A collection of unrelated short stories (and I’m not a short story lover). I only selected this book because of the author.
Ten stories. Different characters, different and unusual story plots. Each story has that good old Stephen King spin, from dead band players to a cat who has more than 9 lives.
All I can say is that the last story in this collection , “hits a “20” on a vomit scale of 1 to 10 – read past those words quickly and don’t re-read! Stephen King knows how to get his characters into some pickles! This one is stuck in a Port-o-Potty! The last book that I read of Mr. Kings was “Gerald’s Game” and the protagonist was stuck in handcuffs for most of the book. And after reading that I read “Intensity” by Dean Koontz and his main character kept getting locked up in hand-cuffs. Is there some unseen trend to my reading rotation?!?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Crazy as Chocolate by Elisabeth Hyde
I need to make a side comment here: I have no rhyme or reason as to when I read any particular book, BUT it appears that whatever I select to read, there's always some small similarity to the last book that I read. For example: this book I'm posting on now is about mental illness and my last posting was a book I read about mental illness. It was a coincidence... Another time, I read a Dean Koontz book and the main character was handcuffed a few times in the book and right after reading that I read a Stephen King book and his character was in handcuffs throughout 90% of the book! There have been other related readings, but I just wanted to note that here! Thanks for reading!
I could have read this book in 1 day, maybe 2 if it was on a day off! I bought this book from the employee bookstore at Bookspan, a place I used to work. The title was what attracted me. I just love chocolate!
It’s about a family dealing with mental illness. The story begins with the main character, Isabel, who is turning 41 the next day. Her mother committed suicide when she turned 41. She’s not looking forward to the birthday for obvious reasons. She recants growing up with her mother. She starts out by stating how she kept her mothers’ illness a secret during her college years, and even from her husband Gabe.
As her older sister Ellie gets older, she gets diagnosed as manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, clinically depressed and phobic. It seems that Ellie never remembered any of their mom’s odd moments. I wonder if she blocked it out because perhaps she was already showing symptoms in herself of some kind of mental imbalance.
Although I don’t make light of any illness, I found the tales of Isabel’s mother funny. She would lie in the blink of an eye and think nothing of it if she got caught. Isabel and Ellie never disclosed to their mother that they knew of the lies she told people. The girls were allowed to get a dog and their mother would walk them to school with the dog every day. She was not a quiet dog and caused quite a stir on the playground. The Principal told their mother that she was not allowed to bring the dog onto the playground anymore because the children didn’t feel safe. Their mother told the Principal that she had a maniac of a brother who had just got released from jail and was harassing the family, thus the need for the dog. This was all a lie, but the Principal still banned the dog.
The story hits a crescendo, on Isabel’s birthday, when Ellie tells Isabel that she and her husband are getting a divorce and he wants to take obtain custody of their daughter, Rachel. That might have something to do with Ellie all of a sudden, opening a window and climbing outside to stand on the window ledge, in front of Rachel. Rachel gets lost and Isabel almost loses it when they all come together to celebrate Isabel’s birthday.
A quick read with a happy ending!
I could have read this book in 1 day, maybe 2 if it was on a day off! I bought this book from the employee bookstore at Bookspan, a place I used to work. The title was what attracted me. I just love chocolate!
It’s about a family dealing with mental illness. The story begins with the main character, Isabel, who is turning 41 the next day. Her mother committed suicide when she turned 41. She’s not looking forward to the birthday for obvious reasons. She recants growing up with her mother. She starts out by stating how she kept her mothers’ illness a secret during her college years, and even from her husband Gabe.
As her older sister Ellie gets older, she gets diagnosed as manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, clinically depressed and phobic. It seems that Ellie never remembered any of their mom’s odd moments. I wonder if she blocked it out because perhaps she was already showing symptoms in herself of some kind of mental imbalance.
Although I don’t make light of any illness, I found the tales of Isabel’s mother funny. She would lie in the blink of an eye and think nothing of it if she got caught. Isabel and Ellie never disclosed to their mother that they knew of the lies she told people. The girls were allowed to get a dog and their mother would walk them to school with the dog every day. She was not a quiet dog and caused quite a stir on the playground. The Principal told their mother that she was not allowed to bring the dog onto the playground anymore because the children didn’t feel safe. Their mother told the Principal that she had a maniac of a brother who had just got released from jail and was harassing the family, thus the need for the dog. This was all a lie, but the Principal still banned the dog.
The story hits a crescendo, on Isabel’s birthday, when Ellie tells Isabel that she and her husband are getting a divorce and he wants to take obtain custody of their daughter, Rachel. That might have something to do with Ellie all of a sudden, opening a window and climbing outside to stand on the window ledge, in front of Rachel. Rachel gets lost and Isabel almost loses it when they all come together to celebrate Isabel’s birthday.
A quick read with a happy ending!
Monday, May 9, 2011
A BRILLIANT MADNESS: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness by PATTY DUKE
Very informative, as well as biographical, with many resources listed at the end of the book.
I think there are a lot of people suffering from M-D (Manic-Depressive) Illness that do not get the help they need because of either ignorance or misdiagnosis.
Anna Marie Duke, known to the world as Patty Duke, has led an extraordinary journey with this illness.
I liked when Patty made a comment that people have “an unbelievable ability to deny” and that if we didn’t we all would go crazy! We do tend to live in denial at times.
Patty talked about having panic attacks as a young girl and claiming to herself that when she becomes nine they will stop and every year she claimed the same statement and then at forty-five, up jumps the devil and she is still having attacks! That comment about her continually claiming to stop doing things hit home for me! I'm sure we've all been there with some ungodly habit we want to quit. Unfortunately for Patty, MD was not a habit. She also mentioned the suicide attempts and discovers they were a classic cry for help and how she felt as though there were demons inside of her making her do all those crazy things!
She talks about the things that happened in her life that were triggers of her manias such as not being able to appease her mother while dressing her to attend the Emmy Award show, being pregnant and unmarried and losing a close person who died. All these things happened to Patty around the same time.
Patty talks about the shame felt being manic-depressive, the guilt at how she made people feel and the stigma that is placed on people once its learned they have manic-depressive illness.
Patty’s mother thought she killed her mother when her sister opened the door for her. This was probably the key that triggered her manias.
When Patty did the movie, Call Me Anna, it was to let people be aware that manic-depressive illness was fixable.
What I gleaned from reading this book:
When a person is going through their mania, they feel as though there are no consequences to anything they may do – and the mania can be as minute as having a box for each earring or being sexually promiscuous.
At least two to three million Americans suffer from Manic-depressive disorder.
Families suffer because of the abuse they receive from the MD person.
The National Mental Health Association notes that 43% of Americans believe that depression is a personal or emotional weakness and not a disease.
Manic-depressive illness is often misdiagnosed by doctors. Thus patients receive treatments for illnesses that doctors think they have and the medication just doesn’t work.
There really needs to be a study of the persons family history. Genetics, loss and turmoil – lots – make a ripe combination for classic manic-depression.
Manic-depressive illness runs in families. Its encoded in the genes (a genetic tendency toward temperamental instability). The relationship between environment and genetic is what allows the disease to flourish.
When manic-depressives are in their manias, they often feel this is their most creative time. If they need medication, there is a tendency to not want to take it because they feel they will lose that creativity. They like their manias.
I would like to point out that the doctors who gave their input in this book do stress throughout the book that some people tend to be moody and have high-sustained energy but are not manic-depressive. Not everyone with mood swings are MD. A person should only be diagnosed as MD when their family history has been considered, mood swings are cyclical and this interferes with their jobs, families and they have thoughts of suicide.
Some very creative people were manic-depressive: Virginia Woolf, Vincent Van Gogh, George Frederic Handel, Robert Schumann, Edgar Allen Poe, just to name a few.
I think there are a lot of people suffering from M-D (Manic-Depressive) Illness that do not get the help they need because of either ignorance or misdiagnosis.
Anna Marie Duke, known to the world as Patty Duke, has led an extraordinary journey with this illness.
I liked when Patty made a comment that people have “an unbelievable ability to deny” and that if we didn’t we all would go crazy! We do tend to live in denial at times.
Patty talked about having panic attacks as a young girl and claiming to herself that when she becomes nine they will stop and every year she claimed the same statement and then at forty-five, up jumps the devil and she is still having attacks! That comment about her continually claiming to stop doing things hit home for me! I'm sure we've all been there with some ungodly habit we want to quit. Unfortunately for Patty, MD was not a habit. She also mentioned the suicide attempts and discovers they were a classic cry for help and how she felt as though there were demons inside of her making her do all those crazy things!
She talks about the things that happened in her life that were triggers of her manias such as not being able to appease her mother while dressing her to attend the Emmy Award show, being pregnant and unmarried and losing a close person who died. All these things happened to Patty around the same time.
Patty talks about the shame felt being manic-depressive, the guilt at how she made people feel and the stigma that is placed on people once its learned they have manic-depressive illness.
Patty’s mother thought she killed her mother when her sister opened the door for her. This was probably the key that triggered her manias.
When Patty did the movie, Call Me Anna, it was to let people be aware that manic-depressive illness was fixable.
What I gleaned from reading this book:
When a person is going through their mania, they feel as though there are no consequences to anything they may do – and the mania can be as minute as having a box for each earring or being sexually promiscuous.
At least two to three million Americans suffer from Manic-depressive disorder.
Families suffer because of the abuse they receive from the MD person.
The National Mental Health Association notes that 43% of Americans believe that depression is a personal or emotional weakness and not a disease.
Manic-depressive illness is often misdiagnosed by doctors. Thus patients receive treatments for illnesses that doctors think they have and the medication just doesn’t work.
There really needs to be a study of the persons family history. Genetics, loss and turmoil – lots – make a ripe combination for classic manic-depression.
Manic-depressive illness runs in families. Its encoded in the genes (a genetic tendency toward temperamental instability). The relationship between environment and genetic is what allows the disease to flourish.
When manic-depressives are in their manias, they often feel this is their most creative time. If they need medication, there is a tendency to not want to take it because they feel they will lose that creativity. They like their manias.
I would like to point out that the doctors who gave their input in this book do stress throughout the book that some people tend to be moody and have high-sustained energy but are not manic-depressive. Not everyone with mood swings are MD. A person should only be diagnosed as MD when their family history has been considered, mood swings are cyclical and this interferes with their jobs, families and they have thoughts of suicide.
Some very creative people were manic-depressive: Virginia Woolf, Vincent Van Gogh, George Frederic Handel, Robert Schumann, Edgar Allen Poe, just to name a few.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & The Girl Who Played With Fire & The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest
I enjoyed this trilogy of books.
I like when there are different plots and characters that you would otherwise think have nothing to do with the other and the author somehow weaves them together. The girl with the tattoo, Lisbeth Salander, is paired together with the owner of a financial magazine, Mikael Blomkvist, and both appear to be from opposite ends of the world – but they work together to solve a 40 year old murder mystery.
The first book starts a little slow with the background info of who is who, but it picks up well and continues strong. I watched the movie after because I know they tend to leave out a lot. The movie was good also.
In all three books and movies, they did a few things differently, but it didn’t take away from the main story line – Lisbeth Sanders is intelligent, a bit of an introvert socially and she is the key to all the questions the story seeks to answer. I never knew what the real story was here, other than she was some sort of detective, but the story is about a lot more than that. She worked for a security firm and is excellent with computer – but once again, you’re gonna have to read the story to find out anymore!
The 2nd book, the Girl Who Played With Fire was good as well. It continued with the same major characters as book one and added a few others. The movie was good but the book always give you more back story, mostly into the minds of the characters.
The 3rd book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest sums up everything from the first two books.
All in all, a page turner if you can get past all the history the late author gives. Each book is about 400 pages each!
I like when there are different plots and characters that you would otherwise think have nothing to do with the other and the author somehow weaves them together. The girl with the tattoo, Lisbeth Salander, is paired together with the owner of a financial magazine, Mikael Blomkvist, and both appear to be from opposite ends of the world – but they work together to solve a 40 year old murder mystery.
The first book starts a little slow with the background info of who is who, but it picks up well and continues strong. I watched the movie after because I know they tend to leave out a lot. The movie was good also.
In all three books and movies, they did a few things differently, but it didn’t take away from the main story line – Lisbeth Sanders is intelligent, a bit of an introvert socially and she is the key to all the questions the story seeks to answer. I never knew what the real story was here, other than she was some sort of detective, but the story is about a lot more than that. She worked for a security firm and is excellent with computer – but once again, you’re gonna have to read the story to find out anymore!
The 2nd book, the Girl Who Played With Fire was good as well. It continued with the same major characters as book one and added a few others. The movie was good but the book always give you more back story, mostly into the minds of the characters.
The 3rd book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest sums up everything from the first two books.
All in all, a page turner if you can get past all the history the late author gives. Each book is about 400 pages each!
Friday, February 25, 2011
The End of California by Steve Yarborough
Can’t fully recall what drew me to read this book, but on the cover is the picture of a Piggly Wiggly store and that reminded me of the summers I spent in South Carolina with my aunt. Piggly Wiggly was the store she shopped in. So perhaps that’s what attracted my attention. It turned out to be a good story. It’s about a man who always seems to be on the run from something. And the something always has to do with a woman.
Pete Barrington left Mississippi for California to attend school and he ended up becoming a doctor. When he jeopardizes his career with an affair, he moves his family back to his hometown in Loring, Mississippi, of which I call Smalltown, USA because everybody knows everybody else’s business. His wife isn’t happy about this move and neither is his daughter. It turns out that when Pete first left Mississippi to attend college in California, it really was because of a woman. His homecoming opens a can of worms that he never thought would bother him again. Or lead to someone’s death.
This is one of those stories that you won’t want to put down. The author has a way of interestingly stringing you along until midway the book before some answers are revealed.
The author is A PEN/Faulkner finalist, and he has received the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, the Richard Wright Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. He teaches at Emerson College and lives in Massachussets.
Pete Barrington left Mississippi for California to attend school and he ended up becoming a doctor. When he jeopardizes his career with an affair, he moves his family back to his hometown in Loring, Mississippi, of which I call Smalltown, USA because everybody knows everybody else’s business. His wife isn’t happy about this move and neither is his daughter. It turns out that when Pete first left Mississippi to attend college in California, it really was because of a woman. His homecoming opens a can of worms that he never thought would bother him again. Or lead to someone’s death.
This is one of those stories that you won’t want to put down. The author has a way of interestingly stringing you along until midway the book before some answers are revealed.
The author is A PEN/Faulkner finalist, and he has received the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, the Richard Wright Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. He teaches at Emerson College and lives in Massachussets.
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