February 21, 2008
· Filed under Book Stuff & Reviews, My Tattered Life! LOL · Tagged death, grief, heaven, Mitch Albom, the five people you meet in heaven
There are some books you read to entertain yourself, like most of the mystery/thriller novels I read. There are others you read looking for a message. This is one of those books and it did not let me down. My mom passed away almost 11 years ago on my birthday. In this time, I’ve learned that time doesn’t always heal the wound. Some shoes are way too big to ever fill. My mom’s 3 inch heels are one of them. 
I was 26 years old when she passed away. I was an adult but I had spent the last 7 years in college and graduate school-all good things-but when she died, I felt that this had stolen time I could have spent with her. I felt and believed that my mother had not yet told me everything she needed to; that she had not yet taught me all I needed to learn.
I found some answers in this book.
The book basically tells us the story of an elderly, crotchety man, who dies while trying to save a young girl’s life at a carnival where he works. Next thing, he wakes up in “heaven” or perhaps it should be better called “heaven’s ante-room.” Here, he learns important life lessons.
The story weaves in and out of the present time at the carnival, the man’s actual life, and “heaven.” In so doing, Albom gives us messages of hope, peace and connection.
Here are some of what I thought were great lines because they brought the message home to me.
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“….there are no random acts..that we are all connected…that death doesn’t just take someone, it misses someone else…”
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“..when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You are just passing it to someone else.”
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“…hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”
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“..lost love is still love…a different form, that’s all.”
Albom teaches us about sacrifice, forgiveness and most of all..Love.
This one gets 5 tattered pages!!
February 20, 2008
· Filed under Book Stuff & Reviews · Tagged biography, Chicago, gangs, Latin King, My Bloody Life, Reymundo Sanchez
I AM A BOOKWORM & I LOVE TO READ THRILLERS & MYSTERIES. I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL OR LEGAL THRILLER AND A GOOD ‘OLE GHOST STORY. HOWEVER, I ALSO LIKE TO VENTURE OUT & READ OTHER STUFF FROM TIME TO TIME. THIS WAS ONE OF THOSE TIMES.
THIS IS MY FIRST TIME READING THIS AUTHOR BUT NOT MY FIRST TIME READING THE UP & COMING GENRE OF “URBAN FICTION” OR “STREET LIT.” I HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS BOOK LEFT MUCH TO BE DESIRED.
THE AUTHOR IS BASICALLY RETELLING THE STORY OF HOW HE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE “LATIN KINGS” GANG IN CHICAGO. FROM HIS PREFACE, WE ALREADY KNOW THAT HIS INTENTION IS TO TEACH YOUTH THAT THE GANG LIFESTYLE IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO LIVE. HE DOES GIVE A GOOD HISTORY OF THE DIFFERENT GANGS IN CHICAGO & HOW THEY ALL CAME TO BE. HE TELLS US OF DRUGS, MURDERS, TEENAGE PROMISCUITY & THE NEED TO FIT IN. AS BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT, IT’S OK. I MEAN, LIKE I’VE SAID BEFORE, YOU CAN’T REALLY JUDGE SOMEONE’S LIFE.
FOR A TEENAGER WHO IS JUST THINKING OF BECOMING A GANG MEMBER OR IS JUST CURIOUS, THIS MAY BE A DECENT READ. HOWEVER, IF THE READER IS ALREADY INVOLVED, I DON’T THINK THE BOOK WILL HOLD HIS/HER ATTENTION LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I HAD TO PLOW THROUGH THIS BOOK. IT MAKES FOR A VERY SLOW READ.
PERHAPS THE AUTHOR JUST NEEDED A BETTER EDITOR. HE DOES HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT STORY TO TELL BUT IF HIS INTENDED AUDIENCE DOESN’T READ AND BENEFIT FROM HIS STORY, THEN IT PRETTY MUCH BECOMES JUST HIS DIARY.
SORRY BUT I WILL HAVE TO GIVE THIS TWO TATTERED PAGES!
February 6, 2008
· Filed under Book Stuff & Reviews, Welcome · Tagged Dear Reader, my tattered pages, Welcome
Hello Word-press!! And Welcome to “My Tattered Pages.” I’ve started this blog over on Blogger but I will be importing it to Word-press and see how it goes for us here.
I’ve started this blog due to my passion for reading and also for writing. I am a total bookworm and proud of it! I have not authored any great novels yet but I will someday! At least I still hold onto that dream.
I have always been a bookworm. I started reading when I was 4 and haven’t stopped since. I also started writing (not published unless you count now :- ) when I was 10 years old. I wrote my first story as a result of my home instructor’s assignment. I became physically ill when I was about 9 years old and had to be on home instruction. My teacher told me to write a story and I did. I wrote on loose-leaf paper only the front and I bound it together with yarn so it became my first book! I still have this work of art and one of these days I’ll post it on my blog here so you can all get a look at the inside workings of a 10 year old. So my love of reading & writing goes way back.
Many months ago, I happened upon a website called DearReader.com. Here, you can join an email book club and you get excerpts of books so you can “road-read” before you buy or borrow the whole book. I’ve discovered some new authors there and I love that! OK so that brings me here to Word-press. I’m not sure how I happened upon this site. I was surfing and there it was so here I am!!
This site is run by a wonderful woman named Suzanne Beecher. She usually has contests or something going for her readers as well. She writes a daily column where she shares much of her personal life with her readers and if you email her, she will write you back personally!! Suzanne is great! And I enjoyed reading with Suzanne so much that I told someone about the book I took out from the library after having read the email excerpt. She told me about a book club she belongs to. And I got a little jealous. I want to be in a book club!!
I never got to be in one because there wasn’t enough interest in my ‘hood if you know what I mean. So I decided that it would be nice to have a group of people who share my same interests right? I know many people have a busy work/family life that won’t allow them time for an outside meeting. But many could probably sit at the computer for half- hour to an hour after the kids are asleep. Also, in an on-line event, it wouldn’t matter where the person lived and we could all share something we like to do. All you need is an Internet connection and a screen name. We could have an on-line book club and meet in chat rooms. You can be in pajamas and if you can’t sleep, we can make our meetings at 2 am!! Well, we don’t have to but we COULD! I think AOL or Yahoo would be easiest as these both offer free screenames now and have chat room capabilities. My SN on both is (GUESS!) mytatteredpages.
I also searched book-clubbing and found BookMovement.com where you can run your book club and send your members emails and select dates and times and books, etc. Well, I did get a few friends to join but only as a kind gesture to their bookworm friend. Mostly it’s just me. You can also enter to win books for your book club and in return review what you’ve read. I haven’t won anything from here yet but I keep trying. I also opened up a yahoo group thinking that would bring in more people. Not really! One guy expressed interest but now I see he deleted us!! 
The group name there is also My Tattered Pages.
I have a personal myspace page but I did create one dedicated just to my passion of reading and writing (myspace.com/mytatteredpages). Now this was a great idea and it took off almost immediately. I have quite a few author “friends.” It’s great to interact with some of my favorite authors. They also post bulletins with contests and other promotions. I’ve won a few autographed books already!! Yes I am a bookworm and I am so damn proud of it!! :)
Initially, I had intended to blog solely about books but I can’t help but get personal because well, life happens every day!! So I do love the fact that I can categorize posts here on Word-press. If you just strictly want to read about books & reading & writing related stuff go to Book Stuff. If you want to laugh at my personal antics go to My Tattered Life. And if you’d like to read about my zany co-host, you can read her posts at Contributor Craziness (I picked the categories. I’m sure she’ll love it). So now I like to say that my blog is about everyday life and the books that get us through.
Finally–
Do you have comments or questions? An announcement or posting you’d like to make? Or would you like to help me start my online book club? Please get in touch! Just click this address to send me an e-mail: mytatteredpages@yahoo.com
