I visited the Anne Frank House in 2004 and decided it was time to revisit the book. Though it is often remembered for the "I still believe people are good at heart line" Anne is a very complex character with parental problems and sexual longings. Just terrific.

A tough book, but very rewarding. Lots of very funny stuff, especially in the beginning of the book, quite harrowing at the end. Parts of it were very difficult (I've never found military stuff easy to read, so some sections I had to read very slowly and more than once. But the last 120 pages were read in a rush. Insightful, thoughtful examination of British colonialism and the follies of empire.

Another heartbreaking work from the master of narrative nonfiction, Dave Egger’s Zeitoun reads like a suspense thriller set in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. In the eye of the storm we meet Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American father of four, upstanding citizen, owner of a successful contracting business, married to Kathy of Southern Baptist roots. What happens to the Zeitoun family as they are swept from their home and separated, then profiled as terrorists and lost in a sea of red tape in a city gone mad is an infuriating portrait of America in its darkest hours. As events unfold, the story of Job may come to mind. A pitch-perfect cautionary tale, all the more remarkable for its fine detail and elegant restraint.

Began reading last night. Written in an interesting manner alternating between chapters detailing the emergence of the Comanche society to dominance across the Southwestern plains and chapters following the saga of Cynthia Ann Parker the mother of Quanah Parker who would become chief of the Comanche tribe during their clash with white civilization.

Waitzkin is a beast; I think the book works better as a biography than as a manual about how to learn, though -- it's too platitudy for the latter.

With praise from Barbara Kingsolver and the Bellwether Prize for fiction addressing social issues, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi Durrow is a coming-of-age story that builds great expectations, only to let down.

A compelling premise: our girl who falls is thrown off a rooftop with her Danish mother and younger sibs. The sole survivor of the “accident," the prettiest little girl with the “prettiest blue eyes,” and unruly hair, Rachel lands in Portland in the care of her straight-laced African American grandmother. Rachel’s G.I. dad never shows up. The story soldiers on through the voices of lost relatives, elusive witnesses, and would-be young lovers. A search for racial identity. Unfortunately, only skin-deep.

Lord. What to say about this for a final review? Generally well written in terms of style, but poorly plotted and characterized. The characters all felt like these grand cardboard people doing grand cardboardy things, with not one real human person to empathize with in sight. And Goolrick is OBSESSED with sex. Everything is sexual in some way, and all of his characters seem to constantly be thinking about how everyone else around them is having hot, hot sex. It was bizarre. I really wish the author had just gone into therapy to work out his issues instead of wasting several hours of my time.

...and bizarrely, the very last scene is kind of lovely in a weird way.

pg. 280 -- Explaining what your book is about is a) condescending (you think we aren't smart enough to get it?), b) a symptom of insecurity (you think you haven't gotten it across well enough?), and/or c) just plain bad writing.

pg. 262 -- "There was an almost sexual pleasure in the boundless sorrow..." ARE YOU SERIOUS. Get OVER this sex thing, Goolrick, and/or GET INTO THERAPY. WHY is sex relevant here? WHY was it relevant in most of the 50,000 places in this book where you brought it up?

pg. 253 -- "Love that lived beyond passion was ephemeral. ... It existed outside of time..." One of us doesn't know the correct meaning of the word "ephemeral." I think it's Goolrick.

pgs. 178-179 -- Seriously. SERIOUSLY. An ANGEL. Catherine is apparently religious now? And THIS prompts a change of heart? WHAT THE HECK? WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO CONNECT WITH THIS MOMENT? AN _ANGEL?_ Hokey, not supported by anything earlier in the text (the fact that ALICE was just introduced like 10 pages ago doesn't help), and just... SHEESH.

Where did Alice come from?! Nice going, introducing an apparently important character halfway through the book... since we've NEVER HEARD OF HER BEFORE, I have a hard time believing in Catherine's concern for her!

Chapter 13 -- I was about ready to put the book down, but suddenly I'm much more interested and willing to keep going. Catherine's being torn is now reason to keep reading.

pg. 136 -- "Behind every window the sexual act was being completed second after second. The poor with their ecstatic, animal grunts, the rich with their unimaginable refinements and perversions." OH DEAR GOD ARE YOU SERIOUS. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Poor = animals and rich = refinedly perverted?! Let's make gross generalizations! I am THIS close to just putting this book down.

Beginning of chapter 12 -- oh dear God, now CATHERINE is obsessed with sex? Give me a break...

Haven't been motivated to read this for a while, so abandoning for now

pg. 110 -- And now she's delaying? Because she and Truitt are having tender sex? The rage seems to have departed as inexplicably as it came. WTF?

pg. 108 -- RAGE? Where on earth did rage come from?