Pants Books

Christine Dwyer Hickey's "Tatty" is a stirring novel. There is a sort of non-action throughout the novel, which can be perplexing; however, Dwyer Hickey's novel is still an astounding achievement. Much like Joyce in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," Dwyer Hickey is able to not only replicate the language, but the thought process of a child. This is the true power of the novel. The short work is completely believable and the voice never seems contrived, fake or insincere. Unlike "Angela's Ashes," this novel does not recount the events of a traumatic childhood in Ireland. The work, through Dwyer Hickey's masterful use of language and syntax, forces the reader to relive the events of a horrific childhood. The events themselves are unnerving enough, but the tone and the voice of the novel, at once innocent and broken, cuts like a razor through any sort of misguided conceptions of growing up in Ireland. This is not the Ireland of W.B. Yeats or "The Quiet Man," but is rather the Ireland of J.M. Synge and "Dubliners."

Despite its rich writing and superb capture of Dublin idiom, this book is ultimately quite disappointing. It tells the story of a dysfuctional family with two alcoholic parents from the perspective of one of the young daughters, Tatty. Each chapter brings us forward a year in Tatty's life. Much of the narrative rings true but it stretches credibility somewhat that from chapter one, and at a very early age, Tatty is focussed on alcohol as being the main underlying problem with her family. Surely such realisation would dawn more gradually. Throughout, I felt that the anti-alcohol message (and there can be no doubting that children and alcohol should never be mixed) was the book's raison d'etre and this engendered a somewhat self-consciously self-pitying attitude in Tatty's narrative. Unfortunately, the book wears its heart too much on its sleeve.

This is the description of a dysfunctional Irish family ruined by a number of difficult and emotional situations, seen through they eyes of one of their children, Tatty. Alcoholism plays a big part in this harrowing story and the seemingly detached tone with which Tatty describes her feelings and the events taking place, is quite heartbreaking.

I also think that the absence of speech/quotation marks during dialogues didn't tarnish in any way the fluency of the narrative. A very nice book.

I really liked this book. The writing was simple and straight-forward but wonderful. Dwyer Hickey makes Tatty, the character, come alive, and gives her a voice of her own. A voice that is childlike, but also one that hints at the damage beneath her youth.

The book tells the story of Tatty's dysfunctional family, her indifferent and occasionally violent parents, both with drink problems.
And that is what makes this a hard book to summarise and review. The narration is slightly strange, almost first person from Tatty's perspective, but not quite an "I" narrator. It almost reminded me of Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, but that book left me cold and I didn't finish it, where as this one pulls you in to the story and into Tatty's life.

Having just adopted a one-eyed hedgehog, I was eager to get my hands on anything "hedgie." Not so easy! This reminded me of "Odin's" classic roots in great literature! A solid acquisition.

Lucy is a human character introduced to the Peter Rabbit series, has a bad habit of losing her pocket-handkerchiefs and this time she lost 3. She search for it high and low but couldn't find them anywhere. But what she found something else in the hills while searching and it is a door going straight into the hill.

There, she meets an intriguing character with "hairpins" sticking out of her back who calls herself Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, who happens to be a washerwomen for all of the other animals. Turned out her missing hankies and pinny are being wash by Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

This is an interesting book and my favorite part is the ever so questions answered with "it you please'em". Beautiful colourful illustration to enjoy. Weird storyline though but it's an interesting non the less. Kids owuld enjoy this with an awe. Not a keeper but it's a good read.

Lucy is always misplacing her things. No matter how good she tries to be, she still loses her hankies and other things. One day, she decided to go on a hunt for her hankies. Along the way, she asks creatures if they've seen her handerchief. And she meets Mrs. TIggy-Winkle.

It is a charming story with beautiful illustrations. My boys really enjoy looking at the pictures of this book! I enjoy reading this one to them! When they are older, this book will be perfect for their beginner's lessons. The pictures are charming and the story itself is lovely.

10-29-03

"The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle" is another perfectly splendid story by Beatrix Potter. This time the author introduces a human character to the world of animals. A little girl, Lucie, has a bad habit of losing her pocket-handkerchiefs. On this particular day she has lost three, as well as a pinny. She goes searching for them in the hills where she finds a door going straight into the hill. When she opens it she discovers a clean kitchen and a peculiar little person. Her name is Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and she is a washer-woman. Lucie's missing hankies and pinny are being washed and ironed by her. I love the way Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's little black nose goes sniffle, sniffle, snuffle, and her eyes go twinkle, twinkle. Also, the way she always answers questions with "if you please'm". The illustrations are nice and children will enjoy Ms. Potter's beautiful narrative and finding out Mrs Tiggy-Winkle's true identity.

Funny in parts. VERY LIGHT read. Not sure I'd buy again....good to borrow from library.

Hilarious! If you are looking for a good read centered around "the truth" behind parenting..........this is it! Susan Konig tells it like it is, and this forty-something mother of 8 found it the perfect way to end the summer!!

This is the second book by Susan Konig. The first one was "Why Animals Sleep so Close to the Road (And Other Lies I Tell My Children"), a book I enjoyed so much I gave away at least twenty copies to friends and clients.

The new book is equally good - a light, breezy, funny, read about life if you're a suburban lady journalist, 40 something, with a comedian-entertainer husband, three children, and #4 on the way.

Like most humor books, this is a rapid read, with 205 pages divided into 44 chapters (and epilogue). Some of the chapters are an absolute scream, like (my personal favorite) the 36 hour trip to the "pampering spa" with just the hubbie..., or the leaking ceiling in the children's bedroom....

All great fun. I'll be getting another box of these to give away!

I ripped my pants once, during a game of table tennis when I was working for the CIS in Manchester, and it was the most humiliating moment of my life. Not only did we lose the game, but I was laughed at and mocked by my colleagues and so-called friends. A had to hide in the toilet and sew them back together. I wish this was another of my quasi-amusing reviews, but sadly, it's the truth. This wonderful book, however, made me realise that there's an amusing side to ripping one's pants, and I rode along on SpongeBob SquarePant's emotional rollercoaster with the wisdom of hindsight. By the end, I'd slayed a personal demon, and it's all down to the wonderful prose of Carol Mullan.
I found the cover illustration a little disturbing, however.

As far as this book, it is very entertaining and my children loved the Sponge Bob tattoos that came with it.

I am just please with this whole Sponge Bob craze. My son and Grandson who are both eight love any thing to do with this little sea creature.

My older son who is 26 is also a great fan and his 9 month old son, loves the music of Sponge Bob. We have a family of fans for this creature. I am happy with this book. We want more of Sponge Bob.

Brenda Corliss Mother and grandmother of 5 and 5

I ordered this thinking it was a reading book to be read to young children. It is basically a coloring book with some other activities. If there is a readable story, I failed to find it.

The only problem with this book is its length. Other than that, I think it's adorable. I love Lena, Carmen, Birdget and Tibby (Tibby most of all, it must be said), so getting to go still deeper into their characters is a treat. And I liked that the book included at least one thing by Bailey, who's one of my favorite characters. Also liked the sections on Tib's favorite movies, the excerpt from Carmen's short story, and many other things. Nice book.

Well it was kinda cool to see the letters between the girls and it is good for an ULTRA fan such as myself, but it is a really quick read and is hardly worth the $8. It took me 30 mins to read it. And all the important letters were already talked about in the 1st book.

Book provides a great deal of information on the people who worked at Fawcett Comics, but little information on the characters they created.

That's what Mark Evanier is, a true fan not only of comics, that's too limiting. Mark is a true fan of talent and the people who posses it, and that shines through in this collection of his POV column from the Comic's Buyers Guide.

Inside is Mark's columns on DC's most loved editor, Julie Schwartz, Disneyland, Comic Conventions, Curt Swan and many others. Over the years, Mark has (somewhat against his will) become the chief obituary writer for the comics industry. You'll find tributes here to some of comics greatest (the already mentioned Mr.'s Schwartz and Swan, along with Pat Boyette), plus stories pointing out why they were worthy of tributes in the first place.

He has two other collections as well, buy those too, dang it!

The words search puzzles in this small book are, according to the author, "based on the most hilarious stuff on the planet." The word lists include such offbeat themes as stupid pet names, bad fads, common Internet acronyms, and terms for kissing and vomiting. While these themes are unusual and original, I would not call them hilarious. The edition I own has a whoopee cushion included inside the back cover - to guarantee that the solver approaches the puzzles with a silly mind-set, I suppose.

I only rated this book with three stars out of five because the placement of the words in the grid is not well thought-out. Some of the grids have no, or almost no, words on the diagonal (which to me are the hardest to find), and one of the puzzles has the words clustered in only half the letter grid. Still, they do make for entertaining puzzling.

Eileen Rieback

THIS WAS AN EXCELLANT PURCHASE AND MY DAUGHTER HAD VERY MUCH FUN DOING THESE PUZZLES.

This is the perfect book for relaxing on the beach. The characters are easy to relate to and the plot is pretty good. The story follows the lives of two girls working as nannies for families high up on the social meter. great book

I've always enjoyed Susan Elizabeth Phillips in the past. She usually creates fun if not always endearing characters and has a knack for snappy dialogue that always managed to keep me hooked. Apparently this book is one of her earlier efforts, written in the 80's, and it suffers from many of the excesses of its time. It's more of a saga, which harkens back to the Danielle Steele, Jackie Collins books I read early on before I knew there was better stuff out there. All full of glitz, glamour, money and little else. An earlier exchange between a glamourous beauty and her playboy paramour (with whom she's been playing hard to get) "You're not woman enough to handle a man like me." Her witty whispered response that gets him all hot and bothered, "You're not rich enough for me." That pretty much sets the tone of the book thus far and I'm not overly impressed. The usual wit of the author seems to be missing but since it's an audio and I'm trapped in my car anyway I will continue on . . .

Later on: I'm glad stuck with it but honestly if it had been a paperback I would've put it down long ago. After wading through pages and pages of insipid backstory the author finally tightens up the story and focuses on a few main characters. The backstory, as I said earlier, reminded me very much of a Danielle Steel novel but did serve the purpose of explaining why the heroine of the book was such a self-centered, helpless brat. When gorgeous socialite Francesca loses everything she's forced into lowering herself by accepting an acting job which she believes will be glamourous and make her an instant star. Things don't exactly go her way and she finds herself on the street in a stained gown and at her lowest point when golf pro Dally takes pity on her and picks her up. Dally is the first man prettier than Franscesca and she's instantly smitten though the two fight like children. Dally totes her around and foots the bill until he tires of her (and she discovers he's married!) and she's left to her own devices again. This is the point, probably somewhere halfway through the book, where she finally grows up and becomes a real person instead of the annoying spoiled brat who only wants a man to save her. I have to credit the author here because she did an amazing job of turning a thoroughly unlikable, whiny character into a admirable person.

This book doesn't just talk about the logo design process, it gives the readers plenty of space to figure it out for themselves. It is a very specialized book, but also a very good book. Small, or big, business owners would be very well advised to read, and use, this book.