Cybill Disobedience: How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible by Cybill Shepherd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I remember hearing that Cybill Shepherd’s autobiography was a major tell-all when it was released back in 2000. I love celebrity gossip but somehow never got around to reading it so when it was offered as a free Kindle book last year I snagged it.
Cybill definitely tells all about her sexual escapades but didn’t tell very much about anything else. I would have liked to know more about the more personal aspects of her life. This book was basically, “Here is the project I worked on and who I slept with while I was working on it.” There was an extra big dose of ego throughout as well.
Another large part of the book was Cybill trying to disprove her difficult to work with reputation. I thought it was kind of funny – if almost everyone you work with has a problem with you, maybe you should look inward. Because the book came out right after the television series Cybill came out, Cybill spends a disproportionate amount of the book writing about that series and her conflicts with the network, director, and her costars.
I recommend this book to only the most die-hard US Weekly readers or Cybill Shepherd fans.
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(99 cents)
May 8th, 2012 in
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Narcopolis: A Novel by Jeet Thayil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Narcopolis opens in Bombay in the 1970s. The narrator is a frequent customer at an opium den that has an attached brothel. Dimple, a eunuch, works making pipes in the den and in the brothel. The den has other regular customers besides the narrator – artists, family men, and gangsters. Narcopolis follows these characters through the decades as opium gives way to heroin from Pakistan.
This book had a different style from most of the books I read. The writing is dreamily hazy – making the reader feel like what the people on drugs must feel like a lot of the time. The time-line was hard to keep straight and sometimes it took me a few sentences to figure out which character the author was writing about. I think this was purposeful though to achieve the drugged up atmosphere.
Narcopolis starts with a prologue that is one six and half page run-on sentence. This had me a little worried, if the whole book was written like that I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. Luckily, the rest of the book is not like that so don’t let the prologue scare you away.
The author is a poet and that comes through in his prose. He almost romanticizes the era of the opium den. When heroin is introduced to Bombay, everyone’s lives start to fall apart. It’s much more addictive and renders the user much less functional than opium. Everyone lives a life of melancholy and some live lives of total despair.
Narcopolis is not for everyone. If you enjoy poetry and character driven novels you will probably enjoy this book. If you like a straight forward, linear plot than this book might not be for you.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book. Here are the other tour stops:
Tuesday, April 17th: The Year in Books
Wednesday, April 18th: Chunky Monkey
Thursday, April 19th: Unabridged Chick
Friday, April 20th: Raging Bibliomania
Monday, April 23rd: The Feminist Texican [Reads]
Thursday, April 26th: A Novel Source
Monday, April 30th: Conceptual Reception
Tuesday, May 1st: A Reader of Fictions
Thursday, May 3rd: Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms
Tuesday, May 8th: Beastmomma
Wednesday, May 9th: Reading on a Rainy Day
Thursday, May 10th: What She Read…
Monday, May 21st: Stiletto Storytime
Thursday, May 31st: Poet Hound
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Powell’s Books
May 7th, 2012 in
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The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
As university students in late 1970s Bombay, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable. Spirited and unconventional, they challenged authority and fought for a better world. But much has changed over the past thirty years. Following different paths, the quartet drifted apart, the day-to-day demands of work and family tempering the revolutionary fervor they once shared.
Then comes devastating news: Armaiti, who moved to America, is gravely ill and wants to see the old friends she left behind. For Laleh, reunion is a bittersweet reminder of unfulfilled dreams and unspoken guilt. For Kavita, it is an admission of forbidden passion. For Nishta, it is the promise of freedom from a bitter fundamentalist husband. And for Armaiti, it is an act of acceptance, of letting go on her own terms even if her ex-husband and daughter do not understand her choices.
In the course of their journey to reconnect, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta must confront the truths of their lives—acknowledge long-held regrets, face painful secrets and hidden desires, and reconcile their idealistic past and their compromised present. And they will have to decide what matters most, a choice that may just help them reclaim the extraordinary world they once found.
Oh my, where do I start? I loved this book so much but I don’t want to gush too much and ruin the story for you. Ms. Umrigar is a master of character development. Each character was multidimensional. Nishta’s husband Iqbal is a Muslim fundamentalist and as a secondary character could have easily been portrayed as a stereotype. But even he has unexpected yet realistic motivations for his actions.
The relationship between the four women was wonderful and complex. The prose was beautifully descriptive. I loved everything about this book and I highly recommend it.
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(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
April 30th, 2012 in
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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Narrator: Lorelei King
Length: 8 hours and 7 minutes
Publisher: AudioGo
Release Date: December 13, 2011
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Little Women begins the much-loved story of the March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. The girls grow up amidst the turmoils, adventures, and hardships of the American Civil War. There is Meg, the eldest, plump and fair; Jo, the tomboy who longs to be a writer and fights against the constraints of her sex; Beth, shy, timid, and delicate, who brings out the protective instinct in others; and Amy, the youngest and brightest and, at least in her own estimation, the most important. The household is presided over by Mrs. March, their “Marmee,” who tries to rule with kindness and to create harmony among her four little women.
I read Little Women as a girl and loved it so I was excited to have the opportunity to review an audio production of the book. However, I was quite surprised when the audio book abruptly ended in the middle of the story. I discovered that Little Women was originally two volumes: Little Women and Good Wives. They were first published together as one book titled Little Women in 1880. Most versions of Little Women published today are both volumes together in one book. This audio recording is just the first volume. Because what most people read as Little Women is actually both volumes, I feel like there should have been some indication on the box somewhere that this audio book does not include the second volume.
(I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may not have read it yet so I’ll say this – remember the Friends episode when Rachel convinces Joey to read Little Women? And he has to put the book in the freezer because of one particularly sad part? This audiobook ends before that sad part happens.)
Even though this book was written more than one-hundred years ago, it still has relevance today. I think that the four March girls and Marmee have some good lessons to teach young girls that are timeless. Reading it now as a mother myself, I marveled at Marmee’s patience and wisdom. I could learn a lot from her! I was very impressed at how independent and free-thinking the girls and their mother were given the time period the book was written in and took place. (Of course, Louisa May Alcott was a Unitarian so I shouldn’t have been surprised at that.)
Lorelei King narrated this audio book. I thought she did a great job for the most part. The two voices I didn’t like were Beth and Amy’s. I thought Beth’s was too breathy and Amy’s was too babyish – they didn’t sound realistic to me. Overall, I enjoyed this audio production. My biggest complaint is that it left unexpectedly hanging at the end.
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(I received this book courtesy of the Solid Gold Reviewers program at Audiobook Jukebox.)
April 26th, 2012 in
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Ladies and Gentlemen by Adam Ross
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s description:
Following his celebrated debut novel, Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross presents a stunning collection of stories about brothers, loners, lovers, and young people navigating lives full of good intentions, misunderstandings, and obscured motives.
A hotshot young lawyer, burdened by years of guilt and resentment, comes to the aid of his irresponsible kid brother, only to realize he’s a pawn in a treacherous scheme. A lonely professor, frequently regaled with outrageous tales by the office handyman, suddenly fears he’s being asked to abet a murderous fugitive. A man down on his luck closes in on a mysterious job offer while doing a good turn for his fragile neighbor, but his efforts backfire in a terrifically surreal – and hilarious – manner. And an enterprising adolescent uses his brief career as a child actor to fulfill the crush he has on a friend’s older sister.
Laced through with glimmers of redemption and a refreshing combination of warmth and cynicism, these noirish narratives have a youthful energy that belies their hard-won wisdom, and together they showcase one of our truly essential new writers.
I normally don’t care too much for short stories but I loved Adam Ross’s Mr. Peanut so much that I had to pick up his collection of short stories. These stories were haunting like Mr. Peanut. They reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes because most of them ended with a dark moral and seemed eerie. I enjoyed most of them but was left wanting more. I thought some of them ended too abruptly.
I may just not be a short story person and I also think I had my hopes up way too high for this collection after reading Mr. Peanut. I think that’s why I felt unsatisfied these stories. I think they were good, just not as good as Mr. Peanut. If you haven’t read either, read this one first so your expectations aren’t over the top like mine were.
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(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
April 25th, 2012 in
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Under a Vampire Moon by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Marguerite Argeneau is a vampire on her honeymoon with her new vampire husband Julius. When she runs into Carolyn Connor, a forty-something mortal, she knows she is the perfect life-mate for her son Christian. The problem is that even though Christian is 500 years old, he looks 25 and Carolyn doesn’t want to be perceived as a cougar. Christian’s cousin Gia comes up with a plan: Christian can pretend that he is gay and that his family would not approve if they knew. Gia asks Carolyn to be Christian’s beard so his family doesn’t suspect he’s gay. The hope is that after Carolyn gets to know Christian, he can reveal he is not gay and she won’t care about the age difference anymore. And then of course he also has to tell her he’s a vampire at some point as well.
Under a Vampire Moon is the sixteenth book in the Argeneau series. It’s the first book in the series that I’ve read but I had no trouble following the story. I wasn’t up to speed on all the vampire mythology but that wasn’t important to understanding what was happening. Actually, Christian and his relatives don’t act much like vampires, they could have very easily been regular humans without altering the story. They drink bagged blood and as long as they drink enough of it, they can go out in the daytime.
Carolyn can be very frustrating and dense. Towards the end, her history is revealed and it explains most of her behavior. Christian’s cousin Zanipolo is a minor character in this book who was charming and funny – I wish he would have been featured more. Even though the plot follows the typical trashy romance formula, it did manage to surprise me in the end. I knew there was something up with Carolyn’s best friend Bethany but what ended up happening with her was not what I was expecting.
Since this book is an Avon paperback, I knew it would not be a great work of literary fiction. But for what it is – a trashy romance novel – I thought it was a fun read. I enjoyed it but not so much that I feel like I need to read any of the other books in the series.
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(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
April 24th, 2012 in
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If You Were Here: A Novel by Jen Lancaster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mac and Mia are tired of the graffiti artist thugs in the neighborhood in which they rent their house. They decide it’s time to take the plunge and buy a house in the Chicago suburbs. And not just any suburb in Chicago – they want to move to the suburb that John Hughes used for his movies’ settings. They look at several homes but can’t find their dream house. Instead they buy a fixer-upper that will test their home improvement knowledge and their marriage.
I love Jen Lancaster. Because I’ve read all her memoirs and follow her blog, I feel like we’re friends. (Don’t worry, I’m not a crazy stalker!) If You Were Here is her first work of fiction but it’s actually a thinly disguised memoir, in my opinion. Mac and Mia are Jen and Fletch. Some zany things happen to Mac and Mia that wouldn’t happen to Jen and Fletch in real life but their personalities are the same. This didn’t bother me but I think that if you aren’t a Jen Lancaster fan already, you may not connect with this book as much as I did.
Some of the dialogue was stilted and some of the explanations of home-buying terms sounded too much like a real estate manual. However, the story was amusing and engaging. This would be a great beach read.
This book has tons of footnotes just like Jen’s other books so I’m not sure if it would be good to read on an e-reader.
Here’s a crappy cell-phone picture of Jen and I at her book signing last year for If You Were Here. (I’m really not a stalker, I swear!)
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April 23rd, 2012 in
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
This book was not at all what I expected it to be, yet I enjoyed it immensely. I thought it would be a lot creepier and more gothic. It was actually more of a fantasy – and we all know that I usually struggle with fantasy books. This one was different though. I think it was because there was a clear set of rules that the fantastical elements operated in. Each peculiar child had a special talent, there was no random magic happening at convenient times for the sake of advancing the plot.
The ending of this book definitely paves the way for a sequel and while I would like to read more, I was quite satisfied with how this book wrapped up. If for some reason there isn’t a sequel, I won’t be lying awake at night over it.
Interspersed throughout the book are real vintage photographs. The author incorporates these photos into the story – most of them are of the peculiar children. It was as if someone handed the author a stack of eclectic photos and said, “I challenge you to weave these into a story.” I thought it was a unique device. Because of these photos, I would recommend if you read the electronic version that you do so on a color reader. The photos looked like muddy blurs on my Kindle but looked great on my iPad.
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April 11th, 2012 in
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Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
A powerful, provocative novel about marriage and motherhood, love and forgiveness.
Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.
This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.
Heart of the Matter was this month’s read for the book club my stay-at-home moms group just formed. This was only our second meeting and the first one I had been able to attend. Most of the other women had read some of Emily Giffin’s other books but this was my first time reading her work. I’ll admit I had my expectations set pretty low, knowing that she is considered a “chick-lit” author. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed reading this book.
The story pulled me in right in from the beginning. In the first chapter Tessa and her physician husband Nick are at their anniversary dinner when he gets called away to an emergency at the hospital. Tessa recalls that she went home that night without Nick and fell asleep not knowing that this night would be a defining moment in her life – everything in her life will now be remembered as happening either before or after this night. When I read that, I was compelled to keep reading until I had a full understanding of what grew out of the events of that night. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling it for you so I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it at that as far as the plot goes.
I do think that Ms. Giffin might have a problem with stay-at-home moms. Tessa is a former career woman who has recently become a stay-at-home mom and is struggling with her identity. I can understand that – I have met many moms who feel the same way. But every other stay-at-home mom in the book is perfect in a bitchily perfect Stepford Wives meets Heathers way. It would have been nice if Tessa’s friends had more dimension to them. Even in a private school, I can’t believe that every mother would be like the ones in this book.
This book made for a great book club discussion. We discussed the several aspects of motherhood presented in this book – homemakers, single moms, career moms. There was also a lot to discuss related to the events that transpired as a result of “that night”. I think that most women, especially moms, will find this book an enjoyable read.
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Powell’s Books
April 10th, 2012 in
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Big Miracle by Tom Rose
My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars
Big Miracle is the book that inspired the movie of the same name. I haven’t seen the movie yet and couldn’t find a release date for the DVD. However, from what I could gather from reading about the movie online, it differs markedly from the book. It would have to – there is no way that Drew Barrymore would star in a movie that was as cynical about environmentalism and animal welfare as author Tom Rose’s book is.
This book is a non-fiction account of the 1988 rescue attempt of three California Gray whales who were trapped in the ice near Barrow, Alaska. The author was one of several reporters in Barrow covering the rescue process. What could have been a very nice story about people of all different backgrounds coming together to save the whales was ruined by the author’s cynicism and the opinions he inserted as facts that didn’t have much to do with the actual story.
When this book was originally published in 1989, the title was Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event. Had I known that when this book was pitched to me, I would not have reviewed it. The cover of the new, movie tie-in edition reads, “Inspired by the Incredible True Story That United the World.” The author did not feel that this story was incredible – at least not in a good way. He repeats often that the whales didn’t need to be saved and that the amount of media coverage they received was ridiculous.
He also uses every opportunity to assert that we should be drilling for oil in Alaska and that the environmentalists have it all wrong. He offers up his opinions as facts with no footnotes or citations to back them up. In a non-fiction book, I expect to see research if opinions are inserted. For example, “Increased wealth leads to increased spending. That applies as much to environmental protection as to anything else…The same process that drives economic growth and wealth creation results in less pollution, not more.” First of all, where is the research that backs that up and secondly, what does that have to do with rescuing the whales?
He also takes repeated jabs at Cindy Lowry from Greenpeace – “[Carroll’s] reaction to the word ‘Soviet’ was as instinctively visceral as Cindy’s reaction to the word ‘military.’ The only difference was that Carroll’s animus was justified while Cindy’s was not.” Says who? Why does that second sentence need to be there?
Those are just a couple of many, many examples. I found it ironic that the working title of this edition (which was printed on the cover of my ARC) was Everybody Loves Whales because Tom Rose doesn’t seem to love them all that much.
I did appreciate learning more about life in rural Alaska but I don’t know if slogging through the rest of the book made it worth it. I still plan on seeing the movie and I will report back afterwards.
(All quotes are taken from the Advance Uncorrected Proof – the final copy may differ.)
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(I received this book courtesy of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)
April 5th, 2012 in
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