Rating: 
Summary: Excellent depiction of mother/ daughter relationship.
Review: Anne LaMott's new book, Crooked Little Heart, is the story of an adolescent girl and also the story of her mother. The struggles the girl, Rosie, experiences are moving- she is caught between many forces, her developing sexuality, her wish for excellence in tennis, her complex family arrangements, her friendships. The mother's story of recovering from the death of her first husband, forming a new relationship, friendships, loss, is also meaningful. But what I found most important about this book is the illustration of how a mother can love a teen age girl even when she is being obnoxious, how if the mother continues steady, loving, reaching out to her daughter even when the daughter turns away, the daughter will be able to come to her mother for help with her serious problems. Another thing I appreciated was the fact that Rosie and her mom had an extended family of very close friends that were extremely important in raising Rosie. This is often the case within my experience, but is very rarely depicted in novels. Over all, I think this is an excellent book
Rating: 
Summary: Plodding
Review: While I enjoy Anne Lamott's writing, I found this book rather tedious and repetitive. And the descriptions of the tennis matches are interminable. I mean, point by point by point! Not Lamott's best, but Rosie remains a wonderful character
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and compelling
Review: I love everything Anne Lamott writes. Rosie, the book to which this is a sort of sequel, is one of my all time favorite novels. This one joins it. I tore through the book on a first read, but look forward to rereading it and savoring the beautiful cadences and rhythym of Lamott's writing. her characters are real, the kind of people you know and hang out with, or wish you did
Rating:
Summary: Rosie Shines!
Review: Crooked Little Heart is heartbreaking,but beautiful in its crooked little way. Anne Lamott returns to fiction after sevn years, and God, it was worth the wait. She explores tennis,teenage pregnancy, grief,jealousy, and love and never gets mauldin,never lets you feel sorry for the characters. All the characters shine, especially Rosie. May they all shine on
Rating:
Summary: A superb coming-of-age story of a young tennis star.
Review: A young tennis star believes her family, and therefore she, is disfunctional. She is prompted by her sorrow to behave badly, and is saved from deep distress by a man who, by following hertournaments, and looking like a bum, frightens her mom but saves her from despair. We aren't only what we do; we are what we really are. What is done can usually be
repaired, but only when we know what is to be done.
Rating:
Summary: Crooked is as crooked does
Review: I recently finished reading 'Crooked Little Heart' by Anne Lamott. This is the second book I have read by Ms. Lamott, the first being 'Rosie,' which is a great prequel and describes Rosie's life as a younger girl. 'Crooked Little Heart' uses great sensory details in describing the emotions of a young teenage girl. You are able to really get to understand the characters' feelings and personalities, making the book one that you can truly get engrossed in. Anne Lamott has a different style than many other fiction writers, and it is apparent from the very beginning of her novel. I loved this book and hope you will read it and enjoy it too. I particulary recommend it to people who are fans and/or players of tennis, as the book does have much of the action centered around tournament tennis. I can't wait to read more from Anne Lamott! If you enjoyed book such as McCrae's "Children's Corner" or the ""Bark of the Dogwood," then you're sure to like this Lamott book. I know I did, and almost everyone I know sings its praises.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but just not to my taste
Review: After a slow start, I gradually fell in like with the writing style and people in this coming-of-age novel. I say "in like" because I have discovered I'm not overly partial to character-driven novels. Still, Lamott writes gorgeous descriptive sentences and uses lovely similes. Her grasp on the dynamics of a blended family and the social pressures on modern teenage girls seems effortless and without artifice.
It's a nice piece of work and well worth reading. It's just not to my taste.
Rating:
Summary: The book I knew Lamott could write!
Review: In my other reveiw of "Rosie", the prequel to this book, I was rather hard on Lamott. Her non fiction, Travelling Mercies, Bird by Bird, Operating Instructions, is so compassionate, witty, and funny, that it is hard to believe that she wrote Rosie and Hard Laughter. This book is finally the work of fiction I believed that she could produce.It follows the story of Rosie during the summer of her 13th year, and trials and tribulations that are realistic and engaging. Although the focus on tennis was a little too detailed and technical, the rest of the story is wrapped around it in tenderness and diverts the focus from that aspect. Although somewhat similar to Nabokov's Lolita in theme, this book explores in full the lives of each main character. You can more clearly see the effects of the events that occurred in Rosie, and they are painted more brilliantly and lovingly. The characters are easy to identify with. There's Rae who weaves beautiful tapestries with junk yarn, but seems to want to do the same with the junky men in her lives. There's Rosie who lives in frustrated teenage self-doubt. There's Elizabeth, who sinks and struggles and is, all in all, extremely irritating. Then, there's Luthor, the Steppenwolf of the story, who is dark and scary and mysterious, but has insight that Rosie desperately needs. You will find in reading this that the details of daily life are irresistably and eloquently captured - the feeling of laying with your lover knees bent into knees, the shine of dust particles in the light of the window, the fight that explodes and dissipates and the feeling of relief when love comes again. With a compassionate pen, Lamott sculpts their world not out of epic ideas or fantastic adventure, but in the love and angst and peace and war and tribulation and triumph of every day life. She finds the beauty and pain in it, and gives it the no-frills homage it deserves. Crooked Little Heart led me to examine myself more closely through the characters and their actions, and also provided me with basic tenets of living that I will cherish. A thought provoking book, with great ideas and beautiful writing, I rate Crooked Little Heart five stars, as a read that will warm your heart, make you laugh, and edify your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeper Than Appearences
Review: Crooked Little Heart is so interesting and fascinating because it is so ordinary and captures everyday life and frames it in snapshots. Anne Lamott creates a family who is not the �Brady Bunch� type, yet they are closer to what true families are like in real life. Her main character, Rosie Ferguson, strives to fit into the adolescent world of popularity. At the same time she struggles with memories of losing her father in a car accident and having to deal with her mother�s turn to alcoholism. A life that seems infallible has crumbled all at once. Rosie is a character, which reflects people doubts, fears, anxieties, and capriciousness. I am most drawn to Lamott�s characters because of the fact that none are perfect and each has uncertainties just as I do. Rosie seems to escape seeing her disfunctionate family through tennis. She plays in tennis tournaments with her best friend Simone, who most people deem to be dumb because of her physique and sex appeal to young and old men alike. At all of Rosie�s tennis matches, there seems to be a secret spectator, which unlike most spectators, parents of players and coaches, does not come to watch the game in fancy athletic outfits. His name is Luther and he is my favorite character because although he looks shabby on the outside, he is what people fear to truly be - himself. I really liked when Rosie confronted her mother �you just look at what people look like and think you know if they�re good or bad.� This book is a sure female audience grabber because it deals with predicaments and dilemmas that many women have to face or once faced in their lives. This book definitely wove itself into my crooked little heart because it made me fathom that life is an infinite goal of discovering where we truly belong in the midst of all that�s happening around us.
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