Almost Home: My Life Story Vol 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)Amazingly intimate and personal reflections of Damien Echols, an innocent man currently enduring a deathrow prison sentence (Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley were also convicted and got life sentences). While the West Memphis case has been under a magnifying glass -- two HBO documentaries, two books written about the case and the clearinghouse for all legal information, the wm3.org website -- not much is known about who he was before the murders that resulted in his unjust conviction. And he does not disappoint. The bulk of the book concerns his growing up poor mostly in the repressed south. Fascinating and a must read for anyone who has taken an interest in the West Memphis Three case.

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Almost Home is a message to you from a faraway place. It is a message from a 12-foot by 9-foot cell in a cinderblock building surrounded by coils of razor wire in the middle of a dirt field in Arkansas. It was written by a young man named Damien Echols and it chronicles his life and his experiences in a way that clearly illuminates him, not as a monster, but as a human being. For over 10 years Damien has been an inmate on death row for a crime he did not commit. He, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley have become known as The West Memphis Three, and though the story of their arrest and conviction is widely known, most people don't know the real people behind the sound bites and the TV news segment clips. Damien has spent much of his time behind bars diligently maintaining his integrity and his sanity by writing.
Almost Home is the product of that self-discipline, and in it you will meet someone who has survived an ordeal many of us would find impossible to live through. There are a few who still believe that Damien is a devil-worshipping child killer, but as time passes and more facts rise to the surface, it becomes even more clear that he is the victim of a peculiar species of hysteria. Read this book and know the truth about him. It is an urgent message from death row; the whole story of who Damien Echols really is.

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Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva Review

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(More customer reviews)I am an adult who loves teen books and I ADORED THIS ONE. The story of a 15 year old (or is it 16, 17...???) who ends up being "stuck" on a movie set with her mother (who she doesn't really know).
Although the premise could be very sad, the author(s) write this book and especially the Vivien (or is it Leigh) character with such humour that you can't stop yourself from laughing out loud (which I actually did). Usually this stuff NEVER happens to me when I am reading a book.
I absolutely loved everything about this book and frantically went through both the beginning and end of the book to see if these authors have written other stuff. Unfortunately, they have not BUT the second installment in the Diva series is coming out in 2006. I am anxiously awaiting it already.
BUY THIS ONE

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So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life Review

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(More customer reviews)Like most music fans, I knew "Closing Time" but not any other Semisonic songs. Having read this book, I now understand why. Slichter's clear explanations of the machinations of the music industry (percentage points, independent promoters, Soundscan A&R guys) gave me great insight into what actually goes on behind the scenes of our favorite songs. He chronicles the signing process, the video making process, and what it's like to go on tour (even down to a detailed explanation of the tour bus) and why some songs "hit" and some miss. The book is neither gossipy (he meets Prince but doesn't give lots of details) or boring - Slichter is a Harvard graduate and writes very well. I wish he had given us an epilogue, telling what he and his bandmates are doing now, and what happened to Coco. It also would have been fun to see a "money count" detailing just how much was spent on the band and how much they actually made back. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in going into the music business.

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Naked Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is classified as a memoir, and it's the funniest one I've read to date. Growing up Greek in North Carolina couldn't have been easy, but adding to the mix a crazy grandmother and a sibling with a penchant for using towels as toilet paper makes it that much harder (and funnier, to us).
David was struck with enthusiastic OCD as a child, only to find ways to "cure" his tics in college. His stories of life after schooling include apple-picking and packing, working with jade (not to mention a crazy, hypocritical Christian), and refinishing woodwork with a Jew-hating Lithuanian and a somewhat confused black guy. He hitchhikes with all levels of human decapitation until a rowdy truck driver combs thicket by the roadside looking for him.
Not all of the fifteen stories are side-splitting funny. "I Like Guys" highlights accepting his homosexual feelings, and an undercurrent of seriousness lines the story. "Ashes" tells of his mother's cancer, and a sense of tragedy seems to sober his usually razor-sharp satirical style.
The last (and title) story, "Naked", tells of his experience with a nudist colony. It's written in more a journal form (the others are written in a 'flashback' form) and by the end, you feel strange in your own clothing.
I definitely plan on recommending this book to my friends. I don't see how you could live your life without picking up a Sedaris book.

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Eastbounders: Two Women Trucking Through The Barriers Review

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(More customer reviews)Good read with lots of interesting information about "pioneer" women truckers in the early days when trucking was a world dominated by men. Many funny episodes and an inside view of the trucking world. Jill has done a nice job bringing this part of her past to life....daring women on a great adventure.

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In Michigan there were two teachers who wanted to travel the United States. They went to Los Angeles to truck driving school in 1973, found a job driving a semi-truck to Philadelphia. They soon realized they didn't have enough skills and training to do this feat. This is a hilarious story of their difficulties, struggles, and SUCCESS.

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Signs of Life: A Memoir Review

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(More customer reviews)Signs of Life is a rare and wonderful book that should be highlighted as an example of what a good memoir can be. There is a long list of things remarkable about this memoir, starting with the author is only in her early twenties but possesses a remarkable degree of self-awareness. As an English teacher, not only is the book well written, but also Ms. Taylor weaves in beloved bits of literature that adds even more depth to the story. Signs of Life depicts an emotionally wrenching journey of highs and lows through two life changing events without ever slipping into the self-absorption that can ruin a memoir.
Natalie Taylor and her husband Josh were an average, young, married couple, perhaps a little bit happier and luckier than most. When Josh dies in a freak accident, Natalie is twenty-four years old and pregnant with their first child. Ms. Taylor easily draws the reader into sharing her journey of grief, uneasiness, and awkwardness. The death of a young person holds a unique degree of tragedy, and the descriptions of how Josh's friends and family memorialize him are seen through the unique perspective of how Natalie both yearns and dreads to hear Josh spoken of publicly.
Enhancing Natalie's story are the friends and family that surround her. Often, they provide comfort and company, but equally, they can also irritate and annoy. Ms. Taylor writes across a wide spectrum of relationship joys and challenges with affection and a wry wit. When her son Kai is born, Natalie leans on her family for help and support while they equally struggle with joy and grief.
As time passes, Natalie comes to terms with one of the truisms of life--things change. She returns to her job teaching school, gets counseling, and finds a support group for single mothers. It is not that she loves or misses Josh any less, but that as life proceeds it becomes different, creating a new context in which we must live.
I highly recommend Signs of Life to anyone faced with a difficult personal challenge. Ms. Taylor's frank and detailed depiction of facing a stunning loss and the demands of single motherhood will affect and inspire you. Fans of memoirs will enjoy a well-written book with the exactly right degree of personal revelation, humor, and strength.

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Tony and Susan Review

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The late Austin Wright gave readers a beautiful gift with Tony and Susan. He presented parallel stories, ushering us into two fictional worlds both of which are irresistibly compelling.
We first meet Susan Morrow who is surprised to hear from her first husband after 20 years - he has written a book, and would she like to read it? "Damn! But this book is good. How much he had learned about life and craft. He wanted to show her, let her read and see, judge for herself. " When they were married this had been a touchy subject; she was a harsh critic and he was a nascent writer.
She receives the manuscript shortly, but sets it aside for some three months. Susan is a worrier. In addition to household chores and looking after the children, she spends time in worry, not always certain what it is that keeps crossing her mind although Arnold, her husband, is often in those plaguing thoughts.
Nonetheless, at last she picks up Edward's manuscript titled Nocturnal Animals, and soon finds herself totally engrossed in the story of Tony Hastings. Married to Laura with one daughter, Helen, "He was a mathematics professor who took pride in reliability and good sense." They were traveling by car in northern Pennsylvania on their way to their summer cottage in Maine. On a lark they decide to drive all night rather than stopping to rest. Tony "was liberated by the irresponsibility of not having to hunt for a place to stay...."
That feeling of freedom was short lived as the Hastings family suddenly and irrevocably loses every shred of the safety and serenity they once enjoyed. At the same time as Susan continues her reading of Edward's manuscript she is forced to face the truth about herself, a truth she does not like at all.
So perfectly written, so imaginatively conceived Tony & Susan will stay with you long after reading the last page.
- Gail Cooke

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