Patti's Book Reviews - June 2001
Selling the Lite of Heaven, by Suzanne Strempek Shea. ISBN
0-671-79865-0. "Even though when he
told me I was wrenched it off my finger and pitched it at him so hard it stuck
with a thock right into the cloth of
his green down vest, he still said I should keep the ring." One of my
favorite funny books. Very light and wonderful. Warning her other books are not
good.
The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman. ISBN 0-679-87926-9.
"In a valley shaded with rhododendrons, close to the snow line, where a
stream milky with meltwater splashed and where doves and linnets flew among the
immense pines, lay a cave, half-hidden by the crag above and the stiff heavy
leaves clustered below." One of the best science fantasy books I have read.
Based on Milton's Paradise Lost. This is the first book
Of a juvenile fiction trilogy.
Movie Home Companion, by Roger Ebert. ISBN 0-8362-6212-3.
(Descriptions of Movies) "If one of
the pleasures of movie-going is seeing strange new things on the screen,
another pleasure, and probably a deeper one, is experiencing moments of
recognition-times when we can say, yes, that's exactly right, that's exactly
the way it would have happened." OK, I am a movie nut so I love reading
the little summaries of movies in the back of the newspaper TV guide. Here it
is in a book
Part of the Furniture, by Mary Wesley. ISBN 0-14-02-6628-3. "A full moon lit the street stretching
ahead; it was a long street and empty. The houses have blinded windows and
secret shadowed doorways; only an occasional polished door-knocker or the
radiator of a car parked by the pavement reflected the moon." Strange but
good.
Bridget Jones…the Edge of Reason, by Helen Fielding. ISBN 0-4-029847-9.
"Monday 27 January: 129 lbs. (total fat groove), boyfriends
1 (hurrah!), shags 3 (hurrah!), calories 2100, calories used up by shags 600,
so total calories, 1500 (exemplary)." The second book and actually
better.
Strange Fits of Passion by Anita Shreve. ISBN 0-15-600710-X. "On my book tours, I am often asked a
number of questions: Did he really do it? Do I think that she was justified?
Did they do it for the money or for love?"
This book still haunts me. But all her books are like that.
Mama Makes Up Her Mind…and Other Dangers of
Southern Living, by Bailey White. ISBN
0-679-75160-2. "The other day Mama
made up her mind she wanted some smoked mullet. "Does this mean we have to
go down to Rosey's?" I asked. "Yep," she said." I laughed
out loud so much reading this at the airport two people came over and asked me
what I was reading. Her other books are not good.
The Object of My Affection, by Stephen McCauley. ISBN
0-671-64994-9. "Nina and I had been
living together in Brooklyn for over a year when she came home one afternoon,
announced she was pregnant, tossed her briefcase to the floor and flopped down
on the green vinyl sofa." I read this years ago, before the mediocre
movie. I really
Liked this book still think of one scene of the Ferris wheel
when I think of love and friendship.
A Face at the Window, by Dennis McFarland. ISBN
0-553-06694-3. "One Monday morning
about a year and a half ago, in late autumn, I woke with a vague awareness of a
long dullish instrument of some kind, maybe the butt-end of a medieval halberd,
being alternately inserted and withdrawn at the small of my back." The
best modern ghost story I have ever read. Read this and then read Frankenstein,
which is the best horror book of all time, written by a 17-year-old girl.
The Cater Street Hangman, by Anne Perry. ISBN 0-449-20867-2. "Charlotte Ellison stood in the center
of the withdrawing room, the newspaper in her hand. Her father had been very
lax in leaving it on the side table. He disapproved of her reading such things,
preferring to tell her such matters of interest as he felt suitable for young
ladies to know."
The Run, by Stuart Woods. ISBN 0-06-101343-9. (Not the best book unless you
are interested in Politics) "United
States Senator William Henry Lee IV and his wife, Katherine Rule Lee, drove
away from their Georgetown house in the Chevrolet Suburban early on a December
morning. There was the promise of snow in the air.
Ok, so Stuart Woods objectifies women then kills them in his
novels, but they are still
Exciting to read on airplanes.
Paragon Walk, by Anne Perry. ISBN 0-449-21168-1.
"Inspector Pitt stared down at the girl's body, and an overwhelming
sense of loss soaked through him. He had never known her in life, but he knew
and treasured all the things that now she had lost."
The Twisted Root, by Anne Perry. ISBN 0-8041-1936-8. "The young man stood in the doorway, his
face pale, his fingers clenched on his hat, twisting it around and
around."
Pigs In Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver. ISBN 0-416-016801-3 (Beautifully written)
"Women on their own run-in Alice's family. This draws on her with the
unkindness of a heart attack and she sits up in bed to get a closer look at her
thoughts, which have collected above her in the dark."
Household Hints and Handy Tips, by Reader's Digest. ISBN 0-89577-683-9
"Take a look at these great ideas for
organizing your household, keeping personal records, and managing money. Find
out how to get the most out of storage space, and the best ways to install
shelves and other storage systems." (Ok I read weird stuff but in this case, would rather read it than do it.)
Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, by Marian Keyes. ISBN 0-380-97618-8. "When Meredia reminded me that the four
of us from the office were due to visit a fortune-teller the following Monday,
my stomach lurched." (A Bridget Jones Diary light and silly book)
Knee Deep in Paradise, by Brett Butler. ISBN
0-76-868-6136-3. "I spent the first
twenty years of my life waiting for two men I was reasonably certain would
never come back -- my daddy and Jesus Christ. I don't wait for them anymore. My
dad, anyway. And at least with Jesus, I didn't spend all that time thinking he
was gone because of something I did."
If you like famous people's biographies this is well written. However,
You see she didn't learn anything on her path to self-destruction- they just said write all
The terrible things you did down.
Saying Grace, by Beth Gutcheon. ISBN 0-06-017678-4. "It was two days before
the opening of school when the Spanish teacher dropped dead. Dropped is the right word; she was on
her knees in the garden, cleaning out the crocosmia bed, when she felt a sudden light ball of pain in her chest, and then was herself extinguished."
Anything Considered, by Peter Mayle. ISBN 0-679-44123-9. "Something would turn up, Bennett kept
telling himself. On the good days, the days when the sun shone and no bills
arrived, he found it easy to believe that this sudden poverty was a temporary
blot on the landscape of life, a hiccup of fate, no more than a passing
inconvenience."
Hoopi Shoopi Donna, by Suzanne Strempek Shea. ISBN 0-671-53545-5. "Winkie Papuga started the whole thing.
He just had to go and say it to me one more time, almost like he was
underlining, then he let go of my hand, blew his nose, stepped off the porch,
got into his car, rattled over the bridge, unlocked his apartment, took out his
teeth, settled onto his daybed, clicked to the "wheel of Fortune" and
went on, I guess, with the rest of all the little actions that would make up
the whole entire remainder of his life, not ever once knowing what he had done
to mine."
The Gourmet Detective, by Peter King. ISBN 0-312-14346-X (a really bad book
unless you like gourmet food). "He
shuffled into my office, his outsize suit hanging loosely on his oversize
frame. I recognized the face like a St. Bernard with all the troubles of the
world on its back, the lugubrious expression, the large sad eyes and the
drooping lips. A strange figure but I see a lot of them in my business."
Really bad book
But great descriptions of food and Washington DC
Dealing with People You Can't Stand…How to
Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, by Dr. Rick Brinkman & Dr. Rick Kirschner. ISBN 0-07-007838-6.
(Actually, This is a book I teach out of and I needed to be reminded to use the
concepts) "People you can't stand:
They're those difficult people who don't do what you want them to do, or do
what you don't want them to do-- and you don't know what to do about them.
Well, you don't have to be their victim anymore!"
Scarlet Feather, by Maeve Binchy. ISBN 0-525-94593-8. (I love her books though I
prefer her older ones.) New Year's Eve did they really want. It was very predictable. Those who were staying home
doing nothing wanted to be out partying, those who were too busy and rushed
wanted to go to bed with a cup of tea and be asleep before the festivities
began." Not the best of her books but still good
Until The Real Thing Comes Along, by Elizabeth Berg. ISBN 0-345-43739-X. (again I like the
other books by this author, but a poor book by a great writer is so much better
than a bad book by anyone else.
"I used to think that the best thing to do when you had
the blues was to soak in a bathtub full of hot water, submerge yourself so that
only the top of your head was in the outer world. You could feel altered and
protected. Weightless."
