Alice's Review: The Opposite of Loneliness

Author: Marina Keegan
Series: None
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 240
Obtained: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Essays, Short Stories
Rating: 4
Bottom Line: A wonderful collection by a talented young woman.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary:  Marina Keegan’s star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash.  As her family, friends, and classmates, deep in grief, joined to create a memorial service for Marina, her unforgettable last essay for the Yale Daily News, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” went viral, receiving more than 1.4 million hits. She had struck a chord.  Even though she was just twenty-two when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. The Opposite of Loneliness is an assem­blage of Marina’s essays and stories that, like The Last Lecture, articulates the universal struggle that all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.

Review:  I didn't know anything about Marian Keegan before I began reading this collection. I chose it simply because I am a lover of short stories. Upon beginning, I was shocked to learn of Ms. Keegan’s premature death at the age of 22 from a car accident.

I just loved The Opposite of Loneliness, the essay this collection was named after. It did something to me when I read it, like goose bumps/twisted insides kind of something. It was so good, so wonderful and so sad knowing the outcome of Ms. Keegan’s life. Having an author explain what she wants from life, knowing that her own was cut so short is heartbreaking.

I enjoyed the fiction stories more than the non-fiction essays. Each of the fiction stories was better than the last. My favorites were Baggage Claim, Sclerotherapy, and the eerie Challenger Deep. I loved, loved, loved Challenger Deep and read it 3 times before moving onto the next story. Of the non-fiction collection, I just loved “I Kill for Money.” There was only one essay I didn’t enjoy at all called Even Artichokes Have Doubts. It was too scientific and read more like a school paper than anything else. It lacked the soul the others possessed. I will admit my eyes glazed over after a couple of pages and I skipped the rest of it altogether.

I believe anyone who enjoys short stories and observations will benefit from this collection. It is beautifully written and full of soul. It is a shame Marina Keegan was taken so soon. I can only imagine what other greatness would have come from her because The Opposite of Loneliness is just about perfect.

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Alice's Review: Because My Name Is Mother

Summary:  With poignancy and humor, Deborah Batterman reminds us in these brief, linked essays that every mother is a daughter, too. The insights she brings to simple acts – looking at old photographs, recalling the smells and tastes of her mother’s cooking, making her daughter’s bed or shopping with her – are as beautifully rendered as they are profound. ~ blurb

Review:  "Because My Name is Mother" is a wonderful collection of essays by blogger and short story writer Deborah Batterman.  I think the best word to describe these essays is the word used twice throughout the essays.  That word is poignant.  Each essay is thought-provoking and emotional.  The common link is motherhood and I thoroughly enjoyed them.   I am not a mother and can’t even because to understand what being a mother means.  I do have a close relationship with my mom and am able to relate to each story on that level.  I found it interesting to read these novels from a daughter’s point of view.

This collection would make a great Mother’s Day gift or a birthday gift for a special Mother in your life.

Follow her personal blog here and on Facebook here.

Final Take: 5/5


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Alice's Review: Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut

Summary:  Demonstrating Woody Allen's magical math equation, comedy = tragedy + time, a sensational collection of witty essays about life, love, hate, kids, work, school, and more from the author of The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund and Arm Candy.  Jill Kargman is a mother, wife, and writer living the life in New York City . . . a life that includes camping out in a one-bedroom apartment with some unfortunate (and furry) roommates, battling the Momzillas of Manhattan, and coming to terms with her desire for gay men. In this entertaining collection of observations, Kargman offers her unique, wickedly funny perspective as she zips around Manhattan with three kids in tow. Kargman tackles issues big and small with sharp wit and laugh-out-loud humor: her love of the smell of gasoline, her new names for nail polishes, her adventures in New York City real estate, and her fear of mimes, clowns, and other haunting things. Whether it's surviving a family road trip or why she can't stand Cirque du So Lame, living with a mommy vagina the size of the Holland Tunnel or surviving the hell that was her first job out of college, Kargman's nutty self triumphs, thanks to a wonderfully wise outlook and sense of fun that makes the best of everything that gets thrown her way. And if that's not enough, Kargman illustrates her reflections with doodles that capture her refreshing voice. - Amazon.com

Review:  I love to laugh.  Really, doesn't everyone?  I looked forward to reading Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut so I could laughing my way through these essays and observations.  I was expecting good writing tinged with humor and wit.  I'm pleased to say I got that.  This is the perfect little book to carry about in your purse or backpack, the kind you take out when you are waiting in line or have a few minutes to yourself or need a good laugh. 

Ms. Kargman covered a variety of topics from her kids to marriage to fears.  I loved her list of the times her kids embarrassed her.  Her adventures in the apartment with the brothel and frat boy neighbors left me in stitches.  I also enjoyed the way she infused pop culture into almost each and every page.  I loved that she's a real New Yorker.

What I didn't expect was how mean Ms. Kargman came across.  Perhaps mean is too harsh, blunt is more like it.  This isn't a PG read.  It's laced with cursing and semi-obscene humorous little drawings.  It might make you blush a little, but it's worth it.  You'll laugh too.

Final Take: 3/5

Julie's Review: The Heroine's Bookshelf

Summary: Marketing consultant Blakemore finds that in moments of struggle and stress she revisits her favorite childhood women authors and their plucky heroines for respite, escape, and perspective. Jane Austen, who broke off an engagement and threw away her last chance at a respectable marriage, poked fun at polite society and its expectations of women in her novels, and she created a self-assured, self-respecting protagonist in Pride and Prejudice's Lizzy Bennet--who also doesn't need a man to complete her even if Lizzy does get a rich, handsome husband in the end. As Blakemore pushes against the boundaries of her own life, she also identifies with selfish Scarlett O'Hara, who, lacking in self-awareness and oblivious to the emotions of others, shoulders life's burdens and moves ahead, "her decisions swift, self-serving, and without compromise." The Little House on the Prairie series reminds Blakemore that when we focus on people and life instead of on material possessions, we learn to acknowledge what really counts. She finds inspiration, too, in Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Color Purple, and Anne of Green Gables, and offers some nuggets of wisdom, but for the most part, her observations are familiar and pat. ~amazon.com

Review: The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder came highly recommended by Jen at Devourer of Books when we met up recently. As I got home and was looking at it, I felt that it could be the type of book to read slowly and absorb each essay on it's own merit. I consider myself well read, but it's obvious that Ms. Blakemore takes it to a whole new level. I will totally admit I've never read Pride And Prejudice all the way through. I've tried but I just can't do it. Give me the movie any day. But her break down of Lizzy Bennett rang so true to me. If there is one virtue that girls these days need to learn it's a sense of self. Lizzy is the ultimate when it comes to believing in herself and her dreams.

Of course, I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the tv show while growing up and I hope that my daughter finds joy in them as she gets older as well. I remember my grandmother giving me the first in the series; just as my sister remembers her reading Little Womento her when she was younger.

Not only does Ms. Blakemore explain the qualities of a heroine well but she has made me want to read some books that I might not read otherwise. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Secret Garden and Jane Eyre are the ones that resonated with me.

A heroine doesn't have to always be nice, as is depicted with Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but she fought for what she believed in and persevered.

What I loved about the book was not only did you dig into the characters in each of the featured books but you learned new information on the authors as well. This is where I began to realize, perhaps, how autobiographical these novels were for a lot of these women.

This is a must keep for me. This will be kept on my nightstand and brought out when I need a little pick me up. It has also added books to my huge TBR pile. It is also something that I will gladly lend to my daughter when she's older. This would be a wonderful gift for a young woman who is looking for literary women to read.

Final Take: 4/5

Beedle the Bard Contest at Amazon

Amazon is sponsoring an amazing writing contest open to anyone 13 and over... with a grand prize of sending you and a friend to London, England to spend a weekend with the rare handwritten book of fairy tales by J.K. Rowling.

Answer one of three questions in 100 words or less:

• What songs do wizards use to celebrate birthdays?
• What sports do wizards play besides Quidditch?
• What have you learned from the Harry Potter series that you use in everyday life?

The contest runs from April 9th through the 22nd so start scribling my friends!

To read more about the rules and to make submissions click here.

Julie's Review: The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club

Summary: This collection of columns, originally written for the Arizona Republic, details Notaro's daring exploits and comical mishaps as she matures from wild teenager to disheveled adult. Her vignettes are humorous if unoriginal. "The Useless Black Bra and the Stinkin'-drunk Twelve-step Program" is a classic drinking story, complete with the lost friend who is eventually found in a neighbor's front yard wearing only a bra. This hard-drinking, chain-smoking approach to partying inevitably leads to some punishing hangovers; in one extreme case, Notaro is mistaken for a homeless person while en route to jury duty in "Going Courtin'." Not surprisingly, disregard for her appearance diminishes her chances of fulfilling her mother's dream and bringing home from the trial a "balding, sexually repressed twenty-seven-year-old attorney strangled in a Perry Ellis necktie." Notaro's QVC-addicted mother is predictably in opposition to and embarrassed by her daughter's bad-girl antics. In "Waking Angela Up," Notaro compares herself to Janeane Garofalo, and there indeed are clear similarities in the blunt self-deprecation that fuels both women's humor. Notaro, however, lacks the biting originality of her more famous counterpart. In "This Is a Public Service Announcement," Notaro rails against public restroom users, including "the hoverer" and "the talker." Her existing fans will agree with these sentiments, while new readers might simply shrug, thinking, "Who doesn't hate those characters?" ~amazon.com/publishers weekly

Review: A friend recommended this book to me after she purchased another one of Ms. Notaro's books and I commented that I had never heard of her. Well now I have and she's pretty funny. If I lived in Arizona and read the paper, I would look forward to her column on a regular basis. This was the perfect book to start out 2008 with, it was short and an easy read and funny. I started it earlier today and finished it a little bit ago with breaks in between reading sessions due to having a 2 year old, but when I was reading it I was laughing out loud. My husband even commented that it must be funny because I don't normally laugh out loud while reading books, Stephanie Plum books aside.

I think almost anyone can identify with some of the stories in the book especially anyone who went through the "what the hell did I do last night" phase during and/or after college. Some stories were more funny than others but that's to be expected. What I might find hilarious, some one else won't and vice versa, I guess that's why it's a collection of her column, something for everyone. Will I run out and buy another one of her books, probably not, but I would read her again by getting it at the library or having it loaned to me.

Final Take: 3.75/5