Synopsis: Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance. Review: Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in medieval Norway, but for a book written at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Synopsis: 3 young women meet in the typing pool at Fabian Publishing, 1952, hoping for love and finding that life has more to offer than they ever imagined. Review: I haven’t done much rereading since starting this blog, mostly thanks to the TBR tsunami that Bookmooch yielded out of a few boxes of discarded books my mom cleaned out of her house and sent to me. My reading life has been consumed by a tyranny of the new, but sometimes an old friend is just…
Synopsis: When Clay receives a box of cassette tapes recorded by a girl who recently committed suicide, he wonders why he was chosen as one of her thirteen reasons. Review: Compelling premise ultimately founders on muddled execution. Asher throws in at least four separate social problems as part of Hannah’s reasons for her suicide, and the construction ends up feeling far too contrived. This has the odd effect of making the story seem small, as though all of the suffering endured by the various characters…
Synopsis: A dissection of hook-up culture on college campuses and in high schools, including anecdotal accounts. Review: More hand-wringing than Last Night in Paradise, less high-minded than Unprotected, Unhooked is more likely than either to provoke fear and consternation in the hearts of parents of teenagers across America–particularly if they’ve read I Am Charlotte Simmons and their daughter is looking at Duke University.
Synopsis: Despite being both beautiful and smart, former teen beauty Sasha’s love life is a shambles, and–even worse–she’s approaching 30 with rapid speed. Review: I usually don’t say blank is the new blank, but I’ve never been more glad that 30 is the new 20 than after reading this depressing book. When I was in my 20s, I was looking forward to 30, because I had a sense from the women around me that 30 meant a break from a lot of the angst and…
Well, I’m in my third trimester. Not long to go, really, even though it’s hard to conjure “November” in steamy August. And I feel like I need to read everything I’ve ever wanted to read, right now, just in case I never get to read again, or at least until Superfast Baby goes off to school. So, reader parents (particularly moms)– Please tell me that I’ll read. Please tell me that if I go into labor and I’m halfway through a book I will get…
Synopsis: A comprehensive, non-judgmental overview of labor and delivery. Review: I have a dear friend who is a doula and a childbirth educator, and she gave me this book when I became pregnant. The Big Book of Birth is written by the woman who runs Realbirth, where my friend used to teach (before she moved) and where my husband and I will be taking childbirth classes.
I’ve been doing a ton of reading on pregnancy and childbirth, but haven’t blogged about any of it, mainly because I only blog when I finish a book, and I’m not going to be finished with any of these until the baby arrives. Since blogging will not be a postpartum priority, I’ll let you see the list of what I’m reading. The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger — this is a beautiful book, though not terribly helpful. The Pregnancy Book (Sears)…
Synopsis: Hoff Sommers debunks “gender feminism” and the scare tactics its proponents use to promote their radical agenda. Review: Susan Faludi’s Backlash came out when I was in college, and had a tremendous impact on me. Today, I consider myself a feminist with reservations. I’ll speak out wherever I can against injustice against women, but where feminism aligns itself with the culture of death in our society I stop being a supporter. My feminism has grown into a hatred of injustice against all who are…
Synopsis: A survey of the state of affairs in campus counseling, presenting the argument that sexual activity is being left out of the equation with disastrous results. Review: The full title, Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in her Profession Endangers Every Student, offers a very good sense of the writer’s agenda, and she provides a great deal of evidence to support her claims. The term “political correctness” seems designed to tip off the right that she’s “one of us,” but really it’s…