There's a wonderful passage in Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" in which Anne sends a manuscript off to an editor, who rejects it with this withering rejoinder: "You have made the mistake of thinking that everything that has happened to you is interesting." That pretty much sums this one up.

Waste of an afternoon. I really wanted to like this book, and I did in the beginning. The author just left way too much hanging. She goes into detail, getting you involved with characters, and then never mentions them again. Poorly written, with a horrible ending. Totally unbelievable ending. Wierd.

Look, the only reason I don't have a bunch of Kathy Acker tattoos is that I'm broke, and that's also the only reason I don't collect Dennis Cooper first editions. The only two reasons I don't talk about liking Chuck Palahniuk are the anti-intellectual implications of joining The Cult and the fact that, often, his books are stupid. I also prefer novels about zombie apocalypses to books about most other things.I still think Melissa Bank should be canonized. She is a goddam GENIUS and I think that

The beautiful cover pulled me into this one which started out pretty well. Sarah Walters is raised to be a debutante and a member of the Camellia Society. She's pretty likeable until she goes off to college. Things change for her ALOT then and into the future. Indiscriminate sex, bondage, a drug addicted friend, single motherhood due to a practically unknown father, and a mother coming out of the closet all are issues almost gratuitously thrown into the plot. It was a quick read, though. I read

I don't usually bother taking issue with negative comments that others have made about books that I've enjoyed because the way I feel about books is the way I feel about people: I have my opinion of them and others have theirs, and it's not going to help to argue if we don't agree.That being said, I think Katie Crouch is taking some undeserved criticism from readers who seem to have failed to remember that old chesnut: "Don't judge a book by its cover." I was flabbergasted to read the number of

Well-crafted novel narrated by an ex-debutante from South Carolina. It's not quite coming-of-age, because the story arcs the narrator into her 30's--although that fact itself demonstrates lots about the story: the narrator never really achieves a self-definition except after 20 years, and then by default rather than bold choices. To the extent that the character is similarly, passively developed, this novel fails. On the other hand, perhaps it is a statement about the generation, the south, or s...

I was so hoping this would be a fun, southern story. Unfortunately, I felt like it was a compilation of short stories about the protagonist- none of which had proper endings. I kept holding onto a thread of hope that the story would redeem itself, but it didn't. It was just a depressing tale of drinking, drugs, and failed romances- not exactly an enjoyable read.

3.5 starsThe story aside, this was a very unique book, at least unlike anything I've ever read before. It has a very eclectic writing style. Some chapters read like a "how to" manual, some are written in second person as in "you will..." and it gives the feel of someone reading what the future holds for you, while other chapters are written in a "normal", regular narrative. I enjoyed this very much. And the book itself isn't just one main storyline and a couple of smaller, less important ones. T...

Let me first say that I am not a "literary reader." I think that I would have enjoyed this book more, if I was.For me, this book is the epitome of "don't judge a book by its cover."I was so disappointed. The cover is gorgeous! The photo spoke to me of a heroine who was not going to suffer fools gladly. I also love trucks and thought she would be tough and tomboyish and fun. She was none of these things. The author describes her (in the interview in the back) as "brave." To me, she was painfully

The only reason I gave it a star is because the cover is good. Other than that - One of the worst books I ever read.First of all I have to say that I was very intrigued to read this, I thought the cover synopsis looked great, and the idea of the camillias was cool, even the cover looked cool. I don't know, maybe I was expecting more of a yaya sisterhood type book.... But I REALLY detested this book. I didn't like the characters at all, not one of them. (well maybe the exception to that would be

*SO* disappointing. I was really, really, looking forward to reading this book. The level of disconnect between the book summary and the actual plot is so huge that I'm tempted to believe that someone just made up the summary based on a third-hand description of the book. When a book is billed as being having "more gasps, sobs, laughs, and surprises in [its] pages than in most people's entire bookshelves", then I expect it to deliver! Instead, I got depressing tripe.The plot is poorly constructe...

This past Sunday's SF Chronicle review did a very good job of summing up some of my qualms as well as some of the better parts of this book. The fact that the narrative voice changes part way through from 1st to 3rd to 2nd person is jarring. Parts of the novel felt like a cluster of connected short stories. As the SF Chron reviewer aptly pointed out, the story about Annie and her boyfriend and the dog was the best writing in the book. I kept reading because I still wanted to know what would happ...

I liked this book for all of its southern references; the author is from charleston and was really good at picking up tiny details that seemed very southern, and very accurate to me. there were definitely a couple of sentences or ideas where I was like, 'yeah!'. but the story was depressing, and disjointed. Each chapter was from different (usually chronological) periods of the protagonist's life, from preteens to early thirties, but sometimes they left off where I wished she would have continued...

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch is not typical "chick lit." If you are looking for a feel-good, it's all about sisterhood, I'm kissing frogs until I meet my prince and then I'm going to squeeze out two perfect mini-mrs and mini-mr, put this book down and keep looking. Crouch's main character, Sarah Walters does not have a perfect life, perfect friends or perfect family. She makes mistakes, many mistakes. She fumbles in her love life and her professional life. The novel leads us on a journey with...