• Rated 5 stars

“"This story about good food begins in a quick-stop convenience market." Kingsolver's story of a year dedicated to eating locally begins in a quickie-mart, but it ends on a Virginia farm with a turkey hatching her chicks. In between in the diary of a year of planting, raising, harvesting, cooking and eating. I really enjoyed reading this book, even though I no longer live on a farm, and no longer cook much (lucky me has a husband who loves cooking). Reading this I actually wanted to cook. I was so inspired I actually joined the natural food co-op where I have shopped on and off for twenty years or so, actually went to a local farmers' market and bought a sack of heirloom tomatoes to eat for lunch. I enjoyed the book also because it was a family project. Her daughter Camille added essays on eating and cooking locally, and her husband added information about organic vs. industrial farming. I was entertained (the turkey sex part was a hoot), and informed. Thumbs up.”

sthurner wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“"The world changed while I slept, and much to my surprise, no one had consulted me." This is the opening line of Carlos Eire's memoir of his childhood in Cuba, up to and including the Revolution that deposed Batista and installed Casto in power. On one level the book reminded me of Bill Bryson's Thunderbolt Kid because of his descriptions of his family, school and young friends in Cuba in the 1950's. But these memories have a much sharper edge than Bryson's because of the political content. Eire is understandably bitter about the way Castro's regime took away people's houses and businesses, and most of all the way people were controlled through terror. The writing is alternately funny and poignant, and I learned some uncomfortable things about the United States' role in the Bay of Pigs invasion.”

sthurner wrote this review 8 days ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“Oh boy, I feel like a real Scrooge, because people whose taste I respect have recommended this series to me, and I just thought the entire book was awful. It was filled with cliched writing, and endless padding. The plot could have made a decent short story - maybe - but it was dragged on and on. There was an annoying subplot about Elvis as a ghost waiting to "move on" that particularly seemed superfluous. I felt like Koontz was preaching lots of the time, getting on a soapbox about people who hurt children, or disrespect the mentally challenged. He made a point to say how awful people are who are attracted to stories about death and disaster, yet he described the abuse of little girls in great detail. Nope. I didn't like this at all.”

sthurner wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“"Bright, clear sky over a plain so wide that the rim of the heavens cut down on it around the entire horizon. . . . Bright, clear sky, to-day, to-morrow, and for all time to come"

The opening lines of Ole Rolvaag's 1927 story of Norwegian settlers who start a difficult new life in South Dakota is deceptively optimistic, because the the book is full of the paradoxes of the time. While the new land was beautiful and fertile, it could also be deadly. On the one hand there were acres of land to settle, so rich that wheat sprang from the earth, but on the other hand there were plagues of locusts, killer snowstorms, and isolation that drove more than one person to madness. I enjoyed this story, written in clear lovely prose, and am glad I didn't read it when I was younger. Reading it now, after I have traveled to the area, after I have seen the grasslands and an example of a sod house, and know something of my own family's story, it was a revelation. Stark, beautiful, and inspiring are all words that describe this tribute to emigrant settlers.”

sthurner wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“In 1966 Schulz began his popular storyline in Peanuts about Snoopy's imaginary life as the Red Baron. Not long afterward this little book was published and the pop song on the radio. I can't imagine that it would be as popular today, but the book has some nostalgia for me.”

sthurner wrote this review 3 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I read this little book because I needed to create a presentation about Lavivina Goodell's life for a group. While I'm sure the book was written with a young audience in mind, I found it to be clear, engaging, and filled with interesting detail. ”

sthurner wrote this review 3 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“The series of little hard bound United Syndicate books featuring the philosophies of Peanuts gang began in 1962 with Happiness is a Warm Puppy. This one came out in 1966, and doesn't have the appeal for me that the earlier ones had. Still, who can argue with Snoopy's comment "I do a lot of complaining, but actually I love my home!"”

sthurner wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“In the early 1960s the Schulz marketing blitz was just getting started, A series of small format books started with "Happiness is a Warm Puppy." This was the second in the series. Everyone knows that his security blanket kept Linus able to deal with life's daily challenges, but the rest of the gang had their own ideas: security is having your own home, is having someone to lean on, is having a few bones stacked away, is knowing all your lines. The drawings are charming, and the sentiments still true.”

sthurner wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“"I have lost count of the days that have passed since I fled the horrors of Vasco Miranda's mad fortress in the Andalusian mountain-village of Benengeli; ran from death under cover of darkness and left a message nailed to the door."

Exhausted and exhiliarated are words that describe me after finally finishing this sprawling novel, a book so convoluted, filled with love, death, art, politics, and religion that my head is still spinning. I love the way Rushdie tells his story (Stories?), spinning them out as the princess under threat of death did for her mad sultan. In fact Rushdie was under threat of death after his previous novel, The Satanic Verses, and that was in the back of my mind as I read the story of four generations and their loves and bids for power over each other and the rest of the world. Spicy, funny, twisted, this book is all of it - a book lover's book - a feast of words.”

sthurner wrote this review Monday, August 4 2008. ( reply | permalink )

3 of 3 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“This book isn't for everyone, but I found it to be really interesting. The main character is a 52-year-old divorced literature professor who leaves teaching after he has an affair with a student. Over the course of the novel he has to come to grips with his new life, and try to learn to understand his adult daughter. The book isn't cheerful, and the scenes dealing with assault, and the euthanizing of animals might distress some readers. But I found the characters to be thought provoking and complex. I liked the way the author wove the themes of disgrace and redemption through the plot. This would be a good book to discuss.”

sthurner wrote this review Thursday, July 31 2008. ( reply | permalink )