Do you like fast fascinating reads?, then you will like By Heart. I read it so fast and normally i'm a slow reader. A great documentary well written!

I suppose this is mainly of interest to those who have read "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" which is autobiographical but incoherent. This biography of Elizabeth Smart explains what really happened.
There is lot more to it than that. The insights into Canadian-British-American relationships are illuminating. The British literary scene comes across as the least inhibited and most tolerant of the three. The book has those snide cutting anti-Canadian jibes that Canadian writers do so well. The account of Soho in the fifties is fascinating and the account of Edmonton in the seventies is devastating.
Elizabeth Smart and George Barker and his wives went on to have close and warm relationships into their old age. In a way it's a happy ending to "By Grand Central Station" although there were further tragedies. The paracetemol that killed her daughter Rose (it produces hepatic necrosis when combined with alcohol) is known as acetominophen (Tylenol) in America.
Robert Fraser has written a biography of George Barker.

i am currently reading 'the shadow maker' again, and i'm even more consumed than the first time. i'd like to take this opportunity to tell potential readers/buyers that this book is NOT out of print...

This intriguing book tells about the early life of Margaret Atwood in great detail, and then skims through the last couple of decades. Rosemary Sullivan has done a remarkable job of recreating the '40's, '50's, '60's and '70's, and how they influenced (and eventually were influenced by!) Canada's #1 writer. Having interviewed Atwood, many of her friends and associates, ex-husband and present husband, and also using contemporary correspondence, Sullivan seems to have an authentic understanding of how Atwood developed into such an amazing, prolific writer. Always respectful, Sullivan keeps her focus on what in Atwood's life is relevant to her as a writer. This is a very intelligently written biography, with an incredible amount of research and very astute analyses, and should be a satisfying read for any fan of Margaret Atwood's, without feeling like you have invaded her privacy.

Some days, you simply don't have the attention span required of you for reading good books. Sometimes, I find even short stories too taxing and poetry much too dense to absorb properly. That's when Good Bones will come in handy, for it will provide doses of short, potent prose.

It's a tiny little book, with tiny short stories (three or four pages on average) that are clever, intriguing and shot through with Margaret Atwood's luscious style. Despite the lengths of the stories, they are in no way lacking in emotion or intensity. They are snippets of random musings, of well-known stories told from somebody else's point of view, of sci-fi fantasies that reflect upon our own humanity...

The stories do not link to each other. As far as I can see, they are writing experiments, little flashes of inspiration that do not fit somewhere in a greater whole (such as a novel). They are ideas, brief contemplation of how the world is, snapshots of human behaviour.

Atwood has a particularly cutting insight into the way things are. I cried at certain stories, not because they were formulated with particular tragic scenes, but because they moved me. Forlorn beauty, half-remembered sensations, the things she could say with a stroke of a pen are those dark, shadowy feelings we sometimes find in ourselves, yet could never describe. Now she has done it for us, and it makes for cathartic reading.

Through Good Bones we are given a glimpse of Atwood's world: usually bleak, sometimes spine-chilling with its prediction of how the world just might turn out, but always haunting and always beautiful. If you have not read any of her works before, this is a great place to start. If you have read and enjoyed her other works, this one will definitely be worth your while.

It amazes me that otherwise educated and articulate scholars and professors, like Rosemary Sullivan, are woefully ignorant of research in sociobiology into the nature of gender. Not only is Sullivan unaware of these studies, but she also seems to either dismiss, or lack knowledge of, the folk wisdom of centuries. She writes well of what she calls the "obsessive" romantic love that women seek, and of their anguish, grief and loss when this love ends. She writes of gifted, strong women who subjugate their own talents and careers to those of men.

She does not factor into her analysis the fact that women, as mammalian creatures, are hardwired physiologically and hormonally for connectedness. Yes, we are more than mere animals, but a good starting point in searching for reasons for women's behavior is to look at our physical makeup. Without women's need to be connected to a man, to bear and to nurture children, to cherish family and community ties, our species would soon become extinct.
At the emotional core of a woman is not just "obsessive" love for a man, not just romantic passion for physical lovemaking, but also the fierce, unending, protecting and nurturing love of a mother for her children.

Women soon learn that they need the structures of society, especially those pertaining to marriage and the family, to sustain their search for personal fulfillment. Wise women (including those who have had to learn the hard way) know that they trespass outside these structures at their own peril.

Yes, romantic love is wonderful, and falling in love is an unforgettable, defining experience; but especially for women, that experience is only the prelude to a rich and satisfying life.

Wonderful, thoughtful book that I wish someone had given me long ago. Why do we fall in love? What does it mean to fall in love? What are we searching for? Intoxicating.

sexy. compelling. engrossing. insightful. and empowering.
we do lose ourselves when we fall in love and I now know what it was. I feel woken up and shaken. I can logically analyze what had happened. I also have to read Wethering Heights again with more clarity.