Relief, Indeed!

The Sweet Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Five stories going back and forth through time.....ending, or focusing, on the disappearance of 12-year old Leonora Coulter...deemed a "good" girl by her family and friends...a girl who got caught in a 'twist of fate"



Five sets of characters who interact with each other in unexpected ways throughout the book.



Awkward, damaged people going through life with enough "baggage" to down an airplane.



Small town life...the flip side of Bucolic



The awkward style of this book bothered, and distracted, me...until i realized it was perfect for these characters...most of whom are searching for reinvention...seeking acceptance, and comfort, and a sense of identity. The surprising ways in which they interact and separate remind me of broken glass on the sidewalk....that, in spite of the separateness of the pieces, the whole splintered mess, in fact, forms a weird kind of Whole



This wasn't an easy read and these people are not lovable......the atmosphere was desperate, claustrophobic, and strange....In an odd way I like it, and respect Ms Braunstein for letting her characters speak in their own tongues...



*this was an ARC from Library Thing Early Readers*



3 stars



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Is Dinner Ready?

One Bite Won't Kill You by Ann Hodgman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is one of my "Reviews-on-the-Fly"....Be Warned:



I became aware of this book through some Childrens Catalogue (to remain nameless because I can't remember) where it was tucked in the last pages.



Now that i own my copy...I was looking at it, the other night...and figured it needed a review



Ann Hodgman is a wonderful comedienne "on the page"...and Roz Chast is...well..."i swoon" at her talent..



The book itself is full of recipes...some good..some bland. BUT...this book is geared toward parents with kids who are "picky eaters"......an alien life form, when I was a kid. I ate what was served...or creeped downstairs after dark for a bowl of cereal...UNTIL i learned how to cook....for my own self ( and after my Mom went AWOL). Ms Hodgman does a bang up job in the Introduction....explaining the world of "Kids & Food"...i skipped that...no kids here...Her Afterword WHY NONE OF THIS MATTERS....matters....read it.



The recipes:



BROC BAKE-page220- is seriously fine...be sure to use Fresh Broccoli



PERFECT BROILED CHICKEN-page68- is just that



BREAKFAST "ZA-page 29- is so good..and a good reason to keep Crescent Roll Dough "in the house'



I recommend this to anyone who has to feed kids every day..if only for the humor element....and to anyone who loves to cook...and can tweak otherwise pedestrian recipes



4 Stars

ALPHABET CITY

Lost Lustre: A New York Memoir by Joshua Karlen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't know what to expect when I received this book from Library Thing's EARLY REVIEWERS program......what I got was a small gem.

Josh Karlen grew up on Avenue C in New York City...where the tenements burned and their charred skeletons remained "standing"...where beatings by other kids were a daily part of life...where despair pretty much ruled his world. Along came the Punk Rock/Club scene of the 1970s-early 1980s, where he , at least, had an outlet for his pent-up aggression...Punk Rock in its Flower....until it morphed into the citywide gentrification that folks now call "normal"

This book is part personal history and a cultural history of a time and place(s) that no longer exist...the title chapter is the history of New York Punk writ small and personal. Heartbreaking, tragic, hubristic and gaudy....yet full of a strange kind of hope. As is the entire book. This history is written as the map of Mr Karlen's environs, as he inhabited them, then...and as he remembers them now....written without sensationalism or self-pity. From the Greek diners to the smelly Punk Clubs....the SRO hotels and St Marks place with its trash and vaudeville. Through grammar school to Music & Art (from which he flunked out) to the Amazon jungle....it's all here. One man's search for his true home.

A prosaic undertaking, to be sure...as we have all made that journey. But this particular trek is set down in a literate, clear-eyed prose that made the reading a pure delight. I am grateful to have found this book, since New York City was a kind of "dream city" for me when I was growing up in Akron, Ohio...I was a little old for the Punk scene when it hit....but I certainly loved the energy and rawness of the music. This book shows some of that scene's flip side...which the music rags never did. In the end, it's a story full of hope. I recommend it to anyone who is still searching for his/her true "place of belonging".

4 stars (****)

Great Book..Shitty Review

The Stray Sod Country by Patrick McCabe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


READING NOTES:

>1958....Cullymore, Ireland. SPUTNIK is in orbit and the village is in turmoil. A Parish Priest beset with Paranoia and Guilt...Housewives with thoughts of Murder...a Teddy Boy come home hoping to regain the Lass He Once Loved....the World in between the Serious 1950s...on the cusp of the Wild & Wooly 1960s....Satan pulls the strings.....

The position of "remote artificer" ..be that Satan or God...or collective Conscience??? I haven't decided on any guilty party..But, Satan can't exist without God....If Satan is the Puppetmaster here..God lurks in the wings..and vice versa....Given the Time..1958...on the cusp...between the staid 1950s and the potential unknown of the 1960s, it's a crapshhot....

Culleymore, Ireland is the perfect place for Old Scratch to insinuate himself into the lives of "normal" folk...a seriously paranoid parish Priest what carries a load of Past Guilt.....erstwhile housewives, one who has murderous night time thoughts.....the "hated" local hermit..the SCAPEGOAT...

The FETCH...what gives access to THE STRAY SOD COUNTRY...where we all go when life becomes a bit "too much....Is OLD SCRATCH the one who pulls the strings, here?.or is it the fact that Times are Changing?

Patrick Mc Cabe is not LACE CURTAIN Irish..as a writer...His books include violence, cruelty, and madness....but i own 4 of them...If you want to start reading them...do so with [The Butcher Boy]

i give this book 4 1/2 stars

* i know this review sucks...but i can never give a decent review to a book i seriously love*





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FOOD FOR THOUGHT...and then some

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I first read this book, and its companion Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen in 1997. This time around I devoured it in one sitting...and it is still a satisfying read.

Food writing as it should be..true Kitchen Table talk...full of stories, anecdotes, hints, tips, victories and flops. The recipes? some work...some don't

The favor Ms Colwin did for me was mentioning Taste of Country Cooking by the inimitable Edna Lewis...which title I recommend to anyone interested in "American" cookery...besides that, Ms Lewis is one hell of a storyteller.

MORE HOME COOKING has a chapter on what to eat whilst suffering JET LAG....the bugbear of our times. Her chapter on feeding children is a gem since she does not focus so much on the "dos and donts" as she does on the "exciting the palate" of those who are not jaded..Her chapter on Lentil Soup left me with a serious craving...and are those drool spots on the page(s)???

I love this book. It's a pity Ms Colwin died so young...we lost a good Foodie....and a Good Woman to boot.

4 Stars

HISTORY

The Convent: A Novel by Panos Karnezis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


An isolated convent in the Spanish sierra...home to 6 nuns of varying ages, whose lives are devoted to God, reflection and solitude....Everything changes the day that a baby is found, in a padded suitcase, on the front steps.

Everything changes..the world comes to the convent in an emotional sense, at least. Jealousy, cruelty, zealotry, pride...make for a heady, deadly mix..The MOTHER SUPERIOR is at the center of the storm, having kept her own secret for many years. ....in the misguided belief that the orphaned child is the expiation of her own past sin...she delves into madness and shame...wherein the story becomes itself. Too many tales of this ilk become tacky..this one does not

This book is not a religious screed, nor is it a tabloid expose...it is a story of 6 women living isolated lives whose world is suddenly shattered from without...how each one deals with this new "truth". This book won't set the world on fire..but may give a reader food for thought...regarding the sanctity of the Church..and the price it exacts from its "sons & daughters"

3 Stars

YURK!

Flesh Wound by Jon Say

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Oh, Man....what we have here is a contemporary Male Fantasy loosely disguised as a "thriller". Studly ex-Homicide Cop literally runs into the car of a high-priced Fetish Call Girl..."Love" follows like mould spores...with acts of domination, humiiiation, boot licking....but no penetration.Except off-the-clock..the Cop and the Call Girl...

Somewhere in between the thinly veiled "talks" on relationship dynamics and the role of private erotic fantasies..there is a tale of financial chicanery...investment bank mergers.the sale of T-Bills to the Chinese...the success of which hinges on satisfying the sexual desires of one lone Chinese diplomat.....throw into the mix a horny SEC regulator...a snidely State Department agent, or two....one confused/bitter ex-wife...gorgeous, athletic strippers..and two adorable 4-year-old girls.....adds up to one glorious Mess

I received this book through Library Thing's Member Giveaway...otherwise I never would have read..I give it 2 Stars...the reading was slowed due to the fact that too much information was crammed into the dialogue....making for undue distraction. The Characters were of the Cartoon variety....PLAYBOY without the Wit....too much "stud" in the Hero...too much perfection" in the Heroine.

This was a cheap, easy read...if you're looking for erotic thrills, go elsewhere...no THRILL this.



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