gee, matt, how fast do you read?! Seems like you read a book a day!

posted by hansel714 at 2:01 am (EST) on Sep 12, 2008

Ha, I found you through your review of Graham Greene's A Burnt-out Case which I've just started now. Lots of surprises so far since, because of Green's reputation, I was expecting some especially thrilling espionage and what not, and ended up with an emotionally stunted church architect in a leproserie. What on earth...? I thought to myself. But I am enjoying it so here's to surprises.

Imani

posted by Bahiyya at 2:20 pm (EST) on Jan 6, 2008

I like your comment but at the end you stated that " No, you don't think that any one family is like that" and you couldn't be further from the truth. I babysit for a family like that and it is a living nightmare. In fact I picked up this book on their microwave which I think the other nanny left on the microwave either for me or hoping that the family might pick up and read, not that they would ever have time. Out of 40 some families I have babysat for, this is the 2nd most horrible family ever and it is mostly the parents of THIS family whereas it was the kids of the first family. I have already quit for this family twice and they keep calling me back because their other nannies keep quitting as well. A forty year old woman that had 4 children of her own and two foster children consistently couldn't handle it and needed me to replace her immediately. I talked with her and she agreed with me about how anal the family was about everything and how the mother was going away for a week and didn't even kiss her kids goodbye but just left them screaming. Anyway, the father got home and said he guessed she couldn't handle the stress of two kids.... and I said, " She has four kids of her own and two foster kids!I was supposed to go out of town this week and really looking forward to it and they guilted me into coming this Friday and I am dreading it and regretting my inability to say no. I only got burnt out from dealing with them in the first place. The only comfort I have is that the mom, (if you can call her that) will not be home this week to run down stairs and tell me every little thing I did wrong this week. Last week the baby was sick and didn't go to bed until 7:20 in the morning and instead of letting her sleep they still had me wake her up at 8:30 in the morning so I could deal with incessant screaming, the entire day so they wouldn't have to deal with her that night. Depriving a sick child of sleep is sick in itself. By the end of the day the babies temperature was 102.8 from all the crying she had done. I had a headache but not only did I get in trouble for giving the child a second dose of infant tylonel later in the day, the parents hide the adult and children's medicines because, even after I have been there for months now, they still don't trust me. It was absolutely miserable and the children are not allowed to watch a single second of television the entire 10-12 hours I am there, not even to go with a project, like my under the sea theme day! So, these families really do exist!

posted by Weecherub310 at 9:44 pm (EST) on May 29, 2007

I just read your review of 'If On A Winter's Night A Traveller'. Great review! I will be getting a RSS feed of your reviews from now on, you are obviously very talented. Please keep up the good work!

posted by Megami at 3:42 am (EST) on Aug 23, 2006

I've just read a review on The Tipping Point by you, it's the first one, by you, I've read. Thank you. Very informative. I'll look forward to finding others by you.
ccKelly

posted by cckelly at 8:06 pm (EST) on May 9, 2006

I thoroughly enjoy your reviews, though I don't always agree with you. Thanks for the mental workout.

trischa

posted by dreamingtereza at 2:48 pm (EST) on Apr 18, 2006