Margaret's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:45:21 -0700 60 Margaret's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Best Worst Thing 26875633 A simply told, deeply riveting and perceptive debut novel that strikes a universal chord by exploring what it's like to be a 10 year-old who doesn't feel ready to grow up and leave childhood behind.

Maggie is worried.

She's starting middle school, and she suddenly sees injustice and danger everywhere--in her history textbook, on the playground, in her neighborhood, on the news. How can anyone be safe when there's a murderer on the loose, a bully about to get a gun for his twelfth birthday, rabbits being held captive for who-knows-what next door, and an older sister being mysteriously consumed by adolescence? Maggie doesn't like any of it, so she devises intricate ways of controlling her own world--and a larger, more dangerous plan for protecting everyone else.

Here is a simply told, deeply felt, and perceptive novel about learning to let go of what you cannot control, from an exciting new talent.]]> 208 Kathleen Lane 0316257818 Margaret 5
Maggie's anxieties are so real and flawlessly observed, they help us remember how challenging this transition time can be for kids. The Best Worst Thing creates such a rich, full inner and outer life for its main character, it does the most wonderful thing: it inspires empathy - for the children around us, and for the child we once were too.

Oh, how I wish this book had existed when I was Maggie's age. I would have felt so much less alone, less weird, less crazy. I would have felt like somebody understood me, and that all the scary things I was thinking were actually perfectly okay. At that age, there is almost nothing more powerful.

The Best Worst Thing is constructed with simple, envy-inducing sentences, finely-crafted detail and a spot-on compelling voice. Because of Lane's craftsmanship, the novel ends up being both a beautiful work of literary fiction for adults, and an essential book to put into the hands of any child, especially, I'd argue, young girls.

Hope can look a lot of different ways. And for me, this book nailed exactly the kind of hope I was looking for, and couldn't find, when I was in middle school. I'm thrilled to know the book is out there now. ]]> 3.39 2016 The Best Worst Thing
author: Kathleen Lane
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/09/08
shelves:
review:
Do you remember what it's like, what it's really like, to be this age? Because author Kathleen Lane does. She writes about what is REALLY going on in a child's mind at this hard in-between age. This is exactly the kind of book middle-graders need to know is out there and accessible to them.

Maggie's anxieties are so real and flawlessly observed, they help us remember how challenging this transition time can be for kids. The Best Worst Thing creates such a rich, full inner and outer life for its main character, it does the most wonderful thing: it inspires empathy - for the children around us, and for the child we once were too.

Oh, how I wish this book had existed when I was Maggie's age. I would have felt so much less alone, less weird, less crazy. I would have felt like somebody understood me, and that all the scary things I was thinking were actually perfectly okay. At that age, there is almost nothing more powerful.

The Best Worst Thing is constructed with simple, envy-inducing sentences, finely-crafted detail and a spot-on compelling voice. Because of Lane's craftsmanship, the novel ends up being both a beautiful work of literary fiction for adults, and an essential book to put into the hands of any child, especially, I'd argue, young girls.

Hope can look a lot of different ways. And for me, this book nailed exactly the kind of hope I was looking for, and couldn't find, when I was in middle school. I'm thrilled to know the book is out there now.
]]> <![CDATA[When We Talk About Raymond Carver]]> 774164 Book by 161 Sam Halpert 0879053771 Margaret 5 4.86 1991 When We Talk About Raymond Carver
author: Sam Halpert
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.86
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/09/08
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review:
Completely fascinating to read. Loved the different memories and discrepancies in the interviews. Just great.
]]> Old School 11464
The agency of revelation is the school literary contest, whose winner will be awarded an audience with the most legendary writer of his time. As the fever of competition infects the boy and his classmates, fraying alliances, exposing weaknesses, Old School explores the ensuing deceptions and betrayals with an unblinking eye and a bottomless store of empathy. The result is further evidence that Wolff is an authentic American master.]]> 196 Tobias Wolff 0747574650 Margaret 0 currently-reading 3.82 2003 Old School
author: Tobias Wolff
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Fates and Furies 24612118
At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.]]> 390 Lauren Groff 1594634475 Margaret 4 3.55 2015 Fates and Furies
author: Lauren Groff
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/08
date added: 2016/09/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Turtleface and Beyond: Stories]]> 22237164
Darkly funny stories by the man David Sedaris calls "the most outlandish and energetic writer I can think of" Paddling down a remote, meandering river, Georgie's friend Otto decides to do something both spectacular and He scales a sandy cliff that rises from the water and runs down its steep face, preparing for a triumphant running dive. As his friends look on, they watch something awful Otto lands with an odd smack and knocks himself unconscious, blood spilling from his nose and mouth. Georgie arrives on the scene first and sees a small turtle, its shell cracked, floating just below the water's surface.
Otto and the turtle survive the collision, though both need help, and Georgie finds his compassions torn. This title story sets the tone for the rest of Arthur Bradford's Turtleface and Beyond , a strangely funny collection featuring prosthetically limbed lovers, a snakebitten hitchhiker turned wedding crasher, a lawyer at the end of his rope, a ménage à trois at Thailand's Resort Tik Tok, and a whole host of near disasters, narrow escapes, and complicated victories, all narrated by Georgie, who struggles with his poor decisions but finds redemption in the telling of each of his tales. Big-hearted and hilariously high-fueled, Turtleface and Beyond marks the return of a beloved and unforgettable voice in fiction.]]> 208 Arthur Bradford 0374278067 Margaret 5 4.00 2015 Turtleface and Beyond: Stories
author: Arthur Bradford
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/04/24
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 736 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Margaret 0 4.24 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/04/24
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]]> Fall Higher 10858542
I was satisfied with haiku until I met you,
jar of octopus, cuckoo's cry, 5-7-5,
but now I want a Russian novel,
a 50 page description of you sleeping,
another 75 of what you think staring out
a window. I don't care about the plot
although I suppose there will have to be one,
the usual separation of the lovers, turbulent
seas, danger of de-commission in spite
of constant war, time in gulps and glitches
passing, squibs of threnody, a fallen nest,
speckled eggs somehow uncrushed, the sled
out-racing the wolves on the steppes, the huge
glittering ball where all that matters
is a kiss at the end of a dark hall . . .

Dean Young has published ten books of poetry, including finalists for the Pulitzer and Griffin Poetry Prizes. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin.]]> 105 Dean Young 1556593112 Margaret 5 4.17 2011 Fall Higher
author: Dean Young
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2010/01/01
date added: 2016/02/21
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]]> We Need to Talk About Kevin 80660 The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

]]> 400 Lionel Shriver 006112429X Margaret 5 4.06 2003 We Need to Talk About Kevin
author: Lionel Shriver
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2002/01/01
date added: 2016/02/21
shelves:
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]]> Project X 382949
Sharing in these schoolyard indignities is his only friend, Flake. Branded together as misfits, their fury simmers quietly in the hallways, classrooms, and at home, until an unthinkable idea offers them a spectacular and terrifying release.

From Jim Shepard, one of the most enduring and influential novelists writing today, comes an unflinching look into the heart and soul of adolescence. Tender and horrifying, prescient and moving, Project X will not easily be forgotten.]]> 177 Jim Shepard 1400033489 Margaret 5 3.54 2004 Project X
author: Jim Shepard
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/02/21
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]]> The Book of Aron 22889835
When his family is finally stripped away from him, Aron is rescued by Janusz Korczak, a doctor renowned throughout prewar Europe as an advocate of children’s rights who, once the Nazis swept in, was put in charge of the Warsaw orphanage. Treblinka awaits them all, but does Aron manage to escape — as his mentor suspected he could — to spread word about the atrocities? 

Jim Shepard has masterfully made this child's-eye view of the darkest history mesmerizing, sometimes comic despite all odds, truly heartbreaking, and even inspiring. Anyone who hears Aron's voice will remember it forever.]]> 260 Jim Shepard 1101874317 Margaret 5 3.65 2015 The Book of Aron
author: Jim Shepard
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> A Handbook For Drowning 451114 0 David Shields 0517112590 Margaret 4 3.67 1991 A Handbook For Drowning
author: David Shields
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2007/11/15
date added: 2016/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The People of Paper 855528 245 Salvador Plascencia 1932416218 Margaret 5 4.15 2005 The People of Paper
author: Salvador Plascencia
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Without: Poems 197855 96 Donald Hall 0395957656 Margaret 5 4.35 1998 Without: Poems
author: Donald Hall
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> All the Little Live Things 10805 345 Wallace Stegner 0140154418 Margaret 5 4.13 1967 All the Little Live Things
author: Wallace Stegner
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Another Bullshit Night in Suck City]]> 386 Another Bullshit Night in Suck City tells the story of the trajectory that led Nick and his father onto the streets, into that shelter, and finally to each other.]]> 347 Nick Flynn 0393329402 Margaret 5 3.82 2004 Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
author: Nick Flynn
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/30
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review:

]]> The Emperor's Children 3648 The New York Times Book Review) and "a literary intelligence far surpassing most other writers of her generation" (San Francisco Chronicle), The Emperor's Children is a dazzling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way—and not—in New York City.

There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite—an "It" girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray Thwaite, celebrated intellectual and journalist—and her two closest friends from Brown, Danielle, a quietly appealing television producer, and Julius, a cash-strapped freelance critic. The delicious complications that arise among them become dangerous when Murray's nephew, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, an idealistic college dropout determined to make his mark, comes to town. As the skies darken, it is Bootie's unexpected decisions—and their stunning, heartbreaking outcome—that will change each of their lives forever.

A richly drawn, brilliantly observed novel of fate and fortune—of innocence and experience, seduction and self-invention; of ambition, including literary ambition; of glamour, disaster, and promise—The Emperor's Children is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and the way we live in this moment.]]> 431 Claire Messud 030726419X Margaret 5 2.97 2006 The Emperor's Children
author: Claire Messud
name: Margaret
average rating: 2.97
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2007/10/11
date added: 2007/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[What We Talk About When We Talk About Love]]> 11438 Alternate-cover edition can be found here

In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark.]]> 159 Raymond Carver 0679723056 Margaret 5 4.08 1981 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
author: Raymond Carver
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1981
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/08/20
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]]> What Is the What 4952 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
-back cover]]> 475 Dave Eggers 1932416641 Margaret 5 4.15 2006 What Is the What
author: Dave Eggers
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
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]]> Mary and O'Neil 1292724
Mary and O'Neil frequently marveled at how, of all the lives they might have led, they had somehow found this one together. When they met at the Philadelphia high school where they'd come to teach, each had suffered a profound loss that had not healed. How likely was it that they could learn to trust, much less love, again?

In Justin Cronin's tender, heartwise debut, eight stories trace the lives of these two vulnerable young people as they rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope.

From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, each chapter illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and O'Neil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt the sudden, mysterious death of O'Neil's parents, Mary's long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, O'Neil's sister's battle with illness and a troubled marriage.

Like the work of Alice Hoffman, Cronin's fiction resonates with magical nuance and unexpected encounters -- a beautiful young girl who appears to Mary one night, draped in a cloud of stars; an autistic child who reveals a life-changing secret; a woman O'Neil mistakenly dials the night their first child is born -- that edify this young couple's intimate bond and affirm their faith in the future.]]> 256 Justin Cronin 0385333587 Margaret 5 4.08 2001 Mary and O'Neil
author: Justin Cronin
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
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]]> Reasons to Live 33300
A widow, surrounded by a small menagerie, comes to terms with her veterinarian husband's death; a young woman entertains her dying friend with trivia and reaffirms her own life; in the aftermath of an abortion, a woman compulsively knits a complete wardrobe for a friend's baby. Buffeted by rude shocks, thwarted by misconnections, the characters recognize that anything can finally become a reason to live.

In a tub
Tonight is a favor to Holly
Celia is back
Nashville gone to ashes
San Francisco
In the cemetery where Al Jolson is buried
Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep
Going
Pool night
Three popes walk into a bar
The man in Bogotá
When it's human instead of when it's dog
Why I'm here
Breathing Jesus
Today will be a quiet day]]> 129 Amy Hempel 0060976721 Margaret 5 4.14 1985 Reasons to Live
author: Amy Hempel
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom]]> 33303 160 Amy Hempel 0060976713 Margaret 5 4.19 1990 At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom
author: Amy Hempel
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
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review:

]]> Sam the Cat and Other Stories 125045 New Yorker magazine named Matt Klam one of the twenty best young writers in America, and the seven stories that comprise Sam the Cat are all the proof we need.

Knowing, perceptive, and wickedly funny, Matt Klam loves his characters but spares them nothing: the swaggering womanizer Sam falls in love with a woman across a crowded room who, upon closer inspection, turns out to be not quite what he expected; a self-doubting young professional attends the posh wedding of his successful friend and delivers a disastrous toast; the chicken one man?s girlfriend is preparing for dinner comes to embody the darkly corrosive element in their relationship. These stories crackle with humor, intelligence and style and add up to an outrageously funny, unforgettable debut.

Sam the cat --
Not this --
The royal palms --
Linda's daddy's loaded --
There should be a name for it --
Issues I dealt with in therapy --
European wedding]]> 256 Matthew Klam 0375726616 Margaret 5 3.49 2000 Sam the Cat and Other Stories
author: Matthew Klam
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona (Iowa Short Fiction Award)]]> 344701 Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona, as the men and women who inhabit its award-winning stories. In eight vivid tales of real life in the west, Harty reminds us that life's greatest challenge may be to find the fine balance between desire and obligation.

A high school football player must make a choice between family and friends when his older brother commits an act of senseless violence. A middle-aged man must fly to Las Vegas to settle his dead sister's estate, only to discover that he must first confront his guilt over his sister's death. A young teacher tries to help a homeless girl, but, as their lives intertwine, he begins to understand that his generosity is motivated by his own relenting sense of lonliness. Well-intentioned but ultimately human, the characters in these stories often fall short of achieving grace. But the possibility of redemption, like the Sonoran Desert at the edge of Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona's suburban landscapes, is never far off. Harty's characters are as complicated as the people we know, and his vision of life in the west is as hopeful as it is strikingly real.]]> 174 Ryan Harty 0877458693 Margaret 5 4.08 2003 Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona (Iowa Short Fiction Award)
author: Ryan Harty
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/20
shelves:
review:
highest compliment: wish i'd written them.
]]> Last Bongo Sunset 23466 272 Les Plesko 0671880497 Margaret 4 4.04 Last Bongo Sunset
author: Les Plesko
name: Margaret
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/08/02
shelves:
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]]> Torch 266723 336 Cheryl Strayed 0618772103 Margaret 5 3.62 2006 Torch
author: Cheryl Strayed
name: Margaret
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2006/02/01
date added: 2007/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]>