Shields, Carol Books

The Stone Diaries: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 171 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Both wonderful and boring at the same time 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I finished the book, even though the story line was, at best, boring. There was nothing to grab your attention, no good beginning, climax, ending. However, this author has a way with words that kept me reading...it wasn't the story that kept my interest, it was her words. I loved the way she is able to put words together...poignant, tender, illuminating. Words are such amazing things, and she does an absolutely incredible job with putting words together.

Editorial Review:

In celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of its original publication, Carol Shields’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel is now available in a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

ONE OF THE MOST successful and acclaimed novels of our time, this fictionalized autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett is a subtle but affecting portrait of an everywoman reflecting on an unconventional life. What transforms this seemingly ordinary tale is the richness of Daisy’s vividly described inner life—from her earliest memories of her adoptive mother to her awareness of impending death.

Jane Austen

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A very pleasant read 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Carol Shields has an easy writing style and obviously adores her subject, making this biography a very pleasant read. We get a brief overview of her life, education and living conditions. I was a little disappointed that there was not more (more about her writing habit and more about her relationships with friends and family) - and was a little irritated by the many assumptions made ("she must have felt ..."). Doing a little research later I discovered that there is in fact very little information about Jane Austen.

Editorial Review:

With the same sensitivity and artfulness that are the trademarks of her award-winning novels, Carol Shields explores the life of a writer whose own novels have engaged and delighted readers for the past two hundred years. In Jane Austen, Shields follows this superb and beloved novelist from her early family life in Steventown to her later years in Bath, her broken engagement, and her intense relationship with her sister Cassandra. She reveals both the very private woman and the acclaimed author behind the enduring classics Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. With its fascinating insights into the writing process from an award– winning novelist, Carol Shields’s magnificent biography of Jane Austen is also a compelling meditation on how great fiction is created.

Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp

Carol Diggory Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Had to have our own 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

We first found this book at the library and found ourselves checking it out time and time again. My daughter is two and a half, though she first fell in love with this book right around the time she turned two. After months of checking it out, I decided it was time to buy our own copy.

It's full of clever rhymes and ideas about dinosaurs and lots of dinosaur identification in a fun way. The pictures are great and the words are even better. Boys and girls alike would enjoy this. My daughter knows all the words to it now, but I still enjoy reading it to her frequently.

Great fun to read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A good picture book to read to a 9-month old who doesn't want to sit still is hard to find, but this book is fantastic. The book just reads so fluently like you can't keep up with turning the pages!! Both the words and the pictures are so lively, bright and fun ... it totally absorbs you into the dinosaur stomp:-)

Editorial Review:

In this dinosaur picture book, the author reveals what the dinosaurs did when they wanted to let off some steam - they rocked and rolled, twirled and tromped, at the biggest, loudest, wildest party ever. Join Diplodocus, Iguanodon, Duckbill and Tyrannosaurus.

Unless: A Novel (P.S.)

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Never really captured me 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Unless was the first book I read on my Kindle, so maybe that has influenced my feelings about it. I'm not sure. I love the Kindle, but was possibly getting used to reading without the actual feel of a book. Anyway, as others have mentioned, Unless is th story of Reta Winters. her college-aged daughter who has always been a well-adjusted kid, suddenly drops out of school to spend her days begging on a Toronto street corner with a sign around her neck that reads "Goodness." Reta is a succesful author and translator with 2 other daughters and a husband who is a doctor and trilobite-ophile (is that a word?)

Shields writes well enough, but I felt that there was so much more that could be mined from this story. I understand that the idea was to show the effect of her daughters situation on Reta, it just wasn't compelling enough for me to get that interested. Her daughter is on a street corner, but here's Reta having tea with her friends. And here's Reta trying to write the sequel to her novel. And here's Reta meeting with her new editor. It seemed odd to me that her reaction to her daughters situation was not more deeply felt.

This book wouldn't necessarily stop me from checking out some of Shields' other work, but I was left feeling like something had been missed when I was done reading Unless.

Editorial Review:

Forty-four-year-old Reta Winters, wife, mother, writer, and translator, is living a happy life until one of her three daughters drops out of university to sit on a downtown street corner silent and cross-legged with a begging bowl in her lap and a placard round her neck that says "Goodness."

The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Carol Shields, Unless is a candid and deeply moving novel from one of the twentieth century's most accomplished and beloved authors.

The Bugliest Bug

Carol Diggory Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very fun. My 3 year old son loves it. 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I stumbled upon this book while doing some lunchtime shopping in a kids book store in Portsmouth, NH. The owner highly recommended it. I brought it back to my office and started to read through it. My chuckling outloud caused my colleagues around me to look at me funny :)

The story of an introverted bug turned hero flows from page to page with a cadence that keeps the attention of both child and parent. There are amusing quips that make parents grin and their kids smile while wondering what's so funny ("the mantysis prayed" is a simple but amusing phrase given the context). At the same time, there's plenty of humor and excitement that the child will understand and enjoy.

Beyond the written word, the illustrations are amazingly colorful and fun. The pages have a depth to them that need to be seen to understand.

My son loves all the bugs and asks questions about nearly every one. It has quickly become a bedtime staple. Highly recommend. A welcome diversion from Bob the Builder and Arthur!

Editorial Review:

"A rollicking, tongue-in-cheek entree to the entomological world." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

In this rousing read-aloud from the creators of SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE DINOSAUR STOMP, all of insect land is abuzz with news of a big contest! The demure Damselfly Dilly — "neither clever nor frilly" — has no thoughts of winning, but she's curious to see who will. Lively verse mixes fun, fancy, and fascinating fact, while exuberant artwork virtually flies off the page.

Food Fight!

Carol Diggory Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book came in excellent condition, as though I bought it right from the store. I am truly impressed.

Daughter's fav book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My little 2 year old heard this story for the first time at school. She kept saying the words that she had memorized and we had to go buy it for home. Since we purchased it three months ago, we read it almost every night (sometimes several times a day). The kids go wild for this story and you will too!

Just as much fun for parents! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I first took this book to my 3-year-old son's preschool class to read to all the little kiddos when they were studying food groups. Now, my 3-year-old son loves this book because of the personalities of the various foods and the rhythm of the storytelling. He can recite it almost from memory. He loves it so much that lines from the book sometimes become punch lines in our day-to-day conversation. "Hey, wait for me, the ketchup cried!" he will shout and giggle as he's trying to catch up while walking. As the parent, I love the plays on words--it's so creative and captures my interest, as well. This book and "Pigeon Finds a Hotdog" are my son's all-time favorite books.

Editorial Review:

Late one night, the salad greens declare "Lettuce have a party!" and food emerges from cabinets and cupboards to join in, until the tuna fish band tells garlic it stinks and things start to go bad.

Unless: A Novel

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 109 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Wise and Witty -- A Nuanced Literary Treat 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Carol Shields' last novel, "Unless," is a refreshing intellectual and literary treat. I enjoyed this novel so much I read it twice in quick succession. The novel is a fitting capstone to an illustrious literary career.

There are three stories intertwined in this short novel. First, there is the story of Reta Winters, the mother, a woman whose 18-year-old daughter has inexplicably and suddenly dropped out of life to sit mute on a Toronto street corner panhandling with a sign around her neck reading, "GOODNESS." Second, it is the story of Reta Winters, the author, a woman in the process of writing a comic novel called "My Thyme is Up" and also assisting her feminist mentor, Danielle Westerman, translate her childhood memoirs. Finally, it is the story of Reta Winters, the feminist, a woman quietly raging against the marginalization of women in all walks of life, but especially in the world of literary publishing.

Much of the novel focuses on the nature of goodness. Reta wonders if her daughter's homelessness is some kind of protest against female powerlessness. Perhaps her daughter has suddenly become aware that she must settle for goodness, since greatness still appears to be a realm reserved for men only.

Reta is a 44-year old Canadian writer and translator living in rural Orangetown, Ontario. Reta is a writer in the process of creating a novel...so there is this fascinating infinite digression about a woman writer writing a novel about another woman writer writing a novel. Winters has much to say about the process of writing that is both humorous and insightful, but mostly she rants brilliantly about the marginalization of woman authors.

Reta is a charming, social, busy woman with many friends and responsibilities. She is an intellectual, a feminist, and a social activist. She and her common-law husband, Tom, have three daughters. Until her eldest daughter suddenly takes up living as a homeless person on the streets of Toronto, Reta has been living a life of extraordinary familial happiness. As the book opens, Reta's world is shattered by the loss of her daughter to the streets of Toronto. Her heart is broken--she is grieving, and desperate to understand her daughter's behavior. The novel takes place over the course of a year as Reta copes with her loss and ultimately comes to understand the motivation behind her daughter's actions.

The novel is chock full of feminist rage and humor. The homeless daughter plot holds the piece together, but it is insignificant against the weight of the whole. In my estimation, the whole hangs together mainly through the irresistible wellspring of interior musings from Reta's mind. What keeps you reading is finding out as much as you can about this very real, and most intriguing protagonist.

"Unless" is overflowing with life--a work brimming with ambiguity and nuance. This book is so alive, I swear...one has just to pick it up to feel the heartbeat within.

Editorial Review:

Reta Winters, 44-year-old successful author of lightsummertime fiction, has always considered herself happy, even blessed. That is, until her oldest daughter Norah mysteriously drops out of college to become a panhandler on a Toronto street corner -- silent, with a sign around her neck bearing the word "Goodness".

Happenstance: Two Novels in One About a Marriage in Transition

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Should be a classic in the "relationship novel" genre 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I'm surprised at the way the Kirkus review above mischaracterizes this wonderful novel. I read the husband's half of the story first, since Shields wrote that one first. The author does a masterful job of not repeating herself at all, amazing considering she's covering the same basic period of time as experienced by two halves of a single marriage (though the wife is away for several days at a conference -- an event that is a delight to read about if you've ever been to a conference yourself). Shields handles the everyday, tiny moments of a family's life with such searing poignancy that I had to stop reading every so often and reflect -- and that is, to me, the sign of a very good piece of literature. I love the way she uses the wife's quilting to explore the creative process (and her writer's block segment, when the husband fiddles away his 'free' day, is priceless and oh-so-true). The marriage feels real, the feelings of the mother for her teen children are absolutely genuine in their crushing intensity and occasional ambivalence, and the resolution of the book is the kind I like best: not neat, not melodramatic, not resolved once and for all, yet leaving you with a sense that you've shared a life and gained something permanent from the experience. Subtle, funny, and though it was first published in the early 80s, this unusual double novel is universal in its themes.

Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., author of WRITING IN FLOW

Larry's Party

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The San Diego Tribune called The Stone Diaries a "universal study of what makes women tick." With Larry's Party Carol Shields has done the same for men. Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony, and tenderness. Larry's Party gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997, that seamlessly flash backward and forward. We follow this young floral designer through two marriages and divorces, and his interactions with his parents, friends, and a son. Throughout, we witness his deepening passion for garden mazes--so like life, with their teasing treachery and promise of reward. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties, and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search for self. Larry's odyssey mirrors the male condition at the end of our century with targeted wit, unerring poignancy, and faultless wisdom.

Lunch Money And Other Poems About School (Picture Puffin)

Carol Shields

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great rhyming book for kids 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great rhyming book for students. It seems really relateable for children because of the content that it is written about. I was able to relate to it by remembering my school days and I found the poems to be somewhat funny.

Highly recommended 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

My first-grader begged us for this book after having read it repeatedly at school. It's still one of her very favorites. The poems are silly and witty and fun to read aloud, and the illustrations are funny as well. Books like this really help young children develop a love for words and for reading.

Editorial Review:

Here are twenty-four hilarious poems about school, where all kinds of unexpected things happen. From an unusual pledge of allegiance and jungle gym gossip to recess rules and the rules of addition, Carol Diggory Shields captures the experiences of schoolgoers with wit and verve. This rollicking collection is sure to keep readers laughing until summer vacation. A frisky collection....Kids will greet [the poems] with enthusiasm. --School Library Journal Carol Diggory Shields and Paul Meisel also collaborated on I Am Really a Princess (Dutton and Puffin) and I Wish My Brother Was a Dog (Dutton). Carol Diggory Shields lives in Salinas, California. Paul Meisel lives in Newtown, Connecticut.