What Chicks Are Reading

A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash by Sylvia Nasar

Typically I read the book and then see the movie. However, this time the opposite occurred. After seeing the movie, I heard that the book is quite different, so I read Nasar's biography of John Nash with great curiosity. I think it is among the finest biographies I have ever read, not least because Nash is perhaps one of the most difficult people about whom one could write for so many reasons. From his humble beginnings in West Virginia, to the controversy and anxiety that surrounded his winning the Nobel Prize, each moment was exquisite in detail and description.

The author's study of Nash is comprehensive, interesting, and very fair. Nash was not the nicest person in the world and truly a troubled man who waffled between homosexual tendencies and his two wives. The author presented an unbiased view of this man's accomplishments. His illness, recovery and redemption are more explicit in the book than in the film. Truly a worthwhile read. Chick Susie
 

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins

Now it may be too soon to be praising the heck out of Dr. Atkins, but I can tell you after week one, I am 8 pounds lighter, and feel awesome. (But don't ask me about the first couple of days...it was worse than four screaming kids and a hangover.)

Dr. Atkins has you start your new way of eating with cutting out caffeine, sugar and 98% of the carbohydrates you normally eat. At first you think, "What else is there?" but as the week progresses, you easily manage to get along with meats, eggs, cheeses, and salads. Matter of fact, I love it! It's how I always thought I should eat but I just didn't know which foods had what in it, what was good, and what was bad. He teaches you all this. For years I struggled with the on and off again low fat diets, but always ended up getting a yeast infection, or never really feeling that great. It's no wonder, 75% of those low fat diets have you eat nothing but carbohydrates! Duh, what did I think pasta pasta pasta was going to get me?

I'm telling ya, if you've ever thought that you probably don't eat the healthiest, but were wondering what plan had the simplest, most logical, and "real life" way to a slender you, this is the book for you. Though, it's not as entertaining as the other three I've read this month, it will probably change my life much more.

Finally fitting into my clothes from two summers ago. Chick Karin
 

Halfway Home by Mary Sheldon

Maggie Royal was aimed for greatness. She abandoned her eight-year-old daughter, Alexis, leaving her with nothing but a diamod tiara and an old scrapbook to remember her by. The story of the lives of each of these women -- the mother and the daughter -- is told in alternating voices, full of regret, reconciliation, and humor. Their lives are constantly and forever entwined and certainly interesting enough to keep up interest right to the end.

Mary Sheldon, the author, is the daughter of Sidney Sheldon, the novelist who wrote so many mystery books. I think I have read all of them and found this one written so different than her father's. I was expecting more of the same, but enjoyed the difference. Chick Jeanette
 

Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes

If you're looking for a light read about three friends in their early thirties, let me re-state -- three unmarried friends in their early thirties -- then it's an A+ . I really enjoyed it because it was fast reading and reminded me of Chick Lynn, myself and our friend Diane. I think I'd be the gay guy (Fintan) of the three friends, but Diane is a ringer for Tara. Tara knows she should move on in her life from the bring-me-down boyfriend but is afraid of letting him go. Lynn is a shoe-in to play the part of Katherine, the perfect one. Not a hair out of place, not a crumb on her counter, and if she ever gained a pound, it would be welcomed by all of her friends.

The book details their friendship as they bop in and out of the Last Chance Saloon (and all that that implies), until Fintan gets sick, (not what you think). Fintan's illness brings a couple of twists, but In the end, the story comes full circle, as all good light novels do, but yet, keeps us turning the pages, just to make sure. Chick Karin
 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Chick Lynn let me borrow this book of hers when we got to Vegas a couple of weekends ago. She warned me that it was going to be little freaky in the beginning.

Freaky is putting it mildy. The book starts with a fourteen-year-old girl being raped and murdered. Not only is she murdered, she is dismembered. And this is only the beginning of the book!

The author is so eloquent in her descriptions of the different scenes, from the actual rape, to being in heaven to secretly wanting to kiss her childhood sweetheart for years, that it almost makes you forget what really happened to her. The book moves so fast that you can't put it down, and for those of us with A.D.D., it jumps around enough from different scenes that you don't get bored. I finished it in two flights.

I was so intriqued with Alice Sebold that I had to buy her first book, Lucky (see next review), as soon as I finished The Lovely Bones. Chick Karin

(See also Chick Kristin's review of this book in September.)
 

Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold

This past month I stepped outside of my Enquirer box and I read three novels. Don't be looking for any next month, I'm comprehensively drained. This last one, by far, was the best. I couldn't stop reading it. The same author as The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold, pens her memoir. If I implied the first one was freaky, this one will scare the living be-geezus outta ya.

When Alice was a college freshman at Syracuse University she was raped and badly beaten. Alice was a virgin which makes the description and the whole story that follows even more surreal. Every bit of this book has your jaw permanently wired open, so much that I even gave details of the book to my father and husband at the dinner table. It's that unbelievable, and I'm sure both of the men in my life were thrilled to have been discussing rape at the dinner table. I just couldn't sit there without discussing, so I poured them more wine.

The things a person goes through after a rape are unfathomable, and she doesn't miss a detail. Even though the policeman told her after the rape that she was Lucky to be alive, I was the one who felt lucky to have never had to live through anything as horrific. Chick Karin
 

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I know the title of this book doesn't seem very appealing but this book is a delight. Its so cleverly written about a white girl in Alabama whose father is mean and her mother was killed when she was only 4 years old. She and her black nanny run away from home and end up living with 3 black women who raise bees and sell the honey. A white woman raised in a black world is so interesting and revealing. I loved this book. Chick Julie