I read this in 24 hours! Annie O'Sullivan is a real estate agent who is just ending an open house at one of the homes she is selling when she is suddenly and violently abducted, taken to a cabin in the wilderness of BC, and held prisoner there for close to a year by her abductor, who controls every aspect of her life, including how often she can pee!
You know right from the get-go that she has survived this terrible ordeal, because she is relating her experiences to a psychiatrist after she returns to the world, but the story is not yet over- hence the title, Still Missing.
A can't-put-it-down story and a really exciting read.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates ✔✔✔✔
Blonde is a historical fiction account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, one of the most intriguing stars of the 20th century. Apparently, Oates began this project as a novella of some 15,000 words, but became so fascinated by the subject that the novella became a novel of over 700 pages!
The author insists this is a novel, but those of us who were aware of the details of Monroe's life knew exactly who the Ex-Athlete, the Playwright, the President were. Marilyn always referred to herself as Norma Jean Baker- Monroe was a name given to her by MGM Studios, who at that time virtually owned their stars. Marilyn's greatest tragedy is that she never really knew exactly WHO she was - her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who spent most of her life in a mental institution, and she never did find out who her father was. She spent most of her childhood in an orphanage, then in a foster home, where the woman of the house, Elsie Pirig, managed to get Norma Jean married off at the age of 16 because she was afraid her husband was lusting after her.
The only life of an artist that I've read or known about that was more tragic was Mozart's, and time and again in this novel her genius at acting was referred to again and again. We always think of Marilyn as the body, the platinum blonde hair, huge mouth and liquid eyes, and there's certainly lots of that - one chapter lists the names of the men and women she slept with in her lifetime, but also we see her talent, becoming the characters she was playing, how she was unfairly over looked for an Oscar nomination for Bus Stop, how when she went to England to do The Prince and the Showgirl she was derided by the British actors but only until they saw the rushes from the movie they were shooting and realized she'd out-acted them all.
Why the drugs, the absolute disregard for her body and how it was exploited by so many? She had no idea who she was, no one to guide her or provide a model, and it was obvious her mother, with her own multitude of problems, had never bonded with Norma Jean so she had no anchor. She so desperately wanted to love and be loved, but was treated over and over again like a toy. Just tragic - that's the only word for it.
The author insists this is a novel, but those of us who were aware of the details of Monroe's life knew exactly who the Ex-Athlete, the Playwright, the President were. Marilyn always referred to herself as Norma Jean Baker- Monroe was a name given to her by MGM Studios, who at that time virtually owned their stars. Marilyn's greatest tragedy is that she never really knew exactly WHO she was - her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who spent most of her life in a mental institution, and she never did find out who her father was. She spent most of her childhood in an orphanage, then in a foster home, where the woman of the house, Elsie Pirig, managed to get Norma Jean married off at the age of 16 because she was afraid her husband was lusting after her.
The only life of an artist that I've read or known about that was more tragic was Mozart's, and time and again in this novel her genius at acting was referred to again and again. We always think of Marilyn as the body, the platinum blonde hair, huge mouth and liquid eyes, and there's certainly lots of that - one chapter lists the names of the men and women she slept with in her lifetime, but also we see her talent, becoming the characters she was playing, how she was unfairly over looked for an Oscar nomination for Bus Stop, how when she went to England to do The Prince and the Showgirl she was derided by the British actors but only until they saw the rushes from the movie they were shooting and realized she'd out-acted them all.
Why the drugs, the absolute disregard for her body and how it was exploited by so many? She had no idea who she was, no one to guide her or provide a model, and it was obvious her mother, with her own multitude of problems, had never bonded with Norma Jean so she had no anchor. She so desperately wanted to love and be loved, but was treated over and over again like a toy. Just tragic - that's the only word for it.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand ✔✔✔✔✔
The next time I think life is tough, or I'm not getting a break I deserve, or I complain about how I'm treated, I hope I think about Louis Zamperini, the subject of this book. Louis is now 93, the survivor of an odyssey like no other I've ever heard of, even more amazing that every event, every hardship, every example of man's inhumanity to man, or the tiny glimmer of spirit that kept the faintest hope alive actually happened.
I began reading this after Mike was about halfway through it, and read it in just a few days - jealously eyeing it while Mike was taking his turn reading it, anxious to see if Louis could possibly live through another day.
Everyone should read this book, if only to see a living example of true grit and courage. Would I - could I - ever be the tiniest bit like Louis? I doubt it, but just having Louis as a role model makes it possible.
I began reading this after Mike was about halfway through it, and read it in just a few days - jealously eyeing it while Mike was taking his turn reading it, anxious to see if Louis could possibly live through another day.
Everyone should read this book, if only to see a living example of true grit and courage. Would I - could I - ever be the tiniest bit like Louis? I doubt it, but just having Louis as a role model makes it possible.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
FAVORITES OF 2010
The top three books I read this year were: 1. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
2. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
3. We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
And the remainder:
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
Galore by Michael Crummey
This Body of Death by Elizabeth George
Losing My Religion by William Lobdell
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Stout
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
3. We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
And the remainder:
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
Galore by Michael Crummey
This Body of Death by Elizabeth George
Losing My Religion by William Lobdell
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Stout
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall ✔✔✔✔✔
Finally, a book I couldn't put down! It had seemed like a long time since I added five checkmarks to a book, and this one was like a drink of cold water after a long, dusty walk. I just absolutely loved everything about it, and knew I would before the first page was completely read - the writing is conversational, humorous, and intelligent, the characters are so completely human with all their various idiosyncracies, and some of the events in this novel made me laugh so hard I cried, and also made me shed a tear or two of sadness, What more could you ask for in an excellent book?
Golden Richards has four wives and 28 children, but he's lonely, and finds himself heading for an affair. When you hear the title, your mind conjures up pictures of a stiff-necked patriarch, women in prairie dresses and long hair wound around their heads, children with pinafore dresses or breeches, shy smiles on their faces - but NONE of those images work for this family - the four wives are regular people, albeit with the odd issue here and there, the children are always fighting or conniving against one another, and through it all floats Golden, who is trying to recover from the death of Glory, one of his daughters, some three years earlier.
That's all I'm going to say - you just have to read it. This makes my list of all-time favorites. About 3/4 of the way through the book, I was already grieving the end of the story, and the wonderfully colorful people who make up this novel.
Golden Richards has four wives and 28 children, but he's lonely, and finds himself heading for an affair. When you hear the title, your mind conjures up pictures of a stiff-necked patriarch, women in prairie dresses and long hair wound around their heads, children with pinafore dresses or breeches, shy smiles on their faces - but NONE of those images work for this family - the four wives are regular people, albeit with the odd issue here and there, the children are always fighting or conniving against one another, and through it all floats Golden, who is trying to recover from the death of Glory, one of his daughters, some three years earlier.
That's all I'm going to say - you just have to read it. This makes my list of all-time favorites. About 3/4 of the way through the book, I was already grieving the end of the story, and the wonderfully colorful people who make up this novel.
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