Straight Up and Dirty, Stephanie Klein
Memoir of the author's marriage and how it declined. She also has a blog (and is actually going through a very tough time at the moment with her son). I was glad to have purchased this used, because it just reminded me that I don't really like her voice and I don't like the way she tells stories.

A Guide ( Read more... )

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( Booking it through 2005. )

A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey, is the author's account of time spent in rehab after years of alcohol and drug (mostly crack) addiction. All I can say is... wow. The story is very compelling and completely riveting. Frey's philosophy behind his addictions is interesting -- he is unwilling to look anywhere but himself for the blame. I ( Read more... )

Book the 26th: The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket. This is the first book in the "Series of Unfortunate Events"...series. The book is extremely dark, with rather horrible things being done, and truly terrible threats being said, to a group of children. It is also extremely amusing to read, and sets up a rather nice mystery. 4 out of 5 eyes ( Read more... )

Being able to tag a particular entry here as belonging to a specific genre seems like it would be a good idea. I'm not exactly sure if this will work, but hopefully people will be able to add/edit tags on their entries now.

( I've now completed the semester. Since I last updated here, I've read: )

The Woman in the Wall, by Patrice Kindl. A girl so shy she moves into the walls in her house until her family forgets about her -- a wallflower, literally. I also read it as a metaphor for the difficulties coping with the physical blossoming women experience during puberty. Totally awesome.

Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants, by Sam Swope. Jack ( Read more... )

Leon's Story, by Leon Tillage. This was a very quick read and it made me cry. A custodian from a Baltimore school tells his life story, from being born on a sharecropping farm in a Jim Crow town in North Carolina in the 30s, to marching in demonstrations with Martin Luther King Jr. The book was constructed not from his writings, but rather from ( Read more... )

This Land Was Made For You And Me, by Elizabeth Partridge. A biography of Woody Guthrie. My god, who knew. I chortled. I blew my nose and honked. I gasped. I was shocked and horrified. It was utterly gripping and I couldn't put it down. It doesn't read like a biography written for children -- at ALL. It just has big print. Find it. Read it. It's ( Read more... )