Nora Ephron's I Remember Nothing-
355401
I bought two of these books for gifts....after reading it and knowing friends my age (50+) would enjoy and appreciate thoroughly.  It's light and short so would be enjoyable for anyone (over 40).
1854821
I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and couldn't remember anything about it until I opened it again and read a bit.  So, memorable enough to finish but not enough to recall or to buy sequels.
422669
Thanks to Stieg Larssons Lisbeth Salander, damaged female characters are taking over the world of literature. The latest to arrive on the scene is Nora Watts, and she is damaged in every sense of the word.

Nora grew up in a dysfunctional family. Following her fathers suicide, she and her younger sister were initially placed with their aunt, but then moved in and out of foster care. In her late teens, Nora joined the army but soon quit and found herself homeless. She tried to make a living by singing, but after one of her gigs, she was brutally raped and almost killed. After six months of being in a coma, she woke up to find out she was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby girl but immediately gave her up for adoption.

Although she hasn't gotten her life fully back on track, when THE LOST ONES opens, Nora is an assistant to a journalist and his private investigator partner, and lives in the basement of the same building where she works. Her life is about to change one more time when the adoptive parents of her now-15-year-old daughter, Bonnie, call her to report that Bonnie is missing. Police decide not to investigate the case due to the teens history of running away. Nora should not care about the girl she gave up for adoption, but she does because she wants Bonnie to have a better life than shes had. So Nora starts investigating, and what she discovers is pretty shocking.

The novel is told from Noras point of view, so readers gain full insight into her mindset and her struggles. She is damaged beyond repair, but in her life she still has people who care for her and want to help her in her crazy pursuit of the truth. Debut novelist Sheena Kamal touches upon everything that bothers Nora: being the birth parent of an adopted child, being the survivor of rape and having PTSD, being an alcoholic, being a foster child, and trying to fit into the world. Kamal also tackles some important issues in contemporary Canada (the books setting), such as race, immigration, terrorism, ecology and human greed. Furthermore, she examines the state of investigative journalism in the age of the internet and raises the question of how far a parent would and should go to save his or her child.

THE LOST ONES is a magnificent character-driven novel that has the potential to be the start of a series, because so many facets of Noras past remain open and yearn to be resolved. Heres hoping that will be the case! I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy a good thriller with lots of twists and turns, and, of course, damaged characters.

Reviewed by Dunja Bonacci Skenderovic
4320379
It is a good book but and if you have never read a memory book I recommend it. I have read several memory books and although I have my favorite I have enjoyed them all and learned something new in each.
921158
I really need to review because I don't remember.  I read so many books that I can't keep them straight without refreshing my memory.
3505153
unfortunately, nora ephron died or this would have been the perfect film for her to direct. i lead with this because i think this would make a terrific movie,  there is the problem of showing text messaging in a non boring way but i am sure it can be done.  it sure ws done well on the page here for that is how these two meet. poppy loses both her engagement ring and her phone on the night of her hen party.  she finds a mobile phone in a trash can and it belongs to sam, a business exec whose PA just quit by throwing the phone there, with that we are offmand running, the fiancee and his family are also great pleasures in this book as they are intellectual snobs.  there is a scrabble game with the in-laws which shoukd become scrabble lore with those of us who play it a lot.

the great thing about this author is this is her chick lit pseudonym.  if you tire of her chick lit and want her more serious work, it is published under her real name, madeline wickham,  she truly offers something for all women readers.

Visit my blog with link given on my profile page here or use this phonetically given URL (livingasseniors dot blogspot dot com). Friday's entry will always be weekend entertainment recs from my 5 star Amazon reviews in film, tv, books and music. These are very heavy on buried treasures and hidden gems. My blogspot is published on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
3241870
I'm not sure how I found out about this book - I think I was reading some article that ran off a list of dystopian tales and compared Harpman's book with Atwood's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Handmaid-s-Tale-Everyman-s-Library/dp/0307264602/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library)</a>. And since I loved The Handmaid's Tale and how much it scared me - I thought, HeckYeah! Count me in - [sigh] - I'm not sure how they came about tying these two books together because other than the subject matter of women losing freedoms and identity in a totalitarian-type of society - uh - that's it, really.
So, let's start fresh. I Who Have Never Known Men is the story about a nameless woman referred to as The Child, who was raised from toddler-hood with a group of women (40 in total) who are kept in a cage in an underground bunker. Their environment is totally artificial and completely controlled. The guards (always in threes and are male) never speak but use their whips with startling accuracy. The lights dim for "night" and brighten for "day". The women have no privacy and are not even allowed to touch each other.
We meet the group through the Child's narrative about 12-15 years into their incarceration. The group is made up of women from all walks of life - housewives, nurses, waitresses, grandmothers and at the time they were taken, a toddler who doesn't even know her name. The memories of the women are hazy, they remember their former lives - although it is painful to think of them - but the actual catastrophe (as they call it) seems to involve a lot of fire, drugs and pain. Now they are here with no future, no answers to their questions, nothing. Everything that is essential to us and defines us as human is taken away - or is it? We feel the need to belong, to love and to have hope and meaning. But Harpman plays with this by inserting a character into the middle of them who has no memory of the past life.
She only knows this life so her context is completely different - she's not depressed, not even lost. In fact, she's in control of herself. She takes an interest in the guards and begins to notice patterns, then using her own heartbeat as a measuring tool, begins to note the passage of time - when the lights dim, when the lights brighten, when the food is brought, when the guards change shift. She shares this information with the others and soon the women have something new - a tiny amount of power. A secret.
But then an alarm sounds just as a guard was unlocking the pass-thru hatch and suddenly, the guards are gone - leaving the keys still in the door. Soon the girl has the door to the cage open and the women tentatively take steps to freedom.
But have they? What kind of world do they emerge into - is it in fact, just another type of prison? What kind of future do they have? Are there answers for them outside or just more questions and - does it really matter in the end?
This book is WILD! I cannot think of a more discussable book - Holy cow - if you are in a book group? Watch out, it'll be the longest discussion ever. Can you imagine what the Stoics would say about this? Every incident in this relatively short novel is open for a significant discussion on what makes us...us
714567
Set on the French West Indian island of Guadeloupe, The Bridge of Beyond traces a century of history of the Lougandor women beginning after the end of slavery. Five generations are followed, but the main story revolves around Toussine, the woman known as "Queen Without a Name," and her granddaughter, Telumee. The surprise in the book is that the reader can end up feeling such empathy with characters not fully developed in the traditional literary sense. Schwarz-Bart's women are both long-lived and ephemeral like the fairies and witches of the fairy-tale realm. Her entire novel has an otherworldly feel to it. It is a kind of magical tribute to women, self-reliance, living, and the power of self, and also addresses the ever-present West Indian literary theme of transcendence. One of the nicest pleasures of reading the book is the total envelopment one feels with nature. Schwarz-Bart's imagery is filled with references to the sun, moon, stars, flowers, trees, rivers, waves, and the sea. The imagery is repetitious until it becomes almost a written chant in which the story lives. A truly magical literary experience with a feminist foundation.
1804746
This is one of those books that you open just to glance at the first page and see whether you will like it only to discover yourself five hours later still glued to the book, desperate to find out what happens next. Writing a novel whose main character and narrator suffers from amnesia and doesn't remember most of her life when she wakes up in the morning carries a risk of creating a book that is repetitive. S. J. Watson, however, made Before I Go to Sleep so fascinating, full of surprises, mysteries and revelations that there isn't a single boring page in the entire novel.

Christine, the main character of Before I Go to Sleep, wakes up one morning only to realize that she recognizes neither the man who sleeps next to her nor the house she is in. Even her body is alien to her because her most recent memory is that of being a twenty-year-old student and now she is a woman in her forties. Christine discovers that she lost her memory many years ago and now has to find out who she is anew every single morning of her life. When she finds a diary she has been keeping to remind herself of what she has been doing every day, Christine begins a complex and painful journey to self-discovery.

Before I Go to Sleep is not only a fascinating suspense thriller. It also makes you think about what constitutes the nature of human identity. What makes our personalities? What are we without our memories? How does one go about reconstructing a life that has been shattered by a horrible tragedy that has robbed you of everything you cherished and lived for?

The novel is so professionally structured and so meticulously plotted that I was really surprised to find out that Before I Go to Sleep is S.J. Watson's debut novel. I am extremely glad that I discovered this promising new writer through the Amazon Vine program and will now be eagerly awaiting new books from him. If you like psychological suspense novels, make sure you get this book. It is masterfully written and very believable. I visited the author's website and learned that movie rights to the book have been acquired and the filming will start this year. That is one movie I will definitely be watching.
3628105
very forgettable book.  I read it a few months ago and can't remember anything about it other than what I knew before I read it.
2998087
I thought the book was pretty good. I am 78 years old and can never remember what I have read, just if I liked it or not and I did like it.
4083544
I bought this book to read on a transatlantic flight and found it so engrossing I wanted the flight to take longer.  This is the first time I read any of the "Memory Man" series and though I didn't have the backstory of the characters the story stood alone as plot unfolded. I must go back and read the first two books in the series.  I'm also hoping there will be at least one more book in the series to bring closure to Amos' grief.
3529960
I know Nora Ephron's writing well, I've been a fan for decades. She and I have grown up together, cried together, gotten divorced and remarried together and laughed together. Finding even a kernel of new writing from her is like bumping into an old friend. When I buy a book by Ms. Ephron I know what I'm getting, it's exactly what I what I'm looking for, and I love the way she says whats on her mind.  I've found that she and I are similar in many ways and I'm sure that the rest of her book buying public feels the same. I want to listen to my dear old friend before I fall asleep some nights and sometimes we have a chat in the afternoon or over lunch (I imagine).  The mere passage of time produces life lessons. I'm always happy to hear about the stories that have carried us from our past to our present  Mostly that stuff is the boring crap that bogs down most writers... but that's the best part of Nora Ephron's writing...... the telling of the story. That's what makes her great and her books worth waiting for. I get to swap stories with my dear old (imaginary) best friend.
I loved it. And want more.
1373978
was ok to read...
does anyone know if the song in the beginning and end of the book lyricyllreally exists? lyrics: remember oh remember back when we were young so young ... never thought i'd lose you and i never thought i'd find you here never thought that everything we'd lost could feel so near...i've got so far i've got so far left to travel...
couldnt find it anywhere a song containing these lyrics, maybe someone knows it??
4097498
This book was not memorable enough for me to tell you any details. I read it and forgot it!
4679368
I always enjoyed Nora Ephron's novels. At the library, the title hit home.  I'm 73, the Search Age:searching for keys, the car, purse etc. Sometimes I think I should put a name tag on myself so that I'll recognize the mirror's reflection. When I read that Nora was 68, I knew I found a soulmate. Being a writer myself, writing non-fiction (my family wishes I would write fiction or at least stick with a nom de plume)I study styles.  Nora's style is unique in this memoir. Each chapter is a delight. Yet it illicits empathy. My philosophy is always to be upbeat since I have to live with myself (no escape) and who wants to live with a miserable person? Nora certainly finds herself compatible and she willingly shares this wisdom with others who have left the joys of youth behind and collided with the difficulties of aging.

Jocelyn Krieger
215071
Excellent book! I got the book and the audio. I started to read the book and it seemed a little slow in capturing my interest... but I was going to read it any way. Then I had to travel so I took the audio... And let me tell you... it was wondrful. You just have to hear her talking. You have to hear her as she expresses herself on each of the issues she talks about. These are issues I and perhaps other women have forgotten about in years but today laugh or cry about.  This book has a mixture of humor, aging, comedy; women's health blended in a memoir about Nora Ephron. You can read the book but you don't really know where she would place the pitch, pace and power of her words until you can hear her. Its like having her talk to you herself. Both book and audio are great. I recommend it... especially if you were born from 1950 on and if you have had a chance to either live in New York or just visit it from time to time... you will enjoy it!