Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Real Ellis, and A Place to Belong

I'm not a huge fan of Bret Easton Ellis, but I know plenty of people who are. I read my first Ellis book last year. It was also the first Ellis book ever written, which I found out in this article that he wrote when he was 21. Because of this discovery I feel I owe him another chance. I plan to pick up one of his other books sometime this year, although I'm fairly certain he's just not my type of author. However, his life is really interesting and I suggest reading this great article about him in the Los Angeles Times.

Also, I just read about A Place to Belong, a memoir type book about a boy who grew up too quickly and began a life on the road at age 14. It seems as though this is author Paul Miller's first book, but it has gotten great reviews. It sounds like an interesting book that I'll definitely be picking up soon. If you'd like to read a review of it go here.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I read the LA Times article on Bret Easton Ellis you linked to and realized that I have read his novel "American Psycho." It was a pretty good novel - well written, but also extremely disturbing as well because the main character was a sociopath who had a habit of murdering strange women (prositutes) out of some sort of twisted sense of moral superiority.
There was a Hollywood movie made based on the novel with Christian Bale as the main character, but I didn't feel that the movie did the novel justice. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Ellis didn't write the screenplay and the two female screenwriters they got to write it, Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner, found it impossible to relate to the male character.

Becca said...

Chason: I've never read American Psycho for precisely that reason. I'm not a big fan of scary/horror/sociopath/murder type things. Even his book "Less Than Zero" that I read was really creepy and twisted.

Anonymous said...

I've read the book A Place to Belong, and Becca you are exactly right about Peter Miller.
I really loved this book. I'm not much into reading, but when it came to this book, I was all over it.
In the book, you clearly see he had to grow up quick (reminds me of me) and how his dad was quite mean and mother just obeyed what dad said (again reminds me of me)
I'm just jealous he found the words to write a book like this as this is exactly how I feel. One of the many things I took away from this book is I've learned to forgive, no matter how much I hate.
If a book can teach you something, then you've read a real good one I think.
I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Becca said...

Chrissy: Thanks for the comment. I'm really looking forward to this book and it's nice to hear good things about it from other people too. I'll be sure to post my review afterward so you can see what I thought :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big reader of books. But my brother said I had to read A Place to Belong by Paul Miller. To please him, and get him off my back, I read it. WOW! I could not put the book down. I read it in 2 days. What a great story and well, well written. I'm going to recommend this to everyone I meet. Great work Paul Miller I salute you.

A reader in Dallas, Texas.
April 3, 2008