5 comments about The Hiding Place.

1. This is a wonderful story and it begs the question: Could I have been that brave and compassionate? A story of true Christians.



2. Great, great book. Inspiring, heart wrenching. Great message about God's faithfulness, but should in no way be boxed in as Christian literature. A great historical book no matter what your faith. Loved it.



3. The Hiding Place is the moving true-life account of Corrie ten Boom and her family who sheltered persecuted Jews in Nazi-oocupied Holland during World War Two. They did this at great personal risk, but they did it because of their unwavering faith in God, and because it was the right thing to do.
   
   Unfortunately, they are arrested and deported to the camps for their acts of resistance against the Nazis. It is a testament to their faith and nobility that they retain their belief in God despite all the travails that await them in the camps.
   
   "No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still" - as Corrie ten Boom believes despite all the horrors that she has endured. A testament to the power of belief in God, and to the courage of ordinary people in extraordinary and horrific times.



4. Let me start out by saying that this is a very powerful book. There is such an awesome message of hope, courage, and faith. If you love God, family, and believe that God can do powerful things then this is the book for you. Corrie Ten Boom is living with her family during the time when Nazi soldiers are taking Jews to concretion camps. Her family wants to help the Jews and keep them safe, by hiding them in their home. Corrie is working for a secret organization that helps protect the Jewish people. She and her family soon find that they are in the same situation as the Jews. Corrie stays strong in her faith and good things start to happen in the concretion camp that she and her family are put into. Like eventually she and her sister are finally put together, and other members of her family are let free. I strongly recommend this book for anyone sixth grade and up. The Hiding Place By: Corrie Ten Book is a very well written book and has two thumbs up.



5. Review by K. Inman
   "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom is a wonderful book. It is an empowering novel and a true story about the ten Boom family- a family of watchmakers that have solid Christian beliefs. The family becomes involved with a group known as the Dutch Underground, which is an organization in Holland that helped the Jews escape from Nazi persecution.
   The story is action-packed as the family goes from one situation to the next, narrowly avoiding capture. As the ten Boom sisters Corrie and Betsie are shuffled from prison camp to prison camp after finally being caught for helping the Jews, you come to realize that God can help you through anything if you let Him.
   This book is a slightly challenging read, and is heavily religious, but it is a very enriching experience to learn about a time when life was so hard for so many people- it really makes you thankful for the way life is today.
   If you want to experience a part of history while thoroughly enjoying it- and trust me- you won't be able to put this book down! - then this is definitely the book for you!

No comments about The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal.

4 comments about Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography.

1. I ordered this book because since the 1960's I've adored Julie Andrews. I found here everything I wanted to know about her. But this book is not very "readable".
   
   Mr Stirling often leads the reader down dead end paths - leaves them wondering "Where am I now?" and is often not fun to read. I enjoy a book that flows. This one jerks along like an old truck with a couple of flat tires on a bumpy forest road. Occasionally there's a well written story, but for the most part it's hard to follow and the stories he tells are truncated and with unrelated elements. It's like being in a forest and wondering where the path is. I'd rather have gotten (and will get) my information from other sources.



2. I read Julie Andrews' Home first and then picked this up to finish the story. It's well done with loads of details and facts that were previously unknown. Goes so far even to mention Julie's efforts to publish Home in early 2008. This books is worthwhile and quite entertaining. A must read for any Julie Andrews fan.



3. I wanted to know more about Julie Andrews. I adored her as Mary Poppins, loved her in The Sound of Music & was delighted by her comic performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie. I somewhat remember her "falling from grace" so to speak, making some unmemorable films, dissappearing...then suddenly it seems, she's back writing children's books & making successful movies again!
   
   So I really wanted an overview of her entire life and that is why I chose this book by Richard Stirling over HOME which ends about the time that Julie's fame begins.
   
   The book is an engaging, easy read that has generally fulfilled my expectations. It covers Julie's meteoric rise to the heights of fame and the painfully slow slide into a lingering sort of limbo that allowed her to triumphantly hold her head up occassionally but never again made full use of her sunny personality & gorgeous voice.
   
   This book gave me the distinct impression that instead of being "ahead of her time" that unfortunately Julie Andrews showed up perhaps 20 years too late to be fully utilized in the field of musical/comedy films. (...and it teases us with the vehicles proposed for her but never made...) However, it also points to the fact that Julie is full of tenacity & perseverance. Of course, she is still around and that's a good thing.



4. 
   Unlike his subject, Richard Stirling doesn't go beyond his professional talents and requirements. He writes a good biography where his subject never stopped at simply giving us a good song perfectly delivered.
   
   He keeps his well judged and full bodied biography within the realms of good taste and gives us, without camp or intrusion, a clear picture of the complicated life of one of the Last Great Hollywood Icons. He also gives all the information we need to decide what it was that caused that Icon to rust and fall and then eventually rise again. He takes us with insight and humour beyond the often cited unfashionable image and untimely films that caused Miss Andrews to flounder on the rocks just off the shore of superstardom.
   
   In spite of being perceived as Englishness personified and even being the only actress listed in the results of a recent poll which looked to name the Great Britons, very early on in life she became an American; not a great but a mediocre American.
   She is quoted as saying that it was America that made her a star and that the English would have left her to kick in a chorus line. This is improbable given the way her career was going in the UK before being exported to star in the Broadway transfer of The Boy Friend, but it sounds good as a piece of self justification. She went from applying her limited, specialist talent and her strong lovable stage and screen presence in the best situations possible to decades of roles and films that needed a talent entirely different to her own. In other words she stopped doing what she did best very early on in her career. The whys and wherefores of this disastrous mistake are among the core interests in this long needed biography.
   
   Odd though it is that being a first rate live performer should be second choice to appearing in third rate films, Stirling clears up this conundrum as he uncovers the gradual Americanisation (and worse) Hollywoodisation of Julie. Star studded self-named television specials alongside theatre concerts featuring the worlds best orchestras and conductors seemingly underscored decades in a life filled by personal and professional doubt, therapy and unconvincing cinema projects that showed her up as a mediocre acting talent, constantly cost far too many millions and then flopped miserably as the studios, who eventually took their ball home, looked on in horror.
   
   Richard Stirling takes us through this extraordinary life starting with the making of the child variety star with the freak adult vocal chords housed in the tiny sound box making waves that might have drowned a less determined spirit. The now extinct world of music hall is brought vividly to life before moving on to The Hit Broadway Operetta, world recognition, diva sized misjudgements of choice and behaviour, years of confused image and misuse of talent, arriving finally at a return to the musical stage in Sondheim's Putting it Together in which she showed the world exactly the thing for which it had been waiting all those years, i.e. a first rate mature singing actress at the peak of her ability. This fringe success crowning takes her onwards and upwards to royal status a second time thanks to another major misjudgement, this time in a disastrous Broadway `succès de scandale' and then on, ironically, to film stardom a second time around thanks to yet another dose of bad Hollywood which this time became a surprise mega hit franchise.
   
   This is Stirling's first major biography. It follows on from years of cinematic study including conceiving and curating seasons at the National Film Theatre as well as more years of journalistic activity for major publications on both sides of the Atlantic. Between the pages of this biography there is magazine sensation found only in the chapter headings and in the melodrama of the hospital soap-opera operating theatre prologue. His writing is otherwise free flowing, fresh and finely detailed without being pedantic. Every aspect and face(t) of her professional and personal life including the brick wall of privacy surrounding his subject, whom he met and interviewed many times, is thoroughly researched. You'd think that the staroftheworld period in her early years is required knowledge for anyone remotely interested in musical theatre history but there are surprises for all no matter how well informed. That said, where this book scores it's biggest success is in the little known story of her life before stardom and the so easily dismissed but fascinating wilderness years of middle age.

5 comments about Personal History.

1. Absolutely perfect biography. Graham's book is frank in ways few would care to be. Her leadership of the Washington Post has been much talked about, and I'm a big fan of the paper, so it was a fascinating story. When she took over the Post in the 1960s, women could not be found in too many positions of power. She honestly discusses her difficulties, self doubts, and mistakes in ways one is not likely to find in many other places. Since I find politics interesting, I appreciated Graham's insights into the development of media over the twentieth century and her candid insider thoughts on some of the most important and powerful leaders of the 20th century.



2. It is long (642 pages), and the print is small. Why would anyone want to read it? Because every page has something of interest in it. And because this is not only the personal history of Katharine Graham, but a view of the United States from a woman reluctantly thrust into power by the death of her Washington Post husband. The time covered is from the early 1900s, when her parents met, through the early 1990s. Think of how life changed during that time.
   
   Mrs. Graham was raised by nannies in New York while her parents were busy helping out in Washington. She showed her independence by attending the radical University of Chicago and working before she married. When Katherine's father stepped down from management of the Washington Post, her husband, Phil, took his place. When Phil became ill and died, it was she who became president of the Washington Post Company.
   
   Constantly during this sweep through politics, labor relations, corporate management, the rise of feminism, the importance of communications, and much more, Graham weaves her personal growing consciousness of where she and other women stand in relationship to it all. She writes of the help she received and downplays her own acumen in becoming the only woman in the Fortune 500. Never does she flaunt who she was, who she became, and the power she held.
   
   Every page brings not only her personal insights about the (mostly) maturing of America, but also explains how she gains confidence while remaining concerned with and involved in her own family as well. An excellent read, but don't expect to finish it in one reading.
   
   by Judith Helburn
   for StorycircleBookReviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. This is a great book about a great woman! Interesting to see how even the privileged have difficult experiences in life and how it all only depend on us. We are very capable of achieving our goals and this book shows that even though it might not be easy, in the end, it can be very rewarding. This book shows a great insight in the history of newspaper business and politics.



4. My only regret is that I did not pay more attention to Katharine Graham and the Washington Post while she was alive. Through unveiling her own insecurities and illustrating how she moved into one of the most powerful women in the world, I learned US History and the trials of a CEO woman in the 1960s and forward.
   
   Ms. Graham reveals much about "inside Washington" and does a particularly good job of making the "players" come to life. I really hated to see the book end. Yet, Ms. Graham did what she set out to do -- documented a time in our history. Kathy Condon Executive Coach



5. Fantastic, gripping book, though it bogged down for me near the end with the minutia of labor/management disputes at the Washington Post. Still recommend highly.

5 comments about Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness.

1. Can someone please give this book to Britney Spears? I'm not joking. I first read this book about 9 years ago when I was studying psychology in college and it was always one of my very favorite books on this subject. Because Ms. Duke is able to speak to the reader in such simple (yet interesting) words. Except for the old-fashioned term "manic depressive illness" (according to the APA, the correct term is bipolar, which sounds way more PC) this book is totally on the money. Another great book I recommend is Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface. In 2008 it seems rather common for celebrities to discuss their dementia, and anything else that the public wants to know. So it may seem hard to fathom that less than thirty years ago none of this was discussed publicly because it was considered "career suicide." But Patty Duke was the very first star who candidly discussed her own mental illness in her autobiography . In my eyes, she is a true shero.



2. Celebrities who come out about a physical or mental illness help us get past shame, but Patty Duke does a lot more in this autobiography where she alternates her memories with professionally written chapters about bipolar illness. As a mental health advocate, I recommend this book especially to give to people with the illness who aren't ready for technical or self-help books.



3. If you want to know some of the unbelieveable, unbearable pain and suffering of an un-treated manic-depressive, read this book. How Patty Duke lived to tell her story is a miracle. Thank God she finally found her way out of her madness She gives hope to her fellow sufferers. From the perspective of gut-wrenching pain just reading her account, the book works wonderfully. But as a narrative, I found it hard to follow. I felt jerked around from eposide to eposide. There didn't seem to be a timeline I could follow to know what happened, when. Also, it was very distracting to have to plow through the pages of medical, technical information that were dispersed throughout the book. Overall, it's a fine description of the illness, but frustrating to read.



4. I just finished this book, and I thought it was very readable and an excellent memoir describing issues related to bipolar. The honesty with which the book is written is commendable. I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to learn more about this disorder and how helpful appropriate treatment can be.



5. This book is both entertaining and informative with loads of references and resources....I highly recommend it, especially for someone just starting the research into what this desease is all about.

5 comments about Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America.

1. I spent three and a half years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran and became intimately familiar with Persian (Farsi) culture. But I learned many things from this book; it also serves a moral lesson to all "Amrikayi" about their rush to judgment to condemn a group of people for what some of them have done without being preachy. In spite of all that it was hilarious reading at so many different levels.
   
   And if this is a repeat, my apologies as I had lost track of the book in mid read and just finished it.



2. I adored this book. I also listened to the audio version which is narrated by the author. Listening to her tell her own stories cracked me up. I got to her her speak and she is as charming and funny and genuine in person as she is through her work. I highly recommend FUNNY IN FARSI as well as her new book LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT!



3. Firoozeh Dumas (a frequent contributor to NPR) has written a truly funny account of her family's emigration from Iran to the United States. The humor is universal, coming out of family stories and rich real-life characters. No matter what culture you're from, this book will make you laugh out loud. Dumas's original voice and quirky world view stands out. Enjoy!



4. Is this the new DaVinci code? One book about the Templars and soon the libraries are full of them. Now it's Iranian women and the trials of their lives. I expected more laughs and more culture clash. Humorous? Yes. Funny? Not too much. Several chapters do not even take place in the USA, several more have NOTHING to do with being Iranian, so the subtitle is borderline deceitful when it states "growing up Iranian in America". Her father's scholarship, her trips as a child from her home in Iran to the Caspian sea, her husband's plan to honeymoon in India, babysitting nightmares, her trip to Paris: what do they have to do with growing up Iranian in America? Nothing. Simply humorous anecdotes about her life, much of which have nothing to do with American vs. Iranian cultures.
   And how did she learn English? That is entirely left out of the book. One chapter she knows nothing more than the names of colors, the next she's an interpreter for her mom.



5. At the age of seven, Dumas moved with her family from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California. Her memoir captures the experiences of Dumas the Iranian immigrant, Dumas the daughter, and Dumas the incredibly delightful and funny writer.
   
   In one of her opening pages, the author writes of America through her father's eyes: "To him, America was a place where anyone, no matter how humble his background, could become an important person. It was a kind and orderly nation full of clean bathrooms, a land where traffic laws were obeyed and where whales jumped through hoops. It was the Promised Land. " She is quick to add "For me, it was where I could buy more outfits for Barbie."
   
   Dumas' first day at her new elementary school would prove to be a challenge for all. The children and teacher were unsure just where Iran was. Her mother's inability to speak English was an embarrassment to Dumas. Of this day she writes, "After spending an entire day in America, surrounded by Americans, I realized that my father's description of America had been correct. The bathrooms were clean and the people were very, very kind."
   
   In a light-hearted approach to those early, and most surely difficult, years in a strange land, Dumas shares incidents where mastery of the English language would have created an entirely different outcome for her or her parents. Instead, the lack of command of the English language provides Dumas with a very heartwarming and real look at what becomes of many people who come to this country with no knowledge of anything but their native tongue.
   
   
   "My mother's approach to learning English consisted of daily lessons with Monty Hall and Bob Barker. Her devotion to Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right was evident in her newfound ability to recite useless information. After a few months of television viewing, she could correctly tell us whether a coffeemaker cost more or less than $19.99. How many boxes of Hamburger Helper, Swanson's TV dinners, or Turtle Wax could one buy without spending a penny more than twenty dollars? She knew that, too. Strolling down the grocery aisle, she rejoiced in her celebrity sightings--Lipton's Tea! Campbell's tomato soup! Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Frosting!"
   
   Dumas entertains her reader with escapades of the child of seven or eight made even more charming by the sheer innocence of her recent relocation to the States. Getting separated from her parents in Disneyland brought unexpected status in her family. She is quick to point out that because of where they had come from, the family was not as impressed with the big attractions as they were with such things as clean bathrooms, employees who smiled, and signs that clearly marked the way.
   
   Of particular interest to me were the author's comments on the timing of her relocation to America, and how things might have been different had she moved to this country at a later date.
   
   
   "I was lucky to have come to America years before the political upheaval in Iran. The Americans we encountered were kind and curious, unafraid to ask questions and willing to listen. As soon as I spoke enough English to communicate, I found myself being interviewed nonstop by children and adults alike. My life became a long-running Oprah Show minus the free luxury accommodations in Chicago, and Oprah."
   
   "When my parents and I get together today, we often talk about our first year in America. Even though thirty years have passed, our memories have not faded. We remember the kindness more than ever, knowing that our relatives who immigrated to this country after the Iranian Revolution did not encounter the same America."
   
   With humor, she speaks of her frustration in trying to educate her new friends and neighbors about where her native Iran was geographically positioned. Although most people from that region do not like to be referred to as Persian, she finally resorted to telling folks that Iran was part of the Persian region of the world and would quickly remind people that Persia was the land of the beautiful cats--Persian cats!
   
   Dumas takes us through her years of growing up in America, her marriage to a Frenchman, and her first experience with an earthquake in San Francisco. She peppers her memoir with interesting tidbits about Iranian culture and life.
   
   Her final chapter speaks volumes of profound wisdom about the true meaning of wealth. In Iran, the company for which her father worked took care of all of their needs. There was no need to worry about money. In America, her family was far from rich. When discussing this with her father, he related that he was, in fact, very rich--he just didn't have a lot of money. A lesson in humility and grace from a man whose life in America is far different than the life he once led in Iran. An experience in looking at the human condition through the eyes of a young girl, her college-aged counterpart, and her womanly heart that has seen and experienced much in the country so many of us take for granted. This is a delightfully entertaining, "feel good" read that I hated to see come to a close.
   
   by Lee Ambrose
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women

5 comments about Brother, I'm Dying.

1. What resonates throughout this book is the love and generosity between the families of two brothers. I think the writing is not bad, but rather unremarkable, full of emotions, but lack of deeper recflections or insight.



2. This book is a clear, beautifully written story of a family and their struggles, life and death, and the way we connect to our relatives. The tone is easy to read, and Danticat sheds light on life in Haiti (and as an immigrant) in an accessible, personal way.



3. After reading this book, you're left with the knowledge that, at the end of the day, the love your family has for you is the sweetest, most enduring safety net you'll ever have. The struggles that Edwidge and her family go through, to stay together and prosper are, while not unique, daunting. Brother, I'm Dying gives you, the reader, the chance to walk for a while in the shoes of an immigrant to the U.S. It may change the way you think about our immigration policies and the raging debate about our borders.



4. This story would have been more effective by "showing rather than telling." The author also puts the emphasis of the story on the negative events themselves, rather than the courage and perseverance of the individuals who experienced them. In this manner, the reader feels the author's intention is to evoke pity, rather than the admiration that the individuals actually deserve. The book also seems to be an outlet for displaced anger as it focuses more emotion and hostility toward US immigration practices than it does toward the people committing atrocities in Haiti. The book falls short of explaining why Haiti is in such extreme prolonged turmoil, and the effect it has on its people. This leaves its US readers with a lack of understanding, similar to the author's lack of understanding of US practices (which are presented as being primarily unfair or biased). This book will be popular among those who relish Anti-American sentiment, but those seeking a greater understanding of the Haitian people and their struggle will be disappointed.



5. Beautiful book--very nice jacket; elegaic memoir of the Haitian uncle who raised her and tragically died on immigration hold when sick and over 80 entering this country to escape chaos & a probable vendetta revenge death in Haiti; recommended for anyone interested in women's biography, Haiti, the power of family ties, cross-cultural identities (esp. those of Carib-Americans), and up & coming younger writers. The first chapter reminded me of the first chapter in Bliss Broyard's book on her father, "One Drop", where the book starts out her identity journey as her father lays dying. Bliss may perhaps be the better writer, but this is a sweet book, delicately observed and written with a great deal of composure, given all the tragic events. Would like to read more by Edwidge Danticat.

2 comments about Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America.

1. [[ASIN:0061246514 Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America]
   
   This is an extremely beautiful book that everyone should own for their Library. It is written in a unique, timeline format which is very informative. The authors secured many hundreds of photos of the women they include in the timeline. A truly remarkable book.



2. This is a beautiful book with a lot of info about women who have changed America. It should be in every high school and college library and on coffee tables all around America.

No comments about Notes on a Life.

5 comments about The Liars' Club: A Memoir.

1. Mary Karr's memoir winds all over the place, beautiful prose, but it's everywhere at once. I found her style tedious, introducing an event and simultaneously introducing another, so the reader is constantly having to shift places, times, feelings. It felt to me like listening to someone who has all kinds of wonderful ideas and stories, gets you interested, then that reminds him of something else and he's off on that story, but you're still wondering what happened with the first story. The entire book reads like this from page one to 320.
   
   I didn't find it as hilarious as was stated, although there were funny moments, black funny moments. You have to be comfortable with the vagaries of life to find her story funny, but she does come off as a kid I would have loved to know. She's strong and smart and has guts. All of her characters are presented in their full light, and I found each major character delightful. I didn't find her mother all that crazy. I thought her father was wonderful. Her grandmother must have been terrible, but even there, Karr was able to present her as not all bad. Karr is able to write events, the dark, sad events, by reporting what happened in minute detail without inserting her current feelings, only the feelings she was having long ago as a child.
   
   I can't give the book more than 3 stars for a couple reasons: the prose, despite its beauty, is simply tedious - as big as the Texas sky, going on and on and on like the telephone poles along the highways, neverending, never changing, sigh, when are we going to get there, anyway?
   
   Two, I simply cannot believe her ability to remember the little pink nosegays on her nightie or underwear, the soft peanut shell on her fingernail, or her mother's beige silk dress with the Chanel belt. A young kid knows designers and remembers exactly what her mother was wearing? However, like several other reviewers have mentioned, her mother married at 30, her child was 9 when Grandma came home to die at "50," so how could she be so loose with that fact when she's so precise with the others? Perhaps her grandmother was 59, but it seems she exaggerated here for emphasis. What else is exaggerated for emphasis in the book?
   
   Although a major character, I didn't feel the book was specifically about her father, who was in the Liar's Club, so why did Karr use this title? Are all the characters storytellers of some sort? Is Mary Karr the biggest storyteller of them all? I believe her overall story, but I am left with enough questions that never allowed me to feel much about anyone in the book because there were too many specifics where it didn't count (pink flowers emerging from green leave-pattern on her underwear) and not enough where it did count. It was just enough to create a level of underlying suspicion for me that made me not care much about these people. I hate being lied to, you know?



2. "The Liars' Club" is a memoir that mostly focuses on the author at ages seven and eight. The details begin with a mystery and continue with vivid and horrific details. I found it worthwhile reading because its story was riveting, its language masterful, and its scope complete. There's no wonder that it won impressive awards and was on The New York Times' Bestseller List for more than a year. Still, contrary to others' testimonials, I did not laugh; not once. Perhaps you will. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the depth of emotions the author shares and the beauty of the prevailing human interactions. The traumatic events are conveyed well and the entire work is handled with explicit and clever simplicity. Mary Karr's journey was devastating and overall it is hopeful. I recommend this book.
   
   Even with all the "Not Rightness", beauty is a word that describes much of this book. Incidental delights alleviated some of the ugliness: bears foraged garbage, family meals were sometimes atop her parents' bed, she got to ride horses, and fields "spilled" with morning glories, bluebonnets and fireflies. But much more important than incidentals, was the intensity to which the reader becomes familiar with the family and extended family. They dramatically rose and fell to occasions... while a little girl and her sister grew up faster than anyone should have to grow.
   
   The author attentively makes the best of situations and in doing so she copes and thereby hopes. As a child, Ms. Karr observes. She evaluates. She has respect for her own idiosyncracies and she makes both understandable and wise decisions. When crucial, she relies on her life-saving (and also very young) big sister, Lecia. Years later, the reader gets to see that she does get answers to the childish hopes for explanations and we are grateful.
   
   Her family withstood challenges and love prevailed. In the beginning and throughout, Lecia (the sister) was deservedly appreciated. The ("Nervous") mother shared her art and worldliness. The father had good work ethics, created well-intended childhood events, stood up for his wife, and was proud of the author's ("Pokey's") accomplishments. The shared closeness of his "Liars' Club" friends (not the only liars of the book) was treasured. And in the end, those friends, mother, daughters, doctor, and even an old army officer was supportively generous. Finally, the author does get-together with her mother to resolve the mysteries that clouded traumatic times. And when all is said and done, we get an overview that is, in its understanding and acceptance, ultimately beautiful.
   
   The book's structure supports the theme. I liked that the author's formative years (1961, 1963) were presented as strong as they were and occupied the bulk of the book. Circumstances demanded that weight. Then I liked the jump to 1980 with child-to-parent and parent-to-child developments. Unpleasant though some of it was, the progression was satisfying. Again, the journey is worthwhile. Once you start reading it, I believe you'll be compelled to complete it, too.
   
   Further, the style is fine-tuned and honest. I marveled at the language and even the variable use of (and lack of) quotation marks. The tone is natural and, at the same time, it's brilliant. When the action is cruel, the heart-wrenching clarity works. Some raw descriptions were startling, while all of it rang true. Moreover, it helped that the book was obviously a joint family effort and that effort validated it's truth. Consequently, the entire approach -- language, style, honesty, and use of alternate memories -- kept my attention.
   
   Therefore, I highly recommend reading "The Liars' Club". The horrors are real. The caring runs deep. Kudos to Mary Karr for so openly sharing her life with the reader. You won't envy her youth, but you will probably become absorbed in the journey and admire some of the child she was and the woman she became. I give this book a FIVE-star rating.



3. A wonderful memoir - honest and riveting. But I would like to know more, after that harrowing childhood, how the author fared as an adult. She mentions she married. Did it last, does she have children? I developed such emotional involvement with her as a child that I felt at loose ends not knowing more about the woman she grew into.



4. I read it over a three-day period and I hated for it to end. Great story and very well composed. Very glad I read it.



5. I started this book and I wasn't sure at first what I was getting into but as I got into it I couldn't put it down! A very good book..compared to her second one that I wouldn't recommend to anyone!!