weezgrrl

weezgrrl

  • member since Wednesday, October 11 2006

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  • Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer
    • Rated 4 stars

    Several years ago I watched a tv special about a woman who was swimming in the ocean around Antarctica. It was fascinating enough to keep me occupied; and, since stumbling onto her book of open-water swimming adventures, I'd have to say the same holds true of the book. A bit of an elementary writing style, at times, but overall, this book is a fun read about a woman who swam from Catalina Island to the California mainland when she was 14, the frickin' English Channel when she was 15, and in all sorts of other crazy places - including the Bering Strait!

    weezgrrl wrote this review Wednesday, October 11 2006. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel
    • Rated 4 stars

    A chilling work of dystopian (or, from the author herself: "speculative") fiction, this novel is about a near-future where tyrannical "Christian" powers have seized total control of the US and enforced a society where women have been placed into overtly subjucated roles. They are the Wives, the Aunt enforcers, the servant Marthas, the enslaved and tortured Un-women... and, of course, the Handmaids - whose entire roles are to bear children for a number of powerful men, in as silent and "pure" and subservient fashion as possible. The book is told from the perspective of an unwilling Handmaid, and unravels through her recorded diaries to reveal glimpses from her life before as a woman (and wife) in love, mother, and library employee - to a life spent in a uniform of deep red, allowed no friendships, voice or heart.

    weezgrrl wrote this review Wednesday, October 11 2006. ( reply | permalink )
  • Running with Scissors: A Memoir
    • Rated 4 stars

    This was a very quick read - I could not stop flipping the pages, mesmerized and tickled by Augusten's dramedy of youth, told with such a flair that putting it down always came with a sense of disappointment. While I conceived parallels in my own life to his mentally-unstable mother and distant, alcoholic father - any similarities ended there. I wouldn't wish upon anyone his teenage years, spent with the seriously-screwballed family (with its own multitude of disturbing ailments) of his mother's shrink. The book was hilariously shocking, in every respect.

    weezgrrl wrote this review Wednesday, October 11 2006. ( reply | permalink )


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