50 books, numbers 3 and 4
Mar. 1st, 2003 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sierciaOkay, I've finally finished books #3 & 4, and hopefully will start moving through these a little faster.
#3 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl - I didn't like this one at all.
This was very well written, particularly for a 14 year old, which speaks volumes to how poorly educated most kids in the US really are. But, even excellent writing wasn't enough to save this one for me. I think most of my disatisfaction stemmed from my expectations for the book - I thought it would deal more intimately with the politics and issues of the times, of being in the middle of the war, being forced into hiding, what was happening to friends and relatives who weren't able to go into hiding. The parts of the book that talked about those things were very interesting to me, but they were few and far between. I found the adolescent angst that fills the rest of the book to be somewhat tiresome and repetitive. No matter how eloquently stated, "my parents just don't understand me" is just that - everyone goes through it, everyone who lives outgrows it, and if I want to read pages and pages of it, I can dig up my own diary and read it. I know, the mere fact that she didn't live long enough to outgrow it is part of what makes the book so poignant, but sadly, it didn't make it any easier to read. That said, I'm glad I read it.
#4 We Are What We Ate, edited by Mark Winegardner - This is a collection of essays all themed around food memories, and the place food plays in our memories. It was a fun, quick read. I enjoy food writing anyway, so I was pre-disposed to like this. The essay format was excellent for my current pattern of only being able to read in small quick snatches of time instead of hour-long blocks, but I enjoyed this enough that I kept looking for snippets of time to read it. These days, that says a lot.
Up next are Hanging by a Thread, The Lovely Bones and Cherry. I've temporarily abandoned Fast Food Nation and 100 Years of Solitude in the interest of reading some books I actually like, and getting a little caught up on my reading.
#3 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl - I didn't like this one at all.
This was very well written, particularly for a 14 year old, which speaks volumes to how poorly educated most kids in the US really are. But, even excellent writing wasn't enough to save this one for me. I think most of my disatisfaction stemmed from my expectations for the book - I thought it would deal more intimately with the politics and issues of the times, of being in the middle of the war, being forced into hiding, what was happening to friends and relatives who weren't able to go into hiding. The parts of the book that talked about those things were very interesting to me, but they were few and far between. I found the adolescent angst that fills the rest of the book to be somewhat tiresome and repetitive. No matter how eloquently stated, "my parents just don't understand me" is just that - everyone goes through it, everyone who lives outgrows it, and if I want to read pages and pages of it, I can dig up my own diary and read it. I know, the mere fact that she didn't live long enough to outgrow it is part of what makes the book so poignant, but sadly, it didn't make it any easier to read. That said, I'm glad I read it.
#4 We Are What We Ate, edited by Mark Winegardner - This is a collection of essays all themed around food memories, and the place food plays in our memories. It was a fun, quick read. I enjoy food writing anyway, so I was pre-disposed to like this. The essay format was excellent for my current pattern of only being able to read in small quick snatches of time instead of hour-long blocks, but I enjoyed this enough that I kept looking for snippets of time to read it. These days, that says a lot.
Up next are Hanging by a Thread, The Lovely Bones and Cherry. I've temporarily abandoned Fast Food Nation and 100 Years of Solitude in the interest of reading some books I actually like, and getting a little caught up on my reading.
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<i>Lovely Bones</i>
Date: 2003-03-02 07:44 am (UTC)Who wouldn't love a book in which the main character announces that she is quite well and truly dead by the third sentence of chapter 1?
Re: <i>Lovely Bones</i>
Date: 2003-03-02 01:02 pm (UTC)Recommendation...
Date: 2003-03-02 06:37 pm (UTC)recommend the books of Mark Salzman. I read a lengthy profile of him in the New Yorker magazine a few years ago, read the most recent book published, and then whipped through several more. No one ever seems to have heard of him. At any rate, not knowing your interests, I will be bold and enumerate one today.
1. Lying Awake - A very beautifully and economically written novel about a cloistered nun who at middle age starts to have ecstatic religious experiences and visions. She learns that she has a brain tumor and the visions are caused by a problem in her temporal lobe.
Does that mean she hasn't really seen God? Does she decide to get treatment. Did God give her the brain tumor as a vehicle? I am not a religious person, and the book is really more about managing one's internal life and desires. It is very very short, but very very long in content. Oops, getting kicked off the computer by the teen!!
And... if you like mysteries,,, you must have read a bunch of
Patricia Highsmith? (The Talented Mr. Riply, Strangers on a Train, and many many many more). I must have read 20 of them...and while they are mysteries they are also much more like commentaries on evil. Again, very economically written. I guess I think it is easier to write a 400 page book than a really good 150 pager.