5 comments about The Glass Castle: A Memoir.

1. Unbelievable delivery time-Ordered August 28 Received by September 2-will use seller when available even if not the lowest price



2. First off, I want to admit that I have NOT finished the book yet, but if my overall opinion of it changes as I polish off the final sentences, I vow to come back and change my review accordingly.
   
   That said, I think the book is wonderful. It's more than wonderful. Walls's story is heartbreaking and uplifting, frightening and life-affirming, oftentimes all in a single sentence. But what I have to say is less about my personal opinion of the book as it is about many of the negative reviews I've read, which largely focus on the incredible details of the story, "incredible" meant in it's traditional definition (as in they think Walls made them up).
   
   Many seem to find her story too far-fetched to believe. I understand that for the average WASP raised in the suburbs, or hell, even your average Poor Joe raised on the "wrong side of the tracks," some of the aspects of this memoir are hard to swallow. But take it from someone who feels he has much in common with Walls: there is nothing impossible about what is found within these pages. I'm not saying I had it as hard as she did, but I see many parallels in our early lives, and by sheer statistical probabililty, I know there have to be people out there who've been brought up in similar but even worse conditions. Jeanette's story is a case in the extreme, but that isn't a very good arguement for it being a falsehood.
   
   I can attest to the fact that a family unit truly can maintain itself (a better phrase would probably be survive) in such situations of destitution and despondency. I'm twenty-four years of age and can list at least as many residences. My father, who was a drug addict, had no job and did little to contribute to the raising of me and my brother. My mom left him when I was around four years old, and we continued to move from state to state, city to city for the remainder of my life in her care. While I can't say I went hungry as often or for as long as Walls did, I remember times when kethcup and crackers were all my mother had to offer us, and our body-weight would have probably sunk into dangerously low numbers had it not been for school lunches. Anyway, this isn't about me; I merely wanted to let it be known that the reason I believe the events in The Glass Castle to be true is not out of blind faith or gullibilty, but because I myself have experienced similar hardships, or have seen others do so with my own eyes. That being established, I wanted to address a few specific things people seemed to have a hard time believing...
   
   One reviewer found it too unlikely that a three year old could cook her own food, referring to the book's opening passages. First of all, what Walls described herself doing there can only be called cooking by a very loose definition of the word. If the reviewer will recall, all she was doing was boiling hotdogs, and not very well I might add, seeing as how it ends in third-degree burns. If my three year old nephew can operate a DVD player (which he can), then I assure you that any relatively intelligent three year old can be taught to fill a pot with water, turn the nob to HIGH, and throw in a couple hot dogs.
   
   The reviewer goes on to ask how a mother could allow such a young child to do so unmonitored, to which I respond, "You'd be surprised." I've seen with my own eyes examples of worse neglect. All you have to do is turn on the news to hear reports of mothers leaving their kids to fend for themselves for hours while they go downtown to turn a trick, or giving birth in a McDonald's bathroom toilet, or strapping them into cars that they intentionally let roll into rivers. Reading about someone letting a kid boil water is practically pedestrian in comparison, and therefor hardly incredible enough as grounds for calling a bluff.
   
   One person who gave a single star review on the basis of the unbelievability of The Glass Castle cited a situation in which the father throws a cat out of the window of a moving car, followed later by a situation where he gives a speach on animal rights. This person calls it an inconsistency. The point he misses, I think, is that what Jeanette was trying to showcase here was her father's tendency toward being a hypocrite. Lack of behavioral consistency is not necessarily a writing flaw, as it is evident in ALL people to varying degrees.
   
   I got the impression that some of the further "inconsistencies" he alluded to were the passages in which Jeanette spoke highly of her father's intelligence (engineering skills, mathematical prowess, nigh-comprehensive knowledge of astronomy and geology to name a few) compared with his financial irresponsibility and inability to hold down a job. I find this mildy offensive for one, but mostly just ignorant. Apparently, this person has never encountered someone of notable intelligence who simply never developed the social constructs in which their knowledge may thrive and better themselves. Let us not forget that the man was an alcoholic. A comparison I could make is to the idiot savant; someone born with incredible gifts in a certain subject, but otherwise undeveloped. These include people who can repeat complex musical compositions after one listen at age five, but never learn to tie their shoes. Men who, in their heads, can calculate pi thousands of digits in but still need the care and aid of their parents.
   
   Yet another reviewer doesn't seem to have any patience for the author's way of writing in fully-fleshed out dialogue, i.e. word-for-word conversations. He somehow took them as lies. I don't think Walls intended to imply that she memorized every one of these conversations verbatim. It's for the sake of narrative that she fills in the blanks. As long as she stays true to the spirit of her memory and the personalities of the people involved, and indeed transcribes what she DOES remember as closely as possible, I see no reason to complain
   
   But maybe I shouldn't be so bothered by these reviews. Maybe it's a GOOD thing that so many people find these things so unbelievable. It likely means that they've never encountered such meanness, hypocrisy, destitution, and plain ol' bad luck in their own lives. But I can't help but think that the ignorance of there being even a POSSIBILITY of these things must have some kind of negative effect on society. I think it leads to an overall lack of sympathy. Just remember people, not everyone is dealt the same hand. For every life of advantage, there is a life of disadvantage.
   
   One more comment regarding a complaint, not only common for The Glass Castle, but seemingly all memoirs: That it is too author-centric, e.g. "Look at all the bad things that happened to me! Look what I did with my life!"
   To that, I say, "Why the hell are you reading a memoir?"
   Really, if you don't like someone going on and on about what happened in their life, stick to novels and more scholarly non-fiction.
   
   As a final point on the matter, why would someone even write a memoir unless they had an unusual/exceptional life? Think about it. It's the INCREDIBLE lives that drive the people who lead them to write in down in the first place.



3. by Emily Placido, author of Julita's Sands: A Memoir
   
   This is the author's account of her childhood traveling from town to town with her dysfunctional parents. The story seems so unreal, like it has to be made up. But, as I read on I could believe the things that happned because I had seen worse. Besides, like they say, truth is stranger than fiction!
   
   Walls writes with such compassion, many times I wanted her to let it all out and bash her parents. She doesn't. The author writes in a non biased manner without anger and resentment. Some of the living conditions that she experienced as a child would be considered child abuse today. Her mother is only that in the biological sense, and her father was a dreamer who defied authority and the norm. How Walls and her siblings made it through virtually unscathed is a wonder. This is an enjoyable read and I for one loved it. Once i started I couldn't put it down.



4. Although a close friend who has similar tastes recommended this book to me, I absolutely hated it. It was just awful, and I felt like I did when I was reading "Angela's Ashes." I just kept waiting for some sort of redemption - something that would make me feel better for this poor kids - but it never came! I generally like to finish books I begin, but I believe this would have been better unfinished. I will never recommend this to anyone. Just awful.



5. I bought the book because it was only about six bucks from the friday outlet selection from amazon.
   
   
   I got very excited when I saw the ratings - four and a half stars with like more than a thousand reviews!
   
   I just started reading the book today. At first I didn't know what to expect because I knew nothing of the author and her life. I mean, that was the reason why I purchase the book - right?
   
   Lets start out with the positives. The book is an easy read - literally. An elementary student can fully understand what Walls is trying to say. There are no difficult words nor messages behind the story. It is straight up facts - this and that happened.
   
   As I read the story, I kept on thinking white trailer-trash. And this fascinated me, I never knew how they lived. The little knowledge I knew of the poor white class was from Hollywood, thus, I knew nothing.
   
   I felt that the story was a little TOO much. How can a three year old be cooking? What type of mother would let her child cook at that age? How does she remember her first encounter with gum but not the pain from the fire - she was supposedly burnt!
   
   The book is very contradictory. How can she give a piece of the hotdog to the dog if she was on a stool/chair (whatever it was) in order for her to cook. And how did the family make money? She says that they barely had money and when they did, the father would buy hard liquor. How is it that they can leave their trailers behind and travel to another location in their plymouth and find another trailer or rent a house?
   
   It amazes me how this book has such great reviews. Nothing makes sense. Its like bits and pieces of information from her life - but everything just seems too much like a Hollywood drama. Its even more dramatic than Korean dramas! And that's saying ALOT (for those that watch the dramas like I do!)
   
   DON'T buy the book! learn from my mistake. The book is emotionless... I feel as if the author is just trying say "poor me, poor me" and "look at what I did with my life".

5 comments about Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship.

1. Two intensely private writers who are also fiercely independent meet one day on a dog walk.
   
   They had actually briefly met once before at a writers' event some years earlier, but on this day, their real journey begins, as they walk their dogs.
   
   They connect on many levels: Gail Caldwell, the author of this memoir of friendship, is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer; Caroline Knapp had written a book that chronicled her struggles with alcohol. First they connect over their love of dogs and then with their writing journeys and their loneliness. Later, Caldwell will also share her own odyssey with alcohol.
   
   Caldwell grew up in the Texas Panhandle and then fled to various cities before finally settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts where Knapp grew up. In midlife, they have both settled in here and this is where their friendship journey takes off.
   
   Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship circles from when they met back to their various separate journeys and reveals a bit about their relationships, their successes, their challenges--and then zeroes in on the time they begin the friendship. What happens after the friendship has cemented itself is the biggest challenge they will face together: Knapp's diagnosis of Stage Four lung cancer. That particular challenge will require all the strength they each have, but will also show the solidity of their friendship.
   
   Through the days and nights leading up to Knapp's death, we are gifted with those thoughts and feelings that only someone on this particular journey can feel. Afterwards, we visit the loss, the challenges, even the events related to the dogs...and these moments carry us into the very heart of those feelings. Near the end of this tale, Caldwell writes something that I found wonderfully true: "I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures. Sometimes I think that the pain is what yields the solution. Grief and memory create their own narrative...."
   
   And then Caldwell begins again, but as with all memorable friendships, she is forever shaped and altered by the bonds that connected the two of them.



2. I loved this book. I'm not sure if it was because I totally identified with the story or what but I have gone back and reread many passages.
   
   My Mom had barely died of ovarian cancer when both of my dogs had to be put to sleep and it was the loss of the dogs that undid me.
   
   I am going to give this book as a Christmas present to all my friends because it truly is a love story. A love story between two friends and a love story between a women and her dog.
   
   If you have ever had a good girl friend, lost a loved one tragically or loved a dog you will like this book.
   
   My Mom's name was Billie.
   
   M



3. I wanted this book since it came out, and it EXCEEDED my expectations!!!
   
   If you love Caroline Knapp, you will love this book.
   
   Just the read I was looking for! A beautiful and touching memoir. Perfectly written and completely engrossing. At times, a tearjerker; at one time, surprisingly, a thriller. But at all times, a masterfully written pageturner. You will not regret this purchase.



4. Sorry, I found this book to be less about a friendship and dogs and more about the authors own self-absorbed, and for the first half, alcohol-soaked memories. The use of "milieu" three times in two chapters? I found it sort of dull and tiresome.



5. If you are lucky, you may experience at least once in your life a soul-mate friendship, the kind where you find this magical version of yourself in the guise of another. Such was the case with Gail Caldwell and her late friend, Caroline Knapp.
   
   These single women writers (although Knapp did marry her boyfriend a few weeks before her untimely death at age 43 from lung cancer) came from quite different backgrounds but bonded through work, dogs, rowing, and recovery from alcoholism. Knapp herself wrote a 1996 bestselling memoir, "Drinking: A Love Story."
   
   The account of their growing friendship in Cambridge, MA through their mutual interests is engaging. The section where Caldwell describes her background and recovery from alcoholism deepens the story. Even richer is the period following Knapp's death where Caldwell so convincingly describes the exile of grief. In a devastating turn, loss echoes loss when Caldwell must put down her beloved Samoyed, Clementine, in an account that will break your heart. Read this memoir only if you want to feel deeply.
   
   The beauty of this book is how it well it captures the serendipitous spark of friendship, its growth and deepening, and its loss. It shows that although a life may end, the relationship continues.

5 comments about Hitch-22: A Memoir.

1. Informative, insightful, well-written: Hitch-22 is a great read. The hallmark of Christopher Hitchens, evident on every page, is his capacity for independent thought. If "God is Not Great," it is, according to Mr. Hitchens, at least partly because belief destroys the capacity for independent thought and moral judgment. His life long opposition to fascism can be seen in the that context: fascism, like religion, demands the abject subjugation of the ruled and therewith the suspension of moral judgment - itself a moral obligation of citizens everywhere. Also evident in Hitch-22 is the extent to which, for Mr. Hitchens, there is no sharp line distinguishing the "personal sphere" from the "political." Even as he must deal with the death of his mother, who is the principal subject of some of the most moving pages in his text, political events, in this case in Greece, shade into, and become entangled with his personal loss.
   
   The progress of Christopher Hitchens' life can at times reminds me of Austin Powers. Immediately after Austin Powers is released from a cryogenic state, he assumes, as Christopher Hitchens might have assumed had he been cryogenically frozen in his Oxford years, that the sixties prevailed. When Powers gains consciousness he simply takes it for granted that free love and drugs are the norm and that capitalist pigs are uniformly vilified, only to discover that capitalism is triumphant, but the pernicious Dr. Evil is alive and well. And, so it's been for Hitchens. Much of what he thought was good, or would have been - the class-leveling socialism -- failed to materialize; while much of what he fears and despises - particularly the threat posed by fascism with an Islamic face - presents a genuine threat.
   
   One of the great traits of Hitchens is that his atheism has never, as far as I can tell, left him irreverent when in the company of believers. We can, and should, then, pray that God speed his recovery from cancer.



2. Christopher Hitchens, once the "enfant terrible" of the international hard left, has written a memorable memoir, HITCH-22, that is at once pretentious, bombastic, self indulgent, sometimes petulant -- and often brilliant. Much in Hitchens' book is laugh out loud funny as he takes one pot shot after another at his old political allies and enemies. And for someone with Hitchens' wit and writing facility, taking down his enemies with the written word is like shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel.
   
   On a more serious note, Hitchens explains how he transformed himself from a London-based Trotskyite commentator into an American immigrant who defends of the allied invasion of Iraq. In fact, Hitchens presents us with a quite sensible defense of George W. Bush's war on terror in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
   
   This is not an easy book to read, mainly because Hitchens writes in a style that makes clever use of inverted grammer and five and six syllable words as he reaches into his psyche to explain himself. Morever, his views are strongly held, and he doesn't suffer fools with any sympathy for their alleged pigheadedness. On the other hand, this book is a very good read for those who are trying to cope in a world that seems to be spiraling out of control.
   
   Hitchens opens his memoir with a short family history - which may explain a lot about his cynical view of the world. His father was a quite common British Navy officer, while his mother was an immigrant Jew with Polish/Germanic blood. His mother ultimately meets s a tragic fate, while his father lives out his routine life without a clue to the torment of his wife or the intellectual pretensions of his son.
   
   Hitchens was educated at Oxford, where he is exposed to the leftist tendencies of that venerable institution, and he became a self-proclaimed Trotskyite member of the communist party. In his early days, the Vietnam War was the focus of his activism, and he joined the anti-war movement that denigrated capitalistic America. But his intellectual curiosity was too restless for the static Marxist view of the world, and as he witnesses events in eastern Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, he begins to develop empathy for the free enterprise system that empowers America.
   
   The turning point for Hitchens came on Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan and the Pentagon, costing some 3,000 lives (most of them American) was a revelation for Hitchens. "Before the close of that day, I had deliberately violated the rule that one ought not to let the sun set on one's anger, and had sworn a sort of oath to remain coldly furious until these hateful forces had been brought to a most strict and merciless account."
   
   So Hitchens began to write about the hatefulness of the Islamist jihadists, defending America against those who felt "the chickens had come home to roost."
   
   `I did not intend to be told, I said, that the people of the United States - who included all those toiling in the Pentagon as well as all those, citizens and non-citizens, who had been immolated in Manhattan - had in any sense deserved this or brought it upon themselves," Hitchens writes. "I also tried to give a name to the mirthless, medieval, death-obsessed barbarism that had so brazenly unmasked itself. It was, I said, 'Fascism with an Islamic Face'."
   
   When he decides to become an American, he studies diligently for the citizenship test and passes, of course, with flying colors (Hitchens is a serious student of American history as evidenced by his book, "Thomas Jefferson: Author of America"). By that time he had become an ardent supporter of the incursion into Iraq and he was sworn in at the Jefferson Memorial by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff (talk about clout).
   
   His fondness for America, however, does not extend to American presidents and other national leaders: Lyndon Johnson ("hideous); Richard Nixon ("running a parallel regime of bagmen and wiretappers behind the façade of a legitimate government); Jimmy Carter ("..pious, born again creep); Ronald Reagan ("the carapace of geniality proved to be flaky...the look of senile, shifty malice); George H.W. Bush ("I simply detested the way in which he lied his way as Vice President through the Iran-contra scandal.."); Bill Clinton ("habitual and professional liar"); Curiously, George W. Bush escapes the Hitchen scorn. In an earlier volume ("The Trial of Henry Kissinger," published in 2001) Hitchens developed a full-scale criminal indictment of Henry Kissinger (whom Hitchens describes as"indescribably loathsome" in his memoir) for his conduct of American foreign policy.
   
   In the final chapters of his book, Hitchens shifts the focus to himself. He comes across as a gadfly, of course, but also a wary, skeptical (sometimes cynical) observer of our times whose professional objectives include intense scrutiny of all that is evil in our world.
   
   In an effort to explain himself further, Hitchens fashions for himself a Proustian survey in which his answers are supposed to give us insight into his persona. What we get is a portrait of a conflicted intellectual who takes pride in his knowledge and experiences, but whose most "marked characteristic" is insecurity. He most dislikes stupidity, according to his self-imposed questionnaire, and he most admires both moral and physical courage. His favorite virtue is an appreciation for irony.
   
   It was with a sense of irony then, when Hitchens was approaching 50 years of age, that his younger brother, Peter, discovers that their mother was Jewish, raising the intriguing possibility that they both are Jewish. A self-proclaimed atheist (see his book, "god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything"), Hitchens considers, but rejects the prospect of his Jewishness. In doing so, he reveals his contempt for Zionist Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands. But his awareness of his Jewishness increases his sympathy for the suffering of the "children of Israel" as they seek a homeland. His confliction over his roots thus gives him valuable insights to the current Middle East stalemate between Israeli Zionists and Islam jihadists. Hitchens is clearly sympathetic to the Palestinian movement, but he also thinks that the Jewish people have a right to seek their own identity, preferably somewhere else than on Palestinian soil.
   
   Hitchens illuminates his agony over this dilemma by describing the deterioration of his relationship with his good friend Edward Said, a Palestinian intellectual. Hitchens and Said initially developed a very close relationship, but after Sept. 11, 2001, according to Hitchens, Said started writing anti-American essays and articles, and their relationship started to cool. The relationship was effectively destroyed when Said quoted, without attribution, commentary by Hitchens that he (Said) said was "racist." There could be no greater insult to Hitchens than to be called a racist. He never spoke to Said again.
   
   HITCH-22 is a very good memoir -- it is topical, penetrating, amusing and revealing -- one that is well worth the time and effort to read. The memoir offers an insightful look into the mindset of one of our era's most astute social and political critics.
   
   Postscript: shortly after his memoir was published in the spring of 2010, Hitchens was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus that had metastasized into his lung and lymph nodes. He underwent chemotherapy and wrote in the September issue of Vanity Fair: "I am quietly resolved to resist bodily as best I can..."



3. I found this book very hard to like, and after trying a few times to get into it, I just stopped. Life is too short to waste it trying to like something I just don't like. Despite Hitchens writing ability, he's really the guy you don't want to meet at a party lest he dominate the conversation (or monologue) with lots of namedropping, ego-stroking, and extreme opinion. I found it crass and boorish, but even worse, I think he was trying to be that on purpose just to mess with people.



4. I've always felt that Christopher Hitchens was a bully, regardless of his insistence that bullies are what he hates most. My impression comes from the many times I've seen Hitchens through the years being interviewed or taking part in debates. He always expressed himself so forcefully (and insightfully) that he didn't seem to be the kind of person who would suffer fools gladly, or even put up with people simply expressing their own thoughts and opinions, if those thoughts and opinions didn't concur with his own. I've always felt that debating is not only a great means of expressing your own viewpoints but learning those of others--and thereby, perhaps, learning something yourself in the process. When one consistently smashes and rips to shreds a holder of an opposing view, what chance do you really have in swaying the opponent and changing his or her mind? More likely you'll create an enemy and Hitchens has certainly been successful in this.
   
   In his memoir, he states how surprised he's been when at book signings people state how suprised they are to find how friendly he actually is. Too bad, in my opinion, that more people haven't been exposed publicly to this friendliness. Too bad Hitchens hasn't been, if not compassionate, then at least slightly more understanding of people's misunderstandings of issues. He may have won more people to his causes and gotten more people to listen to what he has to say. Nonetheless, Christopher Hitchens is certainly a brilliant man, a great writer, and, above all, a thinker. Because of this he is worth listening to and his ideas are thus worth considering. I think the thing I appreciate most about this book is not the incredibly varied experiences Hitchens has had in numerous countries with all sorts of people--some famous and not--(although this is certainly interesting to read), but his understanding that people, including himself, are full of contradictions, and that honestly grappling with these contradictions will lead us all closer to a legitimate understanding of both our selves and our times. For this alone the book is a great achievement.



5. My title, half-stolen from Auden's tribute to Yeats, is completely appropriate to Christopher Hitchens, alive or dead. I don't give a damn if Christopher Hitches is loved or hated - he is a true intellectual with the gift of language I could only hope to have .05% of in my lifetime. I've loved his writing always, and was introduced to Martin Amis' writing (another author requiring a dictionary by my side) long before I knew they were friends. I loved this book, and if read only for selfish reasons (it was not), I always learn something from him - about language, history, politics, analogies, his perceptions (many times quite comical). Should he die well before his time, and I fear he will, I will remember him as one of the greatest "out-of-the-box" thinkers (there, I've revealed my mediocre ability to describe things as aptly and cleverly as so many wonderful writers) of our time. Excellent book - loved or hated, one cannot deny his ability to educate (in some way) anyone who reads him, whether his columns in Vanity Fair or Atlantic, or his books. I miss him already. I met him one time, under very regular circumstances, when his wife turned in an application for a kitten. On seeing the name, I offhandedly said "Any relationship to Christopher Hitchens?" to which she replied "Yes, he's my husband and right over there." I slinked over to introduce myself and to tell him how much I enjoyed his writing, and he said "Really, what?" There I stood, a completely blank canvas, so startstruck I couldn't think of damned thing. He was kind and said "I could watch a cat in the garden all day." I thought it was kind, because he could have crucified me and instead let me simmer in my own star-struck-edness. What a guy...

5 comments about Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut.

1. It perfect i read Love is a mixtape and feel in love with the writing its just such a good book to read I really recommend this :D



2. I recently finished reading Rob Sheffield's book, "Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut." I ask you, what woman (who came of age in the 80's) could resist picking up a book with such a profound title? Probably hundreds if my more cynical counterparts are to be believed, but we won't even discuss what large rock they were trapped under during such a totally awesome time in music history. Let's face it, it is the only reasonable explanation for not sitting up straighter at the mere mention of DD. It is a clever book and I am once again profoundly grateful for Rob's amazing ability to catapult me back to moments in my life especially memorable because of the music playing in the background. His previous book entitled, "Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time" was also an enjoyable read about how we use music (specifically put together on a mix tape) to express ourselves and what we are feeling to the people we care about the most. I really like the way the book is laid out, each chapter is given an artist or group name, song title and a year from which to bear reference. These were especially helpful in sparking the "where was I, what was I doing" questions foremost on my mind as soon as I read the words. We've all had that, "oh, I was at (insert location) with (insert person) and we were (insert appropriate action here)" moments when we hear a song on the radio and it was the same for me when I read them on the pages of Rob's book. This is one man's insight and observations of musical memories from his childhood and he treats the fragility of such recollection quite well.



3. I bought this book because it looked like a fun summer read. Parts of it were funny and all in all it was an enjoyable book. Just be aware that the author has inserted his politics into numerous areas of the books. If you are conservative you might be offended by this authors name calling.



4. This book is a must read for anyone who has grown up with the music of the 80s as the soundtrack to life, love and loss. It's funny, insightful and a little whimiscal supported by a tinny backbeat of immortal walkman and vinyl tracks. Talking to girls about Duran Duran is, of course grounded in the meaning of life as defined by the Fab Five; as for many of us growing up there was no life without them (and for some of us, that's still largely the case!). However, the author reaquaints the reader with some of the most quintessential music of the 80s from Madonna to Culture Club to The Smiths. A great, entertaining, easy read. Highly recommended for the Gen X in all of us.



5. Rob Sheffield has borrowed the Cutsy Cusack approach to music reviewing: have some women problems, have at least one strong sister, and have a lot of remembered teenage angst. Stir in ten years of Duran Duran and you can wisecrack your way through pop music reviews.
   
   While not quite as good as HIGH FIDELITY (the book or the movie), TALKING TO GIRLS offers a breezy Cusack way to enter the 80s world of musical advice offered by songsters such as Haysi Fantaysee, Ton Luc, The Smiths and Madonna. Gentlemen, listen ever so closely to the songs women go crazy over, urges Sheffield. Only then will you be able to know what women want and perhaps learn the secrets of hand-clapping to the tunes. (clap CLAP CLAP?)
   
   Overall, the sections on David Bowie, Hall & Oates, The Replacements and Duran Duran offer the best advice on 80s glam: the hair, the hype and the latent homosexualty. And, ignoring all of this bisexual angst, Sheffield finally did find true love; however, judging from his photo, I'm not too sure he's found that cooler haircut.

5 comments about A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

1. *sigh* Dave Eggers... On the one hand: What is the What, 826 Valencia. On the other: McSweeney's, tragedy porn. Well, the kind of tragedy porn that isn't personal like in this book is what I'm referring to here. Ambivalence reigns... but I guess I'd better talk about this book in particular.
   
   From the go, Eggers' style and goals irk me. There are few things in life less readable than his preface and acknowledgments. I tried hard to discern a purpose: Was he stalling because the story of his parents' deaths and his subsequent responsibilities towards Toph were going to be difficult to explore? ...no. In fact, I get the feeling that toting out said tragedies is a way to garner the sympathy he craves and... gasp... name value. Yeah, I said it. Anywho, one thing that may, in fact, be less readable is the self-(indulgent) interview later on. It serious read like twice-drafted pre-manuscript notes to self. Terrible.
   
   But... There are some good points, like oh, the book's contribution to memoir. This is a "lightly fictionalized" book, which is fine because it gives the author more wiggle room, more space to embellish while staying true to theme and even truth, and daresay more authority. Frey, you really should've learned your lesson here.
   
   The first 100 or so pages after the acknowledgments are golden. They're well-written, and the narrative itself really is heartbreaking. His parents died within weeks of one another thanks to cancer. This itself, coupled with the tribulations of trying to raise a well-balanced little brother, are enough to carry through a book-length project. It's Eggers' inability to suppress being odd for the sake of oddness and his almost constant asides that bog this down. Unfortunate, to say the least.
   
   For more engaging reading (although problematic in a different way): try What Is the What.



2. Researching this book AFTER reading it (which perhaps was not the correct order), I've discovered it is mostly autobiographical, which makes me feel really bad for thinking it "kinda dragged."
   
   Eggers nailed the heartbreaking part in the beginning, describing how both his parents died of cancer within weeks of each other, leaving him and his sister to raise their then-eight-year-old brother. He chronicled their move from Chicago to the San Francisco area, and his start in the "journalism" business with a magazine that by all descriptions was just a precursor to McSweeneys. He seemed to do a really good job describing the challenges of raising a younger brother, noting how hard it was to date and how hard it was to act like a brother versus a parents, etc.
   
   After the first 200 pages or so, though, the book really took a turn for the worse. It was after that 200 page mark that Eggers really seemed to like hearing himself talk. The supporting characters multiplied like bacteria in a Petri dish; consequently, Eggers could not effectively convey why we should care about these people, and the plot significantly dwindled. Events seemed to occur--especially near the end--in no particular manner; his sister Beth (who at least for the first part of the book had been a very strong supporting character) magically just got married to "some guy"; a random girl in New York who had helped financially support the McSweeneys wannabees (for all of ten pages) suddenly died of a "virus in her heart," "shocking" Eggers and the rest of his friends. All of these factoids plagued the main plot that Eggers had decided to move back East after returning to Chicago to retrace his family's roots, in the process getting side-tracked and spreading his mother's ashes across a frozen lake Michigan in a completely juvenile and borderline emo rant.
   
   Overall, I wouldn't buy this book. It's not terrible, but it is no "heartbreaking work of staggering genius."



3. What is there left to say about this book? A decade ago it hit the bookshelves and became a kind of generational sensation; a heartfelt examination of anxiety, ambition and loss. It's a good book... better than I thought it would be. One of the things that makes it interesting is that it is essentially an autobiography of a very ordinary person, albeit a privileged and relatively gifted person. Some have criticized Eggers for being "self-involved," etc., but I find this criticism to be fundamentally ridiculous. Anyone at all concerned with truth must make their own peace with the centrality of self, especially if such a person decides to write (or read) an autobiographical novel.
   
   Written in (and about) his youth, A.H.W.O.S.G. captures Eggers in his most unapologetically naïve, boastful and vulnerable moments. I reads like something that was written very quickly; which apparently it was. This, in other words, is the opposite of the kind of book that might be produced by a mature author (i.e., sans the wizened magnanimity that is often the final fruit of a contemplative life). And yet, what makes it wonderful is that it eschews any comparison to such books by being confidently resolute in its own right - even obligation - to exist. Literary pretensions aside, this uncompromising sentiment at the book's core is lovely (and lasting) in itself.
   
   One additional note: over the years Eggers' distinctive style has been a relatively easy target for parody. I find this to be one of the clearest indicators of an original voice.



4. I'm listening to this book on CD and loving it, wishing it would never end. I love a "tragic" book that dares to be funny. One of my favorite passages is when Dave realizes his eleven year old brother believes he's the same age as Dave and his friends (twenty-somethings) because those are the people he's (mostly) used to being around. Dave's girlfriend cracks up, but Dave is horrified that this child, for whom he is ultimately responsible, is growing old before his time and can't relate to kids his own age. Dave is unbelievably caring, and both self-aggrandizing and self-effacing. You gotta love him to the max. Plus, the voice in this literary gem is consistently, uniquely his own. You won't read anything better than this book, so don't pass it up!



5. Dave Eggers writes with an intensity that makes reading his writing strenuous. The constant staccato sentences and gratuitous profanity is not conducive to making one want to continue reading. I actually threw the book aside twice, and only finished it so that I could have some legitimacy in writing this less than flattering review.
   Profanity loses its impact with repetition, and young writers need to still learn that from experience, I guess. Hemingway wrote short sentences, and Kerouac wrote streams of words about his own experiences. Thus, I don't believe there is much literary innovation here. George Carlin and Robin Williams exhibit the same riffing, manically intellectual binges in the spoken word medium. It works better there.
   The story COULD have been told in the same fashion, with the same tragi-comic focus, in a MUCH more readable style if only someone had edited this worthy but very raw material with a seasoned ear. Just read it out loud onto a CD, then play it back, and you'd see where who is saying what to whom becomes lost in the bang-bang-bang of the reality TV-style dialogue.
   If this book was nominated for a Pulitzer prize, that says to me that writing has gone over the edge into blogging on paper. Serious novelists take note, your next foray into fiction has meta- its match.
   88melter

5 comments about Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One.

1. I remember the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh's baritone voice coming over the airwaves of WXYZ in Detroit. I was just coming back to my office from lunch, and I was compelled to stay in my car in the parking lot to listen to this man with the unusual name, and even more unusual delivery of ideas. Rush Limbaugh: An Army Of One by Zev Chafets is just as compelling as the radio personality he chronicles.
   
   Like him or hate him, you cannot ignore him. Rush Limbaugh has single-handedly changed talk radio. He already holds places in the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame because his radio audience is larger than any other in history. For three hours every afternoon, Rush broadcasts from behind "the golden EIB microphone" to listeners anxious to hear his irreverent and convincing confrontation and refutation of liberal ideology.
   
   Maybe, like me, you've wondered what made Rush the broadcaster that he is. Or maybe you wondered what Rush is like during the other 21 hours of the day. Zav Chafets book is a no-holds-barred, full-access, behind-the-scenes look at this conservative icon.
   
   If you are a fan, this book will give you a greater appreciation of the genius of his delivery. If you're a hater, well, this book won't do anything to change your mind. Zav is clearly not a "Dittohead," but he is clearly impressed by this radio giant.
   
   As Zav states in his closing words --
   "Even after more than twenty years there are still many people who refuse to accept that Limbaugh is more than an entertainer, a pitchman, or a hot-air balloon. These are the same people who mistook [Ronald] Reagan for an amiable dunce. Two decades should have been enough to convince even the most obtuse that Rush Limbaugh is someone you underestimate or ignore at your own peril. He can't be wished away or shouted down or sniffed into irrelevance. Smart liberals will listen to him, even if they hate what he has to say. The easily outraged, will be. Those with a sense of humor will find themselves laughing despite themselves. Presidents and politicians come and go, but Rush Limbaugh, equipped now with a clean bill of health and accompanied by a lovely new wife (and, who knows, maybe a future Rush Hudson Limbaugh IV), and in undisputed control of the conservative movement, is ready for the next act. He has often said that he doesn't intend to quit until he has convinced every liberal in the country. He's not in a hurry, either. His grandfather, the original Rush Hudson Limbaugh, didn't retire until he was 103 years old."
   
   A very informative, enjoyable read.



2. I've been a fan of Rush Limbaugh since the early weeks of the Clinton Administration. He didn't really hook me, however, until I was listening to a lady complain about something or other on his program. Out of the blue, Rush popped in with a closing sarcasm that had me laughing for the next few miles. I knew that this was a man of keen wit and brilliant insight and I made it a point to listen to him as often as I could.
   
   Author Zev Chafets gives us a fairly good synopsis of Rush Limbaugh's early life in Missouri, his disc jockey resume and his eventual climb to the top of his profession. Once at the top, Chafets explores the various key points of Limbaugh's radio career (to date). These include his treatment of the different presidential administrations and the issues they each raised. There were admonishments by the author when he felt Rush had gone too far both in his radio program and his personal life. On the whole, however, Chafets is an admirerer of El Rushbo.
   
   My impression of "Rush Limbaugh, An Army of One" is positive. There are a lot of times that Chafets's book reads like a magazine serial. That's not a bad thing but millions of Rush listeners might not appreciate a portrait of Rush as just another celebrity popular enough for a length article in "Esquire". For most listeners who've been around as long or longer than the Clinton Adinistration, most of the information is a rehash of what we've already experienced. There are some interesting anecdotes about his youth but nothing shocking or out of the ordinary. For those who have been curious enough to want to find out who this Rush Limbaugh character is (but too wary to do the obvious by listening to his program), this is the book for you.



3. Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One
   
   An excellent book. It tells it like it really is.



4. A fantastic read. Excellent insight to a very public person. Just when you thought you knew everything about Rush. Rush, thanks for allowing Zev access into your life for your fans--and enemies!



5. 
   This is an excellent book if anyone wants to know who Rush Limbaugh is and why and what he does that makes him such a popular spokesman in America today.
   If you have been listening to "Old Rushbo" on the EIB Network for years as I have,there is nothing in this book that will surprise you;although there are still enough interesting tidbits to make it a worthwhile read for any ardent Limbaugh fan.
   One thing that did first amaze me was that so many of the Reviewers rated this book so highly.A book of this nature usually results in Reviewers giving ratings based on their political bent.I can only come to the conclusionn that very few Reviewers readers were Liberals,and in my experience to suggest to a Liberal that they should read a book about Rush Limbaugh ;would be a total waste of one's time.
   There is no doubt that Limbaugh is an entertainer,and he makes no bones about it.He is also a true believer and proponent of conservative principles;and he frequently states that he is a conservative without any qualifiers.As a comparison, Democrats can't stand it when the word Liberal or Socialist is used to describe them,and they even shy away from using it.
   Just for fun when I am around Liberals,and here in Canada,they are even more plentiful in the Media,Education,Government positions, and all forms of public service,and unions ;I mention Limbaugh and they turn green with hate and venom. Then I ask them if they ever listen to him,they say they wouldn't waste their time .These people are great listeners and supporters of the CBC,the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,a government and highly Liberal and Socialist slanted organ.In fact if you want to listen to Rush Limbaugh one has to go to the Buffalo radio station if you live in the Toronto area.Standard cable offerings here,offer only CNN,NBC,MSNBC,ABC,and of course CBC or as Rush would call them "The Drive -By Media",If you choose to listen to Fox---then that is a special,and you have to subscribe to it as an extra.That is what the Regulators consider fair and balanced.As a matter of fact,there is pressure to make Aljazera a regular offering with the BBC ..but never Fox News...Forget that thought!!
   Limbaugh is very open with his thoughts and he never clouds things up like his oponents on the Left do.He is ready and able to debate all comers and all ideas.However;he feels and frequently states that the Left are unable to compete in the aerena of ideas and openly tells them that ,that is the reason he has virtually no copmetion when it comes to Talk Shows.He had Al Franken (who failed with his highly sponsored Talk Show)on his show once,and if he wanted to learn how to be successful ,he would show him.Franken gave up and decided with the help of Soros to run for the Senate.His success and following performance in the Senate is turning out to be no better than his success with his talk show.Maybe he should go back and talk to Rush,he'll surely have some good advice for him.Just to show how adept Rush is at what he does,he had Michael Moore on his show and it was pitiful how outmached the great one from the Left was in trying to compete with Rush in "the arena of ideas.
   When the Drive-By bedia took Rush's comment about how he hoped Obama would fail in his attempts to take America down the road to Socialism,Rush confronted them face on,and showed them for what they were.Although Rush knows what he believes in and never clouds it in smoke and mirrors,he is seldom wrong.
   When the Media put on the blindfolds and slanted everything to support Obama;Limbaugh warned what and who Obama was all about.Limbaugh is looking more right than ever as time goes on,and there are beginning to be a lot of people who are coming to the conclusion that they didn't really know who Obama was.They should have listened to Limbaugh..and that goes for the Media too.
   If you are going to critize Limbaugh,you'd best stick with the types of cigars he smokes,or what football team he backs;but in the arena of ideas,you're choosing a formidable opponent.
   Over the years,Rush has stood up and been counted on many issues.
   Just last week,he took on the whole business of Electric cars that "Omama Motors" and the enviromentalists are foisting on America.The Government is shovelling huge amounts of money into this dream to produce a little 4-seater car (sewing machine on wheels),costing over 40K,has a range of 40 miles(and what do you do when you get there,wait for hours to recharge it,where?) or return on its back-up engine that uses high grade gas;and wait tillwe find out how long the battery lasts and how much a replacement will be worth.Talk about a Socialist approach of producing a product nobody wants.All for a warped idea of an alternative to using energy sources that are readily available,and the left foolishly obstructs development.The only thing that Rush didn't say,was that he hopes they fail.He didnt have to,the future of the "Volt" will compete with the "Edsel"--remember that boondoggle?
   If you don't think Rush is dead right about this,let me know me when you see John Kerry,Bonny Frank,Nancy Pelosi,Harry Read,and the rest of these Liberals trading in their Limos and Jets for a "Volt".Rush ain't fallin for this one either,and makes it clear that he is going to continue with his own fleet that he has acquired with his own money that he has earned himself,without any stimulus from any bunch of Socialists.
   If you are a Conservative ,you'll enjoy this book;and on second thought,don't even tell your Liberal friends about it,they're still looking for a copy of "The New Soldier" by John Kerry.It's harder to find than an "Edsel",but in a few years you might find find the "Volt" in a museum alongside that little Nash car that could drive from the road then right into the water like a boat ,even its name escapes me now.Like the "Volt";nobody wanted it either.

5 comments about Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home.

1. This book arrived sooner than I expected in great condition. It is an excelent book that kept me up until 3:00am because I couldn't put it down til I finished it.
   Even though I knew of their captivity in North Korea, the details from both Lisa's and Laura's point of view kept you right with them and feeling what they felt. It was both a heart breaking and a heart warming story.



2. I followed Laura Ling and Euna Lee's story throughout their captivity. The book provided a lot of missing details and told a wonderful story of what the women endured during their time in North Korea. The two perspectives of both Laura and Lisa Ling were helpful to see what both sides were dealing with. I couldn't help but think that most people in Laura and Euna's situation would likely still be in North Korea. Laura and Euna had the benefit of Lisa's global connections. Lisa does mention in the book that if Laura is released, she will fight to help others in captivity who do not have the connections that she has. I hope that she does that.
   
   The book is great, I highly recommend it for anyone that is interested in their story.



3. This book was so good - I took it on the train with me and couldn't get any sleep as I wanted to finish it.



4. An interesting presentation--Laura and Lisa alternate between their experiences of being jailed in NK (Laura) and trying to get
   to get her out (Lisa). Some insight into life in NK. Sorry there is so little about Euna, the other imprisoned journalist.



5. A couple of years ago I read and reviewed the book: "Out of Captivity" which I also highly recommend. Both books involve being held captive in foreign countries and the perseverance of the captives. Somewhere Inside reads like a thriller. Even Laura Ling mentions in the book that it all seemed like a movie and not her real life. I love how Laura and Lisa wrote the book, each with intermingling chapters. The book flowed effortlessly and it is apparent how close these sisters are. I would love to ask Laura if there was an intentional metaphor at the end of the book when she said her good-byes to certain people in North Korea. To me, it was a Wizard of Oz moment that brought tears to my eyes. Prior to her captivity, I didn't know anything about Laura Ling, only Lisa. I have followed Lisa's career on Nat Geo for quite awhile and think she is one of the most honest and caring reporters out there. I can't say enough about this book, just get it and read it! And though we will never know all the inside political scoop, 5 stars to the man on the cover of GQ too.

5 comments about Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time.

1. This is an easy, quick read and has become one of my favorite books. A must read for any music lover.



2. This book is fantastic. Sheffield is a great wordsmith. He creates wonderful imagery and conveys the gamut of emotion in this heartbreaking story.
   
   If you live, love, and feel through music, you will adore this book. The chapter mix tapes set the scene for the story as well as give you a list of songs to listen to, download, and make into a mix tape or playlist.
   
   I cannot wait to read Talking to Girls about Duran Duran.



3. I picked up this book on clearance and expected very little...but I fell in love with it. It moves through a variety of emotions as you read it and it's written in a way that makes you really relate to the author. It manages to be funny, sad, hopeful, nostalgic, and heart-warming all at the same time. An amazing book on life and the different ways we measure it (by music or relationships).



4. Painfully self-absorbed tripe.
   I am shocked by the good reviews this book received, because I literally could not wait to put it down and forget it. I don't mean to be a buzzkill, but I felt like I was being force-fed the diary of every emo twerp I went to grad school with. (Perhaps that's why people like this book so much... it feels familiar, like reading your own middle-American woe-is-Me thoughts.)
   Sheffield and I are the same age, had the same experiences, etc., including some tragic losses. Sure, I saw the Pixes a bunch of times in the early days and moped through my 20s. Yeah, I got my Master's and thought deep thoughts about the loved ones I buried. I even made a lot of other privileged white people listen to those thoughts at open mic nights, because I thought they were important, new, and deep. But you know what? These things do NOT make me (or anyone else) special. I know that "to rebel in season is not to rebel." It would be incredibly narcissistic to expect anyone else to care.
   So I've decided to give this book its first one-star review. Because someone needs to call Sheffield's hopelessly self-important bluff.
   Get over yourself, man. You are one of millions, and yours is nowhere near the best of our stories.



5. I'll have to admit, it takes a lot to keep my attention when it comes to a book and this book did it for the most part. There were a couple chapters that I wasn't too happy about reading but towards the end, I found myself crying like I was 5 years old again. Sheffield made me laugh and he made me cry.....I adore this book and am so glad I picked it up on a whim. It made me realize how much I love life and the own mix tapes.
   
   Thanks for the inspiration.....

5 comments about All over but the Shoutin'.

1. My sister introduced me to Rick Bragg when this book came out and I'm reading it again now because it's the sort of book I'd like to write. I grew up in New England and my parents and grandparents were made of the same stuff Mr. Bragg's family is. Instead of cotton fields my people worked in textile mills. But, they lived the same way; drank hard and died young. I have never come across a writer who is able to express the hardships of poverty and the effect it has on family and relationships as well as Rick Bragg. I've been wanting to write a book for 16 years and picking this book up again might just be the nudge I needed to get going on it. If you haven't read Ava's Man, it's just as heart-wrenching and compelling. I love all of his books.



2. Rick Bragg's story of his life tugged at my heart like nothing else has done in a long, long time. I ached with him over the difficult relationship with his father. I celebrate with him when he was finally able to provide for his mother and have her enjoy the successes he achieved with his writing.
   I appreciate, very much, his ability to follow the lead of instincts toward his goals.
   Rick Bragg exhibits a profound sense of authenticity and integrity in his recollections and in his frequent self-evaluations. He can do no wrong, apparently, if he stays true to himself and pursues his goal of honoring his mother and living up to his responsibilities to the family.
   This is a book I would recommend to everyone who wants to experience life as it really is! Fame and influence and fortune/money mean little if one does not fulfill personal goals.



3. rick bragg is a wonderful writer. I read Ava's Man first and it was one of my top favorites for leisure reading. Very delightful. So, I wanted to read All Over But the Shoutin to get more of his experieces. Some of the memories overlapped, but the book was just as pleasing. These are two books I would recommend to my friends. His view on life is inspiring, his memories of his mother and family are to be cherished.



4. This is by far one of the best books out there. I gave mine to a retired male and he said the same thing. Rick Bragg can write. The story could have unfolded in the midwest and been just as engaging. He writes of his growing up in poverty in Alabama and about his Mother and her family. I spent some time in that very area, having relatives there when I was young. But this book is just a real good read. I have since read his other books. He has not written a bad book yet, I read them straight through.



5. This is the first book of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg's autobiographical trilogy (which includes Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown) about his family and growing up in the mill towns of northeast Alabama. Bragg also wrote I Am a Soldier Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, the authorized biography of American POW Jessica Lynch in 2003.
   Each of these books has the ability grab you on the very first page and draw you into his world. His life experiences of having a distant father (as the result of his father's Korean War post-tramatic stress syndrome) is uncannily similar to that of late Atlanta author Lewis Grizzard, whose father (and family) also suffered from PTSD. I am certain this also informed his approach to and understanding of Jessica Lynch.
   Rick Bragg's latest book, The Most They Ever Had, is series of essays about the people of the mill towns. It was published by MacAdam/Cage in October of 2009.

5 comments about A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir.

1. To be clear, I have not yet finished the book but so far, I don't see what all the flap was about. Perhaps it is because I am a tad older than Bill O'Reilly so I well remember the way things were in respect to family values, morals in general, discipline in school and out -- and I attended Catholic elementary school and public high school. I imagine a younger reader will find more humor in this book than I -- however, as I said -- I've not yet finished it so I may change my mind.



2. Light reading of interest regarding the background of a known news person. Enjoyable to read yet the author does not really reveal all of his real self.... which is a good thing. Sometimes 'the boy in one' retains the best part of his person. Also the tag suggestions Amazon has here noted are blatantly negative and unfair.



3. Excellent reading. He is really a BOLD,FRESH,PIECE OF SALVATION THAT AMERICA HAS NEEDED FOR YEARS.
   The book is most enjoyable and entertaining. Bill gives us all some hope! Ed



4. This is my second purchase of Bold Fresh. I gave one to my husband for Christmas. He ( we ) enjoyed it so much that I bought another one as a gift for my son-in-law.



5. I bought this book for my husband who watches the O'Reilly Report everyday. He really likes the book.