1 to 7 of 7
Review Date: 8/14/2010
Helpful Score: 2
What a wonderful book! If you've grown up gardening or currently garden, this book will be one you can relate to. The author's stories of gardening brought back so many of my own memories of gardening, including how to deal with invasive insects and weeds, but in such a humourous way. It includes little hints throughout the stories, such as how to get your apple trees to correctly pollinate, but is really a joy to read about his garden from conception to harvesting. For those that love to eat what they grow, this book will be a comfort to read as there are others out there like us!
Review Date: 5/28/2010
I had such a hard time reading this book, but forced myself to finish it because I hate to start a book and not finish. I had a difficult time relating to the story and didn't like Franzen's writing style. Took me way to long to finish the book and found myself trying way too much to try to understand the storyline. It just didn't seem like a believable story.
Review Date: 3/9/2011
I read this book a few years ago. What stood out was the unexpected ending, but not one that left you wondering...one that you never saw coming. Good book, kept me interested the whole way through.
Here's the excerpt from the inside cover as I see this book has no description listed with it:
"The title of Marsha Hunt's extraordinary second novel is imbued with the cruelest irony- and the deepest longing.
The time is 1913-fifty years after Lincoln freed the slaves. But in the genteel community of Germantown, PA, freedom is the hollowest of words.
Certainly there is no freedom from the shackles of oppression for Theodore "Teenotchy" Simms, a black stableboy at the elegant Holybrook manor, in this pre-WWI enclave of unquestioned privilege. He is haunted by the memory of the beauty of his mother and the terrible violation of her death. He is shadowed as well by the shame of his birth- a shame he doesn't understand but forever feels. He can only seek to fit in, to fade into the invisibility whites are more willing to grant him, until a white man with a secret shame of his own cuts off this avenue of escape and forces Teenotchy to confront his destiny and himself.
This man is Alexander Blake, a young English aristocrat on a visit to his aunt and her American husband- a household where the pride and prejudices of the antebellum South flourish on northern soil. In the sweltering heat of a Germantown summer, Alexander's interest in the black stableboy, who is clearly meant for something far better in life, blossoms into an emotions as irresistible as it is dangerous- both for Alexander, who cannot stop it from happening, and for Teenotchy, who for the first time in his life finds himself worthy in the eyes of another.
Here's the excerpt from the inside cover as I see this book has no description listed with it:
"The title of Marsha Hunt's extraordinary second novel is imbued with the cruelest irony- and the deepest longing.
The time is 1913-fifty years after Lincoln freed the slaves. But in the genteel community of Germantown, PA, freedom is the hollowest of words.
Certainly there is no freedom from the shackles of oppression for Theodore "Teenotchy" Simms, a black stableboy at the elegant Holybrook manor, in this pre-WWI enclave of unquestioned privilege. He is haunted by the memory of the beauty of his mother and the terrible violation of her death. He is shadowed as well by the shame of his birth- a shame he doesn't understand but forever feels. He can only seek to fit in, to fade into the invisibility whites are more willing to grant him, until a white man with a secret shame of his own cuts off this avenue of escape and forces Teenotchy to confront his destiny and himself.
This man is Alexander Blake, a young English aristocrat on a visit to his aunt and her American husband- a household where the pride and prejudices of the antebellum South flourish on northern soil. In the sweltering heat of a Germantown summer, Alexander's interest in the black stableboy, who is clearly meant for something far better in life, blossoms into an emotions as irresistible as it is dangerous- both for Alexander, who cannot stop it from happening, and for Teenotchy, who for the first time in his life finds himself worthy in the eyes of another.
Review Date: 5/28/2010
Cute book, bathroom reading material. A good read for funny little quips.
Review Date: 5/28/2010
Helpful Score: 2
An average book...I started reading expected to read stories of how rich California kids really lived but ended the book thinking "Wow, they do some strange stuff but there's so substance to the things they do." I felt like there was no purpose to the book, just a storyline of parties, drugs, and sex.
Review Date: 4/19/2011
Helpful Score: 3
I really enjoyed this book. It truly changed my perception of my grandmother's generation of women who lived through the depression. It answered many questions that I often wondered about why there was a perception of women needing to be wives and stay-at-home mothers. It describes how these women of that generation really did have dreams, goals, aspirations, but were often held back from this by their own parents or husbands because of "needing to be in line with the customs and culture of that time period." A real eye opening book and a joy to read.
To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
4
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
4
Review Date: 4/29/2012
Hmmm, the title had me confused. I thought this book would be more about what I can figure out about myself from my own lists that I write, yet this was just a compilation of other people's lists and a generalization about them. I read it pretty fast on a plane trip, but didn't get the insight I was looking for to figure out my own lists. Okay book if you want to reveal what lists could reveal about other people, but not much to help out with your own.
1 to 7 of 7
