Book Review: One Last Song

onelastsong

One Last Song is about Saylor, who suffers from Munchausen Syndrome. The story starts where she recounts swallowing a needle at age 7 in order to get her mother’s attention.  Currently she is injecting herself with saliva in order to create abscesses on her body.  She is seeing a shrink who she tells she would like to work at the hospital. Mainly it’s to gain access to supplies she may need, but no one else needs to know that.  She ends up getting a volunteer position helping to set up and break down the chairs and snacks for support groups that meet there. There is a group, TIDD, meeting in a room she is in reading a book on MS – and one of the guys assumes she has it and she is new to the group.  While she does have an MS (Munchausen Syndrome) she tells them that she has multiple sclerosis.  She ends up becoming very close with the people in this groups, even gaining a boyfriend.  She loves the attention and has seemed to stop making herself sick even.  But what happens when they find out the truth?

*possible spoiler ahead*

Although she wanted to come clean on her own terms, she ends up getting found out before she has the chance to let anyone know. Will her new friends understand? Will they think she used them? Most of all – will they forgive her before she is forced to go away to college in another state?

I really liked this book – it was a bit different than anything else I had read and really drew me in. There are a lot of characters with a lot of things going on and it was interesting to see it all unfold how it did – learning about each other as it went along and seeing them all help each other and try to remain optimistic, even though they know that they are all very near to falling victim to their diseases.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

I was seven when I swallowed my first needle.

My mom freaked out and rushed me to the emergency room.

She stayed by my side all night.

I never wanted it to end.

When you spend your whole life feeling invisible-when your parents care more about deals and deadlines than they do about you-you find ways of making people take notice. Little things at first. Then bigger. It’s scary how fast it grows. Then one day something happens that makes you want to stop. To get better. To be better. And for the first time, you understand what it’s like to feel whole, happy . . . loved. For the first time, you love someone back.

For me, that someone was Drew.

Book Review: Idiots and Children

idiotsIdiots and Children is a book of essays about Diana Estill’s life. The book is fun and easy to read, with a lot of great stories. My personal favorite was the story about how her home was struck by lightning. Her husband’s garage door won’t open so he leaves it up to Diana to see what is going on.  After they think they have the phone lines and everything corrected, the phones ring at all hours of the night, so they end up unplugging them when they go to bed. Then one night they are woken by the doorbell ringing and 2 cops checking up on them. Repeated calls to 911 were coming from their house – but Diana assures the cops everything is ok and the phone lines were unplugged. They end up realizing that the alarm system also got fried during the lightning strike and the system was calling through numbers at night and eventually got the 9-1-1.  When the cops heard the repeated calls but didn’t get an answer when calling the house back, they had to go check things out!

If you are looking for a fast, fun read, then you should check this book out.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review.

About the Book

Award-winning author Diana Estill delivers twisted tales of past and present in this latest collection of humor essays. Having grown up with an absent-minded father and a mother who refused to wear—but nevertheless tried to sell—beauty products, Estill drolly recalls her childhood angst and confusion. Besides poking fun at herself and her kin, Estill unleashes tongue-in-cheek commentary on subjects such as populating Mars, finding the “fun” in funerals, cloning Neanderthals, and store gun policies. (“If you’re feeling unsafe enough to pack a shotgun for your trip to purchase pork rinds, then maybe you ought to stay home and shoot your own snacks.”) Travelogues about crossing the pond (“Looking for the Loo in London”) and commissioning a hot air balloon to fly across a desert (“Fatal Attractions”) offer witty vacation advice.

Book Review: Edgar Allan Poe The Dover Reader

poeThis Edgar Allan Poe book is separated by his Fiction, Poetry and Non Fiction.  The book is just under 600 pages, but that is to be expected when it contains so much content! This book is full of Poe’s finest works which includes his only completed novel – The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.  I only read a few of the smaller poems, several of his stories I had read in various classes over the years as well and I quite appreciate his works.  A great compilation of his works if you are looking to get all of the Poe that you can in just one place.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

(There are 17 included in Fiction, 43 poems and 3 non-fiction works included in this anthology.)

 

About the Book

The father of the detective novel and an innovator in American Gothic fiction, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) made his living as America’s first great literary critic. Today he is best remembered for his short stories and poems, haunting works of horror and mystery that remain popular around the world.
This anthology presents Poe’s finest works in a rich selection of poetry and prose that features his only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Short stories include “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Purloined Letter,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and more than a dozen others. In addition to a few selections of Poe’s nonfiction writing, the compilation offers “The Conqueror Worm,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven,” and many other memorable poems.

Book Review: Cult Crime Movies

cultcrimeCult Crime Movies boasts that you will Discover the 35 Best Dark, Dangerous, Thrilling, and Noir Cinema Classics.  Since I am not much of a movie watcher, I am always interested in seeing just how many from these book lists I have seen.  From the 35 featured in this book, I have seen a whopping 0!  I am not all that surprised. But since reading the book, I have added quite a few to the list of movies that I should check out sometime.

The author chooses to define “cult movies” for this book the be films that elicit a fiery passion in moviegoers long after their initial releases; that have been taken to heart as if they were abandoned orphans in a hostile world, cherished, protected, and enthusiastically championed by segments of movie audience; that are integral parts of people’s lives.

Each movie is broken down by the year of release, information about the director, screenplay, if it was based on a novel, cinematography, music, editor, running time and if it is in color or black and white.  Also mentioned for each movie is the cast and then a synopsis on each of the movies.

If you are interested in Crime movies and are looking to see if you’ve seen these Cult films – this is the book for you.

I received a free e-copy in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

 

 

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