by Talmon Wesley Carter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 21, 2011
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Carter’s book aims to make senior citizens, especially those in nursing homes, laugh, think and live more healthily.
In this far-ranging book, Carter provides his readers with jokes, stories and essays, history lessons about Jamaica and health care tips. Although much of the information can be found on the Internet, his engaging material and simple format will appeal to older readers. Senior citizens will be amused by the jokes Carter offers, many of which are geared toward their generation and have protagonists to which they can relate. For instance, in “Did ‘Old-Timers’ Set In?,” when a friend praises the protagonist for calling his wife “darling” and “sweetheart” after 53 years of marriage, the protagonist claims his pet names are merely the result of having forgotten his wife’s name 10 years ago. The jokes are succinct and snappily written, and readers will appreciate their easy wit. Additionally, Carter provides an intriguing historical account of Jamaica, contemplating simple elements like the country’s kitchen facilities and segueing into the more complicated role of women in Jamaican society. Carter employs a fascinating metaphor of “metamorphosis in the reverse” to describe contemporary Jamaica, claiming that the “emerald isle of the Caribbean has become a loathsome haven of crime and violence,” a “loathsome caterpillar.” Most useful are the health and safety tips Carter offers (with Eunice Carter, RN) in the book’s final chapters. Those who are elderly, particularly those who may be living alone, will gain tremendously from the advice offered. This advice is broadly inclusive, alerting readers to simple measures that nevertheless can be of great assistance; for instance, the author’s claim that “floors should be of non-slip and low glare material” and readers should “never combine multiple medications in the same bottle.” The book helpfully lists symptoms for various illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, giving readers a reference to check before calling a physician, should they suspect illness. Additionally, the book offers tips to avoid illness altogether. With the wide range of topics covered, readers may wish the book included an easily referenced index. An intriguing, somewhat unwieldy, genre-defying book with much to offer senior citizens.
Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-1466382923
Page Count: 198
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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