The Boys of My Youth

Rating:
Summary: A brutally girlish woman
Review: I stole this book from my teacher by accident. What a good idea. I can't wait to read more. Saying "He's the only man I have ever loved" suddenly seems so hilarious. You will laugh out loud and remember all those parties where your friends myseteriously disappeared into rooms. I wish she were phoning me while doodling little women in phonebooths. An honest new voice. One of these days I suppose I should return it.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal writing!!
Review: Not only do I agree with all of the other positive reviews as to Beard's uncanny ability to put us in her present, I have to say that Jo Ann Beard's use of language is some of the best I have ever read. As a writer, I am envious of her ability to be so clear, concise and poignant. I was amazed by this book on many levels. The underlined, highlighted, exclamation-pointed copy I will keep attests to that!

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: No matter what the others say- It was fantastic! One of the best books I have ever read. Maybe it was the nostalgia...I had several similar lifetime experiences and this book brought back wonderful memories for me.

Rating:
Summary: I've Read This Book 3 Times
Review: And I never re-read books. It's one of my favorites in AT LEAST the last decade. I picked it for my book group and it was voted the favorite of last year.
At first I didn't even know this was non-fiction--it's so lyrically written.
I just felt extremely connected to the narrator (JoAnn--I guess) and had so many similar experiences from MY youth.
It's a great book to buy for your oldest girlfriend or closest sister.

Rating:
Summary: I laughed...I cried...
Review: and that is high praise indeed. This autobiographical collection of essays was so compelling, I marked passages (in pen) and turned down pages - something I almost never do. Beard's memories of her childhood and teenage years made me wish she had been in my class, or lived on my block. When she enters the country roadhouse with her cousin, I could smell the beer and hear the band. I was chilled by "Fourth State of Matter" and incontinent (sort of) during "Dirty Barbies." Somehow Barbie & Ken will never be the same - wonder what my two grand daughters are thinking when they play with theirs! Have read this book 4 times and it is still fresh.

Rating:
Summary: Sharp Writing Wasted on Some of the Essays
Review: The Boys of the title are wallpaper, background Muzak, peripheral here to the female-female relationships that are the core of this book. Beard's a story teller and in these pages she leisurely recalls her mother, always with a cigarette, cousin, sister and, memorably, best life friend. The writing is smart, direct, sometimes funny and often evocative. This fictionalized memoir includes three particularly strong essays --The Fourth State of Matter, Waiting and the title piece. Out There is a short, creepy scare. Coyotes doesn't go much of anywhere, but the weakest pieces -- Behind the Screen and Bulldozing the Baby -- are from her earliest childhood. Sorry, but even the most sharply observed and drawn writing can't bring much new to the universal material of kid temper tantrums and parental discipline. You may want to skim lightly through some of these pieces, but the book is worth your time. It will be interesting to see where Beard takes her considerable talent next.

Rating:
Summary: Looking Inward
Review: A series of interrelated memories from a forty-something child of the '70s. Despite the book's title, Jo Ann Beard focuses more on her relationships with the women in her life (mother, sister, cousin, close friend, and, most of all, herself). The boys and men generally are in a haze of pot smoke or alcohol, and/or emotionally distant. Some of it comes across as self-absorbed and pretentious (really, a pre-birth memory?), but plenty is insightful and almost all of is interesting and well worth the reading time.

Rating:
Summary: Nowhere Near Worth It
Review: What is selling this book is the essay Fourth State of Matter, which originally appeared in the New Yorker, and which is genuinely quite good. The rest are just sappy personal reflections on girlhood. Or at least they seem like that to me. We need to be ashamed as American readers if in fact this is literture we're claiming is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Pitch perfect
Review: I give this book to all of my favorite people. It could not be lovelier.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT.
Review: If you graduated high school in the late 70s, early 80s and were a little on the wild side..... this book has some wonderful memories in store for you. It's when painters pants were big, long hair meant everything and riding in cars with girlfriends was so IT. JoAnn Beard tells it like it was better than any author I've read, even down to sneaking out of the house though we knew better.

Put on an old Van Morrison CD, and relive some wonderful memories while reading great book!