No comments about The Step Child: A True Story of a Broken Childhood.

1 comments about Light Years: A Girlhood in Hawai'i.

1. Susanna Moore paints mesmerizing pictures with words. She begins her memoir with "No memory presents itself of my first acquaintance with the sea. It was always there, and I was always in it." What I soon discovered was that the pictures she paints are not so much of herself, but of the place she happened to be at the time, the oceans that surrounded it, and the books that kept her company.
   
   Moore employs an unusual format for this book. Following each brief chapter is at least an equal number of pages filled with excerpts from classic tales of the sea, the constant companions of her youth. In her first chapter she says "One summer when my mother was recovering from a breakdown, we lived on the beach..." but never goes into any detail. Later she writes "I was overcome by the idea of shipwreck. I suspect the unconscious was doing its work. My family, while high-strung, was not a shipwreck quite yet, but I divined its coming." With voyeuristic lust I raced through twenty pages of shipwreck tales from Daniel Defoe and John Fiske, anxious to get back to Susanna's own story, only to find that it never really materializes.
   
   In the next chapter, there is one brief mention of her father being a doctor, but nothing about his role in the family dynamics. Instead I learned about the Hawaiians themselves, and their attitude towards life. Moore tells us "One of my Hawaiian friends insisted that Hawaiians were not working class. The working class wanted televisions and motorboats, but Hawaiians didn't want anything." Following that, I waded through eighteen pages of excerpts from Herman Melville, Charles Darwin, Joseph Conrad and Herodotus, searching for a unifying theme that would tie into the chapter, but never finding one. This was the pattern for the remainder of the book.
   
   Although I came away with a very clear picture of Hawaii, the "ravishing little world...redolent with romance" but also "an hierarchical, snobbish and quietly racist society," my picture of Susanna Moore remained fuzzy, and each chapter left me wanting more. While doing some research on the Internet, I discovered that she wrote an earlier memoir, titled I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i. Perhaps I should have read that one first.
   
   by Becky Lane
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women

2 comments about A Taste of the Sweet Apple: A Memoir (Woodford Reserve Series for Kentucky Literature).

1. I have not read such a beautiful book since To Kill A Mockingbird and have not read descriptions of a southern family written as well, or better, since The Ponder Heart. Superb writing.



2. Jo Anna Holt-Watson is a truly wonderful "story teller." Seldom are readers treated to such captivating tales of childhood imagination, without a hint of false pride. In "A Taste of the Sweet Apple: Memoirs," the author is able to hold our attention by graphically producing a setting in rural central Kentucky, Woodford County, that calls on figments of all of the reader's senses: the farm sounds of the "skid" being pulled by the mule, the vision of the heavy mist over the Bluegrass at dawn, the smell of stables laden with manure, and, of course, the almost indescribable taste of chewing tobacco, when it is first surreptitiously wedged between cheek and gum by a seven year old girl.
   Ultimately, this is a heart warming story of a child's love. Almost too innocently written, Pee Wee Watson has a brilliant flair with words that will actually make you laugh out loud in one instant and become 'teary-eyed' in the next. Her 'Memoirs' of her life on the farm in the '40s recalls a tender relationship with 'the hired help,' whom she brazenly persuades the reader into loving as much as she assures that she probably really did. Her tender feelings toward these simplistic, but ardently faithful 'keepers,' is not wasted on wishy-washy endearments, but rather is skillfully woven into her story, as told in the first person by a genuine tom-boy and sometimes romantic, but always head-strong girl. This is a 'must read' for all who crave a clever yarn by an excellent spinner, ... from whom I predict, ... we will hear again.
   
   -- Thomas S. Markham, Lookout Mountain, GA -- A devotee of Southern literature

No comments about Farewell Babylon: Coming of Age in Jewish Baghdad.

5 comments about The Twelve Little Cakes.

1. When I first began reading The Twelve Little Cakes, I didn't realize that it was a true story. (I check this information along with the reviews on Amazon before buying a book, but by the time I get around to reading it I have long forgotten.) I realized that it was real when she mentioned Bohousek, her famous dog -- I remember my mom pointing him out in films when I was young. From that point on, it made the story a completely different experience for me and I was even more eager to read ahead.
   
   There were many other similarities I shared with Dominika, but the most important one was our romantic view of Czechoslovakia as children. When we're young, we don't care about any differences. We just want to go play. I remember my mom explaining why certain neighbors didn't like each other and how everyone gossiped. The urge people had to snitch on someone for no reason and make their life miserable is something I definitely understood in this book, though I never understood it as a child (and even now, really) -- Can't we all get along?
   
   As a Czech-American, I relate to this story very well, and perhaps this is partly responsible for my 5-star review as this story transported me back a few years and allowed me to relive some of my own cherished memories. I have spent half of my life living in each place, and my Czech childhood was quite similar to Dominika's.
   
   The Czech Republic is a stunning place and there are so many amazing people. This book did hit the nail on the head, though, as far as the problems in Czech society.
   
   It was an absolute pleasure to read this book. I truly admire Dominika's parents for sticking it out together and for the incredible love they shared within their family. It will warm your heart!



2. I will hold my thumbs for the sequel to Twelve Little Cakes, but with talent such as this, the author hardly needs me to cross my fingers Czech-style. The spirit of the Czechs is captured by Dominika in her first English work. Her spirit is that of The Little Prince: observant, sparked with life, and wise beyond her years. Dekuji. The hours you spend with Dominika in this work will connect you with her soul, and the soul of a beautiful country full of beautiful women. It is a holiday to remember.



3. I picked this book up on a whim, I admit it was right up my alley in content and it seemed like it got good reviews. I have to admit I was surprised by how much I just enjoyed the book. The perspective and stories are engaging and I found that the book ended much too soon for me- but just right for the story line.
   
   Well worth the read.



4. I recommended this book for my bookclub since it had so many 4-5 star reviews on this site. This book was a nice easy read but I would only give it 3+ stars. Most of my bookclub agreed. It has some cute and touching stories in the various chapters but doesn't get into much depth regarding actually living under a communist regime. Some of the stories seemed alittle unbelieveable.



5. You wouldn't think that a novel about being the daughter of dissidents in Communist Czechoslovakia would be funny, but this novel is hilarious. I shared my copy with several persons and purchased others as Christmas gifts (2006). I'm dubious whether Dominika could so accurately recall conversations as a young child as detailed in the book, but you will fall in love with her in this autobiography. Her refreshing honesty and childish innocence opened some of the hardest hearts in a difficult time when adults were fearful whom to trust and honest conversation had to be guarded. It's an insider's look into hard times under a Communist regime without being preachy. And their family vacation to Poland makes you understand why the Poles were the first to throw aside the iron curtain. I cannot recommend this book more highly, particularly to our newest generations (X and Y) who did not grow up in the Cold War.

5 comments about Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets and Growing Up in the 1970s.

1. I'm only giving it a two because I actually finished it. This book is not literary genius. It is just a diary and that's all. The topic was exciting to me - reason I ordered the book - and I was so totally dissapointed by the writing style. A better idea for the author would have been to use the diary to create a novel. It was simplistic, but as I said I did finish it and know it could have been a better novel if written as such.



2. What did those song lyrics mean anyway? I didn't find the answer in this book.
   
   Although Margaret went through her adolesence in the 70's and I experienced mine in the 50's, we had some common themes. Every teenage girl sometimes feels others have answers to which we ouselves don't have access.
   
   It was interesting to read of Margaret's search for spirituality and her daily thoughts of how well she was living according to her beliefs.
   
   Margaret longed for a nickname but did not want to be called Peggy. Later when a special boy called her Maggie, she thought that was a good fit. As the book progressed, Maggie became more interested in boys, but she could not make a commitment to any one boy.
   
   I was surprised that Maggie's parents gave her so much freedom and did not punish her for smoking and drinking. I was also surprised that Maggie thought of herself as unpopular although she had dates with a number of boys and was elected homecoming queen.
   
   It was easy for the reader to question Margaret's friend Tommy's sexuality, but Margaret had not even thought that Tommy might be gay until his mother mentioned it to her. The mother's remarks upset Margaret, but she continued to love Tommy dearly even into adulthood.
   
   This book was laugh-out-loud funny in many places. The incident I remember as the funniest was when Maggie popped into Tommy's kitchen following her jogging one day, ran upstairs to use his bathroom, took a swig of water from a glass in the bathroom while she was there - and got a bonus with her mouthful of water.
   
   Because this book was compiled from the author's actual teenage diaries, we are treated to the actual daily thoughts of a teenager in the 70's - rather than the way the author remembers her teen years from the perspective of an adult.



3. First off, our decade's obsession with blogging has little in common with the art of keeping a diary, and anyone who doubts that might do well to read this book. A diary is normally a private thing, an exercise in personal meditation, a record of a life and those who pass through it, written by one's self, for one's self, and it's not often someone openly invites complete strangers to see something that is by nature so personal, and yet writer Margaret Sartor has bravely done just that, and done it in a way we all can feel guilt free over even as we read what were once some of her innermost thoughts and experiences as she grew up seeking God, love, and self-understanding in the emerging "New South" of the 1970's.
   
   Whereas often because they ARE so personal diaries can be boring and leave a reader feeling simultaneously included and excluded, Margaret Sartor's writings from age twelve in 1972 thru age eighteen in the summer of 1977 are not only welcoming but annotated to the point where we grasp who everyone she interacts with is and feel some enlightenment as to each person's motivations. There is her family, consisting of her father, who along with his brothers is one of the town of Montgomery, Louisiana's most well-known doctors; her mother, a beautiful and complex woman; her two older sisters, younger brother, and late in the diary, a new baby sister, who comes along when her parents are well into middle-age. Margaret Sartor is frank about many things, her feelings for boys among them, but no other subject preoccupies her quite so much as her quest for a relationship with God. Even in the Bible Belt of the deep south of two generations ago I doubt many people Margaret's age were so keenly motivated to seek out God or to do more to grasp something tangible about the nature of this force. Margaret's spirituality takes several forms but most often finds expression in the charismatic brand of the local faith. She tells of prayer meetings and youth revivals, about the casting out of demons and miracles performed that grew attendees legs out to equal length. She seems to be a soul simultaneously in awe of all this and puzzled as to why if she is truly in the Almighty's presence, she feels a lack of perfect contentment.
   
   As Margaret ages, religion is gradually pushed aside and instead we read of her infatuations with one young man or another, her confusions, her worries and very often her dreams, which she records almost nightly and which are almost always interesting in themselves. Margaret gains national recognition for her work with her school's cheerleading squad, and seeks early admission to a college out of state, proving to herself and others that she has the power to achieve her goals. As Margaret's story unwinds installment by installment, the tales of those peripheral to her become almost as interesting as her own life. There is her best friend, who comes out of the closet in small town Louisiana in the `70's; there is the racial integration struggle going on, at times violently, in the background; there is an aunt who kills herself, and another relative who was lobotomized and as a consequence became an obese misfit; and there is the restless shiver felt by all as a region little changed over generations moves toward a modern age much different from the past.
   
   Margaret Sartor's entries are often brief. They are simply quick, easily-read bits of information that say much in a short space. In its entirety her diary is unique, candid, and always fascinating. Maybe it will inspire others to publish similar records of their lives. Till then, Miss American Pie remains a darn good read.



4. I suppose in this "reality" obsessed culture we now live in anybody can get their diary published and have it lauded as an important piece of modern literature or a work of brilliance or any of the myriad cliched accolades critics vomit up.
   
   Well I don't get it. Miss American Pie is a dull, dull, dull read. The forward is promising and I thought Sartor's teenage musings would be profound or intriguing or at the least interesting but it's not. Sartor is a spoiled rich kid whose father is a doctor and mother is an artist. She has several horses, equally well off friends and an obviously successful future ahead of her.
   
   Her diary entries, if you can call them that, average two to three sentences at the most. Entries range from "May 20: I feel really bad," to "February 6: BAD headache today," to "April 1: Stella is unhappy at her job". She mopes around because she thinks she's ugly or because her best friend likes a guy she likes or because her hair is frizzy. There isn't anything of substance to make this a worthwhile read or shed some new light on adolescence. I understand it's a diary of a teenage girl but it's still boring.
   
   If a diary is to be published, it should be dynamic, intriguing, shedding new light on the protagonist or a particular situation or a period of time. Miss American Pie fails on all counts. It doesn't help that no one has a clue who Margaret Sartor is either.
   
   Miss American Pie could have been more effective if it was written as an actual memoir instead of the dull, dull, ramblings of a teenage girl's diary.



5. This was a good book. It is an actual journal of the author written in the seventies. I graduated from high school and college in the seventies so I could relate to many of the references made in the journal. I think today's girls could also relate, though, because the themes in the journals are the same struggles that today's teens go through.
   
   It starts when Margaret is in the seventh grade and goes through her senior year. At first the entries are brief and some are quite funny. Later they get more poignant.
   
   Margaret is boy crazy, bored, rebellious, and is trying to figure out what she believes. In the seventies, we had many issues involving desegregation, drugs, sex -- it was the era of the sexual revolution, feminism, and the big mega-churches were founded and grew in that decade. I laughed at many of the entries, especially when she would write of some profound event and not elaborate and the next entry would be something very trivial.
   
   For example: November 8 -- Nixon was elected president. November 9 -- Everyone says me and Vernon would make a good couple. (Nixon being elected president was exciting and had worldwide ramifications but her and Vernon being a good couple didn't last more than a week.) Another example: August 8 -- President Nixon resigned; made appointment to get my hair cut.
   
   I love that entry. It is such a teen statement. MISS AMERICAN PIE is realistic and fun to read. Plus, it makes you want to start a journal, too.
   
   Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

1 comments about The Black Seasons (Jewish Lives).

1. The Black Seasons lets the reader share the fragments of childhood memories of a Jewish child survivor in Poland during German occupation and the Holocaust. This brilliant translation of Michel Glowinski's recounting of his childhood memories is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the experiences of Jewish families in Poland during the time of the "industrialized mass murder", and at the end also shares the reflections of the author at a later time in his life. This book is unique in that it is the honest recounting of fragmentary childhood memories of a time of constant unspeakable fear, told in articulate and eloquent language.

5 comments about Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg, Special Collector's Edition.

1. BARRY WILLIAMS DOES A REALLY GOOD JOB TELLING WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING ON THE BRADY BUNCH, ONE OF THE BETTER KNOWN FAMILY SITCOMS FROM THE 70'S. THE SHOW WAS CORNY, GOODY 2 SHOES AND UNREALISTIC. BUT STILL HAD A NICE HOMEY AND WHOLESOME TOUCH TO IT. I DID WATCH THE SHOW OFF AND ON, BUT MOSTLY TO SEE HOW HOT MAUREEN MCCORMICK AND EVE PLUMB LOOKED. BARRY WILLIAMS REALLY BRINGS BACK SOME GREAT MEMORIES AS HE TELLS US SOME GREAT STORIES THAT WENT ON ON CAMERA AND OFF CAMERA. THE MOST INTERESTING WERE, HIS DATE WITH FLO HENDERSON, INFATUATION WITH MO MCCORMCICK AND THE CONSTANT COMPLAINING AND ARGUMENTS CONCERNING ROBERT REED AND THE SHOWS WRITERS AND PRODUCERS. IF YOU WERE A FAN OF THE BRADY BUNCH THIS IS MUST READ.



2. This is my second time reading this book and I enjoyed it very much both times. The only downfall to this book was that I really felt that the book did not need the complete list of the all of the brady episodes. The first time I read this book, it was the first edition and did not have the extra chapters, and this one does, so I really liked that. Barry did a great job writing this book. I felt that his stories were very interesting and fun. Each story pretty much had its own chapter. The last thing that I liked about the boook was all of the pictures. Over all the book was far out and groovy!



3. I grew up with the Bradys. I preferred the cooler Partridge Family, but I watched the Brady Bunch almost daily after school when it was in syndication. That said, I haven't spent my days thinking about them and never had a crush on any of the kids, but I liked them. And, after reading about this book, I came upon a used copy which I immediately bought.
   
   Surprisingly, this was a fun read. To be honest, Greg was my least-favorite Brady (sorry, Barry-- I like you best now, though!). But, this book shows that the kids that played the Bradys were definitely multi-layered and fun-- even if their alter egos gave no indication of this.
   
   The writing is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. When I opened the book, I first noticed the episode guide. I wasn't interested in this at all, and thought I'd just read the memoir part and neglect this guide. However, the entire thing was just so well-written and funny that I wound up reading the episode guide, too. Besides summaries of each show, Barry adds his own recollections and thoughts-- often they're hysterical.
   
   Interestingly, although I knew about Robert Reed's displeasure with the show, I didn't realize the lengths he went to to change the show. Included in the book are several multi-page memos Reed wrote to either Sherwood Schwartz and/or the Paramount heads pleading the case for rewrites. Although I'm a fan of Robert Reed's and understand why he went to these lengths, the memos are incredibly analytical and somewhat humorous in their detail. Sometimes Reed would submit the memos in an attempt to get entire shows changed. There was one memo, though-- about three pages typed, that he submitted with the hope of changing a three minute "tag" scene (the end scene after the last commercial and before the credits).
   
   It is obvious that Barry Williams has a lot of fondness for all of the cast and crew and for his years on the Brady Bunch. Even when airing dirty laundry, it's really not that dirty. That is, he does kiss and tell when it comes to little make out sessions with Maureen McCormick, but this is a book that his own kids could read without any alarm. This is a book that nobody who was involved with the show would be angry about. For instance, there's no mention of Reed's sexuality here. Barry shares the sweetness of the show with mild, yet healthy, cynicism. He does talk about Reed's and the Schwartz's ongoing exasperation, Florence Henderson's flirtatious side, and the kids' crushes with eachother and others. But this is really a trip down memory lane that he's sharing with us, rather than a big huge laundry airing.
   
   Added: Some reviewers are calling this an autobiography. It is definitely NOT an autobiography-- as a matter of fact he only mentions his wife once when telling us the Brady cast attended his wedding. This is definitely more of a memoir-- a story of a man reminiscing about good times with people he loved and wanting to share those good times with those who want to hear about it.



4. The fact that there were some laughs in this book and it was interesting and well-written has to be balanced against the reality that tell-alls like this damage the nice fantasy that The Brady Bunch has been for thirty-some years. I don't mean to put Barry Williams down but I sort of wish I'd never read this book with its unhappy revelations and...too much information.



5. I really enjoyed listening to the audio version of Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg by Barry Williams. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed watching the show while growing up. It was nice to hear that the kids were a "normal" group of kids in an abnormal situation-- which is possibly how they avoided many of the problems of other child stars, and also nice to hear that even though there were squabbles, the kids pretty much got along together and that they still think of each other as family. This is a very enjoyable book!

5 comments about Better Than Sane: Tales from a Dangling Girl.

1. I usually only review books that I absolutely love- but in this case I wanted to read this tome in one night and be done with it... Alison has a beautiful and sometimes seductive and brilliant way of stringing thoughts together- an idiosyncratic way of descriptive device. Five stars for individuality and fine form.
   The issue that I think most detractors have is the content and viewpoint of this clearly unfeminist female who in current jargon "gave all of her power away" to captivating and famous intellectuals - and I agree it's unclear the extent of the physical affairs that she was having - although there was plenty of mind games and heady flirtation and this was the food of her life- approval from men .So, if it's not your bag then you probably won't like the book-The men seem pompous smug and peurile to me, but I wasn't there. Everyone has their own life to live and Alison Rose shouldn't be judged to harshly for her choices. Certainly the game was a two way street and these New yorker men loved having their err egos stroked.To readers I say "try it , you might like it, and if not then she's just not your cuppa. "



2. I think, from reading the other customer reviews of this book, that this must be one that you either love, or hate. Put me in the latter category. There was great potential in this book - Alison Rose is clearly a good writer, she has brushed up against many other good writers and interesting people, and led an unconventional life. But. Arrgggh! She tells us only the faintest of details, skips around in time so it is difficult to piece together what happened when, and gives us no context for her actions or her memories. She has had a devastating effect on others - men and women - in her life (judging from what she tells us, anyway). But there's no real indication of WHY she was able to captivate so many interesting, intelligent and prominent people.



3. I read Better Than Sane: Tales from a Dangling Girl all the way through, in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. The book is original, beautiful, droll (as Rose would say), elegiac and perfect. It is also sexy. Better Than Sane is a piece of literature, something people aren't accustomed to anymore. Anyone who doesn't agree with me doesn't know what literature is. Rose has created an entire set of characters here. Their interactions made me a little bored with my own life. Through the dialogue (there isn't dialogue like this in any book I can think of)and the prose itself, the reader understands how Alison Rose has survived. She was "rescued by her own actions and didn't get killed," as George Trow, her mentor at The New Yorker and writer of "Within the Context of No Context" said to
   her. An editor at the magazine, where Rose became a staff writer,
   said to her, "You see beyond." She does.



4. I love The New Yorker. Each week, it's like a precious gift, and I relish every page, particularly 'Talk of the Town'. So one can imagine my delight at the prospect of a book by Alison Rose. Sadly, I feel that with her book she really drove home the fact that the ability to type does not mean one should write a book.
   
   This is the long, minutely detailed story of an apparently very beautiful woman who finds herself incredibly fascinating. Maybe she is truly fascinating, and just can't convey it through writing. Maybe this is why someone at Knopf deemed it acceptable to publish this excruciating memoir and send it out into the world. Or maybe Alison was just sleeping with the right person at the right time. Again.
   
   In closing, I would like to cite the sentence that pushed me over the edge, that transformed me from irritated non-fan into sarcastic review-writer: "The day before he made the birthday card for Puppy-I'd brought her into the office and introduced her to some writers and editors-I was carrying her under her front legs, her dog ankles were crossed, and Harold said, 'She should be wearing a skirt'." This is the type of statement people make in passing four hundred times a day. I have probably said this very thing to someone ahead of me in line at the post office. It doesn't make for interesting reading, and that's a shame because this book is comprised of similar sentences. God, the boredom.



5. Alison Rose is a real writer. Better Than Sane:Tales from a Dangling Girl is literature, which is hard to come by these days.
   Rose knows what friendship is. I have memorized a sentence she wrote about the writer Harold Brodkey: "If I have, say, twenty fragments of my mind all to myself, and I give ten to Harold, then half of them are taken care of for a few hours. Then I have only half the trouble, half the isolation. A real luxury." In the chapter "Dangling Girl," Rose's loyal friend Francine flies in from Atlanta to help Alison pack up her office at The New Yorker. The description is sad and charming and so beautiful that I could feel the decades of friendship, as if I had been in the office with them. On the last moving day, the brilliant writer, Renata Adler,(there is a sublime Adler quote in the epigraph)takes the photographs of George Trow and Harold Brodkey off the wall, a final goodbye. Parts of Better Than Sane are elegiac, but all of it is written in prose that, elegiac or not, brings happiness to a serious reader. We need Better Than Sane in our uncertain world.

3 comments about A Place for Us: A Greek Immigrant Boy's Odyssey to a New Country and an Unknown Father.

1. I could not put this book down. I read the story of Eleni several years ago and wanted to know what happened to the family and thie story continues with this book. Nicholas Gage's mother would certainly be proud of her family and the sacrifice she made. A fantastic book, highly recommended



2. Gage writes his and his family's story with a wonderful combination of pathos and humour--an incredible perspective and a worthwhile read.



3. This is as an extraordinary book by one of our country's most important contemporary writers. Highly recommended!