Manhattan Mom

Good, Jan 8 2004

This is a novella about a woman, Bea, who moves back home to help take care of her arthritic Mother. She's wealthy, smart, a hard worker, and very stylish. She's also single. THis embaresses her Mother, but Bea is more pragmatic about the situation. We also see a bit of a neighbor who was one of the last people to get Polio, and Bea's closest friend (if you can call it that) June.

The writing of this novel is fluid, and often beautiful. The narrative is simple yet has depth. THe dialogue, when we see it, is forced however. By biggest problem with this novella is my wanting more. We skip over years very quickly, and I sometimes would like more intimate detail of what characters are… Read more

I expected more, Jan 8 2004

This is a novel about a group of young men during events that happened to them around 1966. It is told through the eyes of Bobby Shine, and we hear other tidbits from his life as well, but they all have a tie in to events that occur during the timeframe of the book. We assume the author is looking back at his life from a distance of about 40 years, because he has the gaps of memory, of which incidents are important, etc. We see how the sexual revolution, drugs, and the war all affect the men, and women that we meet.

I love the work of Barry Levinson on screen. On paper though is another story. THe characters in this book are one dimensional. They have no soul. And I never got their… Read more

Fun, Jan 4 2004

This is a fun who dun it starring Torie O'Shea, a historian in a small town. when the river gets to very low levels, the remains of a sunken steamship become visible. This event brings notoriety to the town, and with the advent of reporters, Torie becomes interested in the legends of the ship- why it crashed- were there really diamonds on board- what happened to the heiresss, etc. The reader follows Torie through her research, and eventually to solving all the pertinent mysteries. Oh, and Torie finds out about a 1/2 sister that she never knew existed.

This is a quick, fun read. The heroine, Torie is a great, well developed character. She loves her family and her job. She has a… Read more