Nonfiction / Poetry
66 pages
5 stars
This slim book contains some large and powerful poems and images. A memoir in poems of the author growing up a Polish Catholic altar boy in a steel town beside the Ohio River. He writes of growing up, of facing death when another boy dies by suicide, of being given those boys clothes, of taking over his paper route, of growing into a man.
donnarkevic’s poetry is easily accessible in its conversational tone, his images are powerful, his stories are rivetting.
Nonfiction / Poetry
232 pages
5 stars
I had already marked several poems by the time I reached page 50 that I liked, and will go back to read. When I got to page 50, Moonlit Wake, I read it, and stopped. It’s not fair to claim it’s my favorite out of all the poems, but at the moment I read it, it didn’t just resonate with me, it sang to me.
“The broken moonpath on the darkened sea…”
This book is a calorie-free meal of your favorite foods topped off with a slice of Death by Chocolate cake. It is the stimulating dinner companion you’re always craved. It is the thoughtful companion for which you’ve longed.
If you like poetry, buy this book. Like that meal above, eat slowly, chew well, savor flavor and texture.
Nonfiction / Medical
432 pages
5 Stars
Oh. Em. Gee!!! A friend of mine, a retired MD, suggested I read this, and he also suggested it should be required reading for all medical students. As a lay person, I agree. I could hardly put it down.
It does read more like a textbook than a novel, but Dr. Gunter talks about a subject with ease, and humor, that many still find almost embarrassing to bring up. Myself included. I was raised in a very conservative family, and one just didn’t talk about such things unless in euphemism. For me, this book is a godsend, and I truly wish I’d had it when I was young and in child-bearing years!
If you think there is nothing humorous to write about a vagina, start with the cover of the book, a pink zipper, opened. All those teeth!!! ;-) And go from there. I laughed out loud often.
I read this book cover to cover, but it would also be a great book just to keep on your reference shelf. Or, read it cover to cover and then put it on your reference shelf.
I believe Ayelet Walman said it bed, “Buy this book if you have a vagina or if you spend any time at all in reasonably close proximity to one.” If you have a vagina, or know someone who does, I heartily recommend this book.
Fiction / Science Fiction / High Literature
330 pages
3 stars
First off, if you enjoy what I call ‘high literature’—words over plot—this is the book for you! I love the idea, the concept, of her story, more than adequately described in 50-plus years of reviews, but I could not enjoy it. I would not have finished it had the book group I’m joining not chosen it for the next meeting.
Ms. LeGuin is, as my sister has told me many times, one of the all-time greats, her writing is technically perfect. I don’t want perfection, I want story. When I read fiction, I want escape. I want to get between the pages of the book and go adventuring with the characters. I want to cry with them, laugh with them, starve with them, swim with them. Unfortunately, for me, she puts a psychic distance between her characters and me. She wants me to sit and watch through a glass window. I can do that with the television set.
There were a couple of places where she slipped up, and I actually began to feel an emotional tug to a couple of the characters, but she caught herself, corrected course, and again forced me to sit still and be quiet, when I really wanted to stay with the characters.
I have read a few of her novels, and gone back for more through the years, but always the same. The characters are allowed to go play, I must sit primly on the sofa and watch through the window. She is consistent.
Her short stories; however, are a delight. In them, I’m invited to play.
Nonfiction / biography
480 pages
4 stars
This is my first Bob Woodward book. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, and I don’t know if it was the writing, the editing, or the subject, but I found it easy to put the book down, but it was also easy to pick it up and start again. Normally, a 500-page book wouldn’t take me very long to read – 5 days at the outside, but this book took me close to two weeks.
The writing was nothing less than I would expect from a pro like Woodward, so I’m going to guess the subject matter was my problem with the book. I did like the fact that Woodward looked for and reported on the good things he found with Mr. Trump, though they were few and far between.
This was also my first Trump book, and though it wasn’t anything new and surprising (it has all, or most all, been said and reported through the last few years, but the book was a good chronology of those events, with a lot of backstory.
My favorite part was the early part, where Woodward talked about the early cabinet members— Mattis, Pompeo, Tillerson. Mattis is a bit of a local hero here, in Richland WA, who I’d never heard of until he went to work for Trump’s White House. Frankly, it was good to meet my neighbor, at least through this means, and now I’d like to meet him in actuality. And I was, somehow, quite pleased that Mad Dog was a name Trump gave him. His code name was in fact, Chaos, but Trump liked Mad Dog better. The same with Tillerson. These two men in particular worked hard to educate Trump, to help our country, until finally…
My understanding of reportage is that a good reporter (Woodward) will look for both sides of the story and report them both as honestly as possible. I think Woodward did an admirable job of it.
