Book Description
He saw her across the Piazza San Marco and fell in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; and she, a divorced American chef, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thinks she is incapable of intimacy, that her heart has lost its capacity for romantic love. But within months of their first meeting, she has packed up her house in St. Louis to marry Fernando—“the stranger,” as she calls him—and live in that achingly lovely city in which they met.
Vibrant but vaguely baffled by this bold move, Marlena is overwhelmed by the sheer foreignness of her new home, its rituals and customs. But there are delicious moments when Venice opens up its arms to Marlena. She cooks an American feast of Mississippi caviar, cornbread, and fried onions for the locals . . . and takes the tango she learned in the Poughkeepsie middle school gym to a candlelit trattoría near the Rialto Bridge. All the while, she and Fernando, two disparate souls, build an extraordinary life of passion and possibility.
Featuring Marlena’s own incredible recipes, A Thousand Days in Venice is the enchanting true story of a woman who opens her heart—and falls in love with both a man and a city.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful.......2007-09-19
If you are looking for a wonderfully human story of pure delight, this is the book for you... It gives you a real flavor for one of the most romantic cities in Italy.... You can almost smell the food... and feel the puch of the tourists... She is steeped in the Italian experience...
Fairytale for Grown-ups.......2007-09-12
In a world of multitudes of choices, Marlena chose the road (or actually, waterway), less travelled. She fell in love with someone she barely knew and moved half way round the world in the process. She opted for the unexpected - an adventure. I chose Marlena's story as my "beach read" this summer and it was perfect. It's quick and light - fun! She didn't weigh her story down with complaints about how different we all are - she chose the language of love (and food) to find commonality - yet she still added charming stories that suggested how Italian lifestyle and priorities are a bit different from Americans. Instead or wondering "what if..." - she did it! What a brave soul!
An excellent read at all times.......2007-07-22
Reading De Blasi's story is like going to Venice in person. Love her comments on italian men and all her recipes that come with the book.
Fantastic, candid memoir!.......2007-06-19
I was really impressed by the author's honesty in chronicling her new life in Venice and the changes that came with her marriage. She didn't sugarcoat the bad parts and unlike others, I understood the narrative reason why she continued to call her husband "the stranger". Who has not gotten married and at one time or another thought, "Who is this? Did I marry this person?"
I loved her attention to detail of Venetian life and culture and the care in which she described the people she came in contact with. A truly enjoyable book from cover to cover...and some day I'll be brave enough to try the recipes in the back!
Living The Good Life...........2007-06-12
Blasi's little story of her whirlwind romance does not read conventionally, as a novel with readily discernible plotting and themes would. This is not to say the book is difficult, since it is not: the prose is clear and straightforward. However, "1000 days" is far more introspective than a typical armchair traveler read, and this makes it more about Blasi's inner life and the changes in attitude and values she experiences after deciding to change her circumstances.
I found it an extraordinarily thoughtful and intimate book, almost like reading a personal diary, and the embellishments of an exotic locale and gourmet recipes did not turn it into another cliched "life with the eccentric locals of generic popular place #4". Instead I found myself absorbed in Blasi and her choices. I will look for more by this author.
Book Description
With “incantatory prose” that “sweeps over the reader like a dream,” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.
In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots
arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family’s lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.
These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.
From the writer Time has said tells "truths powerful enough to break a reader’s heart” comes a glorious travelogue through time and fate, through loss and love and survival. Welcome to Blackbird House.
Download Description
With ¿incantatory prose¿ that ¿sweeps over the reader like a dream,¿ (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.
In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots
arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family¿s lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.
These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.
From the writer Time has said tells "truths powerful enough to break a reader¿s heart¿ comes a glorious travelogue through time and fate, through loss and love and survival. Welcome to Blackbird House.
Customer Reviews:
The walls CAN talk.......2007-08-03
Who knows just how a history is held by a house? In a desolate end of the Cape, the story begins as Coral Hadley loses her husband and young son Issac at sea in a storm. Vincent survives and takes 20 years to get home. Issac's pet blackbird flies home somehow and is seen throughout as pure white.
200 years of history and demons are kept in this house. Generations of Crosby, West, Griffon, McGuire stay. Others tarry awhile, but the history is not theirs to carry and they move on. Terrible beauty in this place, joy and terrible sadness. Birth, dead, suicide, mystery and magic, love and relationship. A fabulous piece of writing.
mesmerizing.......2007-06-05
Beautifully written stories that work as a novel about generations of people living in the same house. Lovely motifs weave their way through the years. Great read.
A house, a (sometimes white) blackbird, the color red, a span of over two hundred years, an interestingly-connected collection.......2006-11-29
A schooner and its passengers encounter a horrible storm in the first story of this collection by Alice Hoffman, author of the Oprah Book Club selection, Here on Earth, as well as almost two dozen other novels. It's hard to find fault with Hoffman's Blackbird House, either in its writing (good) or its plot (great). The well-thought out connections between successive stories create an ordered web about life in and around rural Massachusettes. My favorite, The Conjurer's Handbook, is about a man who falls in love with a Jewish interpreter and guide named Dorey while touring a camp in Germany. The interactions between strong, capable, Dorey and her love's stubbornly independent grandmother, during a visit of less than a day, are marvelous. Those few pages, along with the recurring links between characters and stories, make this a wonderful choice both for those who love short stories and for anyone who hasn't yet given short stories a try. Those who enjoy these short stories, will probably also like those of authors Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.
Good Stuff!.......2006-08-14
I've read several of Alice Hoffman's books, and have, for the most part, enjoyed them. BLACKBIRD HOUSE is one of my favorites, mainly because the story is weaved through centuries of history, but also because of the magical element that this mysterious Cape Cod cottage has. In short, it's a fun story to read and dream about a house that has inhabitated all types of fascinating people.
Magical Tales Of A Cape Cod House.......2006-08-09
From Revolutionary times to the present-day, the lives of inhabitants of a Massachusetts house are examined with compelling awareness. Alice Hoffman weaves tales of acute happiness and profound sorrow, each rewarding in its own right. Together, they combine for a loosely-constructed novel of the changing events in the life of a house. Vivid images of blackbirds, pear trees, sweet peas, the color red and more unite these stories with an undeniable charm.
"The Edge of the World", a tale of seaman John Hadley who originally built the house in the 1700's as a gift for his wife Coral. The sailor and his two sons are lost at sea and the grieving widow and mother slogs on with only her field of sweet peas and the ghost of her son's pet blackbird to sustain her.
"The Witch of Truro," a lyrical story of red boots, pear trees, and a love story that is one-of a kind. After a horrifying event, Ruth Declan becomes a charity case for neighbors who sell her into servitude to a blacksmith named Lysander.
"The Token," features Garnet, one of the book's most endearing characters. Her love for her sister Ruby and even for her seemingly uncaring mother, Ruth of the previous story, is heartwarming and uplifting.
"Insulting the Angels" introduces Larkin, another lovable character who finds fatherhood in a most unusual way.
"Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" acquaints the reader with Violet, a physically scarred young woman who falls in love with a professor. She carries his child while he falls in love with her sister.
"Lionheart" picks up with Violet, now a mother of seven, living in Blackbird House and doting on her firstborn son, Lion. His life is charmed and, as the author tells us, he was not like anyone else and he never would be.
"The Conjurer's Handbook" is the story of Lion, Jr. who is raised at Blackbird House by his grandmother and takes a Jewish wife while abroad. Can the granddaughter-in-law ever win the love of Violet and will Violet ever accept her? This reads like a fairy tale, a wonderful, magical happy-ever-after story to cherish.
"The Wedding of Snow and Ice" is set in 1957 and televisions and canned soup have appeared as staples at Blackbird House. Grace Farrell is caught in the crossfire of impending women's liberation but it is her son Jamie whose visit to the next door neighbor's to shovel the sidewalk and deliver homemade soup that is the focal point of this haunting tale.
"India" is set in the 1960's and 1970's when a young hippie couple purchase the house and raise their two children, Kalkin and Maya. The very back-to-nature parents have given birth to children who have no interest in their mother-earth upbringing but prefer to woof down hamburgers and watch "Dallas" on tv. How one escapes and one comes to terms with her roots makes for a riveting read.
"The Pear Tree" is the story of the Stanley family. Unlike the families before, they only use the home as a summer getaway. For that reason, they never fit in with the community and their son Dean is a loner whose tragic life plays out at Blackbird House.
"The Summer Kitchen" is the story of the family of Katherine and Sam, a couple drowning in sorrow. Their lives are centered around Emma, a young daughter dying of leukemia. Their son Walker is jealous of the attention lavished on Emma and rebels in typical ten-year-old fashion.
"Wish You Were Here," the final story is perhaps the weakest. It picks up the tale of Emma more than twenty years later when she inherits Blackbird House from her parents. Emma has had an empty and unhappy life, but can she find happiness at last? Readers will also be treated to what Walker has accomplished with his life.
Average customer rating:
- A Chick-Lit Change
- Phoebe Fine, Part Deux
- recommended
- Why she didn't read this whole book...
- cute cover, bad book
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Why She Went Home: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Lucinda Rosenfeld
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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What She Saw...: A Novel
ASIN: 081297171X
Release Date: 2005-03-01 |
Book Description
You have to love her, even when you’re laughing at her—Phoebe Fine, that is, the star of this hilariously eccentric and affecting new novel.
On the cusp of thirty, Phoebe has fled the high life and, ultimately, the no life of trying and failing to “be somebody” in Manhattan. She returns to her parents’ Depression-era bungalow across the river in New Jersey, the house she grew up in, to lie low with the crabgrass and dust bunnies and memories of her childhood, and perhaps just be herself. Easier said than done. Once resettled, Phoebe hatches a plan to resell her neighbors’ garbage on eBay, begins work on a solo album for electric violin and voice called Bored and Lonely, and accepts a date with the conductor of the Newark Symphony Orchestra, Roget Mankuvsky, a man with acid-washed jeans and a mysterious past. And so, with the hope of progress on both fronts, Phoebe’s search for a good way to make a living and a good man to make a life with continues.
In this second installment of Phoebe Fine’s life story, author Lucinda Rosenfeld raises the emotional and romantic stakes. Though still consumed with appearances, including her own, Phoebe now has serious grown-up issues to deal with—her mother’s illness, a hostile and competitive older sister with marital problems, and a moral and financial crisis involving a viola that may be worth millions of dollars. But the comic notes prevail. The question is, will Phoebe?
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
You have to love her, even when you're laughing at her -- Phoebe Fine, that is, the star of this hilariously eccentric and affecting new novel.
On the cusp of thirty, Phoebe has fled the high life and, ultimately, the no life of trying and failing to "be somebody" in Manhattan. She returns to her parents' Depression-era bungalow across the river in New Jersey, the house she grew up in, to lie low with the crabgrass and dust bunnies and memories of her childhood, and perhaps just be herself. Easier said than done. Once resettled, Phoebe hatches a plan to resell her neighbors' garbage on eBay, begins work on a solo album for electric violin and voice called Bored and Lonely, and accepts a date with the conductor of the Newark Symphony Orchestra, Roget Mankuvsky, a man with acid-washed jeans and a mysterious past. And so, with the hope of progress on both fronts, Phoebe's search for a good way to make a living and a good man to make a life with continues.
In this second installment of Phoebe Fine's life story, author Lucinda Rosenfeld raises the emotional and romantic stakes. Though still consumed with appearances, including her own, Phoebe now has serious grown-up issues to deal with -- her mother's illness, a hostile and competitive older sister with marital problems, and a moral and financial crisis involving a viola that may be worth millions of dollars. But the comic notes prevail. The question is, will Phoebe?
"Funny, sassy... Rosenfeld's style is witty and winning."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Twenty- and thirtysomethings experiencing the same ennui as Phoebe will relate to her struggles in this charming, often hilarious novel."
BOOKLIST
"Who knew that a voice this hysterically funny can render family life with such sadness and depth. By the fifth page, I was ready to follow Lucinda Rosenfeld's heroine to hell and back, not to mention her native New Jersey. Take this book home with you!"
GARY SHTEYNGART, AUTHOR OF
THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK
"With swift humor and intriguing melancholy Rosenfeld gets to the heart of the struggle of growing up. She captures what it feels like to move away from the bright lights, and into the real world, where your childhood is either squarely behind you -- or you're on the verge of re-creating it. Either way, it's scary, fun and filled with surprises."
JILL DAVIS, AUTHOR OF
GIRLS' POKER NIGHT
Customer Reviews:
A Chick-Lit Change.......2006-09-27
I loved this book. It was a change from the fluffy chick-lit type. It was refreshing to see a woman have a date that wasn't so perfect. A lot of chick-lit female characters find the perfect mate. It was nice to have a female character who didn't meet the perfect guy who is strong, handsome, ambitious and rich considering that all men aren't.
There were other areas that are similar to other chick-lit books - being unemployed and having difficulty in getting on with family members, but in this regard all books are different.
After reading so many chick-lit books that were very similar this was a bit of a change and I hope another sequel comes out. Plus you didn't have to read the first book (What She Saw) to understand "Why she went home", even though characters re-occur.
Phoebe Fine, Part Deux.......2004-10-22
Normally I cannot stand overly neurotic characters, but there's just something so likeable about Phoebe Fine and her aging musician parents that keeps me reading and laughing. Think of Anastasia Krupnik all grown up and you'll get Phoebe Fine.
Phoebe's life is going nowhere in the Big Apple, so she returns to suburban New Jersey and its shopping center landscape to put the pieces back together. Her mother has cancer, their house is falling apart, and even her "perfect" sister Emily seems to be losing some of her polish.
Throw in some fake Eastern Europeans, a broken viola, an old elementary school crush, and a really lousy first date, and this novel somehow comes together. I think my favorite character might actually be Jorge, Emily's South American Jewish lawyer husband and his awkward English.
Rosenfeld's prose isn't always pretty, but her characters are unique and a blast to read. And by all means, before moving back home, read this book.
recommended.......2004-09-30
One could complain that this book offers too many coincidences (like the Dickens novel it mentions). One could complain about, say, the copyediting (e.g., the missing word on page 230). But Phoebe Fine knows complaints, already, being something of a virtuoso in that department. Though not only a complainer, but a mirror of kaleidoscopic emotions and observations, with occasional surprise that they are apparently her own. I quite enjoyed Phoebe's story (I missed the first volume). Thanks, Lucinda.
Why she didn't read this whole book..........2004-09-13
This book was so boring and infuriating that I skimmed through about 100 pages and read the last few chapters, just so I could see how it ended. Why Phoebe would ever keep dating Roget is beyond me- he was pompous, rude, annoying and cheap. Even though she can't stand him she apparently keeps dating him because she has the self esteem of a doormat. I skimmed the book to see when she would dump him and was so disgusted when that didn't happen. This book has it's humorous moments, but they are so few and far between that it is not worth reading.
cute cover, bad book.......2004-05-25
I chose this book as my selection for our monthly Book Club. (I'd read a raving good review of it in a magazine)
I was disappointed and found it to be a BORING book. Nobody else in the book group found it to be that wonderful either.
Average customer rating:
- Needed to to be said...
- Needed to to be said...
- Misleading Marketing Ploy
- NOTHING OUT THERE LIKE IT
- Very disappointing!
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The Things We Do to Make It Home: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Beverly Gologorsky
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0345428021
Release Date: 2000-01-04 |
Amazon.com
In the decades since the end of the Vietnam War, American writers of all stripes have staked out that cataclysmic conflict as a subject for literature. Tim O'Brien, Michael Herr, Ron Kovic, David Rabe--the list of authors who have rendered men and war is long and impressive; the fact that there's nary a woman among them is perhaps not surprising, as combat is, for the most part, a male activity. But men weren't the only ones affected by Vietnam--for every soldier in a rice paddy, there was a mother, a sister, a lover back home; when their men came back changed by the experience of war, life changed for the women, as well. In her impressive debut novel, Beverly Gologorsky skillfully depicts the lives of three returned veterans and the women who love them. The story begins in 1973, shortly after Rooster, Frankie, Nick, Sean, Rod, and Jason return home from Vietnam, and it's obvious something's not quite right.
Waiting for his girlfriend, Millie, to dress for a party, Rooster can't sit still.
He counts twenty-two steps from the bedroom door to the end of the living room.... She doesn't like him barging in while she's dressing. She says that he's got to give her some privacy. Soon there'll be thunder, lightning. He begins snapping his fingers. Twenty-two steps. He turns, fixes his eyes on the door. Twenty-two steps. Hey, baby, anchors need to be close to their boats.
All of the men in Gologorsky's book are damaged goods and all the women do their best to patch them up, with mostly disappointing results. What elevates this novel above your run-of-the-mill tale of dysfunction and heartache is Gologorsky's unsentimental yet compassionate rendering of all her characters, both male and female. Though the plot is occasionally thin, the pain and passion carry you through.
Book Description
In this poignant and unforgettable novel, the fierce repercussions of the Vietnam War are captured from an altogether original and touching angle. This story belongs to the women: the lovers, wives, and daughters who saw their men returned safely to them--but as unfamiliar, haunted souls who would forever be out of their reach.
Remember the American Dream. Beautiful House. Children. The Suburbs. He's in one piece. Safe at home. Ignore the reality. His fear of sleep. The imaginary person he talks to. The pills. The booze. The car parked miles away from the driveway. . . .
An emotionally charged story of passionate love, unfulfilled desire, and an American dream gone terribly awry, The Things We Do to Make It Home is a powerful portrayal of six women struggling to salvage their homes and their families while discovering the limits of devotion to help those they love. Though inviting comparisons to the work of Tim O'Brien and Bobbie Ann Mason, The Things We Do to Make It Home illuminates--in its own unique and unadorned style--the destructive effects of war on those who served and those who waited behind.
Customer Reviews:
Needed to to be said..........2000-05-03
For so long war has been described from a male point of view. In this warm, loving novel, we hear about Vietnam through the eyes of the women who live with Vietnam vets. These women are unforgettable and the stories they relate are both sad and uplifting. This is a book worth reading more than once.
Needed to to be said..........2000-05-03
For so long war has been described from a male point of view. In this warm, loving novel, we hear about Vietnam through the eyes of the women who live with Vietnam vets. These women are unforgettable and the stories they relate are both sad and uplifting. This is a book worth reading more than once.
Misleading Marketing Ploy.......2000-02-01
To call this book a novel does a disservice to the book and the author. This is a collection of linked stories, and the publisher's attempt to market it as a novel is misleading and infuriating. While a novel can be many things, several elements characterize it as such: pacing, narrative arc, character development, plot development, resolution. Beverly Gologorsky is a talented writer with a lean, taut prose style that pierces the heart of an image or mood. But in this book, she has not made the leap from story-writer to novelist. In fact, she may not even want to: story-writing is as equally challenging and compelling a craft as novel-writing. But simply calling this book a novel to increase sales, prestige or market share doesn't make it one. I was very excited to purchase this book, and walked away very disappointed.
NOTHING OUT THERE LIKE IT.......2000-01-12
A novel about the women who live with Vietnam vets. However, this is not a book about war. It is a book about what it means to live with men who in one way or another are not able to return love in ways that women need. Very poignant. Kept me reading until the last page. Don't miss it.
Very disappointing!.......1999-09-05
I found this book lacking substance of any sort. The author was unable to develop characters which are believable or explainable. The Vietnam veterans presented run the gambit of total disability to mild. Never are these disabilities explained or presented correctly which is obvious to the reader with even minimal knowledge of/experience with PTSD. This is a terrible offense to anyone who has or has had to suffer with PTSD. In addition the veterans portrayed give the reader the incorrect notion all Vietnam veterans have been unable to come to grips with their experience and move on in life. I bought the book because it was written by a woman and hoped it would shed light on women who have loved men suffering from PTSD. Instead the women in this book are portrayed in a scattered fashion. Never are their reasons for caring, loving, and tolerating these men explained. They appear to be a group of terribly weak codependent females. Very sad since PTSD victims depend heavily on strong family/friend/spouse/ significant other support in order to achieve recovery. Vietnam left a mark on all of us and will forever effect this nation along with the generation of men/women who were most closely aligned with the events of the time. This book does nothing to help today or tomorrow's reader understand anything about these fictional characters or their era. The story presented here is as lost and purposeless as the characters the author failed to fully develop. VERY disappointing to say the least.
Average customer rating:
- Loved it!
- A Most Delightful Book!
- A Delightful Hard-To-Find Tween/Adult Book
- Appreciating Home
- Simply Loved it!
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Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home: A Novel (Circle C Adventures)
Susan K. Marlow
Manufacturer: Kregel Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision (Circle C Adventures)
ASIN: 0825431883 |
Book Description
Twelve-year-old Andrea Carter has several frightening encounters after taking her horse, Taffy, and running away from her home at the Circle C Ranch. She begins to realize that there really is no place like home.
Customer Reviews:
Loved it!.......2007-06-13
Andrea Carter is a precocious young girl who often fails to "look before she leaps", and ends up having to dig herself out of the hole she's found herself in. A dyed-in-the-wool tomboy, Andi finds little benefit in the day-to-day trappings of a "proper" young lady's life in the year 1880, has no problem storing a smelly horse blanket in her bedroom, and no use for nor interest in the dresses that hang in her closet. Andi's impetuous behavior has consequences, though, whether having to clean the entire barn for failing to complete her chores, or more serious consequences when she attempts to run away from home when her pride is injured.
"The Long Ride Home" is a great read, for 'tweens and adults alike; we can all use a reminder that our choices have far-reaching consequences and effects on the lives of others.
Highly recommended!
A Most Delightful Book!.......2006-03-29
The Long Ride Home is one of those enjoyable adventure stories that both boys and girls will want to read. Within the pages of this delightful book, they will meet spirited Andrea Carter, a horse-loving tomboy living in the Old West. Andi's craving for adventure-which usually leads to trouble!-will appeal to the tween reader and keep them turning the pages from beginning to end.
Susan Marlow has done a fine job on her historical research, and the reader will get a genuine feel for what life was like in the Old West, without getting bogged down in tedious detail.
This book would be a worthwhile addition to any school library or family book shelf.
A Delightful Hard-To-Find Tween/Adult Book.......2006-03-27
Nothing will be the same for twelve-year old Andi Carter after her older brother Chad saves her life by pulling her from the top rail of the corral seconds before the wild, rearing, black stallion split the rail in two. Dazed, but unhurt, Andi pleaded with her brother to let her explain why she was on the fence. He wouldn't listen, but threatened to "tan her backside" if she went near his horse again. Embarrassed in front of the ranch hands, and angry at her brother-but displeased with her own behavior-Andi turns to her best friend, a golden hued, high-spirited Palomino named Taffy.
Intense and vivacious, Andi can't seem to do anything right. She attracts trouble like metal to a magnet. She leaves her chores undone because she's either lost in daydreams, or scheming for time with Taffy. And she's intensely curious about the wild, black stallion Chad warned her about, the one that almost killed her that morning.
When Andi overhears her family discussing what a problem she has become, she determines they are better off without her. The next day she gets up before dawn, saddles Taffy, and begins a dangerous journey into trouble; a costly journey that will jeopardize her life, and undermine her sense of security. Taken in by a Mexican family, she also learns about discrimination and how difficult it is to provide for a family. And like the prodigal son, Andi finds out that home and family are precious.
Pre-teens will identify with this delightful story and clamor for sequels. Debut author, Susan Marlow, from Washington created a memorable character and dynamic story line. Andi is real and memorable because girls will see themselves in her. Adults will love remembering their tomboy days through Audi's eyes. Although intended for youth, I couldn't put this book down until the end; definitely one to add to your shopping list.
Appreciating Home.......2006-03-21
I enjoyed watching Andrea learning the value of those things she already had at her disposal. The character development was good for the other main characters, as well. It was a nice leisurely read without being boring.
Simply Loved it!.......2006-02-02
This book made me cry so much! I could read this book over and over and never get bored! It's really a book you can't put down.
I say it would make a really great movie.It shows her love for her brother and her horse.Though naughty at first she learns that people out there aren't as lucky as she.
Simply loved it, i recemended this book for any age.
I'm sure you'll love it too!
Average customer rating:
- Good novel ruined by weak ending
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The Circle Home: A Novel
Hoagland
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Comics & Graphic Novels
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Contemporary
| General
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Sports
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1585744808 |
Book Description
Set against the backdrop of the streets of New York City, the fishing wharfs of Boston in the fifties, and the prizefighting gyms of both cities, Denny Kelly's life is on the skids. He's down and out and falling fast. Kelly is a has-been who isn't ready to give up. He wants to prizefight again, to regain that illusory sense of power and grace. He's too old to be fighting, but it's the only thing he knows how to do. He's walked out on his wife and daughter, has destroyed everything important in his life, yet all he ever really lived for was his moment of glory in the ring--the gladiatorial triumph that makes bearable every defeat, every humiliation.
Hoagland takes us deep into the prizefighter's hopes and struggles. We smell the blood and sweat of the gym, meet the wildly eccentric trainers, managers, and fighters, and sense the crackling tension of the ring. And keenly, we feel the burden of Kelly's mistakes and the pain he's caused those who have tried to get close to him. We live Kelly's dreams and wince at his failures, and our heart aches for him. We know his time is running out, and we are with him in the end--as he goes full circle, and finally comes home.
Customer Reviews:
Good novel ruined by weak ending.......2006-07-10
If it wasn't for the weak last chapter, "The Circle Home" might be considered a very good novel, if not a great one. As it is, the novel merely stands as an interesting early effort of a writer who would go on to distinguish himself in other literary forms (the personal essay and the travelogue).
I first came across a reference to this book in Joyce Carol Oates' "On Boxing," in which she mentions it, along with Leonard Gardner's "Fat City" and W.C. Heinz's "The Professional," as being among the few highly regarded novels revolving around the sport of boxing. This is high praise since the latter two novels, although very different from each other, are mature fully realized works that can truly be considered masterpieces. Whereas Gardner's novel is an exploration of the failed (or failing) dreams of two characters (who are boxers) as their lives intersect with each other, Heinz's novel has a much narrower focus, limiting its narrative to several weeks in the lives of a top contender and the members of his entourage as he prepares for a title shot. Along the way several colourful characters are introduced - most being fairly three dimensional but still representative of a "type" in the boxing world.
Edward Hoagland's novel is a very different work. The fact that the main character is a boxer is incidental to the story and in fact boxing plays virtually no role in the second half of the book. There are also no actual fights in the novel (not counting a couple of intense sparring sessions). However, these comments are not criticisms of the novel but rather a clarification of its focus. The fact that it doesn't dwell more on boxing is not a weakness.
The focus of the novel is one Denny Kelly (a washed-up boxer) as he faces the consequences of his immaturity after abandoning his wife and young daughter. The veneer of invulnerability he wears is gradually stripped away as he gets knocked around both in and out of the boxing ring while drifting from one city to another, often leaving other women he's used and disguarded in his wake. While the first half explores Kelly's fate as a boxer as he auditions to become a sparring partner, the second is structured like a road novel as he travels back and forth across the country, facing a series of misadventures, gradually confronting his loneliness and gaining a recognition of the longing he feels for the love he has lost. The arc of his boxing career is like a metaphor for the larger story of his life in a sense.
Hoagland's talent is apparent as he uses an unusual syntax that calls attention to itself while at the same time forcing you to pay attention to the meaning of each phrase. The novel is filled with great lines that burst off the page entertainingly, while revealing the author's insight into the complexities of relationships (much like Gardner's later novel would do more successfully).
And then we come to the twelfth and final chapter and Hoagland unwisely chooses to introduce several new characters, some of whom are supposed to be larger than life types, and at least one of whom instructs young Kelly (he's 29) about the ways of the world so he can save himself from the downward spiral his life has been following. The effect is entirely unsatisfactory as the tone changes abruptly, leading to a conclusion that is just too pat and simplistic.
"The Circle Home" is better than a lot of the pedestrian writing that reaches publication but it remains a disappointment because of the high standard it sets for itself and then fails to realize. I'd recommend it but wish it had been better.
Average customer rating:
- An old childhood favorite...
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Circle home: A novel
Emily Hanlon
Manufacturer: Bradbury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Children's Books
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ASIN: 0878881891 |
Customer Reviews:
An old childhood favorite..........2003-08-27
I read this book in 6th grade, and it instantly became one of my all-time favorites! I'd like to find it again to see if it seems as good today as it did when I was 11 or 12.
The novel opens with a local (ficticious) news artical about a girl who fell out of a window during a water balloon fight, was thought dead, but was revived at the hospital.
Then the story begins. The problem is, the last thing the girl who wakes up remembers is suddenly seeing the saber-toothed tiger ready to pounce; next thing she knows, she's in a very strange place surrounded by very strange people who insist on calling her by a strange name.
The story tracks her attempts to make sense of and survive life in a modern suburb and junior high school-- first trying to hold on to who she was, then rejecting everything she remembers and trying to become the person everyone seems to think she should be, and finally reclaiming (and even returning to!) her origional life.
Despite the fantastic time-travel elements and what-not, I remember feeling that the author captured my own middle-school experience so much better than all that gobblety-gook Judy Bloom wrote about slumber parties and boys that implied everyone's experience was like something out of a teen magazine. And the ending gave me hope that even those who don't "fit the mold" can find their place eventually.
Highly recomended for any young women between the ages of 11 and 14 who don't relate to the mass-media's Judy Bloom/Teen Magazine/Ambercrombie & Fitch take on adolecence.
Average customer rating:
- Full page review in Times Literary Supplement
- The Library Journal recommends this book
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Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle: Literary and Aesthetic Life in the Early 20th Century (Studies in British Literature)
Richard M. Dunn
Manufacturer: Edwin Mellen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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20th Century
| British
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General
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Architecture
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ASIN: 0773484884 |
Customer Reviews:
Full page review in Times Literary Supplement.......1998-09-21
P.N. Furbank writes that "Richard Dunn's title is well-chosen, for that extraordinary phenomenon 'The Berenson Circle' in Florence, is what gives his attractive book its plot and its meaning....{Dunn who] has access to the I Tatti achives, has told this story very skillfully, and with proper fairness and detachment."
The Library Journal recommends this book.......1998-07-23
Shelley Cox writes in the Library Journal that "Scott played a small but integral part in the British literary scene in the first years of this century. Introduced to the intelligentsia at an early age through his close friendship with the wife of renowned art historian Bernard Berenson, Scott left his most lasting trace as architect and garden designer of the Berensons' Italian villa, but he also published poems and a novel [actually a biography, the hjighly regarded Portrait of Zelide, recently reissued by Turtle Point Press) and began editing the complete papers of James Boswell. Dunn wisely concentrates on Scott's unpublished correspondence. Although Scott was a sad and flawed man, Dunn deftly defines his place and importance within the vibrant literary and artistic milieu of the early 20th Century."
Book Description
It's the Family Circus -- the cartoon all America loves to follow! A collection of heart-warming gems from the pen of Bil Keane.
Average customer rating:
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Melville & His Circle: The Last Years
William B. Dillingham
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0820318566 |
Books:
- Alaska Fishing on a Budget: A First-Timer's Guide to Organizing and Planning an Economy Salmon Fishing Trip to the Last Frontier
- Architectural Graphic Standards, Tenth Edition (Book only)
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
- Basket Case
- Billy and the Boingers Bootleg (Bloom County Book)
- Blood Work
- Bright Lights, Big City
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 2
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 2
- Building the Japanese House Today
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