The Almost Moon

And I thought the Lovely Bones was distressing.

I should preface this by saying that I have never read a book with an accumulative star rating this low before. It also confirms that star ratings are ridiculous - or maybe that one star ratings are compliments in disguise. Can someone explain to me why a story has to have likable characters? Why som......more

I couldn't put this book down so I read it in two days. What I especially liked about the book was how the author used stream of consciousness thinking (flash backs)to explain the thoughts and actions of the main character during a 24 hour period just before and after she kills her demented mother.......more

This book was extremely disturbing. The main character is introduced as seemly a normal woman whose elderly mother is entering her final years and at the stage of facing a nursing home or care facility. Even after she kills her mother, she tells the story as if this is just sort of a bummer day, alm......more

When I read The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold’s bestselling first novel, I thought, now what? What does an author write after that? How could she possibly top this novel? Three short years later Alice follows with a realistic, maybe too real, new novel, The Almost Moon, that promises to ease its way up......more

(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].) I freely admit it; that as a man, there are sometimes things that women do that utterly baffle me, and will probably conti......more