Tag Archives: Book Reviews

A Year in Books/Day 198: The Roosevelts An American Saga

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  • Title: The Roosevelts An American Saga
  • Author: Peter Collier with David Horowitz
  • Year Published: 1994 (Simon & Schuster)
  • Year Purchased: Late 1990s
  • Source: An ex
  • About: This book is exhaustive; comprehensive; and any other applicable word over-used by critics and reviewers. To horribly paraphrase Joni Mitchell, after reading An American Saga I can honestly say that I have looked at the Roosevelts from both sides now. (*groan*) It’s a biography of the entire family, radiating from Teddy and FDR, to be sure, but giving flesh and voice to all of the members. Neither man, after all, was created in a laboratory; nor are the two lines of the family treated as barely associated branches, but as richly interconnecting pieces of a large and complex puzzle. This is a classic.
  • Motivation: I’ve been intrigued by FDR since that day in 6th grade history when I drew his name out of the assignment hat. My best friend, Jessy, was not so  lucky: she was forced to research Ronald Reagan, the then-sitting head of state. At least neither of us had the task of padding out a report on William Henry Harrison, which was probably an F waiting to happen. Small mercies, people. Small mercies.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 37: He was curious about how things worked. He captured insects, rodents, and other specimens and took them apart on makeshift dissecting tables, almost as if by opening them up for examination he might better understand what was wrong with his own machinery. He drew, catalogued, and described what he saw. At the age of eight, when his mother threw out the corpses of two mice he had stored in the icebox for future autopsy, he accused her, in a tiny indignant voice, of “defeating the ends of science.”

    English: William Henry Harrison: ninth Preside...

    English: William Henry Harrison: ninth President of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia). Sorry, Will, but I’m glad I was assigned FDR as a book report subject back in the sixth grade. We’re still friends, right?

  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 197: Me of Little Faith

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  • Title: Me of Little Faith
  • Author: Lewis Black
  • Year Published: 2008 (Riverhead Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: Clearance rack, unknown bookstore
  • About: During the 90 minutes it took to read Me of Little Faith, I did so with Lewis Black’s voice in my head. It was like a book-on-tape experience without the tape part. Or disc, as this isn’t 1984. If you’ve ever seen Black do, well, anything, you know what to expect from his religious diatribe/angry memoir. It reads like one of his stand-up routines, which is a good thing: he’s witty, smart, articulate, inappropriate, honest and decidedly on-point about nearly everything he touches. Unless you disagree with him, in which case you’ll find this book, and my review of it, a miserable read. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 196: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare

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  • Title: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare
  • Editors: Mary and Reginald Foakes
  • Year Published: 1998 (Columbia University Press)/This Edition: 2000 (Barnes & Noble Books)
  • Year Purchased: Early 2000s
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: There is something off about heading to the Internet for your Shakespeare needs. If any writer cries out for an old-fashioned hard copy experience, it is the Bard of Avon. I will take this cheap clearance book over a Google search box every time. If you cannot find the quote you are looking for-or a suitable one you do not yet know exists-then you are a terrible, terrible contrarian in need of a scolding. Nearly 4000 quotations have been cross-indexed under a dizzying array of topics. The kicker? It was a labor of love by scholar Reginald Foakes and his wife, Mary (who died before it reached publication). How very Shakespearean.
  • Motivation: A dictionary + quotes + Shakespeare? This book practically screamed my name.
  • Times Read: Only as a reference tool, never cover-to-cover (it feels odd typing those words).

    English: Title page of Shakespeare's Sonnets (...

    English: Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • Random Excerpt/Page 83: “Well you deserve. They well deserve to have That know the strong’st and surest way to get.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 195: Murder on the Menu

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  • Title: Murder on the Menu Cordon Bleu Stories of Crime and Mystery
  • Editor: Peter Haining
  • Year Published: 1991 (Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: I have no idea when this book was purchased, but it was given to me in 2010
  • Source: A hand-me-down from my mom
  • About: Murder on the Menu is a collection of stories about killing people by poisoning their food, or other dark dinnertime deeds. So fun! So lighthearted! So hunger-inducing! I love literary meals. I think it’s fascinating how authors represent the most basic of human needs in their writings. If you’ve never looked at fiction from that angle, you should give it a try. This crime compilation naturally focuses on the macabre, but the principle stands. The selection of authors is unexpectedly varied, offering a wider appeal than similar books.
  • Motivation: People are always giving me books they no longer want. They know I will be kind. Or sell them when they aren’t looking.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 76: “Captain Michel had but one arm, which he found useful when he lit his pipe. He was an old sea dog whose acquaintance, with that of four other old salts, I made one evening on the open front of a cafe in the Vieille Darse, Toulon, where I was taking an appetiser. And in this way we fell into the habit of foregathering over a glass within a stone’s throw of the rippling wave and the swinging dinghys, about the hour when the sun sinks behind Tamaris.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7

A Year in Books/Day 194: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era

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Lon Chaney Sr., still from The Miracle Man (1919)

Lon Chaney Sr., still from The Miracle Man (1919) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • Title: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era
  • Text: Frank Miller/Foreword by Robert Osborne/Introduction by Molly Haskell
  • Year Published: 2006 (Chronicle Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: This book is a TMC Film Guide. It is straightforward but well-done, with each actor receiving a short bio, complete with vital statistics; a breakdown of their ‘essential’ films; and behind-the-scenes trivia. It’s best for classic film neophytes or fanatics-anyone in-between will likely be bored. Among the fabulous fifty, you’ll find: Barrymore, Chaney, Colman, Garfield, Gilbert, Keaton, Kelly, Ladd, Lloyd, Muni, Poitier, Powell, Taylor, and Valentino.
  • Motivation: I’m running out of ways to say that I write about classic (especially silent) cinema and really love old movies. I even buy books that I know I am not going to learn anything from; it’s an addiction (see above).
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 41: “What amazes audiences discovering Lon Chaney’s work for the first time, along with his impressive ability to transform his face and body, is the humanity shining through even the thickest makeup. Chaney was one of the screen’s greatest pantomime artists, a skill he developed as a child in order to communicate with his parents, both of whom were deaf.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 193: Elegy for Iris

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  • Title: Elegy for Iris
  • Author: John Bayley
  • Year Published: 1999 (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2001?
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: I get it, I really do: Iris Murdoch is one of those love them or hate them writers. The Sea, The Sea is one of my favourite novels of the later years of the 20th century, but I understand why her work isn’t for everyone. I don’t care  where you stand on the subject of Iris-as-writer, if you aren’t affected to the point of tears whilst reading her husband’s memoir it can mean only one thing. You are dead inside. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 192: The Right Word II

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  • Title: The Right Word II A Concise Thesaurus Based on the New American Heritage Dictionary
  • Staff: Houghton Mifflin Company Reference Division
  • Year Published: 1983 (Houghton Mifflin Company)
  • Year Purchased: 1980s
  • Source: My lovely mother
  • About: Concise is the key here. The Right Word II is the sparest thesaurus I’ve ever read. Although not meant or marketed as such, I think it is ideal for a bright child’s use: tiny, portable, informative and easy to navigate. I relied on it for countless elementary age writing projects. I was a budding playwright then, before switching to short stories and essays in middle school. During the genre shift, I upgraded to a thicker, wordier thesaurus. I still own both of them, and every other reference book I have ever used. Even though I have not consulted this one in years, there is so much nostalgia attached to it that I cannot throw or give it away. It reminds me of why I wanted to be a writer in the first place, so it will live forever on a shelf in my studio.
  • Motivation: I didn’t need this for school, as one might assume given my age. I’ve always loved reference books, and have been collecting them since I was 5.
  • Times Read: Unknown
  • Random Excerpt/Page vi: “Discriminated Synonymies. The foundation of The Right Word II is a block of synonym paragraphs in which the meaning shared by all the words is supplemented by additional material that discriminates the various shades of meaning for each word.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10 (as a child)

A Year in Books/Day 191: Laurence Olivier On Acting

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  • Title: Laurence Olivier On Acting From Hamlet and Heathcliff to “Brideshead” and Marathon Man, Our Greatest Actor Candidly Discusses His Triumphant Career in an Extraordinary Examination of His Profession and Craft
  • Author: Laurence Olivier
  • Year Published: 1986 (A TOUCHSTONE BOOK)
  • Year Purchased: 1992
  • Source: A bookstore at an outlet mall.
  • About: Every actor, young or old, has something  many things to learn from Olivier. If they say otherwise, they’re just in denial. Or ignorant. Perhaps I should strike a line through that as well and replace it with the (softer?) word naive. Nah. I’ll stand by my original assessment. Let’s move on to the good stuff. Even if you don’t care about the craft of acting (and have never been silly enough to work in or, sanity forbid, train for the theatre), On Acting is really entertaining. Part autobiography, part theatre/film history, and part textbook, it is a mixture that  works. He exposes the thought processes behind his roles, but dishes enough behind-the-scenes stories to keep most people interested. It is superior to his traditional memoir, Confessions of an Actor.
  • Motivation: I was an acting student then; the cover blurb was an excellent sales person.
  • Times Read: 2 or 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 65: “New actors, new waves, new ideas-it’s all been done before. What we forget is that every new generation is the modern man. We are only watching things repeated with different costumes, new settings, original surrounds. However we look at it, it is still the same jewel, shining from the crown, that was mined between 1564 and 1616.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Laurence Olivier, June 17, 1939

    Laurence Olivier, June 17, 1939 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 190: Feminist Ryan Gosling

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  • Title: Feminist Ryan Gosling Feminist Theory As Imagined from Your Favorite Sensitive Movie Dude (Unauthorized)
  • Author: Danielle Henderson
  • Year Published: 2012 (Running Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2012
  • Source: This was a birthday gift from my mom.
  • About: Based on the hilarious blog of the same name, this book is every bit as good as the original source. I do not have an opinion on Ryan Gosling. Is he a fine actor? Word-of-mouth and critical response indicates as much. Is he as good-looking as many people think? That’s a matter of opinion. Until a year ago, I never even gave him any thought. As soon as I saw the first blog post, I was in love. With this concept. Feminist theory coming out of the mouth* of an actor known for his positive sentiments about women? Next to photographs of him looking thoughtful and sensitive (really, is there any other kind?). The very idea cracks me up. Hey girl, indeed. *(Naturally, he never said any of the quotes attributed to him in the blog or book. Is that a detraction? Nope. In fact, it makes it even better.)
  • Motivation: I’m a feminist with a sense of humor. There are lots of us, by the way, and this book is proof.
  • Times Read: More than once, and I’ve only had it one week.
  • Random Excerpt/Pages 62 & 99: “Hey girl. We’d be more successful at reclaiming public space for women if we were willing to address the patriarchal fixtures that made it unsafe in the first place.”/ “Hey girl. I literally have no idea how to react to someone who hasn’t read Judy Blume’s Forever.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++

A Year in Books/Day 189: Virginia Woolf

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  • Title: Virginia Woolf
  • Author: Mary Ann Caws
  • Year Published: 2001 (The Overlook Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2002
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: The beauty of this volume is not in famed academic Caws’ disappointingly standard-issue prose but in the abundance of photographs decorating the pages. It’s a wee book you can read in an hour. The eclectic images of Woolf and her circle will make you pick it up again and again; most of the photos do not suffer from being over-published. They are fresh and compelling. My favourite is the back of a stripe-shirted (Dora) Carrington.
  • Motivation: Virginia Woolf! There’s nothing more to it than that.
  • Times Read: 2 or 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 36: “Monk’s House was a perfect place for living and for visitors, for Leonard’s gardening and their writing. Endless discussions took place there, some of which are recounted in Virginia’s letters. Work went on constantly wherever Virginia and Leonard were, whether in Hogarth House or Monk’s House.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9 (for the photographs)