Mary Pipher, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. I found this book very conflicting. On the one hand, it had a lot of good insight and information into what goes on in the lives of girls in their preteens (despite the title, the premise of the book is that junior high is the real crucible for growing girls), and a lot of good things to say about why brave and spirited girls turn into conformists. On the other hand ... the book was written in 1994, which makes it incredibly dated at this point. And the author's blind insistence that the culture of the '90s was "junk" and to blame for everything made the tone shrill and one-note. (In addition, there's a note of disdain every time a young girl seems to care about her appearance. I mean, I get that there's more than a pretty face ... but it should also be okay to want to look in the mirror and like what you see.) Overall, an interesting read, but not a keeper.
Anne Perry, Traitors Gate. One of her better books. The plot was lively, the characterizations in-depth, and she really seemed to care about and be committed to the book. (Sometimes you can tell when the book just wasn't working for her.) As I've said before, I'm not wild about the political intrigue that keeps creeping in, but for this book it worked.
Louis L'Amour, Callaghen. Not one of his better books! I found the character a little too all-encompassingly wise in all things western, the plot a little too like many of his other books. Not terrible, but not memorable, either.
William Blake, Selected Poetry. Well, I slogged my way through the whole book, and came out the other end with this: Blake was insane. His religious poems are highly complex ... but also highly weird. His shorter poems are not as weird, but not all that memorable. Altogether, not going to be a keeper.
No comments:
Post a Comment