Ketutar
I am... I don't know what to say. I am terrified. My heart is broken and I am so confused, bewildered, by how this could happen. How many children did this happen to, and how many children is this still happening to? Why didn't anyone stop it? Why doesn't anyone stop it? Oh, I know... it's hard to do anything about things like this, and even harder back at 40s, 50s, 60s. I read Joan Crawford's [b:My Way of Life 34593688 My Way of Life Joan Crawford https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494052468l/34593688.SY75.jpg 997181] and found it very confusing, because the image I got of Joan from that book didn't match with the image of Joan I got from the movie Mommie Dearest. Now I understand it. Anyway, this book is amazing. Christina manages to tell the story of her upbringing in a wonderful way. She adjusted the style to her age. Yet it never broke. It is a coherent story all through. It is a very easy read in that the writing is beautiful and coherent, yet it's a very hard read, because the story itself is so vile. How can people do things like this? How can you punish a 11 years old for something that happened to her, or something you are afraid would happen? Joan Crawford was so scared of how her children would affect her reputation and public image, that she made some of it happen. I have read some opinions on Christina Crawford, and it sounds that she has oppositional defiant disorder, and if she does, I don't blame her, or find it unbelievable, I blame Joan Crawford. There comes a time when a child realizes that she cannot be obedient even when she tries, because the authority is irrational and seriously out to “get you”. It's hard to believe the world doesn't work that way, when that is the only way the world has worked for the first years of your life. Anyway, I think everyone should read this book with the attitude that it is true, what Christina tells about her life and childhood is true, that some mothers are insane and behaves like this and treats their children like this. Mothers' Day is not a nice holiday for a lot of people. The Day of Our Glorious Leader, more like it. “We Love the Dictator”. Brrr.
I can't rate it. My image of Joan Crawford is very much influenced by her daughter's testimony in [b:Mommy Dearest 57528292 Mommy Dearest Cristina Crawford https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png 90084181]. This isn't really a biography, it's more a guide book in how to live like Joan Crawford... As Joan imagined it. She gives advice on marriage, child rearing, beauty, weight loss, clothes... how to be a woman. It's very good advice, I think, somewhat old-fashioned, but also quite modern and feminist. A bit weird combination... after all, she was born 1904, The attitudes are a bit old-fashioned.
Oh, dear... I was bawling my eyes out, and my sweet husband said “I don't think I want you to read that book...” Oh, yes, I might have not wanted to read it had I known what it was, but all I knew about it was the movie trailer, and that looked really interesting. This story was interesting, but it wasn't what the movie trailer made me think it was.
Trigger warning for bullying.
Anyway... my father died of cancer. It was the most painful, humiliating, debilitating, torturing death I can think of, and my father, my dearest, wonderful, amazing father didn't do anything to deserve that. Now, I can't think of anyone who deserves a death like that, but... my father wanted to live so badly. There were still so many things he wanted to do and experience and learn, still so many years he should have lived. And I wanted him in my life very badly, too. And my mother, my siblings, even my inlaws, everyone who knew him wanted him in their lives very badly. Nevertheless, I was praying for him to let go of life and die, in the last hours of his life. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person.
I love you, dad.
Fuck cancer.
sigh It's a bit difficult because there are some brilliant bits, and then some really stupid stuff, but most of it is stupid. So, a woman died. No-one cares. This is kind of Maurice Leblanc's version of [b:A Study in Scarlet 102868 A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1) Arthur Conan Doyle https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519031842l/102868.SX50.jpg 1997473], but as a woman couldn't possibly be more intelligent than a man, his “Irene” is mad and pays for her audacity. I mean, the things she did... she did play Arsene every step of the way. The only reason she “lost” was because she fell in love with him. I don't like Arsene Lupin after this. He is a total a-hole in this one.
This is one of the best books I've ever read.
I'm reading this and I keep thinking “so THIS is what Jonathan Franzen wants to write...”
I don't understand how she does it. It's at the same time raw and awful and crude and cruel and so very soft, sensitive, subtle, and kind.
And then the ending... I kept hating Pearl and despising Beck, and none of the characters was really likable, but... they were so... real. They weren't supposed to be likable. People aren't likable. They do sometimes nice things and then they do horrible things, and... it really doesn't matter. People are people. The ending made it all all right. It's OK. Good enough. Fine. Everything is fine. It was a very satisfying end.
I was discussing this with my husband. I like endings that wrap things up but don't end the story. All these people will continue their lives and have more stories to tell, but I am satisfied and pleased, and I love this book.
It was entertaining and educational :-D
To anyone who says women aren't funny, I say “Ok, whatever. Next!” There are plenty of funny women around, and people who work professionally with funny know this. If women weren't funny, no one would know who Lucille Ball is. That you don't know, proves only that you are an idiot.
I wish the structure had been better. She starts with the end of the last marriage, and then kind of starts again, this time from the beginning, the beginning of her career as a movie star.
It was very interesting to read, she has a lovely sense of humor and it's a bit risque... But... I kind of would have wanted to see her, wearing nothing but panties and pasties, chase James Garner with a giant dildo.
Well... I liked the leaves and I liked the differently shaped pages that created part of the picture, but I didn't like the story much. It felt a bit... forced. Too simple, yet not simple enough... it's hard to explain. It did make me want to make leaf art though, so I suppose that's good. I also liked that they named the leaves they had used.
I think the main character is supposed to be a Native American girl, but this book works for all American children. There are some details that won't work anywhere else in the world, like corn fields, Jacko lanterns, and school buses.
Or hay rides at night. Who drives hay around at night? I'm a country girl, to me “hay rides” are essentially connected to storing hay for the animals, and it's done in the afternoon, after a long day at the hay field, that's the last thing you do that day, and after the hay ride, you have to move the hay to the storage. But I suppose to most USonians hayride is something specifically arranged, and apparently done at nightfall or even at night, for the fun of it. The main character of this book is very small, in school already though, so... 6-8? Being up at night is not something for that small kids... on the other hand, I suppose the sun goes down at 6 or so, and it's pitch dark already at 7, and that's totally fine for even little kids... Ah. I'm talking too much. :-D That has nothing to do with this book.
It's a very nice book, with nice pictures, and makes me think about how I know it's Autumn. :-)
I love Arsène Lupin.
This book consists of a couple of adventures Herlock Sholmes and Arsène Lupin meet, and Maurice Leblanc's patriotism shines through :-D The French are always more civilized, the British are more brutish, colder, unfeeling. Wilson (Leblanc's Watson) is a real British bulldog, and so meanly treated by Sher... er... Herlock. And Arsène dances through the story like the fox he is.
It is slightly old-fashioned, but it was written over a century ago, so I suppose it's allowed to be ;-)
DNF
So... I was getting very uneasy at the beginning, about how they talked about Samantha, and all the bullying (I mean... people getting physically hurt, even potentially killed, and no one does anything about it? ), so I went to find out what the book was about, and I read some 1-star reviews. Ew. No, thank you. Seems like this is one book I should have read when I was a kid. I really don't want to read it. Maybe I'll give it another chance in the future, but right now - no.
I gave this a new chance in 2023. I finished it. sigh It just isn't good.
Yes, everyone has heard of sexism. Every female character is described as being pretty or ugly. If they are pretty, their body is talked about and often repeated. Bink managed to put his hands on the centaur's breasts and noticed how the naked mermaids' breasts were supported by the water making them appear fuller.
Sure, Bink behaves like a perfect gentleman and doesn't have sex even when the opportunity comes (and it comes surprisingly often), but... it feels like virtue signaling. We are supposed to think Bink is a great, moral guy.
He really isn't.
For some reason, there can only be a king to rule the kingdom, even though he's in a way democratically elected - buy a handful of chancellors from the strong wizards of the kingdom. (There are practically just a couple of those at any given time.) In fact, the only reason Bink rejects a powerful sorcerer's aspiration to become the ruler is that she is a woman. The ruler can only be a man. The sorcerer has a plan - she can make Bink appear to have magic, strong magic, and so they'll make him the king, and she as his wife will become the queen. Bink says he doesn't want to be a king, and the sorcerer says that he doesn't need to do any of the ruling, she'd do that, but that goes against Bink's ideas of what a woman's place is, so no deal. The sorcerer mentions some things she'd do as the ruler, and there's nothing wrong with those things. Piers doesn't really give any reason why she would be a bad ruler, but, no, the council should choose the king, and that's it.
Well, hello, the council only chooses among the strong wizards, and there is only one right now in the country, and he doesn't want to be the king! So why not let someone be the king who wants to be the king, even though she is a woman and wants to be the king because she wants power? There is nothing to say she'd abuse the power.
The same thing with the “evil” wizard. Yeah, when he was young he did a lot of stupid things. But it turns out that half of those things were heavily exaggerated, even lies, and the guy is a stellar character, and never does anything bad. Or, at least after they get back to Xanth. He also is totally open and honest about his plans, explains them well, makes sense, but, no, he's “evil”, so Bink refuses to listen to him, even when it makes sense. It must be bad because he's “evil”. rolling eyes
Oh, the times I rolled my eyes reading this book!
Bink is f-ing whiny. He behaves and thinks like a teenager, but he's 25. Piers was over 40 when he wrote this book, and a father of two daughters, the first one he had when he was 22. She was over 21 when this book was published.
Bink constantly makes bad decisions based on really stupid logic and is saved all the time either due to the circumstances or because someone else saves him. Oh, and his magic talent. Yet everyone all the time tells him how smart, strong, and handsome he is. And his response is all the time “it doesn't matter, I don't have magic, so I'm worthless”.
Uh. I really dislike this book.
Sure, there are good things here too. Some of the puns were actually funny. I like the magical creatures and world-building, and the magic was kind of nice, too. But, Bink is an idiot and a marysue, and the sexism is really inexcusable. (Yeah, I know it was written in the 70s, but so were a lot of other books that manage to not be sexist, so what's Piers' excuse?)
Hmm... I find it somewhat misogynist and I find the MC rather irritating in his garystueness. Sure, that all the females would fall in love with him was part of the story, but it's still unnecessary and stupid.
I like aliens. I can see Khajeet being modeled on Kzits. I like the grasseater aliens. Reminds me of the Kelpiens in Star Trek
It's a lovely little picture book.
I love Inga Moore's illustrations.
I love the story about two little pigs who made themselves houses but had visits from the bear and the moose, and their houses were too small and too flimsy to survive the visits. So the four friends decided to build a bigger place together, a house big enough to have all four of them living in it together. And they got help.
The book ends with everyone sleeping. It's a really lovely story with lovely illustrations. :-)
Made me happy.
Ok... it's better that [b:What Katy Did Next 730503 What Katy Did Next Susan Coolidge https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348327387l/730503.SX50.jpg 1779240], but not much. This is a “let's bash the Englishmen and be so damned pompously chauvinistic while we do it” book.It's a story of a girl, named Imogen (did Susan Coolidge forgot she used the name already about the little liar in What Katy Did?), whose brother went to USA from England, and she was to move with him to take care of his household, like many spinster sisters did back at that time. She is horrible prejudices and snotty, because she doesn't know much anything about USA, other than what she has heard and read in novels etc. And what her brother tells, and he says everything is amazing, better than England, everything is good and beautiful and wonderful. She doesn't believe him, because she's prejudiced and a horrible person. I mean, who could ever love England, and prefer that horrible, wet, cold, savage, primitive, tiny island to Unites States of F-ing Amurica! She meets first one American who bashed England, English weather, English food, English famous places, Englishmen, and basically anything English - there's nothing positive she has to say about England. Then she proceeds to tell a tall story about USA, how New York is basically nothing more than a fort and the Indians attack it all the time. Poor Imogen believes it all, and the lady laughs at her. Then she meets another American, who tells her how USA is a melting pot, how everyone who moves in the USA is American, and all the people Imogen has been recognizing as Americans because they fit her horrible, unfair, stupid prejudices about Americans, aren't really Americans. You see, anyone having a negative opinion on the USA or Americans are prejudiced, but anyone having a negative opinion about England or the Englishmen is just a discerning and intelligent person. Her brother keeps bashing her through the whole book because she is so mean and prejudiced, but thankfully she gets sick, and saintly Clover nurses her back to life, and she is a changed woman, a true American. She confesses her sins to her husband-to-be, and now loves America and Americans, like her brother. So, when they have a double wedding, her brother and she, they don't mind that none of their family is there. The future spouses' whole family is there, and they have now left their parents, their siblings, their childhood home and that stupid, ugly little island called Great Britain, and are now Americans, so their American family is the only family they need or want. Not a tear is dropped, not a thought is wasted on dear mother or motherland. Hooray for Amurica! The best and most beautiful country in the world!
This one is better than #3, but most books are better than that :-D
I love Katy's wedding, I love the letters, I hate mrs. Watson, but I'm happy that story ended well, and how Clover responded so very differently to the different propositions was very, very funny :-D
“He never denied Clover anything her heart was set upon, and he could see her heart was very much set upon this”. :-D
So clever!
It amazes me that they wrote fan fiction already 200 years ago :-D (And I just realized Y2K was over 20 years ago... and now I'm shocked:-D)
Less cruelty against animals and mindless killing, but just as much racism.
The solution was very clever, though I find it unrealistic, that a handful of white men would have survived some 10 years in the Antarctic, whereas a native tribe of hundreds of people would not. But I suppose that's the spirit of Rousseau. “If I was to raise a child, I'd choose a Frenchman, because we have the best chance of surviving any circumstances. An African wouldn't survive cold, and an Eskimo wouldn't survive heat, but we Frenchmen, we'd survive anything!” (If I remember correctly, he could have raised several kids, that he produced with several French women and then just “forgot”. I suppose it was easier to write a book about how to raise a perfect Frenchman, and not tackle with the embarrassment of one's genes being not so good... :-D)