Synopsis:
An outcast girl with telekinesis wreaks havoc at her prom. Continue reading
Carrie by Stephen King
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Monthly Archives: December 2006
Annie’s Baby: The Diary of Anonymous
Synopsis:
Go Ask Alice, only with teen pregnancy. Continue reading
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Synopsis:
The best way to learn to write is by the close reading of great literature.
Review:
I wish I could get Francine Prose to tell me about every book I read. She is so astute and insightful about the craft of writing, and equally tuned into the joys that reading has to offer the lover of language. You might think that the Superfast Reader would be averse to a technique asking her to slow down and smell the sentences, but nothing could be further from the truth. I may be a fast reader, but I am a careful reader.
Close reading involves reading for more than just theme, plot, and character psychology. She takes passages from literature and holds a microscope up to them, revealing depths of richness intentionally created by the author. Close reading not only enhances the reading experience, but provides the writer with an arsenal of techniques to better his or her own writing. Continue reading
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Synopsis:
A little girl becomes possessed by an ancient, evil spirit.
Review:
Here is a solid case of the adaptation transcending the source material. As a book, The Exorcist just doesn’t have the same air of menace and terror created by William Friedkin’s movie adaptation. Blatty gives readers passages describing black masses, and doesn’t shy away from the more salacious events during Regan’s possession, but these are just gross-outs. They don’t conjure prickling at the back of my neck, or made me afraid to turn out the lights. I found myself more disgusted than horrified. Continue reading
Diagnosis: Schizophrenia by Rachel Miller & Susan E. Mason
Synopsis:
A look at schizophrenia through first person accounts by 35 people diagnosed with the disease, along with advice and recommendations from several clinicians and doctors.
Review:
This book is designed primarily to be comforting and encouraging for someone with schizophrenia. The first person accounts in Diagnosis: Schizophrenia demystify the illness and give honest answers to questions like “What if I don’t like my medication?” and “How will my family treat me?” I am writing something about schizophrenia and this book will be incredibly useful.
Forest Mage by Robin Hobb
Synopsis:
The strange adventure of magic-possessed soldier son Nevare continue, as he finds himself expelled from military academy when his weight skyrockets after a bout of the Speck plague.
Review:
Forest Mage is the second book in Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy begun in Shaman’s Crossing. Interestingly, I found echoes of Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead in the clash between the progress-loving “human” Gernians and the forest-dwelling dappled Specks, and spent a good deal of the read worrying that Hobb’s story was going to play out in the same way and with the same moral, but this ended up being a very different story. (The parallels are extremely interesting to me–if you’ve read both, please comment!) Continue reading
Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb
Synopsis:
A young man’s military training is threatened by his seeming possession by a creature in thrall to an evil forest goddess.
Review:
Shaman’s Crossing is the first book in Robin Hobb’s newest trilogy, Soldier Son, and I ate it up with a spoon, thanks to a very long train ride to Canada. The world of Soldier Son takes place in a frontier-like environment much like the Old West at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, with Nevare, the main character, on his way to his training in the cavalry at a West Point-type officer’s academy. Nevare’s world is highly ordered, focused on both tradition and progress, and a magic-less rationalism. His father, also a soldier, decides that before heading off to school Nevare would benefit from training with a respected leader in one of the Plains tribes that the military is fighting against. Nevare ends up in the middle of the desert in what resembles a Native American spirit quest that unlocks the doors to another world–and to a goddess who wants the destruction of Nevare’s people. Continue reading
The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye
Synopsis:
A princess is gifted by her fairy godmother to be ordinary—and who ever heard of a princess with mouse brown hair and freckles? Continue reading
Stiffed by Susan Faludi
Synopsis:
An essay-driven look at various crises facing American men. Continue reading
The Keep by Jennifer Egan
Synopsis:
A ne’er-do-well goes to Prague to work for his cousin, who’s turning an old castle into a retreat-style hotel, but the castle is holding secrets, not to mention the fact that this story’s being written by a prison inmate with a crush on his writing teacher. Continue reading