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msceliesblues
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Country: United States
State: Texas
Birthday: 11/18/1978
Gender: Male
Interests: Tori, Patty Hearst, Pop Culture, Teen Horror Films
Expertise: obsessing over random things
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/16/2002
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| I just finished Violet & Claire. It's not nearly as good as Dangerous Angels, The Weetzie Bat books. However, it's still an enjoyable read, and great escape. This one actually has Tori lyrics in it too, and the girls listen to Tori. There's still magic and beauty in it, which is why I absolutely love Francesca Lia Block, but it's a different kind of magic then Weetzie and Witch Baby have surrounding them. | | |
| I'm currently reading like 3 books. I finished Alice Walker's "You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down" and started "In Love and Trouble." I like some of her short stories, but the majority of them just get too preachy. Of course, Alice Walker is kind of preachy, but it's usually easier to take when you have a long time to endure yourself to the characters. When you have a few pages then get hit in the head with an opinion it's a little much.
I'm also still reading Rebecca Jackson's "Gifts of Power" and also started "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin. | | |
| I tried to start Murder At San Simeon, the mystery novel by Patty Hearst, but I don't like mysteries that much, and from the start it doesn't seem very good. I may keep at it though.
I'm going to start reading some Alice Walker short stories in the mean time. Of course, I'm still also reading Gifts of Power as well.
I like to think of myself as a Literary Archaeologist. That sounds like a good way to describe why I read the way I do. I read something, and it touches me, and I feel the need to dig further down. To uncover what is under it, to see what other things went into making it. A good book is like a piece of a puzzle, it's influenced by other pieces. Eventually they all fit together to give me a better picture. Music is the same way too.
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| Rescuing Patty Hearst
Someone else mentioned in a review on amazon that the book doesn't really do what it says it's going to. I was expected to read more about the issues going on in the 70s and how they affected the characters, not just a personal memoir. The Patty Hearst and other 70's mentions seemed forced and thrown in, to give the book a theme that the author never really explored.
I also don't think the author did such a good job explaining her "kidnapping" and the torment she professes to have endured. Her adult self explains many times in the year 2000 entries that she's angry at her mother and hurt for her horrible childhood, but fails to actually describe the child as anything other than inconvenient.
I wanted her to delve into the feeling and connection she felt for Patty Hearst. I wanted to see how pop culture and everything going on around her had an impact on her mother and her mother's illness. It never happens.
All in all, I'd have to say that although it was a quick read, Rescuing Patty Hearst was a disappointment. | | |
| I finished Second Class Citizen yesterday before work.
"One of the most informative books I have read about contemporary African life that I have read." - Alice Walker
I'd have to agree. Most of the stuff I've read haas been about women fleeing from Africa. In this book, the main character goes with her husband to England, and you get a glimpse of how different things are in England from Africa.
I'm looking forward to reading more of Emecheta's stuff. I think this book was pretty autobiographical. Adah (the main character) proves that you're only a second class citizen if you don't try to better yourself. Adah fought for what she wanted, got a first class job, and a first class education, while her husband Francis sat around waiting for his wife to support him, and telling her that she was second class. She proved him wrong.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the ending, because it just ends. There's no build up. The ending felt like someone had just hit the stop button on a movie 20 minutes before it was over, and said that was the end.
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