Tara

I happened upon this book at a book sale and got it really cheap. I really loved how the author mixed historical facts into the fiction. This book had all of my favorite things: Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, Count Dracula, sex, intrigue and action! What a great roller coaster ride for the imagination.

It didn't take me very long to read this book, I think probably 2 or 3 days. I need to digest it before I even begin to attempt to write a review. First thoughts – great YA/teen book! In many ways, I wish this book had been around when I was teen. I will write a review in the coming days, I feel like there are some parts I need to reread before I sit down and write about this book. I loved it though, I can definitely say that and the subject matter isn't exactly one that leaves you with a “warm and fuzzy” feeling. Stay tuned...

I received a free galley copy of this book from Penguin First to Read program. The book is about Sarah Wildman's search to find out what happened to her grandfather's first love during World War II and the Holocaust. Sarah comes across some papers belonging to her grandfather after his death, and among those papers are pictures of a woman she has never seen before, Valy. Her grandmother informs her that the woman is her grandfather's, Carl Wildman, first love but will not say anything more on the subject. This sends Sarah off on a journey to Europe to find out who Valy was and what happened to her after her grandfather fled to America as Hitler moved into Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Sarah uncovers a lot of information about how immigrations were handled for European Jews wanting to flee Europe as Hitler and the Nazi Regime took control of countries and spread anti-Semitic discrimination. Sarah's research leads her to several different cities and she meets several interesting people along the way, who help her decipher the documents she finds and answer burning questions she has about life in 1939 and 1940, leading up to the execution of Hitler's Final Solution. As Sarah follows the clues about Valy and the life she lived in Europe, she learns more about the kind of life her grandfather was living in America, about his own struggles and his determination to work hard enough to bring more family and friends, including Valy, to America. By the end of the book, Sarah has a clear understanding of her grandfather's life, but she also has managed to figure out what may have happened to Valy, as the path grows cold and there's no definite answer. Sarah can only assume what Valy's fate was.

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot of things about the immigration process for European Jews to the United States, including the limits the US government put on the numbers of European Jews entering the country during a time when being Jewish was not safe. Not only does Sarah learn a lot about her grandfather's life before her own father was born, but she learns a lot about how dangerous day to day life was in 1939 Europe. She talks about Kristallnacht and the Anschluss, about the businesses Jews lost as Nazi support grew, the work Jewish leaders did to keep track of Jews within their own communities and possibly provide them with useful jobs that would bring them food and water. As she journeys to find Valy, Sarah is very open about her feelings and her hopes for a happy ending. I think Sarah does an excellent job of giving a voice to Valy, making her real for the reader and bringing closure to her grandfather's own love story. This was a well written story and I'm pretty glad that I was fortunate enough to receive a free copy.

I was not compensated by the author or Penguin books for this review

I received this pre-release book free through the Goodreads First Reads Program (www.goodreads.com) on December 2, 2010 and immediately proceeded to the first page.

The plot of this book interested me when I read about it on the Goodreads First Reads page, so I was looking forward to hearing how a fellow thirty-something's life had been changed by the books of feminism.

In her thirties, Stephanie Staal decides to return to her college alma mater, Barnard College, after experiencing what I would call a moment of lost identity. This self-proclaimed feminist, who wanted to be a career woman suddenly found herself as a wife and mother working as a freelance writer on occasion. Staal suddenly felt like a traitor to the feminist movement she had studied and read about as an undergraduate, asking the question that thousands of women ask everyday – “What the hell is happening to me?”

So, in an attempt to figure out what happened to her own feminist ideals, she audits the year long Feminist Texts course at Barnard College, reading 42 books/texts and 20 selected essays, by numerous writers including Ida B. Wells, Elaine Pagels, Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir and others.

Rereading these texts gives her the opportunity to examine, and re-examine, how her own reaction to the works has changed since she was an undergraduate as well as remark on an obvious generation gap between her thirty-something self and the 18-22 year old women in the class.

While I found the writing very open, honest and personal, I found the story somewhat bland. Staal has an identity crisis because she feels as if she hasn't stuck to the feminist ideals she was raised with and adopted in her college years. She finds herself, at 30, a wife and mother. She changed aspects of her career (from full-time journalist to freelance writer/journalist) to be able to stay home with her daughter. She has also adopted a more domestic lifestyle, taking care of the house on a full-time basis. These changes lead her to wonder if she has stopped being a feminist and if she has stopped upholding the ideals she once had.

I did feel sympathetic towards Staal as she began to struggle with changes in her life brought on by turning 30, getting married and having a baby. Staal says “The age of thirty, as nineteenth century French novelist Honore de Balzac once noted, is one of the most dangerous periods for a woman, and indeed, it was at this particular juncture in my own life, the turning from one decade to the next, that I – somewhat predictably, somewhat ashamedly – started to unravel.” (Page 5)

As a thirty-something myself, I have felt that sense of “now what?” as I transitioned from one decade to another. There is something that happens when a person turns 30 and, in my case, I will say Staal was not alone in that sense of lack of accomplishment. That is also where our similarities end.

I myself am not a wife nor am I mother. I have not had to make the decision of many working women who become mothers – do I stay home or do I go back to work? One day, I will face that question and will have to decide if I can afford to stay home or if I will have to return to the workforce after becoming a mother. I know that is a difficult decision thousands of women make everyday, but does it say something about what kind of feminists they are? At this time in my life, I guess I am upholding the ideals of the feminist movement – I'm an educated, independent career woman. Does that make me a better feminist than Staal, than other women who choose to stay home with their children? I don't think so, but maybe she would disagree with me.

I admit that I am unfamiliar with about 90% of the feminist texts Staal read, both in the Feminist Texts course she took, as well as the 25 additional books she read at home, so this book was a bit of an introduction for me to feminist literature. My basic understanding of feminism comes from what little I learned in my history classes in junior and senior high school. I knew about the Suffragettes and their fight for the right to vote. I also know that ever since women were given the right to vote, there has been an ongoing fight for equality in all areas of the workforce and respect in all aspects of life.

I know that women have been fighting to be able to work and be mothers without suffering backlash or consequences, and I also know that the corporate world still hasn't quite adjusted itself so that women don't have to choose between being a working mom or a stay at home mom. I hope that one day, a woman will be able to work from both home and office and not have her career negatively impacted because she is a mother and that the same woman will be able to be home as much and as often as she wants with her children without having to step off of the corporate ladder. I hope one day, the demands of the working mom can reconcile with the demands of the stay at home mom, and they both will feel like they are living up to, and fulfilling, the ideals of the feminists who came before them.

I get the impression that Staal feels inadequate on many levels. She isn't like the other neighborhood mommies, who discuss their babies' nursery themes and carry designer diaper bags. She isn't that “perfect” mother who can get her daughter's breakfast made to her liking, dressed in a “pretty outfit”, and out to school on time and happy. The thing is, she's not alone. There are a lot of mothers who want to be that “perfect” mom like June Cleaver or Mrs. Brady was, but find that they aren't quite on the same level as those perfect TV moms. Even while working as a freelance journalist, she feels like she's somehow not being a good mom or a good feminist.

As her studies progress in the Feminist Texts course, she explains what each text is about and how the class reacts to the message of each. Based on her explanation of each text, I do not think these texts changed Staal's life. I do think they gave her the ability to create and develop her own feminism. I do not think Staal is turning her back on the feminist ideals she was raised with, she isn't a traitor. I do think that being able to take this course as a thirty-something, working-stay-at-home-mom (she is a freelance journalist which seems to be a fitting example of working-stay-at-home-mom) gave her some insight into who she was, who she is, and who she will become as a woman, a wife and a mother. She also got to find out what a younger generation thought of feminism and the feminist movement, which was mainly a feeling of disinterest and lack of enthusiasm.

By the end of the book, I felt like I had been given a very quick and interesting introduction to feminist literature and feminist authors but I did not see any type of significant change in Staal based on the ideals presented in the texts. At the end of the book, it was unclear to me how these books actually changed her life. I do think the books showed her how feminism has developed, changed and grown over the century, and how it continues to change with each new generation of women. I think these texts also showed her how to change and grow as a woman.

On a 5 star rating scale, I give this book 3 stars. This book will be available in bookstores, from Public Affairs Publishing, on February 22, 2011.

I saw the Cohen Brothers' version of this book, starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld when it was in theaters and was very curious about how closely it may or may not have followed the book. I have to say they followed Portis's book very closely. Now onto my review of the book.

Mattie Ross is a 14 year old girl from Arkansas who seeks the assistance of Rueben “Rooster” Cogburn, a federal marshall with true grit, to help her find the coward Tom Chaney, who shot and killed her unarmed father. Mattie is the eldest child, and upon retrieving her father's body to send home for burial, she decides that the man who killed her father must stand trial for his actions in Arkansas, which leads to her seeking out a man with true grit, who can find Tom Chaney. When she hires Rooster Cogburn, her adventure begins.

I found Mattie to be a very honest narrator. I don't think it ever occurs to her that she should lie to anyone she meets. She always has an honest, straight forward answer, which at times come across as a bit self-righteous or snotty. I don't think Mattie is “snotty” per se, but she truly believes in right and wrong and that there is no “gray area”. Things are either right or they are wrong, and that's how she lives her own life, which is what leads her to hiring Rooster to help her find Tom Chaney.

Rooster is a hard, rough man. He has seen war, having fought for the Conferederates in the Civil War, and he has killed men (both in war and as a marshall). He is also a drunk. I can't say that his drinking necessarily made him a worse lawman in my opinion. I think Rooster uses alcohol to ease the pain of his past, it soothes his anger. As hard as he is, I also think he did develop a kind of respect and fatherly protection towards Mattie. She is, afterall, a child riding through Choctaw Nation to bring the coward Tom Chaney to justice for what he did.

Then, there's the Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (pronounced LaBeef), who meets Mattie while she is staying in a boarding house, waiting for Rooster Cogburn to determine if he will let her hire him. His efforts to keep her from riding along in the hunt for Tom Chaney are squandered. I am sure LaBoeuf is not used to girls who are so strong-willed, sharp-tongued and stubborn as Mattie Ross.

Again, I loved this book. It's a fast read and Mattie's narration is strong. I liked Mattie. For all the preaching she did and the right v. wrong speeches she gave, she was a very strong girl focused on getting what she wanted – justice. I wish I had read this book before I saw True Grit though, but I have to say I'm not disappointed in the film version now that I have read the book. I am curious about how closely the original starring John Wayne follows the book but I don't think I'll be disappointed either. Very rarely have I come across a movie adapted from a book that I enjoyed, True Grit is one of these rare book to films categories. I think this is a book that I will read more than once during my life, and I'm looking forward to reliving Mattie's chase through Choctaw Nation with Rooster Cogburn and LaBoeuf.

It took me a total of 3 days to read this book and I am sad it's over. I absolutely loved it!

The Art of Racing in the Rain is about the relationship between the narrator, a mixed breed dog named Enzo, and his family: Denny, Eve and Zoe. At the beginning of the book, Enzo informs the reader that he is nearing the end of his life and he begins the tale of his life with Denny and the addition of Eve (the wife) and Zoe (the daughter).

Enzo watches as Denny falls in love with and builds a future with Eve, developing a strong friendship with Eve and protector for Zoe. Enzo also is a fan of race car driving, as Denny himself is an amateur racer. Denny and Enzo's life is ripped apart when Eve dies and a battle ensues over the custody of Zoe, a battle between Denny and his in-laws. Denny also faces other legal battles thanks to an overly ambitious 15 year old cousin who attempts, and fails, at initiating sex with Denny. Enzo witnesses all of this and tells the story from his silent perspective.

Enzo is not a “normal” narrator, as he is a dog but he has such an amazing understanding of what his owner and family are going through, as well as the various injustices Denny must face in order to prove that his daughter belongs with him and that he did nothing to the 15 year old cousin. I also learned a lot about racing in this book, as Enzo using racing to parallel the life he plays witness to.

This is a fast read and the characters are very likeable. As a dog fan, I especially loved that it was a dog who told the story. This has become one of my favorite books.

This book was an enjoyable read EXCEPT for how completely annoying I found the main character, Rae Wilder, to be. She receives an entire description of a possible future regarding her and the vampire Tomas, by the White Witch Anna, and still doesn't seem to grab the big fat clue in front of her that says she probably should not engage in any interaction with the vampire and then screws things up for everyone. I was a bit annoyed with that. Other than that, I did enjoy reading the story, it was definitely different from other fae stories I had read, mainly being that anything non-human is considered demon. I thought that was an interesting premise. I am on the fence as to whether I'll read the rest of the series. I think I'll wait a little while, at least, before going into the next book.

I read this book after it was recommended to me by my boss's wife. She worked in the social work field and witnessed a lot of the things that can go wrong with it, and she suggested I read this book as part of my research into whether I wanted to change careers and head into the world of social work. I'm glad she recommended it.

This is the memoir of a young woman who spent about 8 years of her life in the foster care system in Florida and the abuses she suffered at the hands of one of her foster homes, as well as the happy times she experienced. Ashley Coulter-Rhodes is currently in college and this story was very touching and heartbreaking.

Ashley was taken from her mother at a young age and went into the care of the state foster care system. She and her younger brother were separated when he was just a baby and it was several years before she was reunited with him. The memoir itself is scattered, much like memories of a childhood that one is not sure she really had. Unfortunately, Ashley was done a great disservice by her various social workers and case managers, which is evidenced by the boxes of paperwork her adopted parents and attorney gather in order to file a civil suit against the state and one of her foster care families. She had over 20 of each and there were times when documents in her files were falsified and even lost.

Ashley's story came to the attention of Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady and Ashley ended up being invited to the White House to speak about her experiences. This came about due to an essay she wrote for a magazine contest. She's been travelling around the country telling her story and educating people about the numerous flaws in the foster care system in this country. Ashley and her brother were abused by foster parents and neglected by case workers. By the time she arrived in the home of the couple who would later adopt her, she was extremely distrustful of adults and figured that at any time this couple would not want her and return her to the “home” they found her at. That didn't happen, instead they adopted her and then, after seeing a news report that the abusive couple Ashley had spent so many years with had been charged with numerous counts of child abuse, helped her bring a lawsuit against the couple.

I really enjoyed this story and was saddened at the nightmarish childhood Ashley had. Her story is similar to ones I have read about and it seems that there are significant problems with the foster care system here in the United States. It seems that it is too understaffed and overworked to truly protect those placed in its care – young children. I definitely want to change careers and head into the social work field where I hope to make some sort of positive difference in the life of at least one child. Ashley had that person in her GAL. I thought Ashley's story was astounding and I hope to attend a speech she gives at some point in the future. This is not the best written memoir I've ever read, but it's definitely one that caught my attention and left me a slightly changed human being.

Finally, a book by a guy who is so brutally honest that it hurts. I laughed at the stories that were in this book and found myself putting names next to the “types” that Greg listed. I don't think any woman can honestly say she doesn't know a guy who fits one of the types in the book. I also remember the episode of Sex in the City that sparked the development and writing of this book. It's so true, as much as I hate to admit it, this book lays it all out there and gives women the big clue they need: he's just not that into you so move on!

This book was okay. I didn't particularly like the main character Scarlett. I found her very annoying and, while I know she was trying to be a good person, she ended up hurting a lot of people. I liked Sean, Ursala and Oscar the most, they all made the story very enjoyable. I've seen almost all of the movies Scarlett is obsessed over and I thought the various links between those movies and this book were well thoughtout. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I could have liked Scarlett more, but I just didn't like anything about her.

This was a well written book about the impact a cancer diagnosis can have on a family, especially when it is a child who is diagnosed. The story is told from the pov of Tessa, younger sister to the popular Kristina, whose diagnosis of osteosarcoma leaves the family shaken and uncertain of the future. I really liked Tessa, she was a great narrator for the story and very realistic. As someone whose lost a loved one to cancer, I thought the emotions and reactions were very realistic and relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone.

I read this book right after it came out and finished it in about 2 days. I really enjoyed the story and characters. It made me think a lot about loved ones I have lost and how great it would be to have at least one more day with them to tell them all the things I felt about them and say I love you, one last time.

I just finished this book and enjoyed it but felt extremely confused by the time I reached the end. My book club is reading it and I think it will garner a lot of really great discussion. This is a book about a street thug, named Tsotsi (which means thug) who is given a baby and his life begins to change. He begins to rethink the path his life is on and begins to remember things from his past that were long forgotten. I really liked Tsotsi and the transformation he goes through because of this baby. I didn't like the way it ended, but I knew it had to end that way so I wasn't surprised. I was just saddened, that's all.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone though. It was a very quick read. I think it took me about two weeks to get through it; I mainly read it during my morning and evening commute.

I haven't finished this book yet, but it is so funny. I have never read Bill Bryson, so I wasn't sure what I was going to get.

In In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson writes about his travels through Australia. Sometimes, he travels alone, and other times, he has friends or co-workers with him. Bryson tells of his adventures with humor and great description. It shows in the way he writes, that he really loves Australia and respects the Australian people.

I visited Sydney in 1997 and fell inlove with the few things I saw. Reading this book brought back all of the warm feelings I had for the people and city, as well as made me hungry for experiencing more of Australia. There is a lot about Australia's history that Bryson covers in this book, which I found to be very fascinating because all I knew about the history was that it was a country of prisoners from England in its early beginnings. There's a lot more to it than that. He explains the prisoner beginnings, as well as explorations conducted both around the continent as well as across it. Bryson tells some of the, as yet unstudied/unresearched, history of the Aboringines. There is so little known about these people and yet they have been victims of years of abuse.

Bryson also relates very humorous stories about the various deadly creatures that call Australia home. Australia is home to some of the deadliest snakes, spiders and crocodiles in the world. The Box Jellyfish and taipan snake are both mentioned quite a bit by Bryson, many times in humorous stories related to him by Australians. Based on how he describes the stories he is told by “the locals”, I began to picture Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter.

Bryson has a refreshing way of telling a story. He tells it with humor and affection, pride and respect. I'm anxious to visit Australia again and go to some of the places he describes. THis is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about Australia or is planning a trip there. THis book will tell you things that all those tourism guide books don't, and you'll get a good belly laugh as a bonus.

*Quick note: just finished the book. Loved it! Bill Bryson has a fantastic ability to tell an engaging story. I am trying to plan a trip to Australia now, and plan on trying to see some of the places he talked about in the book. Been to Sydney in 1997, think it is time to try Perth and Melbourne.

I just finished reading this book and have to say that I was bothered by it. I saw the movie quite some time ago and was bothered by it as well, and thought that maybe by reading the book I would gain a little more insight. Well, I guess in some ways I did gain a little insight.

The book is about the 5 Lisbon sisters: Lux, Mary, Therese, Bonnie and Cecilia, one of whom commits suicide fairly early in the book (Cecilia), and then aftermath from her suicide which leads to the suicides of the remaining sisters. The story is told from the point of view of the teenage boys who observed the sisters over the course of the year between the first suicide and the last, and all of the “evidence” they gathered which they were hoping would help explain to them why these girls did what they did. These boys (who are grown men as narrators) were just as bewildered as I was after reading this. The 4 remaining sisters are made into prisoners in their home, which can drive any teenager to do rash things (like runaway for one), but not these girls. They were prisoners of parents who thought by protecting them from the world, they would not have the same fate of the first suicidal sister.

Jeffrey Eugenides has written an interesting book. I enjoyed his book “Middlesex” and found that this book had a lot of the same issues of angst and acceptance that the character in “Middlesex” had to deal with. That's where the similarities end. Eugenides has written a book that discusses teen suicide which is always a shocking event when it occurs, and it leaves all of us wondering “why?”, “what was so wrong that they chose this way to deal with their problems?”. That's exactly what the narrators in this book are asking themselves, even with all of the knowledge they had of the girls and the neighborhood at the time, these men still (after all the years that had passed) ask themselves “why did the Lisbon girls do this?”. The reader is also left with that question gnawing away at the end of the book. I have no idea, given everything that is laid out in the book from the POV of these men, why these girls felt this was the way out from under their overly protective and domineering parents. The parents were only trying to protect them, and that protection made them feel like prisoners who felt there was only one way to escape. I think that's what bothered me most, that these girls thought there was no other way out from under their parents and therefore, they had no other choice.

Jodi Picoult touched on a lot of different themes in this book: religion, capital punishment, organ donation. the death penalty is something that polarizes people, as well as religion. Jodi handled these issues with sensitivity and respect.

I won't say that she changed my mind/opinions about capital punishment, organ donation or religion, but I will say that I encountered characters who all went through crises of their own: crisis of faith, crisis of the law. Also, none of the characters are perfect, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, which made them very appealing.

Does a man convicted of double murders have the right to choose how he wants to be executed? Does that same man have the right to request that one of his organs be given to the surviving sister of one of his victims? Is one religion better than another or do all religions have 1 thing in common that makes them equal? This book has all of these questions and works to answer them.

I haven't liked all of Jodi Picoult's books, but this one has become one of my favorites. I really appreciated the way she addressed some of the toughest issues out there. It is obvious that she did a lot of research with religious leaders, medical staff, lawyers, jail/DOC staff and inmates based on all of the information she has in this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who can keep an open mind and is willing to listen to opposing opinions. I don't think is a book for someone who cannot look beyond his/her own personal beliefs; it's good to have beliefs but I think it is also good to be open to learning about another person's beliefs and how those beliefs have made that person into who he/she is. Our beliefs and opinions are what make each of us who we are and I can say that this book definitely made me think about what I believe and where I stand on controversial “hot button” issues and made me thing about why I feel or believe the way I do.

Loved, loved, loved this book!

I had to go on a waiting list for this book at the bookstore because they were sold out of all of their copies. I originally heard about Tales from the Bed when I saw the documentary “Three Sisters” on HBO. I was so deeply moved by the story of these three sisters (Jennifer, Meredith and Vanessa) as they struggled to get answers and medical treatment for Jennifer, that I wanted more.

Jennifer Estes was struck with ALS, AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease, in the prime of her life. She was living in New York, friends with several celebrities (including Ben Stiller) and having the time of her life. When she first began to develop ALS, her doctors were unable to give her a diagnosis. There were a lot of guesses. Jennifer and her two sisters, and her parents, banded together to get specialists from various medical fields to research what was going with Jennifer and what kind of treatments were available for her. This memoir chronicles Jennifer's fight for a cure, the creation of Project ALS by her and her sisters, and the beginning discoveries medical experts made with stem cell research.

Jennifer spoke in front of Congress on several occassions, along with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve, to gain funding for stem cell research and the hope that stem cells would be able to reverse their illnesses (Parkinson's, ALS, and spinal cord injuries). Jennifer hoped that stem cell research would reach human clinical trials before ALS took her life. The research funding was blocked by President Bush, but that did not deter Jennifer, Meredith and Vanessa from continuing to fight and fund research. Ben Stiller was able to put together several celebrity charity events on behalf of Project ALS to raise money for research.

Jennifer's story is at once heartbreaking and joyous. THrough the convictions of three women, medical professionals from different specialties came together to work for one cause: find a cure for illnesses like ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimers and spinal cord injuries. These professionals may not have collaborated if it had not been for the love these sisters had for each other. Project ALS has had many more breakthroughs since being formed by the three sisters. Jennifer's story and determination send the message: “Never give up.”

After watching “Three Sisters” and reading “Tales From the Bed”, I have followed the progress of Project ALS and the efforts of the Estes sisters (Meredith and Vanessa), Nancy Reagan and MIchael J. Fox as they continue to speak in front of Congress on stem cell research. The story of Jennifer Estes broke my heart! This is the kind of book that I would recommend to anyone, it's so beautifully told and very heartbreaking real.

I read this book when I was 16 for a summer reading project I was doing with the local library. This book definitely made me think about possible conspiracy theories surrounding Hitler, the Nazis and the Allies during WW2. I thought this book was a great work of fiction and it really was very engrossing. I would definitely read this book a second time.