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writesdave's Reviews (364)
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If Job were a woman and stopped believing in god, she'd be Dolores Price. Everything you could imagine that can happen to someone probably happened to Dolores. And for better or worse, Wally Lamb takes us along for the ride.
(I picked up this book because it shares a title with a song, a theme in my reading life.)
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Fun ride through the predominantly rural parts of our fair country, hearing the origins of rock and roll in the rhythm and blues that shook the walls of a network of Black nightclubs and roadhouses. From the turn of the 20th century, when savvy businessmen realized people would pay money to hear live music, to the Civil Rights and Urban Renewal era, where unscrupulous politicians plowed under nearly seven decades of music history in the name of "progress," Lauterbach covers all the bases in a deeply researched and lovingly told story he spent nearly seven years writing.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A rollicking mover of a mystery/romance/comedy involving a child actress grown up, her various lovers and a cast of misfits (including her stage mother). Thrill of the chase, to say the least. I loved Coupland's disruption of the time element, as each chapter marks a different stage of the characters' lives, but I found it easy to follow.
A quibble: A car accident in Colorado Springs would not have disrupted traffic between Denver and Cheyenne. Grr. Sincerely, a former Wyomingite.
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
David Goldblatt deserves kudos for even attempting to chronicle the world's game from its origins to the relatively present day, starting with cave drawings of people kicking around spherical objects through the leadup to the 2006 World Cup (sorry, Zidane headbutting Matarazzi didn't happen before press time). He takes in the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of the game and puts them all in multiple contexts over time. It's a beast of a book but incredibly readable, and it doesn't require any more from me. For the soccer fan, absolutely, but also for the well-rounded sports fan.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
When reviewing a memoir I can never figure out if I'm reviewing the book or the life lived. It's clear Katharine Graham was an excellent publisher and an okay writer, and she had a front-row seat for wide swathes of our nation's history thanks to her position. Her life got infinitely more interesting when she became publisher of the Washington Post, promoted from Publisher's Wife and Lady Who Lunches; all this to say nothing of the tragic reason she became publisher. Her life oozed with privilege and I know a lot of people wanted to see her fail at the Post because she had precious little journalism experience (beginning with her dad purchasing the Post purely as a business investment), but she steered the newspaper through rough times and good, and ultimately set it up to succeed. She lived an interesting life and became an important woman in our country's recent history, so you now have this record of how it all went down.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Set in pre-WWII England, it's an entertaining chronicle of six months in the life of a 17-year-old girl living in poverty with her odd family, and a potentially drastic lift in fortunes in the offing. Powered by a plucky and winsome narrator, this relatively chaste and funny book should make the updated list of necessary reading for young adults.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
The 2016 Cubs book I wish I'd written. Maybe I should've written it as a Cubs fan who has never lived in Chicago (Thanks, WGN!). Oh well. Gotta strike while the iron's hot, which Simon did here.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dan Jenkins' novels have a schtick—or maybe a pattern. Texas at the center, golf as a key diversion, politically incorrect renderings of history spiked with casual racism, insider's view of journalism and or sports, and a romance running its course while infidelity swirls around the edges—punch all that into the ChatGPT thing and see if it spits out something in the neighborhood.
I won't deny Jenkins' biting humor and his knowledge of journalism and sports, particularly golf and college football. His other novels do more for me than this one, so maybe I've evolved to where I can't accept the racist cracks any more. Strip away that bunch of humor and you still have a compelling story to tell. Boy plays golf for a living, unlucky in love and on the course, zero major championships and three ex-wives, and all that might change sooner rather than later. No need to bog it down with racial slurs and revisionist history.
Jenkins left us with an impressive body of work and you can't go wrong with any of them, honestly. His love of Texas and sports comes through in his writing, but I'd skip this one until you've read 'em all.