This book is the follow up to Why I Left The Amish. That book dealt with the author’s “now”, her mature years while confronting her father’s impending death, and her remote past, her childhood. This book fills in her young adult years. Saloma grew up in an abusive family, physically abused, emotionally damaged, and sexually violated. As we left her in the first book, she was escaping to the real world of her dreams, Vermont. Saloma makes what seems to be a successful transition. She […]
It’s plain to see…
Working as I do with the Amish, it’s interesting for me to get a look at what Amish life is like when we English aren’t around. Bearing in mind that this is a different state (and the Amish can differ quite a bit from one church district to another, let alone another state), and a different era, it is still clear that the Amish are just people, dealing with many of the same issues we all do, but in a completely different framework. Saloma left […]
Ya gotta pay the rent
When I watch the musical Rent, I get carried away by the emotion, the stories, and of course, the music. I cry. But when you actually think about it, it’s really a bit whiny (Really? You think you should be able to live there for free because you’re fabulous?). This is a bit how I feel about this book. I get caught up in the stories, the emotion. I cried, I admit it. But really, it is a bit angsty, a bit whiny, a lot […]
On the Road Again
See, this is what I get when I read two books on the same topic sequentially. The title says it. Michael Kostroff is one of those actors that make you say, “Hey! That guy! What was he in?” In this book, the answer is “The Producers” (ensemble and understudy for Max Bialystock), and “Les Miserables” (Thenardier). Like the last book I reviewed, Unnaturally Green, this is a memoir of a touring actor. In the first book, the actor is young, and green in more ways […]
It’s not easy being green
Wow, is that post title a cop out. Anyhow, this is a memoir from an Elphaba. An Elphaba stand-by, actually. It’s a fun look, for any musical theater geek, behind the big green curtain. What goes on in there? What do stand-bys do? How crazy are those costumes? Did the flying machinery ever break down? (Not answered, BTW). It’s also a memoir of a young woman plagued with insecurities and fears of failure, both in her professional & personal lives. It began as a blog, […]
Jeeves gets to the bottom of it
A valiant show, old boy. Sebastian Faulk has set himself a difficult task: to write in the style of a man who wrote as no one else ever had. Wodehouse’s style, his lightness and clever touch with a plot, and mostly, his two memorable characters, have set him apart from other writers of his generation & others. (And if you’ve never read Wodehouse, shame on you.) Mr. Faulk makes a reasonable job of it. The plot, like any good J. & W. tale, is convoluted, […]