Rating: 
Summary: Not her best, but great summer reading
Review: A bit of a slow start but once Nora appears she sets this story in motion. I actually stayed in bed one Sunday morning ( a luxury for me) just to finish it. Her characters are human and although I thought for a moment this would be the typical happy ending Siddons throws a curve ball and brings us back to the reality that people do stupid things and mess up their lives....but yet there is always hope and knowing that you are growing with every turn of life. I enjoyed this alot. It is both a coming of age story, a love story but with the realities of the disappointing aspects of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Harmless, but disappointing
Review: For Siddons fans who are hoping for another "Colony," don't hold your breath. Maybe I'm just used to the shockers she likes to throw in, the truly surprising plot twists she usually comes up with, but when I learned the "SHOCKING TRUTH" (tuh-DUMM!) about Nora's past (according to the fly-leaf), all I could think was, "So what?" and, "Oh, is THAT all?" and, "I can't believe I've spent all day reading to get to THIS!" But, maybe it's just that the expectations are set unreasonably high when I pick up a Siddons novel. I don't resent having spent the time to read this novel, but it's not one I'll recommend to anyone. And as for the ending, all I could think of was the ending of "Gone with the Wind," the idea that a sequel must be coming because the story isn't done yet. The whole novel just lacks development. Oh, well...On to Rosamund Pilcher's new one!
Rating: 
Summary: Atticus Finch where are you when we need you?
Review: OK in this latest long awaited book by the prolific Siddons, Southern Gothic runs amok. The curtain goes up on the life of Peyton McKenzie, wispy adolescent loser, whose proudest boast is that she killed her mother (died in childbirth, always a Dixie favorite). Daddy is a silent white male, who might as well be dead for all he adds to the action. There's a handicapped black child, a fat grave digger and a fey Scots grandma who shoos skeeters that aren't there. Also in the audience are the ghosts of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, John Kennedy Toole and Harper Lee. I'll tell you right now, they are eating jujubes and snickering at this over ripe story that should have been a young adult novel. (whoops, Truman just threw a martini glass, bad boy) Peyton's red headed cousin Nora comes to stay, shakes up the little town with her liberal politics and dirty mouth and then, unable to commit, runs off. Peyton and Daddy are left sadder but better for knowing her. Iam left wishing Anne Rivers Siddons had worked a little harder and written something more like DOWNTOWN or KING'S OAK.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for such a good author
Review: After reading Outer Banks, Downtown, and The Colony, I couldn't wait to sink myself into this author's normally brilliant characterization and depth of story. After the first few chapters, I too began looking for a Young Adult label on the book spine. The characters all seemed a little too shallow and overblown at the same time. Rather like bad actors in a high school play - no one was quite believable. Its difficult to be objective about a single book when you know what the author is capable of doing. Frankly, the book would have rated a two star review except for the fact that it was mercifully short and a rather fluffy but uninspired way to spend an afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: ARS is a GAS!
Review: Anne Rivers Siddons needs a review from me like a hole in the head, but here I am anyway. I just pried myself from the sofa and decided I had to do this. Anne, I am ablush with pride for you and if you can't hear my applause, you must have that old air conditioner cranked to the max. I laughed out loud reading NORA NORA so many times my family thought I was finally going off my rocker. Y'all, go buy this book, jump in the hammock and give yourselves a treat. I enjoyed every single page. You will too.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as her others....
Review: This wasn't a bad book...it is light, fluffy reading and clearly aims to be along the same lines as "To Kill a Mockingbird" in that it addresses racial issues in the southern 1960's. It simply wasn't as engaging or as deep as her other books. This one focuses on a teen and does seem more of a young adult book than anything else. It was very easy reading....and I expected more from one of my favorite authors.....for a much more satisfying take on this same era, read Downtown by this author...that was the first book of hers that I read, and it is wonderful...a novel that transports you to another place in time...unlike this one.
Rating:
Summary: Shame on you Nora, and keep it up
Review: Take a somber seventh-grade tomboy on the edge of womanhood, a sullen father living mostly in his own sad little world, a weird grandmother who tells crows to go tell it to the devil, a pompous aunt who disdains anyone but the uppercrust, a black maid who makes scrumptious apple butter and tosses advice as quick as a salad, a motherless clubfooted black child, a church sexton and grave tender who reads classic books and listens to classical music, add in an assortment of other strange folks, then toss them all into a small town not far from Atlanta in early 1960's about-to-be-integrated Georgia, and you've got an interesting brew. Even better, add a spicy ingredient, such as an outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is, yellow-green eyed redhead named Nora, and you've got a hot new book from Anne Rivers Siddons. When cousin Nora rides into town in her 1955 pink Thunderbird, she cuts through both the melancholy and prejudice of smalltown Southern life, touching everybody in town in some way, especially her young tomboy cousin, Peyton McKenzie. But, in spite of her wild and wonderful powers, Nora brings with her a volatile secret, one that could destroy all that she's accomplished, and all she may want. "Nora, Nora" is a character-driven coming-of-age tale that satisfies.
Rating:
Summary: A real treat!
Review: I love Anne Rivers Siddons, and I loved this book. I think she captures the time and the place so well. I remember what it was like in the '60's, and reading this book brought it all back to me. The contrast between young Peyton and her wild cousing Nora was so believable. I don't know how Siddons does it, but I'm glad she does! This is a real summer treat.
Rating:
Summary: Vintage Siddons
Review: In 1961 Lytton, Georgia seventh grader Peyton McKenzie lives with her widower father Frazier. At night Peyton watches old home movies of her family by herself. The filming stopped when her mother died so she never appears in any of them.Peyton's second cousin, free spirited Nora Findlay, arrives and shakes up the household and the townsfolk with her ideas on racial equality and her open lifestyle. Nora begins to teach an English class of mixed races while tutoring. However, Nora has secrets of her own and though she loves her two relatives, has never been able to stay in one place very long. When will she find the pressure of Peyton and Frazier to be too much? NORA, NORA is an excellent character-driven historical fiction novel that centers on life in a small Georgia town at the beginning of the civil rights movement. The story line is interesting, but lacks action. Instead the interrelationship between the characters and the motives that drive their actions make for an entertaining novel that readers will enjoy. Nora is warm and humorous as she stirs up the townsfolk to either back her antics or loathe her for representing the end of a lifestyle. Peyton is a great cast member who believes that she murdered her mother in childbirth. Frazier regains his lust for life. The secondary players add depth to the atmosphere as well as a better understanding of the three lead charcaters. Anne Rivers Siddons brings a bygone era alive with her wonderful period piece. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Eccentric Lives in the1960s: A Small Town in Georgia
Review: Anne River Siddons paints a wonderful portrait of a young girl growing up and coming of age into adulthood in a small town in Georgia during a time of innocence. After her eccentric cousin Nora comes to visit Peyton McKenzie, her life is turned topsy turvy and so are the lives of several other residents of the town. Peyton is on the verge of becoming a teenager, she never met anyone like Nora, who is independent and does not hesitate to challenge conventional thinking and the local establishment. Peyton harbors guilt for having killed her mother during childbirth, her mom died after she was born. Peyton belongs to an exclusive club, "The Loser's Club" ,where she and a few select friends share their 'secrets'. Peyton was raised by a single parent her father, who loves her but is somewhat remote. He has a housekeeper who also served as Peyton's nanny. Her highly particular Aunt Augusta (father's sister) took a benign interest in trying to feminize Peyton who resists these changes .... Peyton learns Nora is her mother's cousin's daughter and that a dispute between between the cousins, her mother and Nora's mother, occured sometime when Lila Lee (Peyton's mom) married her dad. Ms Siddons weaves numerous anecdotal events from the lives of her characters throughout the story ... many are amusing and charming which makes reading the book a delightful experience. Some mysterous events from the past eventually are revealed which shed light on the relationship between Peyton's and Nora's mother. Nora has some secrets of her own ... she lived a highly unusual independent life in her young adulthood. She is ahead of her time, the 1960s, in terms of civil rights, free thinking, and expresssion of personal freedom ... which she exerts. Her expressions of independence eventually land Nora into problems ... first with higher ups in the small town ... next with a past resident who made it to Hollywood and the big screen ... and eventually with Peyton's father who feels Nora is having a bad influence over Peyton.
The development of plot and characters is outstanding in this novel. The story is woven with finely honed skill. It unwinds to reveal how past secrets which were so safely guarded affect people's lives even today... Peyton learns how the lives of those loves are very complicated when the emotions and the heart are opened up. This is a highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
|
