Input: [Patent application number] 20140121880 [Published] 05-01-2014 [Description]

Output: CONTROLLING VEHICLE LATERAL LANE POSITIONING - Methods and systems for controlling vehicle lateral lane positioning are described. A computing device may be configured to identify an object in a vicinity of a vehicle on a road. The computing device may be configured to estimate, based on characteristics of the vehicle and respective characteristics of the object, an interval of time during which the vehicle will be laterally adjacent to the object. Based on the characteristics of the vehicle, the computing device may be configured to estimate longitudinal positions of the vehicle on the road during the interval of time. Based on the respective characteristics of the object, the computing device may be configured to determine a lateral distance for the vehicle to maintain between the vehicle and the object during the interval of time at the longitudinal positions of the vehicle, and provide instructions to control the vehicle based on the lateral distance.


Input: [Patent application number] 20140297094 [Published] 10-02-2014 [Description]

Output: Controlling Vehicle Lateral Lane Positioning - Methods and systems for controlling vehicle lateral lane positioning are described. A computing device may be configured to identify an object in a vicinity of a vehicle on a road. The computing device may be configured to estimate, based on characteristics of the vehicle and respective characteristics of the object, an interval of time during which the vehicle will be laterally adjacent to the object. Based on the characteristics of the vehicle, the computing device may be configured to estimate longitudinal positions of the vehicle on the road during the interval of time. Based on the respective characteristics of the object, the computing device may be configured to determine a lateral distance for the vehicle to maintain between the vehicle and the object during the interval of time at the longitudinal positions of the vehicle, and provide instructions to control the vehicle based on the lateral distance.


Input: [Patent application number] 20140303827 [Published] 10-09-2014 [Description]

Output: Systems and Methods for Transitioning Control of an Autonomous Vehicle to a Driver - Methods and systems for adaptive methods for transitioning control to the driver are described. A computing device controlling a vehicle autonomously may be configured to receive a request for a transition of the vehicle from autonomous mode to manual mode through an indication by the driver. The computing device may determine the state of the vehicle based on parameters related to the autonomous operation of the vehicle. Based on the state of the vehicle and the indication, the computing device may determine instructions corresponding to the transition of control, which may include a strategy for the transition and duration of time corresponding to the transition of control. The computing device may provide the instructions to perform the transition of control of the vehicle from autonomous mode to manual mode.


Input: [Patent application number] 20140358331 [Published] 12-04-2014 [Description]

Output: Transitioning a Mixed-Mode Vehicle to Autonomous Mode - Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able to know its exact position. Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference indictor to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction, it can operate in autonomous mode.


Input: [Sr. No.] 1) Providing credit facility to members [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: W.e.f A.Y. 2007-08 deduction not available to co-operative bank. Primary Co-operative agricultural & rural development bank & chit funds can claim exemption. Providing credit facility means providing loans & other credit facilities. Does not include selling goods on credit/hire purchase.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 2) Cottage Industry [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: For qualifying as cottage industry – Business is to be carried on in a small scale, with limited capital, workers & turnover. Business is carried on by members of society (shareholders) & their families. Business must involve activity of manufacture, production or processing & not merely in trade. It is not required to be registered under Factories Act.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 3) Marketing of Agricultural Produce [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 4) Purchase of Agricultural Implements, seeds, livestock, other articles intended for agriculture [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: It is for the purpose of supplying them to its members.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 5) Processing Agricultural Produce of Members (Without Aid of Power) [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 6) Collective Disposal of labour of its members [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: Deduction is available only when earning of society is through the utilization of the actual labour of its members. Deduction is available provided the rules & bye Laws of the society restrict the voting rights to following class of members – a) Individuals who contribute their labour b) Co-op. credit societies which provide financial assistance to the society c) State Government.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 7) Fishing & Allied Activities [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: It includes catching, curing, processing, preserving, storing or marketing of fish or purchase of materials & equipment in connection therewith for supplying them to its members. Deduction is available provided the rules & bye Laws of the society restrict the voting rights to following class of members – a) Individuals who carry on fishing or allied activities. b) Co-op. credit societies which provide financial assistance to the society c) State Government.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 8 ) Primary society engaged in supplying milk, oil seeds, fruits or vegetables [Amount deductible] Entire profit from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: Milk oil seeds, fruits or vegetables are grown or raised by its members Milk, oil seeds, fruits or vegetables are supplied to a federal co-op. society (engaged in similar business), Government or local authority, Government company or a statutory corporation (engaged in similar business).

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 10) Interest income/ Dividend income [Amount deductible] Entire amount of such income [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: Such income is received from investment in any other co-operative society.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 11) Letting of godowns/ warehouses [Amount deductible] Entire amount of income derived from such business [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: Godowns/warehouses are let for storage, processing or facilitating the marketing of commodities.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [Sr. No.] 12) Interest on securities & property income [Amount deductible] Entire amount of such income [Applicability & Conditions]

Output: Benefit not available to housing society, urban consumer’s society, society carrying on transport business, society engaged in manufacturing operations with aid of power Gross total income of such society does not exceed Rs. 20,000.

Co-Operative Society – Taxation – A.Y. 2012-13


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The Enchantress Of Florence [author] author Rushdie, Salman [isbn] isbn 0224061631 [isbn13] isbn13 9780224061636 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 359 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.54 [num ratings] num ratings 11,997 [date pub] date pub 2008 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Apr 03, 2008 [rating] Madeline's rating 1 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review I'm a little over halfway through this and so far almost every single female character is a prostitute or a slave. Three women have committed suicide I'm a little over halfway through this and so far almost every single female character is a prostitute or a slave. Three women have committed suicide because of a man. Also there's a female character who is literally a figment of a male character's imagination and she's more dynamic than any of the (few) real women in this fucking book. Ugh. Most likely will not finish. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 4 [votes] votes 17 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Jul 29, 2015 [date read] date read not set [date added] date added Jul 29, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The Martian [author] author Weir, Andy * [isbn] isbn 0804139024 [isbn13] isbn13 9780804139021 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 369 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.37 [num ratings] num ratings 148,189 [date pub] date pub 2011 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Feb 11, 2014 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review All right, let's get something out of the way right now: yes, I know that this was the big "It Book" a couple of years ago and I should have gotten on All right, let's get something out of the way right now: yes, I know that this was the big "It Book" a couple of years ago and I should have gotten on the bandwagon then. But what convinced me to put this on hold at the library was the trailer for the movie version, which looks awesome. I decided to read a book only because there's going to be a movie, and it's not the first time that's happened. Fight me. Mark Watney is one of six astronauts on a Mars mission. While he and the rest of the crew are on the planet, there's a massive storm and the crew evacuates. In the confusion, Watney is separated from the group and injured, and they are forced to leave without him. When he wakes up, Watney finds himself alone on Mars, with no way of contacting NASA and only a years' worth of supplies in his shelter. Because he knows it'll take years for a potential rescue to arrive, he has to figure out a way to survive by himself on, as he might phrase it, a planet that wants to kill him. In other reviews, I frequently see this book pitched as Robinson Crusoe in space. Which is very accurate, but I think that this xkcd comic explains it even better: "You know the scene in Apollo 13 where the guy says 'We have to figure out how to connect this thing to this thing using this table full of parts or the astronauts will all die? ...The Martian is for people who wish the whole movie had just been more of that scene." It feels weird to praise the worldbuilding of a speculative fiction book, but that's exactly what Weir is doing with The Martian that's so impressive. He didn't just have to think of all the potential problems a person stranded on Mars might encounter, he also had to come up with solutions to those problems. And this isn't like Daniel Defoe, who could at least do research on other people who had survived after being stranded on deserted islands - no human has ever been on Mars, ever, much less been stuck there for several years. Let's pause and appreciate how much thought and work went into thinking through every aspect of Watney's situation. The book is structured primarily as log entries, with Watney updating us on the day's problems and events. And just when this becomes in danger of being repetitive, we cut to the ground crew at NASA. And we also get scenes of Watney's crew, who are still in the satellite station. This is a smart move - if we only had Watney's voice, the book would have felt claustrophobic and boring, and adding additional characters to the mix helps keep the book from becoming a monotonous slog. It has to be said, though, that all the characters who are not Mark Watney are not particularly interesting. Granted, I probably could have read an entire book from Commander Lewis's perspective, but she's the exception to the rule. The people at NASA, in particular, are essentially interchangeable. There's the dude who's like "We have to do this incredibly risky thing" and the dude who's like "No, it's too risky!" and the lady who's like "The computer is doing this thing!" and that's pretty much everyone. Also there are two characters named Mitch and Rich, and fuck me if I could tell you anything about either of them. But the other characters aren't really in this book to function as fully-fleshed people - they exist as exposition mouthpieces, talking the reader through whatever problem has just come up, and reminding us occasionally of the stakes. Because of this, Watney has to do all of the heaving lifting in terms of three-dimensional characterization, and luckily he's up to the challenge. Mark Watney, plainly stated, is a delight. He's equal parts relentless optimism and "well this fucking sucks." Even when he's stating plainly to the reader that everything is terrible and that he will probably die, he remains unable to lie down and give up. Every single day is a struggle to continue fighting, and at its core, The Martian is a story about humanity's absolute refusal to give up hope. The fear of death is a powerful motivator. And it doesn't hurt that Watney's narrative voice is so great. Even in the midst of all the science shop-talk (which I did not understand a word of, naturally) he maintains a matter-of-fact tone and will usually break things down into layman's terms. And he's just fun: "I need to ask myself, 'What would an Apollo astronaut do?' He'd drink three whiskey sours, drive his Corvette to the launchpad, then fly to the moon in a command module smaller than my Rover. Man those guys were cool." And now I have to talk about the ending and my conspiracy theory idea about what actually happened. MAJOR MEGA SPOILERS HIDDEN BELOW, OBVIOUSLY. (view spoiler)[Okay, so did anyone else feel like the ending was kind of a letdown? It was just "We rescued him, yay, THE END." Even at the last page, I kept thinking, that can't be it, something else has to go wrong! Because the entire book is Watney going, "Okay, I fixed this problem! Oh shit, something else happened" and that's what I was used to. So, ready for my super-depressing theory? The book ends so abruptly, and there's no follow-up log entry by Watney after he gets back to the ship. I understand why this is: Watney has been rescued. The central conflict of the book has been resolved. It's over. There's no real need for a follow-up log entry when the astronauts get back to Earth. But then I started thinking...what if the last log entry is the last log entry? The astronauts still have to get back to Earth, and they did just sort of blow up part of their ship when they were getting Watney. So my theory is this: they never made it back. After the rescue, something went wrong with the ship, they couldn't fix it, and they all died. That's why there's no "hooray, we made it back!" entry. Because they never did. Anyway, have a good week, everybody! (hide spoiler)] ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 6 [votes] votes 31 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Jul 2015 [date added] date added Jul 27, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Just Kids [author] author Smith, Patti [isbn] isbn 006621131X [isbn13] isbn13 9780066211312 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 304 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.12 [num ratings] num ratings 75,279 [date pub] date pub 2010 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Jan 19, 2010 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review "Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply. I got over the loss of his desk and chair, but never t "Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply. I got over the loss of his desk and chair, but never the desire to produce a string of words more precious than the emeralds of Cortes. Yet I have a lock of his hair, a handful of his ashes, a box of his letters, a goatskin tambourine. And in that folds of faded violet tissue a necklace, two violet plaques etched in Arabic, strung with black and silver threads, given to me by the boy who loved Michelangelo." (watch this and then read) Reading this was an interesting experience for me. Lately I've had a weird but insatiable urge to read memoirs by 1970's musicians. Why? Not really sure - maybe I just need to re-watch Almost Famous. But for whatever reason, I had a particular literary itch to scratch, and only Patti Smith's memoir would do. I had heard Gloria before reading this book, and I knew that Patti Smith was a musician. I had never heard of her lifetime friend and partner Robert Mapplethorpe, and most of the artists who get name-dropped in this book flew right over my head. For this reason, this memoir might as well have been pure fiction to me, since I had almost no frame of reference for anyone except the biggest names. But I think that, ultimately, this worked in my favor: instead of spending every other page thinking, "oh my god, she totally knew [famous person] before they were famous!" I was just focusing on the story. And it's quite a story. People who go into this book expecting to learn about Smtih's songwriting/performance career will be disappointed; her retelling of how she became a famous musician is basically "someone suggested that I try putting my poems to music and people seemed to really like it, so that's cool I guess." There's not much about her actual writing process, even. She talks a lot about Rimbaud, and tries very hard to write like him. Occasionally you find yourself rolling your eyes at her prose, but for the most part, her writing is quite lovely. This is, first and last, the story of a lifelong friendship. This is the story of people who sacrificed everything - home, family, comfort, security - in order to become artists. What makes it lovely is that you get the sense that becoming famous - at least, famous in the sense that most people would recognize - never even crossed Smith's mind. She wanted, purely and simply, to devote her life to art. She was poor and homeless and miserable, but she was happy. A true starving-artist story, occasionally overwrought, but always compelling. Patti Smith is cooler than everyone you will ever meet. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 1 [votes] votes 30 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Jul 2015 [date added] date added Jul 09, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie [author] author Barres, Pamela Des [isbn] isbn 1556525893 [isbn13] isbn13 9781556525896 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 320 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.68 [num ratings] num ratings 9,615 [date pub] date pub Jun 1987 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Oct 28, 2005 [rating] Madeline's rating 3 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review Pamela Des Barres grew up living a comfortable middle-class life in Reseda California. She had loving parents and a stable home life, and all signs po Pamela Des Barres grew up living a comfortable middle-class life in Reseda California. She had loving parents and a stable home life, and all signs pointed to her leading a perfectly ordinary life. But somewhere along the line, Pamela Miller became Pamela Des Barres, one of the most legendary groupies who had a front-row seat (or, more accurately, a backstage pass) to the greatest era in rock and roll history. I'm With the Band is her story. If you've ever watched Almost Famous and found yourself wishing that Penny Lane had written a memoir (or better yet, Sapphire - "Does anyone remember laughter?!"), here it is. Des Barres takes us through her life, beginning with her as a teenager, trying to sneak into the Beatles' hotel with her friends; ending with her reflecting on a lifetime spent among musical legends. It's a well-documented memoir, with photos, diary entries, and letters giving the reader plenty of detail into this period of Des Barres life. (It helps, too, that Des Barres was never hugely into drugs and alcohol, enabling her both to survive long enough to write this memoir and to remember everything clearly) Under the tutelage of Frank Zappa, she and four other girls formed the GTOs, the “music group” (sarcastic quotations because they really never had much of a music career) that became the most legendary groupies of their time. Think of a musician from the 60's or 70's. Which one? Doesn't matter - Pamela Des Barres has seen him naked, or at least knows someone who has. I started out HATING this book, and it's almost entirely due to a laughably misguided introduction by Dave Navarro. Before you read the following quote, please do yourself a favor and look up a picture of Dave Navarro. Seriously, I'll wait. I want you to picture his face saying the following, and suffer as I have suffered. ...did you do it? I'm serious guys, you're not going to want to miss out. Anyway, now that we all have that mental image in our heads, here's how Dave Navarro decided to end his introduction to I'm With the Band: “My personal advice to the readers: Men, keep a box of tissue handy while reading this book. Women, try to keep your deep feelings of jealousy and hostility at bay...you know you wish this was your story.” WOW. Actually, Dave Navarro, I DON'T wish this was my story. Because unlike you, I don't think it's a compliment to have my life story reduced to future spank-bank material for some dude who looks like Dracula's gay hairdresser. But thanks for playing, and fuck you very much. After that noxious excuse for an intro, Des Barres throws us right into the hedonistic drug-fueled world of rock and roll in the 1960s. Throughout all of her adventures, Des Barres is constantly surrounded and supported by her fellow groupies, and frankly that was refreshing and surprising. Even the women who are fighting Des Barres for some rock star's attention eventually become Des Barres' friends, rather than becoming the villains. Even when a girl steals a man's attention from her, Des Barres has nothing but nice things to say, and the way these women (who, you'll recall, were all in their teens or early twenties at the time) support each other is fucking inspiring. What Des Barres seems to be saying, without having to come out and state it plainly, is that she and the other groupies bonded out of necessity - they had to love and support each other, because they knew that the men they were sleeping with would not. Considering that she's writing about a time when ugly sexism in the music industry was not only tolerated but encouraged, it's a surprise and a relief that I'm With the Band contains absolutely no internalized misogyny from the author. Des Barres, for all her faults, seems to have flatly rejected the mentality that other women are competition - a mentality that Dave Navarro oh-so-subtly tries to instill in the readers with his 'try to contain your raging jealousy, ladies.' Once more with feeling: fuck you, Dave Navarro) The writing itself is...not great. When I was starting this book, someone warned me about it by telling me that Des Barres wrote "like a toddler with a head injury" and unfortunately that description isn't far off. The worst bits come from Des Barres's diary, which is quoted at eye-rolling length. But at the same time, I have to give credit where credit is due: let them who would allow their teenage diaries to be published in a best-selling book cast the first stone. Speaking of the writing, remember how Dave Navarro pitched this as some kind of literary porn (that only dudes are allowed to masturbate to, because Dave Navarro sucks)? His criteria for erotica must be pretty fucking wide, because the sex scenes in this book are almost the opposite of sexy. Take this excerpt from Des Barres's diary, when she recounts the time she banged Noel Redding: “October 2...I CAME! How do you like that? ...Lovely romance, we played around for awhile and then he made love to me. AMAZING! I was totally under his control. He put me in a hundred positions and did such stupendous things! It's doubtful that anyone could surpass his proism. It was like being caught in a web, unable to free myself – wanting to get more tangled.” Oof. Look, Pamela, just because you write openly about your sex life doesn't make you Anais Nin. Granted, that excerpt is from a diary entry she wrote when she was nineteen, but sadly her writing doesn't seem to have improved with age. Although apparently the grownup Des Barres makes her living as a journalist, so what the hell do I know. Des Barres also seems aware of how ridiculous she comes off sometimes in her diaries and letters, and you can almost see her rolling her eyes behind the page as she quotes some passage where her teenage self gushed shamelessly over some rock star. That's about as far as the self-reflection goes, however. The closest we get to any sense of disillusionment with her chosen lifestyle is when Des Barres describes being snubbed by the new, younger groupies: “The rock and roll girls were getting younger, and I was no good at competing. They hated me because I had been there first, and they called me awful names at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, 'old' being the most popular odious declaration of loathing. I let them get to me; they told me I was over the hill, and I looked in the mirror, inspecting my twenty-five-year-old face for early stages of decrepitness. ...I believed the GTO's had paved the way for these infant upstarts, and I thought they should show me some kind of respect, or at least recognition for my groundbreaking Strip-walking efforts. Needless to say, they didn't show me jack-shit.” Of course right after this she makes sure to quote some rock star saying essentially the same thing in Rolling Stone, because God forbid the readers dismiss her as some jealous hag without knowing that a famous man felt the same way, which makes her feelings legitimate. It's also a little strange that, for a memoir focused entirely on the music scene in the 60s and 70s, there's almost no actual music. I was waiting for some description of how Teenage Pamela felt the first time she heard a Beatles song, or what it was like seeing Jimmy Page play in person. But there's not really any discussion of the actual music these guys were making, and you get the sense that the Rolling Stones could have been a barbershop quartet and Des Barres wouldn't have cared, as long as they were the most famous barbershop quartet in the world. But where Des Barres fails to encapsulate what was so interesting about the music these guys were playing, she succeeds in painting detailed, intimate portraits of some of the greatest names in rock and roll. And it makes sense – after all, Des Barres had affairs with all of these men, and saw them at their most vulnerable. Sometimes it's funny, like when she's describing the bedroom preferences of a certain Led Zepplin frontman; sometimes it's disturbing, like when she shrugs off the fact that one of them (I forget which, but it doesn't really matter) liked to slap her around in bed and she wasn't really into that; and sometimes it's just tragic, like her description of Keith Moon: “He was happy being anybody but himself. At night he would wake up ten times, bathed in medicine-smelling sweat, jabbering about running over his roadie and burning for eternity. He couldn't wait to pay for that horrible mistake. We took handfuls of pills, and he drank vodka like he was dying of thirst.” I got frustrated with Des Barres because there was no second-act realization, no turnaround in her wide-eyed adoration of rock stars. Where is her anger? I thought as I read through yet another breezy description of being used and tossed away by some famous dick with a guitar. I wanted her to rage at these men who had treated her like shit. Where was the regret? Where was the condemnation, the rage at these adult men who fucked thirteen-year-old girls and got away with it? Doesn't she realize that she's getting all her self-worth from other people? Doesn't she know that these guys view her as completely disposable? And here's what I realized: Pamela Des Barres knows that none of these men really loved her, or ever saw her as anything more than a piece of ass. Pamela Des Barres knows, and she does not care, because Pamela Des Barres is too busy having fun. And that, readers, is her great secret: no one, not even the biggest rock stars in the world, can make you feel used and used up if you are having a good time. So what if these guys were just using her for sex? Teenage Des Barres once wrote a list of life goals, and one of the items was “have sex with Mick Jagger.” She might have been just a notch in these dudes' belts, but baby, that road goes both ways. It was a fascinating roller coaster, watching Des Barres go from Feminist Nightmare to Feminist Hero? in my mind as I read. And then, to my complete surprise, at about the two-thirds mark, I found myself sympathizing with Des Barres. I felt sorry for her, and not in the “oh god why did no one teach this child self-esteem?” way that I had originally felt. I began to sympathize with Des Barres because I realized how badly the men in her life actually treated her, and how badly readers will react to her book. Pamela Des Barres's book is, at its core, the story of a teenage girl who was so insanely passionate about something that she made it the sole purpose of her life. She was obsessed with the Beatles in high school, and that paved the way for her obsession with rock stars, and her need to be part of the inner circle. And if there is one thing society cannot abide, it's teenage girls getting really interested in things. Pamela Des Barres is not a musician, she is a groupie. And that word, in most people's minds, automatically makes her an object of ridicule. I was supposed to hate Des Barres, and that made me love her. We sneer at the women (or, more accurately, girls, since most of the groupies in this book are only teenagers) who devote themselves slavishly to their rock idols, but we never have any disdain left over for the men who were the cause of this. We criticize and mock the star-struck teenagers, but not the grown men who used these girls and tossed them aside and played songs like "Under My Thumb" and wrote memoirs gleefully documenting how many chicks they banged in a night. It's easier, after all, to mock the results of a toxic culture rather than examining its origins. Unfortunately, Des Barres doesn't seem too interested in examining the misogynistic culture she idolized, or circumstances that led to her belief that sleeping with a famous person is just as good as being famous yourself. That was what I wanted from this memoir. I wanted Des Barres to end with this simple lesson: creativity is not acquired through proximity. Surrounding yourself with artists is great, but it doesn't make you an artist yourself. It's not enough to sit back and applaud while you watch other people create; you have to create something of your own. Pamela Des Barres spent her life sitting on amps and watching famous men play music; I wanted her book to end with her learning to make her own music, if only metaphorically. But, as some dick with a guitar once said, you can't always get what you want. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 20 [votes] votes 52 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Jun 26, 2015 [date read] date read Jul 2015 [date added] date added Jun 26, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend [author] author Orlean, Susan * [isbn] isbn 1439190135 [isbn13] isbn13 9781439190135 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 336 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.47 [num ratings] num ratings 3,142 [date pub] date pub Sep 27, 2011 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Sep 27, 2011 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review If you only ever read one dog biography in your life, make it this one. There you go, publishers: there's your free blurb. There wasn't really a good If you only ever read one dog biography in your life, make it this one. There you go, publishers: there's your free blurb. There wasn't really a good reason for me to pick this book up - I was vaguely aware of Rin Tin Tin but didn't know much about him besides the fact that he was a movie dog during the 1940's (this is only partially true, it turns out, but we'll get to that). I had two reasons for wanting to read this book. First, it's by Susan Orlean, who could probably write an investigative story about the time she watched paint dry and it would be riveting. And secondly, I just really like dogs and reading about the people who love them makes me happy okay. Rin Tin Tin was more than just a movie dog. In fact, he wasn't a single dog at all, but several generations (and possibly several unacknowledged stunt dogs - Orlean addresses the controversy surrounding Rin Tin Tin and whether there was only one dog acting in all the movies or if doubles were used, although she doesn't really come to any conclusions). The legend of Rin Tin Tin can be divided into eras: the original Rin Tin Tin, who was found as a puppy on a battlefield in France and acted in silent films; his grandson Rin Tin Tin, who acted in the TV show The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin in the 1950s; and further down the line, the later Rin Tin Tin who was used for publicity when the show was brought back in the 1970's. In between are the many offspring of the original Rin Tin Tin and the various people who loved the dog in all his forms. Orlean's book is more than just the story of a famous dog. When talking about the original Rin Tin Tin, you also learn about the use of dogs in warfare (during WWII, families who volunteered their pets for service would get updates on their dog's training progress, and animals who survived the war were returned to their owners) and the history of the German Shepherd breed. When Rin Tin Tin starts working in Hollywood, Orlean explains the origins of the movie industry and how the creation of talkies led to the end of the first Rin Tin Tin's career, and how television was able to bring him back. This is not just about a dog and the people who loved him. It's about warfare and propaganda, and the history of movies and television and how those mediums have changed over time. But most importantly, it's a story of the connection between people and animals, and how the love for one dog was able to span decades. "I believe there will always be a Rin Tin Tin because there will always be stories. He began as a story about surprise and wonder, a stroke of luck in a luckless time, and he became a fulfilled promise of perfect friendship; then he became a way to tell stories that soared for years. He made people feel complete. I, too, had set out to be remembered. I had wanted to create something permanent in my life - some proof that everything in its way mattered, that working hard mattered, that feeling things mattered, that even sadness and loss mattered, because it was all part of something that would live on. But I had also come to recognize that not everything needs to be so durable. The lesson we have yet to learn from dogs, that could sustain us, is that having no apprehension of the past or future is not limiting but liberating us. Rin Tin Tin did not need to be remembered in order to be happy; for him, it was always enough to have that instant when the sun was soft, when the ball was tossed and caught, when the beloved rubber doll was squeaked. Such a moment was complete in itself, pure and sufficient." ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 7 [votes] votes 27 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Jun 2015 [date added] date added Jun 19, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The Paris Wife [author] author McLain, Paula * [isbn] isbn 0345521307 [isbn13] isbn13 9780345521309 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 314 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.76 [num ratings] num ratings 153,179 [date pub] date pub 2011 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Feb 22, 2011 [rating] Madeline's rating 2 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review "It was sometimes painful for me to think that to those who followed his life with interest, I was just the early wife, the Paris wife. But that was p "It was sometimes painful for me to think that to those who followed his life with interest, I was just the early wife, the Paris wife. But that was probably vanity, wanting to stand out in a long line of women. In truth, it didn't matter what others saw. We knew what we had and what it meant, and though so much had happened since for both of us, there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure and simple and good, and I believe Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other." In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein (writing as her partner Alice) describes how when artists would visit them, Gertrude would talk with the men while Alice sat with the wives. That was Alice's job: Gertrude would have intellectual discussions with the various men of genius while Alice sat in another room and talked about hats or whatever with Mrs. Picasso, Mrs. Matisse, and, of course, Mrs. Hemingway. This illustrates what I found so frustrating about The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and, by extension, The Paris Wife: while it's certainly interesting to read about the people who shaped and affected artists' lives, the fact is that these people who were forgotten or ignored by history can never escape the shadow of their famous loved ones. Sometimes these ignored bystanders are untapped wells of unacknowledged genius and influence. And sometimes they're Hadley Hemingway. Look, I'm sure Hadley was a lovely person. If nothing else, she deserves a medal for putting up with Ernest Hemingway's shit for so many years, and for going on to live a long and happy life after she left him. But the unfortunate truth, a truth that Paula McLain's book cannot escape, is that Hadley Hemingway's life did not need its own novel. The book started out strong, when we're seeing Hadley and Ernest meeting in Chicago when they're in their twenties. It's the best part of the book, because their chemistry is obvious and you can totally understand why these two got married and moved halfway across the world together. But once the Hemingways move to Paris and Ernest's career starts taking off, that chemistry and that connection disappears, and we're left with a book about a woman who stood on the sidewalk and waved as a parade of famous people walked through her life. The biggest problem was Hadley herself. I didn't understand her any better at the end of the book than I did at the beginning, and throughout the story I could never predict how she was going to react to a given situation, because I never got a sense of who she was as a person. Her motivations and reactions were constantly baffling to me - sometimes Ernest would do something boneheaded and Hadley would get angry at him; other times she would just shrug and think, "oh well, that's just how he is." And she's so, so irritatingly passive. Hadley is a talented piano player but has never pursued it professionally, but about halfway through the novel she decides (after much prompting from her friends, because Hadley never really makes any decisions independently) to put on a concert. As I read descriptions of Hadley practicing for the performance, I thought, Yes! Your life has a purpose! You have identified a goal and are working towards it! You are finally behaving like a protagonist! Go, Hadley, go! And then Ernest cheats on her and she cancels the concert. Cue sad trombone. After Ernest comes clean about the affair, Hadley once again decides to start acting like a dynamic character and gives Ernest an ultimatum: Ernest will not contact the other woman for one hundred days, and if, at the end of that period, he still wants to go through with the divorce, Hadley will agree to it. Guess who caves and agrees to the divorce before the hundred days are up? Possibly the biggest misstep in the novel is McLain's decision to insert random chapters, mostly flashbacks, from Ernest's perspective, and it only serves to prove that Hadley cannot sustain an entire novel on her own. And I have to say - for a book that takes place in the roaring twenties in an artists' community in Paris, it's fucking boring. Even the Fitzgeralds were dull, which I didn't think was possible. An ordinary story about an ordinary woman who happened to know some famous people once. It's sort of like listening to your friend tell a boring story about how she was once in an elevator with a celebrity. Not everyone needs a biography. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 10 [votes] votes 38 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Jun 2015 [date added] date added Jun 13, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The House of Mirth [author] author Wharton, Edith [isbn] isbn 1844082938 [isbn13] isbn13 9781844082933 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 351 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.93 [num ratings] num ratings 55,938 [date pub] date pub 1905 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Jan 19, 2006 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review The House of Mirth is the third Wharton novel I've finished so far, and while reading it, I was able to figure out why I love her books so much. Edith The House of Mirth is the third Wharton novel I've finished so far, and while reading it, I was able to figure out why I love her books so much. Edith Wharton is witty, and her writing is beautiful, but more importantly, she is honest and realistic. She portrays rich, spoiled society exactly as it is - full of people who hide their own misery behind lavish homes and strict manners - and condemns it, but even as her characters realize how toxic this environment is, they are still driven by an insatiable need to belong to and be accepted by society. Basically what I'm saying is that Edith Wharton understood human nature better than almost any author I've ever read, and if she were alive today Mean Girls would totally be her favorite movie. The House of Mirth follows Lily Bart, a young woman who grew up wealthy but lost everything when she was a teenager, and has been clawing and fighting to keep her place in society ever since. Lily Bart is clever and charming, but after spending years living independently, she finds herself approaching spinsterhood with dwindling prospects. The book follows her increasingly-desperate attempts to secure her future while retaining her independence and her place in society. If you've read even one other Wharton novel, you know that these desires are not compatible for women in this world. As always, Wharton's depiction of the tiny battles that occur every day in polite society is fascinating - it's amazing to watch Lily navigate her life with careful planning and strategy, so simple conversations become as complicated and dangerous as naval battles. She has to be constantly on the alert, hyper-aware that she's always one mistake away from total failure and ruin. Only two things frustrated me about this book - one wasn't Wharton's fault, but the second one totally was. It's not Wharton's fault, I realize, that Lily Bart can't get a Hollywood happy ending and marry Lawrence Selden, who is so obviously perfect for her that it was all I could do not to scream at the pages "kiss her kiss her KISS HER" every time they had a scene together. The couple is headed for a typically Wharton-style ending, but at least that means we get lots of great scenes where the characters are just drowning in sexual tension, and it's like crack to me. Edith Wharton could write a straight-up sex scene, and it still wouldn't be as hot as two characters taking a walk together while resisting the urge to make out. Like I said, the ending is very, very Wharton, and unfortunately it's also very clearly telegraphed. (view spoiler)[As soon as the narration mentioned that Lily was taking medication to help her sleep, I thought, "well, now I know how she's going to die. (hide spoiler)] But somehow the fact that I could see the ending a mile away made the book even more tragic and dramatic. But seriously, Seldon - nut up and marry her, for Christ's sake. Lily Bart is the quintessential Wharton heroine. She is independent, headstrong, whip-smart, and charismatic. Another author would have allowed her heroine to strike out on her own, say to hell with these rich snobs and let Lily go off on adventures to Africa or something, but Wharton knows better. The world of the wealthy, spoiled New Yorker is the only one Lily has ever known, and like Newland Archer and Annabel St. George before her, she will sacrifice her own happiness in exchange for social acceptance and security. This is what drives Wharton's protagonists: a deep need to belong, and a fear of the unknown. They can never win, but it's fascinating to watch them try. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 30 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Apr 2015 [date added] date added May 16, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Jewels: A Secret History [author] author Finlay, Victoria [isbn] isbn 0345466950 [isbn13] isbn13 9780345466952 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 496 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.10 [num ratings] num ratings 717 [date pub] date pub Jan 01, 2006 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Aug 14, 2007 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review "In the course of my research I found that although, of course, some rare stones have amazing and frightening dynastic tales, every jewel, however sma "In the course of my research I found that although, of course, some rare stones have amazing and frightening dynastic tales, every jewel, however small or flawed, has its story: about the earth that was excavated to retrieve it, the families who depended on it, the people who designed the cutting method, those who bought or were given it, and the meanings and properties attributed to it. Whole human, geological, and cultural histories are wrapped up in every stone we wear or desire, even if it is only an imitation. So in one way it is the stones and jewels themselves, hidden in mines and oceans - and occasionally in tombs and wrecks and pirates' hoards - that are the 'secrets' of the subtitle; the other secrets are the cultural layers of meaning and fascination that can always be found wrapped around them." Jewels always feel intensely personal. And they should be - there's really no rational reason why they're considered valuable. The value of jewels comes solely from people assigning value to them. Jewels are fundamentally useless, but we treasure them. Victoria Finlay understands this, and she approaches her history of gemstones from this direction - instead of being just a clinical, straightforward history of where and how certain gems are mined and cut, she's using this book to examine peoples' relationship with jewels, and trying to understand why they mean so much to us. Finlay's book uses Moh's Scale of Relative Hardness as an outline - the book has nine chapters, featuring jewels from softest to hardest: amber, jet, pearl, opal, peridot, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and diamond. For each, Finlay explains how the jewel was first discovered, how it's formed, where it's mined, and its relative popularity over time. There's also a lot of practical information, like how to spot a fake gem (to test if a ruby or sapphire is real, put it in your mouth - rubies and sapphires have a high thermal conductivity, so if it's real the jewel will draw heat from your tongue and feel cold). She also, while exploring the romantic attractions of jewels, doesn't lose perspective. No matter what jewel is being discussed, there's always a heavy human toll. The sad truth of the jewelry industry is that it was built on the backs of slave labor (and in many cases, continues to be supported by it) and Finlay makes sure we understand how many people suffer in the service of pretty things. The best aspect of the book is the way Finlay (a journalist) goes all-out in her research. She doesn't just tell us where the jewels are mined; she travels there and talks to the miners and the merchants. And she doesn't stop there - Finlay took spelunking lessons so she could explore Cleopatra's emerald mines, and she learned jewel-cutting in Sri Lanka. I can't even imagine how long the research for this book must have taken. It's comprehensive and engaging, and the writing is clear. The only flaw (and it's not even really a flaw) is that Finlay is very clearly a journalist, not a novelist. The chapters felt more like individual magazine articles rather than parts of a larger work, and while Finlay's narrative voice is clear and informative, it's not the most dynamic. Also there are a lot of photos from her travels scattered throughout the book, and Finlay is not much of a photographer - most of the pictures look like the photos of your aunt's last vacation to Orlando. The diamond chapter was probably my favorite, for three reasons: first, Finlay myth-busts the hell out of the legend of the Hope diamond (short version: the concept of the curse was made up to get people interested). Second,she dredges up all of the diamond industry's dirty little secrets (diamonds are common as dirt and have absolutely no resell value, plus the De Beers company owns literally all the diamond mines, so they can charge however much they feel like). And finally, I loved this chapter because it taught me that there's a company that can create lab diamonds from human ashes. That's equally morbid and amazing, and now I'm going around asking everyone I know - would you wear a diamond made from the ashes of a loved one? ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 5 [votes] votes 26 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read May 2015 [date added] date added May 08, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Lulu in Hollywood [author] author Brooks, Louise [isbn] isbn 0816637318 [isbn13] isbn13 9780816637317 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 168 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.94 [num ratings] num ratings 1,049 [date pub] date pub 1982 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Jul 05, 2000 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review After reading Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone and being disappointed by its noticeable lack of Louise Brooks, I wanted to find a nonfiction account of After reading Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone and being disappointed by its noticeable lack of Louise Brooks, I wanted to find a nonfiction account of the silent film star's life. Luckily, in addition to the numerous biographies available, Brooks also wrote her own account of her career. It's not as comprehensive as I wanted it to be - the book is more of an essay collection than a straight memoir - but is otherwise a completely fascinating look into the early days of Hollywood. Louise Brooks had a unique career trajectory. She got her start as a dancer with the Denishawn company when she was fifteen, and by nineteen had started her film career. In the heyday of silent film, she was one of the biggest stars in the world, but her career faded immediately with the advent of talkies, when she refused to give in to the studios' demanding contracts and was blackballed. She went on to do several films with the German director Pabst, and then disappeared into semi-obscurity. Her film career was over, but she continued to be an active participant, writing articles for movie magazines. Her career was short, but she was one of the witnesses to the birth of movies as a new medium, and Lulu in Hollywood is her account of what she saw in that time. The best aspect of this book is Brooks' writing, which is clear and thoughtful, describing her memories in 1920's Hollywood with no overt sentimentality. Also it's just fun - this was before Standards and Practices took over Hollywood in the 1930's, and the stars of Brooks' time were free to be as wild as they wanted. Actresses, in particular, developed their own particular brand of hustle, which Brooks outlines here: "For a time, Barbara [Bennett] was kept by William Rhinelander Stewart, who gave her a square-cut emerald from Cartier. One night, when we were swimming off Caleb Bragg's houseboat, she watched it slip from her finger into Long Island Sound. She kept this hilarious accident secret from Stewart by buying a fake-emerald ring from Denis Smith, whose jewelry business was unknown to innocent lovers. They would have been staggered to learn how many of their gifts were converted into imitations and cash. Truly, ours was a heartless racket." The little glimpses Brooks gives us into the wild life of a 1920's starlet are fascinating, and made me want to read an entire book just about teen movie stars partying in the Jazz Age (which, really, is what The Chaperone should have been). And at the same time, she's exploring how Hollywood developed into what it is today. It's easy to forget that in Brooks' time, movies were still a new medium, and everyone involved in the business was sort of making it up as they went along, and not really thinking about the future of the industry. To this day, there are hundreds of silent films that just don't exist anymore, because no one thought to preserve them. Writes Brooks: "The tragedy of film history is that it is fabricated, falsified, by the very people who make film history. It is understandable that in the early years of film production, when nobody believed there was going to be any film history, most film magazines and books printed trash, aimed only at fulfilling the public's wish to share a fairy tale existence with its movie idols. But since about 1950 film has been established as an art, and its history recognized as a serious matter. Yet film celebrities continue to cast themselves as stock types - nice or naughty girls, good or bad boys - whom their chroniclers spray with a shower of anecdotes." A fun, fascinating look at one person's incredible career, and the beginning of Hollywood as we know it. One star taken off, only because I wish it had been longer. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 20 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Apr 2015 [date added] date added Apr 27, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas [author] author Klosterman, Chuck [isbn] isbn 0743284887 [isbn13] isbn13 9780743284882 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 374 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.84 [num ratings] num ratings 13,741 [date pub] date pub 2006 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Sep 05, 2006 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review I first learned about Chuck Klosterman through my friend, who is a nonfiction writer and swears by his essay collections. Klosterman is primarily a mu I first learned about Chuck Klosterman through my friend, who is a nonfiction writer and swears by his essay collections. Klosterman is primarily a music writer (imagine Lester Bangs if he had grown up in the golden age of hair metal) and most of the writings featured here are from Spin and Esquire. The collection is framed as a retrospective, with Klosterman introducing pieces by commenting on how his views have changed by then, or why he now hates the article he's about to share (he even includes articles on the Fargo rock scene that he wrote when he was twenty-three, and he's appropriately embarrassed about it). The include celebrity profiles, "Best Of" lists, what-if scenarios, and musings on VH1 Classics and the Olympics. At their best, his essays blend pop culture and philosophy seamlessly - the book is worth it just for the article detailing the time Klosterman met Britney Spears and tried to unravel the mystery of who she actually is vs. who she pretends to be ("After I spent my time with Spears, people kept asking me, 'What is she really like?' My answer was usually, 'I don't know, and I don't think she does, either.'"). I'll be the first to admit that my music tastes are not very refined, so it was sort of a relief to see Klosterman writing almost exclusively about bands that I had actually heard of. He writes most frequently about bands he grew up listening to in the 80's, but there are also some fascinating profiles of The White Stripes and Radiohead ("Everyone in this band reads more than you do; hanging out with Radiohead is kind of like getting high with a bunch of librarians."). I was worried that Klosterman would turn out to be a music snob, and he sort of is, but for the most part, he presents his love of pop music frankly and matter-of-factly, and I always appreciate someone who acknowledges that popular culture becomes popular because lots of people like it, and that's not a bad thing. His revelation (helped by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy) that he actually kind of likes Jet is great: "Now, nearly everybody I know thinks Jet is ridiculous; they've become the band hipsters are legally required to hate. So I made some joke (and I have no idea why) about how Jet was terrible and that it was somehow predictable that the only people who would want to cover Jet songs would be second graders. Tweedy didn't understand why I would say something like that. He looked at me like I had just made fun of a quadriplegic and asked, 'Well, don't you like rock music?' And then I felt stupid, because I realized that (a) Jet plays rock music, and that (b) I like rock music, and that (c) I actually liked Jet, both tangibly and intangibly. So that was something I realized about Jeff Tweedy: musically, he remembers what is obvious." Another great example of Chuck Klosterman's refreshing lack of musical snobbery: "I've probably written more about tribute bands than any sensible man should. I really like them, though. Tribute bands often reflect what I like about rock n' roll more than the authentic bands they replicate." (this passage comes at the beginning of a piece about all-female cover bands with names like AC/DShe and Lez Zeppelin, and it is fantastic) The only rough patch is at the end, when Klosterman includes an excerpt from a book that he tried to write when he was a reporter for a newspaper in Akron, and I suspect he included it for the dual purpose of proving how unashamed he is by what a terrible writer he used to be, and the hope that someone would tell him it's actually very good. Overall, a great collection of essays that are in-depth and thoughtful enough for hardcore fans, and frank and approachable enough for the casual reader. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 1 [votes] votes 17 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Apr 2015 [date added] date added Apr 14, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The Perks of Being a Wallflower [author] author Chbosky, Stephen [isbn] isbn 0671027344 [isbn13] isbn13 9780671027346 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 213 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.20 [num ratings] num ratings 710,368 [date pub] date pub Jan 01, 1999 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Feb 1999 [rating] Madeline's rating 2 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review Not for the first time, I find myself reading a book about ten years too late and being utterly incapable of connecting with it on any level. Someone Not for the first time, I find myself reading a book about ten years too late and being utterly incapable of connecting with it on any level. Someone probably should have made me read this when I was in high school, and I most likely would have reviewed it more favorably - then again, I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was fifteen and found Holden Caulfield to be utterly insufferable, so it's entirely possible that I just do not care about the struggle of the middle-class teenage white boy. Reading this as an adult, all the issues hidden in the text were glaringly obvious. I kept waiting for the English teacher to turn out to be a total creep, but instead he just keeps telling Charlie how smart he is and being the perfect high school teacher that no one actually had, ever (apparently he's played by Paul Rudd in the movie version, which should have been a tip-off that his character was going to be perfect in every way). And why are these high school kids hanging out with a guy who's already graduated? I can't decide what's sadder - that a bunch of teenagers don't realize how pathetic their older friend is, or that the guy seems to think that these teenagers (for whom he provides drugs and alcohol and a safe place to consume them) are really his friends. Also, the writing. Stephen Chbosky is either the worst writer in the world, or he's a genius who is able to perfectly capture the shitty, self-absorbed voice of the average fifteen-year-old. Considering how gifted and smart Charlie is, I would have expected his writing to be a little better, but as it is, the book was like reading my old high school diaries, and I'm still suffering from secondhand embarrassment. Thank God I deleted my Livejournal back in college. I tried very hard to sympathize with Charlie. I am aware that he has been through hell and he Has Issues, but for Christ's sake could he stop bursting into tears every five pages? Throughout the book, every time Charlie would start crying because, I don't know, the wind hit him at the wrong angle, I would stare at the pages and think, "If you were a female character, readers would hate you. They would mock you endlessly and say you were pathetic. If you were written as a girl, no one would have any sympathy for you at all." And that made me sad. There were brief flashes in this book, little pieces of writing, where even as a cynical twenty-five-year-old I was able to read them and understand why teenagers connect so hard with this book. Like when Charlie writes: "I wish that God or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what's wrong with me. Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense. To make this all go away. And disappear. I know that's wrong because it's my responsibility, and I know that things get worse before they get better because that's what my psychiatrist says, but this is a worse that feels too big." (quick note to all the teenagers reading this review: that feeling that Charlie is describing doesn't go away when you leave high school. Have fun!) And the book's subtle lesson struck me deeply: loving your friends and supporting them is important, but not at the expense of your own happiness. But for the most part, I read this book and could only think one thing: thank CHRIST I'm not fifteen anymore. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 16 [votes] votes 68 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Mar 2015 [date added] date added Mar 27, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title The Chaperone [author] author Moriarty, Laura [isbn] isbn 1594487014 [isbn13] isbn13 9781594487019 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 384 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.84 [num ratings] num ratings 34,755 [date pub] date pub 2012 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Jun 05, 2012 [rating] Madeline's rating 2 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review It's the summer of 1922 in Wichita, Kansas, and thirty-six year old Cora Carlisle is bored. Her twin sons are preparing to leave for college, and she It's the summer of 1922 in Wichita, Kansas, and thirty-six year old Cora Carlisle is bored. Her twin sons are preparing to leave for college, and she doesn't have anything to do with her time except various charity functions. Then she learns that her neighbor's fifteen year old daughter has been accepted to a summer dance program in New York, and needs someone to accompany the girl as a chaperone. Cora volunteers for the job, but has motives other than just an excuse to get out of Kansas for the summer: Cora's own history began in New York, and she goes there hoping to answer some questions about her past. In the meantime, though, she will stay busy keeping an eye on her charge: headstrong, independent, fifteen year old Louise Brooks, who is only a few years away from becoming a Hollywood superstar. I picked this up expecting it to be a light, fun romp in the vein of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - just two ladies being modern and fun and generally having a blast in a pre-WWII setting. What I got was something...pretty different. It feels unfair to say that the synopsis felt like a bait-and-switch - it's called The Chaperone, after all, so obviously it's going to focus more on Cora than Louise - but it's so Cora-heavy that Louise barely functions in the story at all. Moriarty is obviously more concerned with Cora's story than Louise's, and this is most apparent in the structure of the book. I expected the story to cover just the period that Cora and Louise spent in New York, but instead the book spans Cora's entire life. When she returns to Kansas from New York, what I expected to be a two-or-three page epilogue instead turns into the last 3/4 of the book, as we have to sit through all of Cora's marital drama (turns out that her husband (view spoiler)[is gay, a plot twist that was blatantly projected from basically the minute the husband was introduced (hide spoiler)]) and a quick tour of post-Jazz Age American history, and by itself it's interesting, but the problem is that the shadow of Louise Brooks looms over the entire story, and this is to the book's detriment. The problem is that, when given a choice between reading about a movie star in her wild teenage years and a middle-aged woman who lived a pretty unremarkable life, I'm going to choose the former every time. There's nothing wrong with wanting to write a book about an ordinary woman living an ordinary life, but don't trick me into reading it by luring me with the origin story of a Hollywood icon. That's the big problem with this book - Cora's story can't compete with the one we could be reading, the one about how Louise Brooks left home at fifteen and, by nineteen, had been kicked out of her prestigious dance company for wild behavior. In fact, I almost suspect that Louise Brooks was not featured in the early drafts of this book. I think this started out as the story of a woman who lived in the 1920's and went to New York, and at the later stages an editor or someone was like, "But what if Cora knew someone who became famous later?" and Louise was introduced. If that was the case, it didn't work - I know I said that it's unfair to call the plot a bait-and-switch, but that's what it felt like. Also Laura Moriarty commits the cardinal sin of historical fiction writing: she lets the research show. Good historic fiction should be well researched, but the reader shouldn't be able to tell - in historic fiction, if the reader can see what research went into the book, it doesn't work. Every five pages the characters in The Chaperone are like, "Let's talk about how scandalously short the skirts have gotten! My, aren't bobbed haircuts interesting? Say, did you hear about this kooky new group called the Ku Klux Klan?" etc. Worst of all, Moriarty will insert narration into the story to underline the significance of whatever historical info dump she just featured. When two characters discuss the Ku Klux Klan in their town, Moriarty suddenly fast-forwards to when Cora is an old woman and her niece is asking how she could have considered joining, and Cora is like, it was a different time, dear, and it's jarring as fuck. And then Moriarty does it again: in New York, Cora and Louise see a show, and Moriarty jumps in to tell us that oh my god, you guys, did you know that Josephine Baker was working backstage at that show?! It's clumsy and obvious, and reading the book felt, at times, like Moriarty had a list tacked next to her computer titled Important 1920's Events to Cover and was trying to check off as many as she could. Ultimately, this was a disappointment. Cora Carlisle's story is a good one, and it didn't deserve to be overshadowed so thoroughly by Louise Brooks. At least I got another book to add to my reading list: Lulu in Hollywood, Louise Brooks' autobiography of her career. At least that one will give me the story I wanted to read. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 6 [votes] votes 19 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Mar 2015 [date added] date added Mar 20, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Hardcover

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Meritropolis [author] author Ohman, Joel * [isbn] isbn 150018960X [isbn13] isbn13 9781500189600 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 226 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.62 [num ratings] num ratings 292 [date pub] date pub Sep 08, 2014 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Sep 08, 2014 [rating] Madeline's rating 1 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review The year is AE3, 3 years after the Event. Within the walls of Meritropolis, 50,000 inhabitants live in fear, ruled by the brutal System that assigns e The year is AE3, 3 years after the Event. Within the walls of Meritropolis, 50,000 inhabitants live in fear, ruled by the brutal System that assigns each citizen a merit score that dictates whether they live or die. Those with the highest scores thrive, while those with the lowest are subject to the most unforgiving punishment--to be thrust outside the city gates, thrown to the terrifying hybrid creatures that exist beyond. But for one High Score, conforming to the System just isn't an option. Seventeen-year-old Charley has a brother to avenge. And nothing--not even a totalitarian military or dangerous science--is going to stop him. Where humankind has pushed nature and morals to the extreme, Charley is amongst the chosen few tasked with exploring the boundaries, forcing him to look deep into his very being to discern right from wrong. But as he and his friends learn more about the frightening forces that threaten destruction both without and within the gates, Meritropolis reveals complexities they couldn't possibly have bargained for... ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 17 [votes] votes 35 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Feb 23, 2015 [date read] date read May 2015 [date added] date added Feb 23, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film [author] author Oswalt, Patton [isbn] isbn 145167323X [isbn13] isbn13 9781451673234 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 256 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.62 [num ratings] num ratings 2,130 [date pub] date pub Jan 06, 2015 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Jan 06, 2015 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review "Van Gogh entered a room in his mind when he painted The Night Cafe. He acknowledged his damaged (and worsening) psyche and, in acknowledging it, made "Van Gogh entered a room in his mind when he painted The Night Cafe. He acknowledged his damaged (and worsening) psyche and, in acknowledging it, made a deal. He would be able to take newer, more original artistic conceptions out, would be able to capture them in paintings. His psyche found the deal acceptable. It let Vincent leave the room - the Night Cafe - with vistas and visions he hadn't come close to in his career. But something followed him out, and latched on to him like a virus, and he was never the same. He was a better painter. A transformed one. ...I still have both ears. My chest cavity is bullet-free. But the concept of the Night Cafe - the room you enter, and then leave having been forever changed - is abiding, repeated event in my life. Six times, so far, it's happened to me. All of them had to do with my creativity, and my imagination, and how I saw the world and my place in it." It might seem like an odd choice to open what is supposed to be a comedy memoir about movies by talking about a painting from the 1800's. But Silver Screen Fiend is an odd book. It's not quite an in-depth look at how movies and pop culture shaped Patton Oswalt when he was starting out as a comedian in the 1990's, and it's not quite a straightforward memoir about how Oswalt went from a struggling comic in '90's Los Angeles to the genre-spanning icon he is today. (yes, I called Patton Oswalt an icon. Fight me.) People who go into this book expecting it to be these things will be disappointed. There aren't nearly enough details about either Oswalt's stand-up career (although there are plenty of great stories about the LA comedy scene in the '90's), and his obsession with movies is framed more by the iconic New Beverly Cinema where he saw the films, instead of the movies themselves. With Silver Screen Fiend, Oswalt is trying to do something bigger than just share how he got his start in comedy, or talk about his favorite movies - although there's plenty of that. Instead, he's trying to make a statement about how he progressed from an obsession with watching what others created, to creating something himself. He uses the idea of a "Night Cafe" - an experience you have that affects you so deeply it changes the course of your life and remains imprinted on your soul - to show how his obsession with seeing classic films at the New Beverly made him the artist he is today: "I'm in Los Angeles, with a steady writing job on weekdays at MADtv, a dozen 'alternative comedy' spaces to go up in and work on material - and now this, the New Beverly, my $5-a-night film school. Pretty good trio of films to start off my education with, right? Sunset Boulevard - a cynical, heartbroken writer, dragged to his doom by a true believer in the illusion of film. Ace in the Hole - a satanic, exploitative reporter who picks apart a dying man at the bottom of a pit in the hope that his career will rise back into the sun. And The Nutty Professor - an ignored nerd who's tempted by popular monstrosity. Obsession, darkness, and magical thinking. Sitting in my apartment late in the night, penciling the star, date, and venue name next to The Nutty Professor in two film books, I will have no idea I've entered my fourth Night Cafe. It will be four years before I pull myself out of it." Loving movies and pop culture is not a bad thing - Oswalt's book proves that films can be just as rich and legitimate forms of art as paintings and literature. But this book acts as a warning to obsessive fans of any medium: it's good to study the masters who came before you, and loving their work is fine, but you have to create something of your own. Oswalt describes hanging out with friends and spending hours criticizing The Phantom Menace, and he realizes he's, "angry at George Lucas for producing something that doesn't live up to my exacting, demanding, ultimately non-participating standards, and failing to see that four hours of pontificating and connecting and correcting his work could be spent creating two or three pages of my own." It's easy to criticize (I say, in the text of a book review on a site where I've made a minor name for myself by doing exactly that). It's hard to create. "Movies - the truly great ones (and sometimes the truly bad) - should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life. A fuel that should include sex and love and food and movement and friendships and your own work. All of it, feeding the engine. But the engine of your life should be your life. And it hits me, sitting there with my friends, that for all our bluster and detailed, exotic knowledge about film, we aren't contributing anything to film. ...And then, once the group of us who moved down to Los Angeles got there, there was more bitching - about not getting bigger roles or better opportunities to pitch shows for ourselves. And we'd piss and moan and get comfortable - fuck, some of us built whole careers - pointing out how unfair and whimsical and chaotic the entertainment business was, how it rarely rewarded the truly talented. None of us could see how it never rewarded the inert." ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 7 [votes] votes 22 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read not set [date added] date added Feb 18, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format ebook

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Lord Peter [author] author Sayers, Dorothy L. [isbn] isbn 0060913800 [isbn13] isbn13 9780060913809 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 496 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.28 [num ratings] num ratings 4,272 [date pub] date pub Jan 01, 1971 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Oct 22, 1986 [rating] Madeline's rating 4 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review Since discovering Lord Peter in college, I've resisted the urge to race through all of his mysteries. There are only eleven, and I prefer to read them Since discovering Lord Peter in college, I've resisted the urge to race through all of his mysteries. There are only eleven, and I prefer to read them slowly, one every year or so, so they can last as long as possible. Knowing that I only have four left makes me sad, but this collection was a nice antidote - with twenty-one stories, it felt like at least three or four novels' worth of mysteries. Obviously they aren't all great. "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" is sort of a letdown at the end, and "The Abominable History of the Man With the Copper Fingers", while suspenseful and creepy, has a pretty obvious solution that I saw from a mile away. But most of the stories are delightful - "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" rests on the characters having to solve a crossword puzzle, and "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" features Lord Peter solving a mystery with his nephew, and it's just as adorable and charming as it sounds. Also, in case you haven't guessed, all of the mysteries have delightfully old-school melodramatic titles, which I am always a fan of. And my absolute favorite of the bunch was, of course, Talboys, which involves the entire Wimsey-Vane family and I want someone to make a TV series where Peter, Harriet, and their sons travel the country and solve mysteries. (granted, this story does feature scenes where the Wimseys are super rude to a female houseguest, but since she's the 1930's equivalent of an anti-vaccer hippie mom, their disdain is earned) Also there's a mystery that opens with the birth of Peter and Harriet's first child, which I will proceed to quote almost in its entirety because that's how well it demonstrates why I love these two: "'Good lord!' said his lordship. 'Did I do that?' 'All evidence points that way,' replied his wife. 'Then I can only say I never knew so convincing a body of evidence produce such an inadequate result.' The nurse appeared to take this reflection personally. She said in a tone of rebuke: 'He's a beautiful boy.' 'H'm,' said Peter. He adjusted his eyeglass more carefully. 'Well, you're the expert witness. Hand him over.' The nurse did so with a dubious air. She was relieved to see that this disconcerting parent handled the child competently; as, in a man who was an experienced uncle, was not, after all, so very surprising. Lord Peter sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. 'Do you feel it's up to standard?' he inquired with some anxiety. 'Of course, your workmanship's always sound - but you never know with these collaborative efforts.' 'I think it'll do,' said Harriet drowsily. 'Good.' He turned abruptly to the nurse. 'All right; we'll keep it. Take it and put it away, and tell 'em to invoice it to me. It's a very interesting addition to you, Harriet; but it would have been a hell of a rotten substitute.'" The book also features an afterword by John Curran, who outlines Sayers' life, and it's pretty cool - she had a baby out of wedlock and successfully kept it a secret! He also goes through the trajectory of the Lord Peter novels, including the Harriet Vane romance: "Sayers introduced Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930) and allowed her and Wimsey to embark on a three-book courtship culminating in marriage in Busman's Honeymoon (1937). This is the longest - and, some would argue, the most wearisome and embarrassing - courtship in the annals of detective fiction." *record scratch* Excuse you? No one argues that, Curran. NO ONE. If any detective courtship deserves to be called "embarrassing" and "wearisome," it's Stephen Moffat's take on Sherlock's relationship with Irene Adler (yeah, I went there - fight me, Sherlock fangirls). Don't step to me on the subject of Harriet and Peter. "Detective-fiction purists contend that this type of romantic relationship - between detective and suspect - has no place in a detective story," Curran writes. "Other sleuths have managed to meet, court, marry, and produce children without any of the soul-searching in which Peter and Harriet indulged." You best get out your dueling pistols and choose a second, Curran, because them's fightin' words. (I honestly considered taking off a star for the pure dickishness of the afterword, but then I remembered that it's not Sayers' fault.) ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 6 [votes] votes 25 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Jan 27, 2015 [date read] date read Feb 2015 [date added] date added Jan 27, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)


Input: [0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title We Have Always Lived in the Castle [author] author Jackson, Shirley [isbn] isbn 0143039970 [isbn13] isbn13 9780143039976 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 146 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.06 [num ratings] num ratings 26,372 [date pub] date pub 1962 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Oct 31, 2006 [rating] Madeline's rating 5 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [review] review In The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson's group of misguided investigators discuss the idea that some houses are inherently born evil, and are In The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson's group of misguided investigators discuss the idea that some houses are inherently born evil, and are destined to be haunted from the moment they're built. We Have Always Lived in the Castle explores the opposite idea: how a home becomes a haunted house. One of the many, many fascinating things about this book is the way it could have been approached in a completely different way. It could have opened with someone - a stranger to the village, most likely, who didn't know the story - viewing the ruined Blackwood house. The house stands by itself behind a fence, and the townspeople still tell stories about the family who lived there once, and what happened there. The only ones who approach the house are children, on a dare, who run up to the front steps and sing, "Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me." The stranger asks around about this apparently-haunted house, and eventually, through flashbacks, its entire terrifying history is revealed. Another writer could have easily tackled We Have Always Lived in the Castle in this way, and the book would have been just as good. But Shirley Jackson is no ordinary horror writer, and she approaches the story of Blackwood House, and the people who lived there and made it what it was, in a straightforward way. She tells the story as it happens, not as a flashback, and we are able to watch the transformation of Blackwood House, and its inhabitants, in real time as the book unfolds. Simply put, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the story of how a house becomes haunted. It's a ghost story without ghosts - or, more accurately, a story of how a person becomes a ghost. Our view into this house comes from Mary Katherine Blackwood, an eighteen-year-old girl who lives in Blackwood House with her older sister Constance (who is so severely agoraphobic that she can't venture past the yard) and her Uncle Julian, who is confined to a wheelchair and not quite in his right mind. Mary Katherine is responsible for taking care of what's left of her family, and she takes her job as protector very seriously. She's devised a series of talismans to guard the house against the townspeople, who she views as the enemy. But someone is coming to disrupt the routine that Mary Katherine has carefully created, and the intrusion will have horrible and far-reaching consequences. GOD, Shirley Jackson does creepy so well. Mary Katherine, in addition to belonging in the Unreliable Narrator Hall of Fame, is also responsible for giving us one of the best opening paragraphs in literature, when she introduces us to her life thusly: “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.” The slow reveal of what exactly happened to the rest of the Blackwood family and why is masterfully done, and Jackson reveals just enough information to keep us from getting frustrated, while still keeping some things hidden (admittedly, the identity of the murderer was pretty easy to guess, if only through process of elimination, but I promise that the why of the murder is a lot more interesting than the who). It's very important that we see the entire story through Mary Katherine's eyes specifically, because as I said, she's not a reliable narrator. "Unbalanced" is putting it lightly, and I could write an entire fucking dissertation on what Mary Katherine tells us vs. what's actually happening. For people who have finished the book: (view spoiler)[did anyone else wonder if Constance wasn't actually that afraid to go outside, but Mary Katherine was keeping her prisoner? Constance knows that Mary Katherine killed the rest of the family, and sometimes it seemed like Constance was afraid of Mary Katherine, and being nice to her just because the threat of being poisoned was hanging over her head. It's very subtle, but it comes through most clearly when Constance is trying to get Mary Katherine to back off Cousin Charles - several times, I got the sense that Constance was trying to calm Mary Katherine down without actually ordering her around, because she was afraid that her sister would react violently. I don't know - Mary Katherine is endlessly fascinating, and I still can't be totally sure what was real and what was in her mind. (hide spoiler)] Nobody does slow-burn, are-ghosts-real-or-are-the-monsters-people, is-this-real-or-am-I-crazy horror like Shirley Jackson. This book is brief, strange, purposefully vague, and terrifying. If you thought haunted-house stories don't need prequels, read this and see how wrong you were. ...more [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 8 [votes] votes 54 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started not set [date read] date read Dec 2014 [date added] date added Jan 19, 2015 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [29] actions view (with text) [format]

Output: format Paperback

Madeline's bookshelf: don-t-judge-me (showing 1-30 of 564) (sorted by: date added)