Momma182's Reviews

I have conflicting feelings about this book. On the one had I think it is a brilliantly written book that perfectly portrays the life (and thoughts) of a 'functioning' alcoholic. On the other had I hated Hidly. So much. I think that may stem from personal feelings about an alcoholic in my own family and the parallels that I see, but what a selfish b***h. Frank was by far my favourite character, and even thought we don't really see a lot of him, Scott comes in a close second.

Without giving away too much one of the (many) reasons that I dislike Hildy so strongly would be the harsh and brutal way she 'promptly fired' her secretary who helped the girls with the intervention.

Are you kidding me. Someone showed they cared about you and you fire them.

I did not like the first 50 pages of this book. It annoyed me that the narrator talked in this weird 'third-person/dictionary' way. Looking back I guess I was more so annoyed that Hitler's people were practically forcing a mother to give up her children.

I guess I'm giving [b:The Book Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390053681s/19063.jpg|878368] five stars instead of my original four might be because of how strongly I thought I was going to hate this book (after reading the first fifty or so pages). I became drawn in and learned to love Liesel, Papa, Mama, Rudy, and Max.

The one thing that I would love to know is who Liesel married. I personally think that it's Max, I know there is a fourteen year age gap, but from watching their relationship I guess I'm kind of hoping that they find true happiness in each other.

Honestly not what I was expecting at all. It was funny, sad, and horrifying all at the same time. I realize (as MANY other reviews point out) that Piper's story is a rare one. Very few people out through the American Prison System have the love and support of so many people.

I wasn't blown away by the book, some things stood out for me, a little too much repetition, and a bit of confusion as to who was who, but over all I really enjoyed this book.

Regardless of how common her situation is she still goes from a free woman to a locked up criminal (regardless of the level of security).

It is easy for many people to say that she is whining about being sent to jail in the first place and that her memoir was written to further that whining. I don't see that to be the case. With this memoir, it feels (at least to me) that Piper is trying to share her time behind bars for two main reasons.

The first is to give the rest of America (and beyond) a glimpse into a system that is a little more real than Martha Stewart's. She highlights in the book that Stewart's trial (and subsequent arrest) was at its height during her year in prison. Her "time in jail", as well as the story a fellow inmate told the press about; makes jail seam like a vacation. While Piper's story is not from the other end of the spectrum, it still allows for more of an inside view into the US Correctional System.

The second and more important reason I found in the memoir was to show to general population that the lengths and severities of jail sentences do not always match the crime and can often be based upon looks and wealth. Piper talks about many of her fellow inmates and how, for many of them shorter sentencing and then community service and parole, would be a more effective use of tax payers money and would allow better transition from their criminal pasts. Like mentioned in the memoir prisoners need to forget about the outside world in order to sanely get though their 'time' inside. Depending on how hard that is they many have a hard time adjusting to 'normal' life again.

A brief glimpse of this even within the prison walls itself is he transfers from maximum -to-minimum lockup. Many inmates don't know how to handle so much freedom.

Don't get me wrong, I in no way condone the drug smuggling business, but after reading Piper's memoir I find it a huge waste of money to have people like Piper in prison. $30000 (or more) to keep her in prison, or she could have be doing community service and contributing to society.

“We're always one breath away from something, living or dying, sometimes it just can't be helped.”
― [a:Heather Gudenkauf|2875124|Heather Gudenkauf|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1383946596p2/2875124.jpg],[b:One Breath Away|13112023|One Breath Away|Heather Gudenkauf|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333763497s/13112023.jpg|18285607]

by Victorine E. Lieske

I found this book on Amazon for free (in kindle form).
I wasn't really expecting much, I was looking for a short read to kick start the new year. I found the plot and characters to be extremely cute and well thought out. The writing was excellent, it was edited beautifully. Even the unrealistic 'fake wedding' fits within the perimeters of a romance novel and kept the story interesting. The only real issue I had with the novel was the parallels to "50 Shades of Grey", obviously excluding the BDSM