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Nov
30
Mini-Reviews to End the Month
2009 at 5pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
My motivation to read has been greater than my motivation (and available time) to write reviews lately, so here are some mini-reviews of what I’ve been reading lately.
Published August 2009 by Ballantine Books (a RandomHouse imprint)
This quietly creepy thriller is ostensibly about identity theft, but it’s really about the meaning and flexibility of identity, the search for connection, and the desire to be known…or to become entirely unknown.
In three alternative narrative lines, Chaon chronicles a young man’s search for his missing—potentially schizophrenic—twin brother, a teenage girl’s attempt to begin a new life by running away with her history teacher (who drives a Maserati, though no one knows how he manages to afford it), and a college student who receives surprising news about his true identity and simply walks out of his life at Northwestern University, allowing everyone to believe he is dead.
Await Your Reply is engaging from the very first page and moves along at a steady clip. More intellectual than action-packed, this is a psychological thriller that will force even the most careful readers to wonder whether they caught all the details. Chaon plays it close to the vest, and the reward for paying close attention is great. 4.5 out of 5.
Published October 2009 by HarperStudio (a HarperCollins imprint)
Born without legs, Kevin Michael Connolly has seen the world from a customized “MacGuyvered” seat on a skateboard. From his home in Helena, Montana, Connolly traveled the United States to compete in mono-ski races and eventually traveled abroad as a student and photographer. After spending twenty years as the object of other people’s stares, Connolly turned the tables by stealthily photographing people staring at him—doing the double take he learned was the most common reaction to seeing a legless guy rolling around on a skateboard—and came to understand human nature and his own perspective on disabilities in the process.
Double Take is a candid, often humorous memoir that provides a glimpse into a very unique life. Connolly writes openly about his childhood, his parents’ creative adaptations to his disability, and his experiences with dating and relationships, exploring the ways in which being legless made even the most mundane experiences remarkable. 3.75 out of 5.
Connolly collected the photographs from his travels in The Rolling Exhibition. View additional photos and get more information at Kevin Michael Connolly’s website.
Now available in paperback from Three Rivers Press (a RandomHouse imprint)
Chronicling the almost unbelievable game of cat-and-mouse between John R. Brinkley, a “doctor” who settled in Milford, Kansas and made a fortune performing sham surgeries—implanting goat testicles into men and women with the claim it would make the younger, healthier, and more virile—and Morris Fishbein, the AMA official who made it his life’s mission to bust quacks and protect the public from medical shams, Pope Brock’s Charlatan is a surprisingly delightful read. Part biography, part social history, and part interdisciplinary study, this book is chock full of little-known facts about the swingingest of times (the 1920s and 30s, to be exact) and the brilliantly devious men who unknowingly shaped American politics, advertising, and medical regulations as they sought to make a quick million.
Charlatan is an immsensely enjoyable read that serves as an excellent example that narrative nonfiction can be just as engaging as fiction. And with a story like this, in which the truth is often stranger than fiction, you’ll wonder what took you so long to pick it up.
Plus, who doesn’t love a book with a goat on the cover? 4.25 out of 5.
[...] Mini-Reviews to End the Month [...]
Charlatan sounds like something I would want to read. I’m noticing Await Your Reply on a lot of blogs. Have you read Chaon’s, You Remind Me of Me? I currently have it on my bookshelves but haven’t seen many reviews for it.
“Await Your Reply” has been on my TBR list for some time now. Glad to hear you liked it.
I’ve seen “Charlatan” around before, but I really didn’t know what it was about. I can’t get past the part about putting goat testicles in people. Uhh… gross? Lol. Of course this means that here’s another for the ole’ TBR mountain.
I’m really looking forward to Await Your Reply. Glad to see you liked it so much.
That last book is totally uncalled for (IBO).
Charlatan sounds zany. Might check that one out
Billy: Millie and I also find Dr. Brinkley’s actions appalling, and we’re glad someone wrote a book to expose exactly how awful he was. There should be reparations made to the goat community.
Okay, so the concept of Charlatan is gross (and the things Dr. Brinkley does to people are horrific), but this is definitely not a book about the nitty gritty medical details. It’s a great read.
I haven’t read any of Chaon’s other work, but I am going to add it to the TBR and track it down now that I’ve enjoyed Await Your Reply so much.
I need to read Await Your Reply. Charlatan sounds, um, interesting. I”ll take your word for it that it’s a great read.
Rebecca…I enjoyed your review on Await Your Reply. I just reviewed it as well and really enjoyed it.
Okay, I love the sound of Charlatan….and you’re right…anything with a goat on the cover has got to be worth reading!
I think the quirk factor of Charlatan is right up your alley, Michele.
Gosh … all three of these sound really good.
I really want to read Await Your Reply, so I’m glad to see it got a good review from you! I’m going to start doing more of these mini-reviews as well.