Archive for December 2010

#14 Portia de Rossi's "Unbearable Lightness"


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Another one today!  Lucky you!

Then next book in my lineup was Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi.  This book was very good.  Unlike the last book where I complained about the title character's insecurity, I felt much different about the EXTREME insecurity of Portia de Rossi throughout this book.

For those of you who don't know, Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development, Ally McBeal, Better Off Ted) suffered severe anorexia.  The book chronicles her history with bulimia and anorexia throughout her life, beginning with her adolescent years.  I wasn't sure what I was going to think of this book before starting it, given the topic and the fact that I am not big into learning about the lives of celebrities, but I really enjoyed this book.  Well, as much as you can enjoy a book where a person starves themselves to the point of practically dying.  Let me say, it was not a GOOD book... it was very interesting.

Portia de Rossi does a great job at showing what it feels like to have the insecurities that come with bulimia and anorexia.  The book is almost written as a novel at times because she does an amazing job at bringing you in to the lives of the "characters" throughout her life.  I am willing to say that if de Rossi wrote a fictional novel, I might just pick it up and read it.  She is surprisingly a fantastic writer.

I can't delve too much in to this book as it is our latest book club book and I don't want to make all of my great points before our meeting, but I will say that I really do have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the book.  Get in touch with me if you want to know more about my thoughts (and you aren't a member of the NIBC).  Definitely get in touch with me if you've read it, because I'd like to know your thoughts as well.

This book is definitely RECOMMENDED!

First line teaser:  "He doesn't wait until I'm awake."

Next Up:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

#13 Cathy Lamb's "Such a Pretty Face"


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I know... it's been a while, but I'll be writing two reviews today!  I just haven't gotten around to blogging!

This is a review of Cathy Lamb's Such a Pretty Face.  It was a book club selection, but alas the meeting has come and gone already in my non-blogginess.  

The book is about a woman who is trying to come in to her own after getting gastric bypass surgery.  She has to deal with weighing 325 lbs. and then dropping about 165 lbs. of it.  It basically describes her battle with insecurity and overcoming that insecurity.  Oh yeah, did I mention that when she was a child her mother was schizophrenic and threw her, her little sister & herself over a bridge, leaving Stevie (our main character) as the only survivor?  That's just a little added bonus for you.

I liked this book.  At times I became very annoyed with Stevie's insecurities, which may sound somewhat ignorant or bitchy, but I was.  As she got more confident I found that I liked her much better than in the earlier parts of the book.  This book is very good for character development. 

There are a lot of strange characters throughout it and Lamb does a fine job at giving you a good picture of who each of the characters really are.  Stevie is really the most normal of all of the characters.  Between the seriousness of some characters (a verbally abusive demeaning adoptive uncle, an equally abusive ex-husband, a bitchy lawyer/co-worker, an anorexic cousin) and the absolute comedy of some of the others [the hyper-sensitive super athlete cousin who sells blow-up dolls, Stevie's mother - the schizophrenic (also very sad, but rather humorous throughout the story), the co-worker who was a roller derby queen], this book had a nice even tone for what was really happening in the story.  In all seriousness, the book was really tragedy, but the comedic efforts made for it to give you the lightness you needed so that you didn't need to put the book down and take a break every 5 seconds in order to protect yourself from slitting your wrists out of grief.  (Maybe that was a bit of an extreme example...)

Anyway, this book is RECOMMENDED.  You just need to get past some of Stevie's whiny insecurities.  :)

First line teaser:  "I know when it started."

Next Up:  Portia de Rossi's Unbearable Lightness  (Book club selection)