Pieces of Eight Review

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Pieces of Eight ReviewHave you ever just laughed so hard you hurt? This is the most heartwarming, memory invoking, hilarious book I've ever read. Seriously, I'm just over half-way through and I'm falling in love with the Maggio family, "each and every one of you". I was out on the patio last night laughing out loud while reading passages to my husband when my neighbor yelled over the fence, "You must be reading 'Pieces of Eight' again! Are you almost done? I can't wait to read it!" She's going to have to wait because I am savoring every chapter and e-mail share. These siblings have a deep and playful understanding of one another and can teach us all a thing or two about caring, having fun and laughing at ourselves.
I guarantee it will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You may even learn a new language ..."Maggio-speak". Even if you don't learn it you will remember a few one-liners. Did I say I loved this book? I did. Thanks, Maggios for taking us on your trip down memory lane. Boy, do you have good memories!
This review was a work in progress, I have now (sadly)finished the book but I may have to reread it just for the 'laugh' of it.Pieces of Eight Overview

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Fired: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, & Dismissed Review

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Fired: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, & Dismissed ReviewIf you're a regular person who got fired from normal full-time job looking to get inspiration or find the humor from others suffering the same, this book is not for you. This book is mostly collection of anecdotes from show biz people, people who are routinely unemployed between gigs for whom getting hired and fired is a huge fact of life. So...cute stories, a good light read. There's still an opportunity out there for someone to really write this book.Fired: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, & Dismissed Overview

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The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan Review

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The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan ReviewThis girl had no clue. She was a mess. She was disorganized, in a crappy relationship, did not know what was going on around her, was ignorant and arrogant. Then she flew to Afghanistan, acted even more clueless, insulting and arrogant. Then, she developed some interest in the country, and later downright fell in love with it. And that changed her. The arrogance disappeared, and was replaced by respect for other people, other cultures. She became a war junkie during that time, did some seriously stupid things, but she matured, became a real grown up. She ended this chapter of her life with having a clue.
That is the story Kim Barker tells in this book. The story of personal growth, interwoven with her adventures as a foreign correspondent for a Chicago newspaper.
The stories she has to tell do not reveal any big surprises about Afghanistan, the war there, the Taliban or the US handling of all that mess. There are other books out there, which already dealt with those aspects. What makes this book stand out amongst them is the unique perspective of a somewhat naive American girl, who was thrown into this alien world with no preparation at all. She eventually learns to get a grip on this strange world, and on herself. She learns, matures, and lets the reader take part in this process.
Some adventures she describes are downright hilarious, others are very sad, some are a bit strange, but all are interesting. Her writing style is not the most polished one can imagine, but it gets the message across. She is a no frills person, sometimes harsh, sometimes brash, and that is beautifully reflected in her writing style.
The book is very entertaining, especially for someone like me, who has read about half a doyen books about the current Afghanistan war, most of them are more serious historical and political scholarly works.
This book tells the tale from a refreshingly different, very personal perspective.
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The Charlestown Connection Review

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The Charlestown Connection ReviewDermot Sparhawk is stocking shelves in a Boston food pantry when Jeepster Hennesey staggers through the door. As Hennesey dies in Sparhawk's arms, a knife buried in his back, he gives Sparhawk a key and says the word "Oswego." Written on a piece of tape wrapped around the key is the name "McSweeney." Before long, ruffians affiliated with the IRA are trying to persuade Sparhawk to reveal Hennesey's last words. As Sparhawk investigates, he learns that the mystery somehow relates to Hennesey's membership in a prison "literary society" called the Oulipo Boys. Further investigation connects the mystery to the worlds of art forgery and high stakes poker and brings Sparhawk into contact with a woman living in the projects who (according to Sparhawk's source) is an undercover FBI agent investigating Somali terrorists.
The Charlestown Connection is Tom MacDonald's first novel. He paints a vibrant picture of Boston's Charlestown neighborhood and enriches the narrative with glimpses of Charlestown's troubled history. The book is filled with unusual characters who are sometimes more colorful than interesting. Sparhawk's alcoholism makes him instantly familiar, but I got no sense of urgency from his battle with the bottle -- his newfound sobriety seemed too easy. Friends who help Sparhawk with the mystery include Glooscap, who speaks slowly and without contractions because "contractions are for the lazy, uttered only by sluggards"; an isolated, wheelchair-bound veteran named Buck Louis; Angus Og, a sometimes delusional veteran who claims to have advised Henry Kissinger about Vietnam and John Updike about baseball (could he be telling the truth?); and the too cutely named Harraseeket Kid, a character who adds nothing to the story. I am impressed that MacDonald didn't succumb to the temptation to turn the characters into superheroes. Louis, for instance, is an adept researcher but he can't break through firewalls with ease like the hackers who show up to provide a convenient assist in typical thrillers.
On occasion, The Charlestown Connection suffers from the first novel blues: unnatural dialog, awkward phrasing, uneven pace. A lecture on female genital mutilation in Somalia is well-intentioned but out of place. More troubling is Sparhawk's relationship with the FBI agent. Maybe Sparhawk has an animal magnetism that inspires professional women to jump into bed with him despite his alcoholism, his minimum wage job, and his residence across the street from the projects, but MacDonald didn't lay the kind of foundation that might have convinced me of Sparhawk's irresistibility. A museum curator's unexplained desire to become Sparhawk's buddy also struck me as artificial. My most serious reservation is the amount of time the characters spend talking with each other, repeating information the reader has already gleaned. The redundant descriptions of fact not only slow the novel's pace, they make the characters seem dense, as if they need to be told why something is important when they were commenting upon its importance in an earlier chapter.
MacDonald clearly did his research. Apart from being interesting in their own right, his discussions of the Oulipo movement and art forgery add credibility to the plot. The story is clever but unexceptional. As a first effort, this novel isn't bad, but it didn't make me eager to encounter these characters again. I would give this novel 3 1/2 stars if that option were available.The Charlestown Connection Overview

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Georgia Bottoms: A Novel Review

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Georgia Bottoms: A Novel ReviewMark Childress does it again. He fires an opening salvo that grabs your funny bone and won't let go. But for careful readers there's more meat to the matter. An assessment of conservative values in small town American lampoons the usual suspects and points a wicked finger at sex, drugs, religion, and the ties that bind. And since we're south of the Mason Dixon line, he can't help but take the pulse of race relations and throw in a status report on gays and lesbians for good measure. You'll be highly amused but won't be able to ignore his overarching theme of what makes each of us an insider or an outsider and how we can cross that line in the blink of an eye. His characters race by the mile markers that define our lives -- work, gender, race, sexual preference, religion, wealth, and parental affection or lack thereof -- trying hard to give us a reason to exist in the cosmos. As usual, this writer is slyly subversive - first seducing you with broad humor and then daring you to think.Georgia Bottoms: A Novel Overview

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