Chrissy L

• Rated 5 stars

“This book is an excellent example of what can happen when one has mastery of the English language. Then I did some research and found out that it was translated from French, and I was even more impressed. This story is told using alternating narrators: a 12-year-old girl and a middle-aged woman. They don't actually know each other until the middle of the book, and they both irk me at times, because they're both very smart. They take pride in how smart they are, but they're even prouder of the fact that they can hide their intelligence from everyone else in their lives. I must be missing something, but I really don't understand why. I mean, I sort of do, from what they tell me, but it doesn't seem realistic enough, so there must be something else there. It's ultimately the story of these two, who meet each other and realize that they aren't the only two secretly smart people in a world of people who aren't that smart but pretend to be. ”

Chrissy L wrote this review 8 hours ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a true crime book that gives details of two murders in the New Haven area in the 1890s. It's very factual and thoroughly researched, detailing the crimes and their subsequent trials. The differences between the 1890s and now are very interesting, including how crime scenes were treated, the technology available and the media. What's more interesting is that the more things change, the more they say the same. The book is very factual, and sometimes I think can be a bit dry, but because of its factual style, the author was able to include lots of details from courtroom transcripts and newspaper articles.”

Chrissy L wrote this review 8 hours ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This is an adorable children's book about Hanukkah and its traditions. It's a great little read for kids who might not understand why they're the only kids in the neighborhood who don't have a Christmas tree. It's a sweet, short retelling of the Hanukkah story from a perspective I don't think we'd ever heard before: a very uptight potato pancake.”

Chrissy L wrote this review 8 hours ago. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“This obviously isn't some obscure book I pulled off a dusty library shelf! I know most of you have read this one.

I read this for the first time in 10th grade during my American lit class, but by the time I got to adulthood I really didn't remember much about it. Now I work at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford two Saturdays every month, so I figured I should read it again. First I read Tom Sawyer, which I highly recommend, because it really sets the stage. Tom Sawyer is a sweet, funny story about kids who do the things all kids dream about doing (big adventuers, buried treasure, etc), but Huck Finn is much darker.

Huck, who is a friend of Tom's and appears in Tom's book, is a boy who is pretty much an orphan. His mother died, and his father disappears for long stretches of time, so he spends a lot of time alone or with the Widow Douglas, who keeps attempting, in his terms, to "sivilize" him. She makes him wear shoes and go to school. Horrors! Huck's father returns and tries to get his boy back, since he thinks he'll be able to get some money out of it (leaving out details to leave out spoilers), and Huck fakes his own murder to escape. He runs into Jim, a slave who lives in his town, who is also running away because he believes that he's about to be sold. Together, they set off down the Mississippi River and have lots of adventures on their journey. It's touching in parts, sad in parts, dark in parts. It's always being banned (still!) beause of the use of the n-word. Beause of this, many people think that Mark Twain was a racist, but if you look beyond that and see what it is that Huck is actually saying, you get it. The book is anti-racism, as was Sam (Mark Twain) in real life.

If you're ever in Hartford and have the chance to come to the Mark Twain House, please stop by! It's a beautiful home and the tour is well worth it. I'm not just saying that because I give tours there. ;)”

Chrissy L wrote this review Tuesday, September 22 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Preachy, preachy, preachy. I understand the merits of cutting back on our consumerism in this country. I do. But so much of this book was how our government doesn't do enough, our government needs to provide more for people, people shouldn't have to work so hard... ”

Chrissy L wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Well... It's very well-written. I do love the way she turns a phrase. But while all this is true, it's a very, very sad story. I was hoping for some kind of triumph at the end, even though the author tells you at the outset that you're not going to get one. It's about a girl who has to deal with physical and emotional abuse and the food she turns to for comfort. In the end, she survives, but she doesn't thrive.”

Chrissy L wrote this review Sunday, March 8 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Sittenfeld, a woman, became intrigued with Laura Bush during the first Bush administration. Laura is a very private first lady. It's hard to know what she's thinking about his policies because she doesn't do a lot of interviews, and when she does, she talks about being a mother or recipes on Rachel Ray or something. But when Laura was in high school, she was the cause of a horrible car accident that resulted in the death of the other person involved, and that shaped her world. This novel is loosely based on her life, and is the story of a woman who made a mistake and spent a lot of her life trying to make amends for it. Sittenfeld's first lady, though, is more outspoken about how she feels about her husband's policies, and that makes her easier to relate to. It almost makes the Bushes seem like real people.”

Chrissy L wrote this review Saturday, February 7 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“This is supposedly a classic in young adult literature, but I never read it until this year. Yeah, it's very... meh. The idea is that there is a tradition at an all-boys Catholic school in Massachusetts. They sell candy bars every year to raise funds. But there is a freshman named Jerry Renault who decides to just buck tradition and not sell them. It's a pretty unpopular decision among his classmates and the adults involved. The Brother in charge decides to enlist the help of the Vigils, a sort of gang in the school, to convince Jerry to sell them. The theme is really about being yourself and standing up for your own beliefs, but it wasn't that interesting. I'm not quite sure why this book has the classic reputation that it does, to be honest. I plan to read more Cormier, simply because a lot of his books are set in Leominster, MA. If you want to read good Cormier, I suggest Fade.”

Chrissy L wrote this review Saturday, February 7 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“I really liked this book. The basic premise of it is that women spend a lot of time making excuses for men when the truth is that if the men were into them, they wouldn't have to. For example, there's the guy who won't take you to meet his family because he has "commitment issues," or excusing him for cheating because he has a "high libido." The message is that you shouldn't settle for anything less than what you deserve, and that's to be treated very, very well. Greg does his share of big-brotherly preaching, and then Liz chimes in and says, "But I'm 41 and single, and I don't want to be single anymore. I'm not perfect, so why expect him to be?" and then Greg comes back with his point that you can either be single and miserable, or you can settle and be miserable, and being single is better anytime, because at least you can always meet someone great while you're single, as opposed to when you're attached to someone who sucks.”

Chrissy L wrote this review Saturday, February 7 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This is the story of a man and his fridge. Inspired by the sight of a man on the side of a road with a fridge, Tony Hawks makes a drunken bet with a friend that he can hitchhike around the perimeter of Ireland with his own fridge. They draw up a contract and he attempts to win 100 pounds. (The fridge cost him 130.) This is the charming true story of a month-long journey around Ireland that, thankfully, includes a map. My Irish geography isn't what it should be, apparently! But it shows the Irish as a fun-loving, generous people with a beautiful country. Ireland was already on my list of places to see, but now it is even moreso. ”

Chrissy L wrote this review Monday, February 2 2009. ( reply | permalink )