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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Almost Moon: a Novel” by Alice Sebold a
Kate’s 2¢: “The Almost Moon: a Novel” by Alice Sebold a
“The Almost Moon: a Novel” by Alice Sebold a
Joan Allen did a good job of narrating this story, but some where in the book, the author should have included the national mental health hotline.
A few take-aways:
–The thing about dementia is that sometimes you feel like the afflicted person has a tripwire to the truth.
–Morality was just a security blanket that didn’t exist.
–The moon is whole all of the time, but we can’t always see it. What we see is an almost moon.
–I was raised by a solitary woman to become a solitary child.
–I was a shadow girl, trying to be what they wanted me to be.
–With each leave taking, those left behind were safe from me.
–Mental illness has the unique ability to metastasize across generations
From: World Biography / 2005 Pu-Z / Alice Sebold Biography
Alice Sebold Biography
Born c. 1963, in Madison, WI; daughter of a Spanish professor and a journalist; married Glen David Gold (an author), November, 2001. Education: Earned degree from Syracuse University, 1984; attended the University of Houston, c. 1984-85; University of California—Irvine, M.F.A., 1998.
Addresses: Office —c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown & Company/Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
Career
Adjunct instructor in English at Hunter College, and research analyst in New York City, c. 1985-93; published a memoir, Lucky, 1999; debut novel The Lovely Bones published, 2002; film rights to The Lovely Bones sold for a film project set to be released in 2007.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The almost moon: a novel DB66820
Sebold, Alice. Reading time: 8 hours, 51 minutes.
Read by Joan Allen. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Psychological Fiction
While attempting to bathe her mentally ill elderly mother, Helen suddenly smothers her with a towel. As Helen spends the following hours awaiting her fate, she ponders her troubled youth and her own stint at motherhood. Commercial audiobook. Explicit descriptions of sex, strong language, and some violence. 2007.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “All That Glitters” by Virginia C. Andrews
Kate’s 2¢: “All That Glitters” by Virginia C. Andrews
“All That Glitters ” by Virginia C. Andrews
Being a romance novel, you know who the heroine will end up with, but the psychological trauma of identical twins switching spouses is fascinating and runs the gamut of emotions.
I enjoyed listening to Mary Woods read this story.
Afew take-aways:
–Money and riches won’t buy you happiness if you don’t have love.
–Dependability is the soil in which a long and lasting love is planted.
–When there is a real live infant, you can’t live in a fantasy world.
–Deceit was a garden in which only the blackest weeds grew. And those who sow their seeds in it, reap disaster.
–The only real antidote for grief and sadness was busy hands.
From: FAMOUS AUTHORS
V. C. Andrews (Cleo Virginia Andrews) was a twentieth century American novelist. Her forte was gothic horror fiction blended with family saga. She is famous for her notoriously bestselling work Flowers in the Attic (1979).
Andrews was born on June 6, 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was the only daughter and youngest child in the Andrews household. As a child she had a falling accident and she suffered from crippling arthritis in the aftermath of her surgery. However, she had not lost hope as she completed her studies from home. She then started her career as an illustrator and an artist. She made an attempt at writing with a science fiction novel, named Gods of Green Mountain but failed to have it published. Then she penned a novel, titled The Obsessed for which the publishers suggested her to develop the plot and make it more electrifying. Overnight she edited her work and resubmitted it with the title Flowers in the Attic. Its publication in 1979 brought her huge praise and success as a fiction writer as it instantly became bestselling debut novel of hers.
Subsequently, Flowers in the Attic became the Dollanganger Series owing to its raging success. The first book is a psychodrama centers on the Dollanger family whose head of the family dies in an accident which leaves the mother and her four children financially helpless. The mother, Corrine, ask her mother to provide them shelter which she does only on the condition that her children were to stay hidden in an attic away from their grandfather who did not approve her marriage with her distant uncle. The story revolves around the four children who spend year after year stuck in attic waiting for their mother to free them but only to meet deceit and tragic fate in the end. The book was adapted into a film in 1987.
The book was adapted into a film in 1987.
The sequels, Petals on the Wind (1980) in the Dollanger series, continue the story subsequent to the escape of the children. The third book, If There Be Thorns (1981) centers on Cathy’s life and her married life and children become focus of Seeds of Yesterday (1984). The last novel in the series, Garden of Shadows (1986), is a prequel which explores lives of Cathy’s grandparents. The Dollanger series, although successful, earned the status of highly controversial books for its disturbing sexual themes. The theme of consensual incest had it banned from many libraries.
Andrews’ idea of a good novel was that it be fast-paced. She was of the view that she only finishes those books that hold her interesting long enough and kept her guessing till the end. Therefore, while writing a book she minded the fact that her readers do not felt lost in the details but it incited the urge in them to find out what was about to happen.
V. C. Andrews’s other famous works include, The Casteel series (1985), The Cutler series (1990), The Landry series (1994), The Logan series (1996), The Orphans series (1998), The Wildflowers series (1999) and many more. Her works have been translated into many other languages. She suffered from breast cancer in her last days and died on December 19, 1986 at the age of 63. The success of her career had her estate hire a ghost writer after her death. Andrew Neiderman ghostwritten numerous stories under her name.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
All that glitters DB43328
Andrews, V. C, (Virginia C.). Reading time: 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Read by Mary Woods. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Psychological Fiction
In the sequel to Pearl in the Mist (DB 39864), Ruby is living in her late grandmother’s bayou shack with her baby, Pearl. Wealthy Paul Tate wants to marry Ruby even though they now know they are half-siblings. She agrees to a celibate marriage for Pearl’s sake, but cannot forget her love for Pearl’s father, Beau. Meanwhile, Ruby’s twin, Gisselle, continues to be a thorn in her side. Some strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢:” All that’s left to tell: a novel” by Daniel Lowe
Kate’s 2¢:” All that’s left to tell: a novel” by Daniel Lowe
”All that’s left to tell: a novel” by Daniel Lowe
I’m stunned. I’m still thinking of this story. It is a story nested within other stories. I’m not sure what the timeline is, nor which story is fact and which fiction. I wish I could remember which early character was described as having huge, grey eyes.
George Newbern did a good job of narrating this book. It is short enough, maybe I’ll listen to it again to get things straight.
A few take-aways:
–It’s strange, isn’t it? The mundane things that wrack your heart when you’re away from everything you’ve known?
–It’s like waking to a life someone dreamed for you.
–I’m in that space between sleeping and waking where images of a dream collide with the coming demands of the day, and I want to go on dreaming.
Daniel Lowe author information – BookBrowse
Daniel Lowe lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he has taught writing at the Community College of Allegheny County for twenty-five years. For more than that, he has been writing in relative obscurity, though his poetry and fiction have appeared in literary magazines, including West Branch, The Bridge, The Paterson Literary Review, Ellipsis, Blue Stem, Midway Journal, and The Madison Review. He enjoys hours spent with his children, days spent with his wife, extended afternoons, and watching birds at feeders outside the window while he idly sits at his computer waiting for another sentence to take shape. He runs slowly in the park.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
All that’s left to tell: a novel DB87044
Lowe, Daniel. Reading time: 6 hours, 51 minutes.
Read by George Newbern. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Psychological Fiction
While in Pakistan on business, Marc Laurent is kidnapped by terrorists and held for ransom. Every night, a woman called Josephine comes to Marc’s cell and asks him to tell her a story about his daughter, who was murdered a month before his capture. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
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