 hours of daylight and then 24 hours of darkness.
See?! Aren't you already curious? Could this happen? What would it hurt? How would we live?
These questions are all explored in the novel. The slowing affects so much more than I ever could have expected. Even society is split in half by those who choose to live by "clock time" and those who choose to live in "real time."
Throughout it all, the story is told from the eyes of a young teenage girl trying to get through the terrors of middle school. I think this choice of narrator helps to lighten what could be a very dark novel. While the world is trying to figure out how to live with this phenomenon, our narrator is also trying to figure out how to capture the attention of her first crush. I loved that, because I think any middle schooler would be the same way - interested in the horrors around them but still engrossed in their own lives as well.
It really is a book that I, at least, found fascinating. I am forever impressed by (and envious of!) novelists who come up with this new, interesting plot concepts and this one definitely blew me away.
If you read it, let me know what you think!
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
This book was, perhaps, my favorite of all my Facebook recommendations, most likely because it is historical fiction, which is my favorite genre. It isn't a mystery and it isn't a quick read, but it's a great choice for anyone who really enjoys to read.
The Kitchen House is about a young Irish girl who is raised by African Americans who live in the "Kitchen House" of a rich white family. Similar to The Help, this book focuses on the lives of these African American women as they become so much more than cooks or maids to the white women. The narrators change throughout, which helps to give a more honest perspective. At times, the young Irish girl is very naive to the reality around her, so the change in narrators helps the reader to understand what is truly happening. However, the book follows the young girl into adulthood, as she leaves and then returns to the Kitchen House and the only family she's ever known.
This book explores the racial injustices of that time period with the innocence of a child's eyes and the brutal honesty of the African American women. It is sad, encouraging, interesting... overall, a beautiful book.
The Kitchen House is about a young Irish girl who is raised by African Americans who live in the "Kitchen House" of a rich white family. Similar to The Help, this book focuses on the lives of these African American women as they become so much more than cooks or maids to the white women. The narrators change throughout, which helps to give a more honest perspective. At times, the young Irish girl is very naive to the reality around her, so the change in narrators helps the reader to understand what is truly happening. However, the book follows the young girl into adulthood, as she leaves and then returns to the Kitchen House and the only family she's ever known.
This book explores the racial injustices of that time period with the innocence of a child's eyes and the brutal honesty of the African American women. It is sad, encouraging, interesting... overall, a beautiful book.
Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl, Dark Places & Sharp Objects
A few months ago, I was late in my pregnancy and by the time I put my toddler to bed, I didn't have energy to do much more than sit on the couch and read. I desperately needed good books to read, so I took to the place everyone goes to for recommendations in babysitters, landscapers, etc... Facebook. And I'm happy to say, I must have some very literary Facebook friends because the recommendations came pouring in and all of them impressed even me, a book snob.
The first one I read was Gone Girl. This book is one of the latest crazes in books, I think. It is a mystery where a young wife disappears and her husband is the main suspect. As the story slowly unravels, it becomes even more sick and twisted and surprising. The narrators switch from the wife to the husband, so as soon as you think you know what's going on, another twist is thrown at you. As a warning, lots of people have been so angry with the way it ends that they wish they hadn't read it. That wasn't me. The ending shocked me, definitely, but I like it when an author takes a risk and finds a unique way to end a book, and Flynn definitely does that with this novel.
After reading Gone Girl, I decided to find another one of this author's works, and I found Dark Places. This was was, indeed, dark. Much darker than Gone Girl. Another mystery, this book focuses on the violent murder of a mother and two of her children. The main suspect this time is the son. A fourth child survived the murders. Again, the narrators switch, as does the time period. The fourth child is living with the stigma of being the only survivor of this infamous crime, her guilt of being the eye witness that helped put her brother behind bars, and her struggle to connect with her father. This book kept me turning my pages ... well, rolling my thumb across my screen... so much so that one night I was reading the book as I rocked my toddler to sleep. When she finally fell, I lay her in her bed and started downstairs. I ended up stopping in the middle of the steps, sitting down, and finishing the book right there. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
For some reason, I thought that was the end of Flynn's works, but I fortunately just discovered Sharp Objects. After finishing this book, I've decided Flynn has an obsession with seriously messed up female characters! In this one, a young female reporter is sent back to her hometown - one she has avoided for years - to report on two mysterious murders of young girls. She stays in her childhood home with her mother, stepfather and step sister. Her relationship with her mother is strained. Her stepsister is this troubled 13 year old that gave me nightmares when I thought about my own daughter. This book stays with one narrator, the young reporter, but stays true to Flynn's style of having several interesting characters, twists and turns, and a surprising conclusion.
Overall, I've enjoyed Flynn's works. They're easy, interesting reads.
The first one I read was Gone Girl. This book is one of the latest crazes in books, I think. It is a mystery where a young wife disappears and her husband is the main suspect. As the story slowly unravels, it becomes even more sick and twisted and surprising. The narrators switch from the wife to the husband, so as soon as you think you know what's going on, another twist is thrown at you. As a warning, lots of people have been so angry with the way it ends that they wish they hadn't read it. That wasn't me. The ending shocked me, definitely, but I like it when an author takes a risk and finds a unique way to end a book, and Flynn definitely does that with this novel.
After reading Gone Girl, I decided to find another one of this author's works, and I found Dark Places. This was was, indeed, dark. Much darker than Gone Girl. Another mystery, this book focuses on the violent murder of a mother and two of her children. The main suspect this time is the son. A fourth child survived the murders. Again, the narrators switch, as does the time period. The fourth child is living with the stigma of being the only survivor of this infamous crime, her guilt of being the eye witness that helped put her brother behind bars, and her struggle to connect with her father. This book kept me turning my pages ... well, rolling my thumb across my screen... so much so that one night I was reading the book as I rocked my toddler to sleep. When she finally fell, I lay her in her bed and started downstairs. I ended up stopping in the middle of the steps, sitting down, and finishing the book right there. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
For some reason, I thought that was the end of Flynn's works, but I fortunately just discovered Sharp Objects. After finishing this book, I've decided Flynn has an obsession with seriously messed up female characters! In this one, a young female reporter is sent back to her hometown - one she has avoided for years - to report on two mysterious murders of young girls. She stays in her childhood home with her mother, stepfather and step sister. Her relationship with her mother is strained. Her stepsister is this troubled 13 year old that gave me nightmares when I thought about my own daughter. This book stays with one narrator, the young reporter, but stays true to Flynn's style of having several interesting characters, twists and turns, and a surprising conclusion.
Overall, I've enjoyed Flynn's works. They're easy, interesting reads.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)