Blog Archives
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You
No Regrets : the life of Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke
Found on the Adult Non-fiction shelves at 920 PIA
This attempts to be an objective account of Edith Piaf’s life – and it is – but it is not a very clear one. There is no overview, all the people’s names are confusing.
However, if one is interested in particular songs, the author explains who wrote them, and what was going on in Piaf’s life at the time. Most songs were written for Piaf, by the best songwriters in France, so they really express her passions and struggles.
Reviewed by Veronique in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You
Van Gogh : the life by Steven W. Naifeh and Gregory White Smith (2011)
Found on the Adult Non-fiction shelves at 920 GOG
Vincent Van Gogh never meant to be a tortured genius. He just wanted to cope with life and paint.
This is an exhaustive biography (900 pages). It may be too long to read from cover to cover, but is excellent for dipping into about specific parts of the painter’s life.
Of great interest is the ‘Appendix’ which puts the theory that Van Gogh did not shoot himself, as he claimed. Instead, he had been accidentally shot by two rich Parisian youths, and lied to protect them. From the evidence, this certainly appears to be the case.
Reviewed by Veronique in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You
Pricing Beauty : the making of a fashion model by Ashley Mears (2010)
Found on the Adult Non-fiction shelves at 338.477 MEA
Ever wanted to be a famous model?
Well, so have many many girls who slink back home after having been chewed up and spat out by a callous industry.
Ashley Mears began as a model. Then she asked questions. finally she wrote this sociological study (her doctoral dissertation) about the inner workings of fashion.
This is an intelligent book. Too bad it’s peppered with authorial faults of spelling, grammar and useage. But her observations are sharp, lucid and revelatory. Her style is lively.
You will never look at a magazine photo in the same way again.
Reviewed by Veronique in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly; Reviewed by You
Found on the Magazine shelves at Wentworth Falls Library – (can be reserved for delivery to any other branch).
Textile Fibre Forum is a highly creative quarterley magazine I truly enjoy.
The articles are wide-ranging, from community art and arts, recent exhibitions, to the plight of the “Bat people,” a disposessed group who live under bridges in Indonesia.
Seeing other artists work is very stimulating and I look forward to every issue.
This entry in one of our copies of The Good, the Bad, the Ugly; Reviewed by You at Wentworth Falls was accompanied by a poem (cannot be transcribed here because of copyright) and a beautiful textile collage, Scarlett Sun by Chris Hardy.
Reviewed by Chris Hardy in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
The Good The Bad The Ugly : Reviewed by You
The Magician’s Book : A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller
On the Adult Non-fiction shelves at ANF 823.912 LEW
As a child Laura Miller read, reread, reread yet again, the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. She loved Narnia. She wanted to live there.
p.3 “The place I longed to visit was Narnia, the setting for a series of children’s novels by C.S. Lewis. There are things about these books that I, at age nine, did not yet understand and did not even realize were there to be understood. My relationship to Narnia would turn out to be as rocky as any love affair, a story of enchantment, betrayal, estrangement, and reunion.”
As an adolsecent Miller discovered that the Chronicles had a Christian message. She felt betrayed.
p.3 “A few years after the day I’m remembering, when I discovered some of the more obvious ‘secret’ meanings in C.S. Lewis’s children’s books, I felt tricked, and for a long time I avoided even thinging about Narnia.”
As an adult she revisited the Chronicles from the point of view of its history, the author’s biography and literature as a whole.
This book is an intelligent and personable conversation about the experience of book reading. Informative and enjoyable together.
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963)
p.298 “Everything that Lewis had ever read and loved went into Narnia, and because he was a great reader, these things were as deeply felt by him as actual experiences. In his own way, Lewis, too, believed that everything in the Chronicles was true, and this conviction is what he communicates to his young readers.”
Reviewed by Veronique in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
The Good The Bad The Ugly : Reviewed by You
Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life by Maurice Sendak
On the Junior Fiction shelves under SENDAK
Comments : Sometimes it is a pleasure, as an adult, to read a good children’s book. Written four years after Where the Wild Things Are, this little tale features the terrier that was Sendak’s beloved pet for 13 years.
Reviewed anonymously in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.
Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.
