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 Reviews: Million Dollar Baby:Stories From the Corner

Summary:  Originally published as Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, this debut collection has been reissued to coincide with the Oscar-nominated film Million Dollar Baby, based on Toole's short story, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman. ~ powells.com

Review: This is my first attempt at reading boxing-centric stories.  The main reason I requested this collection of short stories from NetGalley is because I am a fan of boxing and movies* about boxing.  I loved Million Dollar Baby and wanted to read the story because we all know the book is always better than the movie. I am glad I took a chance on something that was far from my usual reading material because Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner is one of the best short collections I have ever read.

Mr. Toole writes with so much heart.  As a boxer and trainer himself, he gives his readers his unique point of view for everyone involved in the sport.  From the Boxers themselves to the Trainers and Cutmen, I loved reading about the sport from this angle.  Each of the characters he introduced us too were so real, they came to life on the page.

What surprised me was that in all the stories I read, Million Dollar Baby was not my favorite.  I actually began listing all my favorite stories, but when I got to five I went back and edited this review.  Each story was better than the last.  Each character so simple yet complex, so brilliant and real.  It was true joy to spend time with them.  My only struggle was in reading the detailed description the author uses to describe boxing.  I’m not quite sure how to explain it to you other than to say the semantics of it was hard for me to understand.  What I got loud and clear was the people, the emotion in which each character felt.  It was beautiful.

Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner honors the human spirit.  And Mr. Toole honors those who fought before him and those who will continue to fight after him.  I believe if you are a fan of boxing, this is a must read. 

Final Take:  4/5

* One of the best boxing movies ever is Girlfight starring Michelle Rodriguez.  You must check it out.

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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: The House at Belle Fontaine: Stories

Summary: The powerfully intimate stories within The House at Belle Fontaine span the better part of the twentieth century and almost every continent, laying bare apprehensions, passions, secrets, and tragedies that resonate across time and space. In crisp, spare, and penetrating prose, Lily Tuck unveils and suppresses personal truths as her characters navigate exotic locales and immediate emotional territory: an artist learns that her deceased ex-husband had an especially illicit affair seventeen years before his death; a young couple living in Thailand worries about the mental stability of their best friend, a U. S. army captain; on a ship bound for Antarctica, a retired couple strains to hold together their forty-year-old marriage; and a French family flees to Lima in the 1940s with devastating consequences for their daughters young nanny. ~powells.com

Review: I am a fan of short stories.  I have always believed that writing a short story is more difficult than a novel because you have a limited amount of words in order to get your point across.  Some writers struggle with this, however others are wildly successful.  I believe Lily Tuck is truly gifted.

There were several stories that I especially liked.  Those are The House at Belle Fontaine, Lucky and My Music.

This collection encompassed stories that were very different with the common denominator being Ms. Tuck’s prose.  She writes factually but with certain poetry.  She chooses her words carefully so they have the strongest impact.  Her characters are memorable as well with my favorite being Helen from Lucky.  She was strong, sad, beautiful.

If you enjoy a wonderful collection of short stories, I highly recommend picking this up.  This is perfect for the novice short story reader as well.  I look forward to reading Lily Tuck in the future.  The House at Belle Fontaine:Stories was simply breathtaking.

Final Take: 4/5

Alice's Reviews: Swim

 Summary:  Ruth has left her job writing for a hit television show for reasons she’d rather not discuss and is supplementing her increasingly dwindling savings with freelance writing projects—namely, helping anxious high school students craft a perfect college essay and lonely souls craft captivating online dating profiles. When she’s not working, she’s swimming—lap after lap at the local indoor pool, in a desperate attempt to wash away the sting of professional failure and heartbreak that she can’t seem to shake. It takes an unexpected client to show her that appearances can be deceiving, and that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is simply dive back in. ~amazon.com

Review: Swim is a short story by Jennifer Weiner that was included in the book The Guy Not Taken.  It is also the inspiration for her newest novel, The Next Best Thing.  I purchased the short on Amazon for two reasons.  The first being the price:  At $1.99, you can’t go wrong.  (Although I do believe the Kindle edition is free right now.)  The second is I missed her.  I really did.  I love her writing style and her characters.  The way she infuses them with such realism they can be anyone you actually know or wish you knew.  Ruth is no different.

A car accident left Ruth was a facial scar that is the source of much insecurity and an unrequited love has left her broken hearted and jobless.  In an effort to get back on her feet, she takes a job as a college application coach.  This is the perfect antidote to remain hidden and anonymous until a two unexpected things happen to set her life going again.

I couldn’t remember if I read The Guy Not Taken already, but something about Swim was familiar to me.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Ruthie is one of my favorite Jennifer Weiner characters.  At the end this story, I got that effervescent burst that happens when I read something really good, really special.  Ms. Weiner was clever to release this short because I have already purchased The Next Best Thing.  I can’t wait to see what changes Ruth has in her future and how she continues to grow.

Final Take: 5/5

Jenn's Review: A Bloody Storm

Summary:  Derrick Storm is back--this time with a crack team of ghost CIA operatives. These former agents have all faked their own deaths and now work for the CIA on a strictly secret basis, taking on dangerous and illegal jobs the agency may not officially carry out. They're headed to the Molguzar Mountains to look for sixty billion dollars' worth of gold hidden by the KGB before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and taking a perilous detour to rescue FBI agent April Showers from a sociopathic torturer. But Storm's loyalties are put to the test as the mission begins to unravel into a bloody mountaintop showdown, and he and Showers must find out the hard way that their assignment may not be what they thought it was... ~blurb

Review:  This is the third and last installment of short story for the Derrick Storm releases.  I enjoyed it just about as much as the first two, but I will say it was a little obvious why Storm was sent on the mission, and who was behind everything, still there were a few small surprises.  (I loved the chase scene and Showers' final weapon, even though the easy banter during it seemed completely unrealistic -and very Castle.)  Did I think Jones went to far?  Yes, but I understand why he made the call that he did.

This fall we will be awarded 'Richard Castle's' second Storm book in graphic novel form, Storm Season.  I don't know how much further ABC plans to take Derrick Storm, but I'm enjoying what they are giving.  I will be reading the full length, Nikki Heat novel, Heat Rises, soon because I miss Castle.  (I know Frozen Heat will be out in September, but I always save the books for the summer when the show's hiatus is difficult for this die-hard fangirl.)  I don't often praise ABC, but I love what they're doing with this franchise.

Final Take:  4/5
 

Jenn's Review: A Raging Storm

Summary:  Days after being brought out of retirement to investigate a kidnapping, Derrick Storm has a dead US senator on his hands, an assassin to track down, and nearly six billion dollars' worth of gold bars--hidden by the Communist Party somewhere in the former USSR--to uncover. Teaming up again with FBI agent April Showers, Storm must talk to Ivan Petrov, a secretive millionaire who has ties to the assassination, coordinates for the gold, and a mole leaking information to the Russian government from within his inner circle. And while the CIA mission is getting heated, it's nothing compared to the growing sexual tension between Storm and Showers...

Review:  I have been missing Castle a lot this summer. Usually I just start re-watching my DVDs but my television time has been greatly reduced this summer so reading these little short stories from 'Richard Castle' help ease the ache. Even though these stories revolve around Derrick Storm, Castle's series prior to Nikki Heat, it is a lovely morsel of the Castle lore from the writers.  In fact, you can actually hear Castle's voice in Derrick Storm.

As for A Raging Storm, this brings us a little closer to the heart of the investigation that Storm has been hauled out of retirement for. The cold war may be over, but the spy game is still on. Storm uncovers what his boss has been concealing and now he must continue the investigation without reading in Agent Showers or drawing her into his world. 

I was glad to start getting into the meat of the story, and get a little more character development. We were also left with a huge cliff-hanger  These short stories are lovely little diversions and I look forward to the final installment, A Bloody Storm, due out next week. 

Final Take:  4/5
   

Jenn's Review: A Brewing Storm

Summary:  When Derrick Storm needed to leave the CIA, he couldn't just retire. He had to fake his own death. So when his former boss calls in an old favor that will bring Storm out of early retirement and back to Washington to investigate a high-profile kidnapping, he knows there must be more at stake than the life of a senator's son. Working alongside, but not exactly with, bombshell FBI investigator April Showers, Storm must make sense of a confusing flurry of ransom notes and a complicated web of personal relationships and international politics. He'll get to the bottom of the kidnapping, but the storm is still brewing . . .

DISCLAIMER:  Richard Castle is the novelist in the hit television series, Castle. Before he started shadowing Beckett for his Nikki Heat novels, he was the best selling author of the Derrick Storm series ~which ABC is now taking from the plot exposition of the show and creating and publishing in various forms.

Review: Derrick Storm isn't dead?!? I must admit, I was a little confused at first. My last encounter with Detective Storm was at the beginning of the Derrick Storm saga through the graphic novels, so I was a little surprised to pick up this short story and be dropped into the end of the saga. Apparently, Storm faked his death to go off the grid.

The short story was entertaining but held very few surprises. I enjoyed the characters, though I found Storm to be the very essence of the obnoxious playboy that Richard Castle used to be. I do wonder how Storm got here from where he started and where the next short story installment will take us. It's quite a cliff hanger and it certainly left me craving more.

Then again, maybe I'm just a little Castle starved since the season ended... And oh, how it ended!

Final Take: 3.75/5

Alice's Review: Shoes Hair Nails

Summary:  The settings of these stories - 1980s New York City, 1950s Brooklyn, Las Vegas, an exurban town post-9/11 - are as diverse as the rich palette of characters drawn with heart, humor, and sensuality. With a sharp sense of the telling detail, Deborah Batterman weaves narratives around the everyday symbols in our world and their resonance in our lives.

Review:  One of the reasons I love doing this is because I get to read books I may not otherwise have come across.  Sometimes a book is just okay, other times the book is crazy good.  I'm reallly happy this is one of those times.

Shoes Hair Nails is a collection of short stories by Deborah Batterman.  I am a fan of short stories because I like that there is a beginning, middle and end wrapped up in a little package.  I like the diversity of a collection.  With Shoes Hair Nails, I never knew what I was going to get next.  From tales of abandoment to suicide to recovery to grief, the stories covered a wide spectrum of topics.

Some of my favorites were Crazy Charlotte about a free-spirited young mother and the effect that neighborhood gossip had on her and her family.  I loved Charlotte.  Ms. Batterman created a character who put her children first, who wanted them to learn to think for themselves and experience the kind of life that is not found solely in a classroom.

I also liked Hair, which describes Sabrina's journey into adulthood after her mother left her to go buy a pack of cigarettes and never came back.  She was six years old.

Nails was another good one.  It was especially magical to me because it started as a testimate to getting over a broken heart (or moving on from a failed relationship) but became the redemption of a woman named Bridie.

Talking Gets You Nowhere is one of my favorites as well.  I love how it is told in both the mother and daughter's points of view.  I really liked Rhonda and how this novel was a sort of coming of age for her.  Actually, it was a coming of age for her mother too.  Rhonda is the one I am most curious about.  I would love to know what is going on with her now.

Reading these stories, I was so engrossed in the lives of the new friends I made that I was sad to see their story end.  I want to know more.  This book is a keeper for me and one I know I will go back to.  It's the kind of book that as your read it again, you'll discover something you missed the first time around.  One line I won't forget however is Bridie describing a lost love:

"Every ounce of me aching with a longing that become a kind of sustenance.  Every square inch of this room, of me, flooded, again, with his music."

Man, that's some good stuff.  I'm looking forward to reading what Ms. Batterman has for us next.

Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: Olive Kitteridge

Summary: Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me, etc.) present a heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with Strout. ~amazon.com

Review: I read Ms. Strout's first novel Amy and Isabelle years ago and found it to be emotional charged about mothers and daughter relationship and although I don't normally read short stories, I was looking forward to this one.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is a brilliant read about life as it happens and how real life truly happens. In the day of Facebook where everyone's life seems perfect (really who puts their troubles in their status?!), Ms. Strout offers us a look at the darker side of life in a honest manner. This book tells us about the heartache and truths that happen behind closed doors.

I found that Ms. Strout wrote the stories in such a manner that you felt that they all flowed together. Being in the middle of all these stories is Olive Kitteridge. Is she nice? No. Is she well-meaning? Not particularly. Is she honest and forthright? Yes! And this is what I loved about her. Sure, she's not warm and fuzzy but in the end she's always been honest with everyone but herself. By the last story, Olive faces some truths about herself and seems to be ok with them. Might even be able to learn from them.

There are some fantastic stories in this collection. A couple of my favorites were: Incoming Tide and Starving. Both of these dealt with difficult subjects and how over the years some issues never go away. In both of these stories Olive shows how caring and gentle she is. In Incoming Tide, it seemed to me that she knew just what Kevin needed to hear and without making a big deal of it, she talked him back from his dark place. In Starving, she tries to comfort Nina and give her advice. Albeit the advice isn't going to be the cure but she was caring to someone she didn't know.

All of the stories aren't centered around Olive and all have interesting featured protagonists. In a small town all the people are connected so I understood why Olive showed up in 99% of them. The one where she didn't show up, felt disconnected to the other stories. I'm not sure why that one was included.

The writing is impeccable and this is why I think it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. Not that the stories of this little town in Maine aren't human and moving, but it's Ms. Strout's writing that enables you to read through these stories seamlessly.

I will continue to look for and read Ms. Strout's novels/short stories. She is truly a gifted storyteller. I also think that Olive Kitteridge would make for a fascinating movie or tv show. There is so much you could do with it.

If you are looking for a book that shines a light on the darker side of life, then this is the book for you. Although in the end, it shows us that just when we think life has worn us down, we can have new life brought into it.

Final Take: 4.75/5

Lisa's Review: Delicate Edible Birds

Review:
I can't think of many people I know who seek out short stories or short story collections as consistent reading material. I can count on three fingers the number of short stories, I've sought out in the past few years, maybe even my post-college/adult life. Brokeback Mountain and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Lame. I know and as much as I would like to prove that I'm not that lame, I can't remember the name of the 3rd story.*

Suffice it to say I came to Delicate Edible Birds a little unsure what to expect, so this was an interesting read. As I read, I noticed a theme emerging tying the stories together. None of the stories are similar to another, even the tone of the opening paragraph of each story is very different. Each story revolved one main female character, each from a different walk of life, living in a different time period and their story told from a different point of view. These are some of the attributes that made me love the entire collection, with Lucky Chow Fun, L. DeBard & Aliette, and Blythe standing out as favorites.

And though each story on it's own isn't a winner, it's clear that Lauren Groff is exceptionally talented writer and this collection of short stories is all the evidence needed.

Final Take: 3.75/5

* Remember that 3rd short story I mentioned further up? In short, it's about a guy who is on some sort of journey and somehow comes to the realization he's dead. I'll give you a $20 gift certificate to Amazon if you can tell me the name of it.