1983, undated later edition, from Random House
Story by Judy Dunn,
Photographs by Phoebe Dunn
The Little Kitten
Original and purchase price unknown
Slightly worn paperback
B
One, two, three....Awwwwww! Absolutely adorable photos of the adventurous, orange-and-white title character. The story isn't as good but it's serviceable. Besides all the pictures of Pickle and Jenny, the pigtailed little girl who mothers him, there are some great nature shots of a turtle, squirrels, a baby rabbit (awwww!), and so on. After the last few unimpressive books, this is a true breath of fresh air.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The Love You Make
1983, 1984 Signet edition
Peter Brown & Steven Gaines
The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles
Bought new for $4.50
Very worn paperback
C+
What a difference 15 years make! Instead of Hunter Davies having to get Beatles' approval for his authorized biography, and thus having to censor so much, longtime Beatles associate and friend Brown wrote what Time called "deep dish gossip." (Yes, he's the Peter Brown in "The Ballad of John and Yoko.") Apparently, Paul and Linda were deeply offended by the book, understandably so. Everyone comes off bad in it, with Brown finding little good to say, other than an occasional compliment on the music, and it's more about John, or even Brian Epstein, than it is about Paul, George, or particularly Ringo. I'm not sure what Gaines's contribution to the book was, though I suspect it was the more generic information that can be found in most books on the Beatles. Although this is much less of a rush-job than John Lennon Remembered (1980), having been three years in the making, there are many careless errors and typos, among the most glaring, a name (Byrne) misspelled on a line right above the correct spelling, and the year that John and Paul met changing from one paragraph to the next.
What the book presents that you might not find as much elsewhere is the financial side, since Brown worked for Brian in Liverpool and London. In fact, I think the book should've been called You Never Give Me Your Money, because it's not exactly a loving book. It was one of the Beatles books that my then-future-ex-husband gave me when we were in high school, and it was an eye-opener for both of us, not just the sex and drugs but the anger and hatred in the Beatles circle. I'm going to reluctantly recommend it, as a balance to the Davies book, but you should proceed with caution.
Peter Brown & Steven Gaines
The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles
Bought new for $4.50
Very worn paperback
C+
What a difference 15 years make! Instead of Hunter Davies having to get Beatles' approval for his authorized biography, and thus having to censor so much, longtime Beatles associate and friend Brown wrote what Time called "deep dish gossip." (Yes, he's the Peter Brown in "The Ballad of John and Yoko.") Apparently, Paul and Linda were deeply offended by the book, understandably so. Everyone comes off bad in it, with Brown finding little good to say, other than an occasional compliment on the music, and it's more about John, or even Brian Epstein, than it is about Paul, George, or particularly Ringo. I'm not sure what Gaines's contribution to the book was, though I suspect it was the more generic information that can be found in most books on the Beatles. Although this is much less of a rush-job than John Lennon Remembered (1980), having been three years in the making, there are many careless errors and typos, among the most glaring, a name (Byrne) misspelled on a line right above the correct spelling, and the year that John and Paul met changing from one paragraph to the next.
What the book presents that you might not find as much elsewhere is the financial side, since Brown worked for Brian in Liverpool and London. In fact, I think the book should've been called You Never Give Me Your Money, because it's not exactly a loving book. It was one of the Beatles books that my then-future-ex-husband gave me when we were in high school, and it was an eye-opener for both of us, not just the sex and drugs but the anger and hatred in the Beatles circle. I'm going to reluctantly recommend it, as a balance to the Davies book, but you should proceed with caution.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession
1983, 1984 Dell edition
Erma Bombeck
Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession
Bought newish for $3.95
Worn paperback
C
So I was wrong. I do own another Bombeck book than Just Wait (1971). I can see why I forget this one, since there's nothing much memorable here, other than the sort of poor taste title and the sort of amusing fairytale stepmothers' versions of their stories. I remember Bombeck as less sentimental than she comes across here, yet I was also baffled by the things that the mothers got upset about. (Long hair in the early '80s? Let's move on, OK?) Much of the book felt like the kind of email message that got over-forwarded in the late '90s, and in fact "God couldn't be everywhere so he created Mothers" comes from one of these chapters.
Erma Bombeck
Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession
Bought newish for $3.95
Worn paperback
C
So I was wrong. I do own another Bombeck book than Just Wait (1971). I can see why I forget this one, since there's nothing much memorable here, other than the sort of poor taste title and the sort of amusing fairytale stepmothers' versions of their stories. I remember Bombeck as less sentimental than she comes across here, yet I was also baffled by the things that the mothers got upset about. (Long hair in the early '80s? Let's move on, OK?) Much of the book felt like the kind of email message that got over-forwarded in the late '90s, and in fact "God couldn't be everywhere so he created Mothers" comes from one of these chapters.
The Color Purple
1982, 1985 Pocket Books edition
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
Bought newish for $5.99
Worn paperback
C-
What happened? I remembered this as an amazing story that goes from rape and exploitation to a celebration of life. Now, even reading the title-drop passage about how God gets pissed off if you don't notice beauty, like the color purple, I feel meh. I didn't much care about Celie's life in the South, where she's saved by love and pants, or about Nettie's life in Africa, where she comes off sounding hypocritical or at least clueless. And the coincidences in the novel verge on Dickensian, without Dickens's charm. This book makes me appreciate all the more how Nella Larsen handled many of these themes and issues-- religion, music, clothing, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, friendship, violence, class, race, etc.-- with such skill and style back in the '20s.
It's not a terrible book, but I definitely no longer see it as beautiful. Sorry, God, if that pisses You off.
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
Bought newish for $5.99
Worn paperback
C-
What happened? I remembered this as an amazing story that goes from rape and exploitation to a celebration of life. Now, even reading the title-drop passage about how God gets pissed off if you don't notice beauty, like the color purple, I feel meh. I didn't much care about Celie's life in the South, where she's saved by love and pants, or about Nettie's life in Africa, where she comes off sounding hypocritical or at least clueless. And the coincidences in the novel verge on Dickensian, without Dickens's charm. This book makes me appreciate all the more how Nella Larsen handled many of these themes and issues-- religion, music, clothing, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, friendship, violence, class, race, etc.-- with such skill and style back in the '20s.
It's not a terrible book, but I definitely no longer see it as beautiful. Sorry, God, if that pisses You off.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
1982
Anne Tyler
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
C
So it turns out that the only good story in Four Complete Novels is Morgan's Passing. I'll get rid of this hardcover omnibus and get a paperback of Morgan's.
While the writing in Dinner, particularly the imagery, is a great advance over the two mid-'60s novels, this contains what is probably the most unappealing family Tyler's yet come up with. Father Beck abandons the family for 35 years, and mother Pearl is at best insensitive, at worst abusive. Cody steals his sadsack brother Ezra's fiancée, but remains jealous of Ezra. Only sister Jenny is at all appealing, and even she has serious issues. The third generation don't seem quite as bad, but then we don't really get to know any of them except Luke, and there's a throwaway comment about Becky having "Anor Exia," so they're probably as screwed up as their elders. When Beck returns, he tries to paper over the pain, and there's the sense that Tyler wants to give her characters a happy, or happy-ish, ending, but it just isn't believable. The one thing I genuinely liked was the restaurant of the title, and I would've rather read more about that. But Tyler here is not what Cody would call a feeder, preferring to starve readers this time.
Luckily, the next Tyler novel coming up is The Accidental Tourist in 1985....
Anne Tyler
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
C
So it turns out that the only good story in Four Complete Novels is Morgan's Passing. I'll get rid of this hardcover omnibus and get a paperback of Morgan's.
While the writing in Dinner, particularly the imagery, is a great advance over the two mid-'60s novels, this contains what is probably the most unappealing family Tyler's yet come up with. Father Beck abandons the family for 35 years, and mother Pearl is at best insensitive, at worst abusive. Cody steals his sadsack brother Ezra's fiancée, but remains jealous of Ezra. Only sister Jenny is at all appealing, and even she has serious issues. The third generation don't seem quite as bad, but then we don't really get to know any of them except Luke, and there's a throwaway comment about Becky having "Anor Exia," so they're probably as screwed up as their elders. When Beck returns, he tries to paper over the pain, and there's the sense that Tyler wants to give her characters a happy, or happy-ish, ending, but it just isn't believable. The one thing I genuinely liked was the restaurant of the title, and I would've rather read more about that. But Tyler here is not what Cody would call a feeder, preferring to starve readers this time.
Luckily, the next Tyler novel coming up is The Accidental Tourist in 1985....
"Mercy, It's the Revolution and I'm in My Bathrobe"
1982, first edition, from St. Martin's Press
Nicole Hollander
"Mercy, It's the Revolution and I'm in My Bathrobe": More Sylvia
Original price unknown, purchase price $4.95
Paperback where the pages have detached from the binding
B-
Not as laugh-out-loud as the previous collection, this still made me smile a lot. It includes a three-panel moment of Sylvia standing up, and yes, she's got a nice set of gams. The fictional newscaster Patty Murphy appears often, for the more topical/political humor.
Sylvia and friends will return in next year's "Hi, This Is Sylvia."
Nicole Hollander
"Mercy, It's the Revolution and I'm in My Bathrobe": More Sylvia
Original price unknown, purchase price $4.95
Paperback where the pages have detached from the binding
B-
Not as laugh-out-loud as the previous collection, this still made me smile a lot. It includes a three-panel moment of Sylvia standing up, and yes, she's got a nice set of gams. The fictional newscaster Patty Murphy appears often, for the more topical/political humor.
Sylvia and friends will return in next year's "Hi, This Is Sylvia."
Girls Are Powerful
1982, 1985 Sheba Feminist Publishers edition
Edited by Susan Hemings
Girls Are Powerful: Young Women's Writings from Spare Rib
Original price £3.95, purchase price $3.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
Interesting look at the thoughts of female Brits, ages 7 to 22, in the punk era. I would've liked to have seen specific dates of publication, and ages of contributors where not clear, especially since I wondered about the controversy over girls wearing trousers to school, which was long settled in the U.S. in 1982. (Perhaps not in private school though?) The writers and illustrators (there are some cartoons, unfortunately mostly reprinted too small to read all the captions) also address homophobia, classism, racism, and even ageism, the last in particular among adult feminists. I found the section on work the most thought-provoking, as working-class teenagers are pressured by their families to get a job (much more than their brothers are) and yet do housework (again, much more than their brothers are), while being exploited by employers because of their age and inexperience.
Editor Hemmings explains that "Spare Rib is a women's liberation magazine," and I assume it's an Adam & Eve pun. According to this article, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/whatever-happened-to-feminisms-extreme-sects-465970.html , Hemmings "picked her last name from an advert for bread rather than go by the name of her father or ex-husband." If I did that, I would definitely pick Wonder.
Edited by Susan Hemings
Girls Are Powerful: Young Women's Writings from Spare Rib
Original price £3.95, purchase price $3.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
Interesting look at the thoughts of female Brits, ages 7 to 22, in the punk era. I would've liked to have seen specific dates of publication, and ages of contributors where not clear, especially since I wondered about the controversy over girls wearing trousers to school, which was long settled in the U.S. in 1982. (Perhaps not in private school though?) The writers and illustrators (there are some cartoons, unfortunately mostly reprinted too small to read all the captions) also address homophobia, classism, racism, and even ageism, the last in particular among adult feminists. I found the section on work the most thought-provoking, as working-class teenagers are pressured by their families to get a job (much more than their brothers are) and yet do housework (again, much more than their brothers are), while being exploited by employers because of their age and inexperience.
Editor Hemmings explains that "Spare Rib is a women's liberation magazine," and I assume it's an Adam & Eve pun. According to this article, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/whatever-happened-to-feminisms-extreme-sects-465970.html , Hemmings "picked her last name from an advert for bread rather than go by the name of her father or ex-husband." If I did that, I would definitely pick Wonder.
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