Genealogy Books - Angela's Ashes

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Angela's Ashes Review
Comment: I though Angela's Ashes was a good memoir of a family during World War II. My favorite character
was Frank because it was fun to see him grow up, and see how he changed over the course of this
book. I thought that Angela did as much as she could to try and get her family through World War
II, and I thought she did a good job, considering the help she was receiving. My least favorite
character was Malachy. Malachy was always drunk, and he would always waste away the family's money.
I felt that he only thought about himself. Unfortunately, most people who are addicted to drugs
only think out for themselves, because all they are thinking of is getting drugs for them. I would
definitely recommend this book, and give it four stars. I would recommend Angela's Ashes to high
school students because it does cover a serious issue and the humor might not be appropriate for
younger students. Overall I think the book is a winner!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Irish Kiss The Blarney Stone for good reason!! Great Story!!!
Comment: A great read of mind candy and truth. Mr McCourt has great courage in telling all of the embarasing
and private moments of his adolescence. The same types of things that happened to many of us but
we'll never disclose.
READ THIS BOOK. I could not put it down and read it in one evening and
then went out and bought the 2 sequals Tis and Teacher Man and could not put them down either.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Hilariously Depressing ... Or, Morosely Funny
Comment: For some reason, and I don't know why, I had it in my head that Angela's Ashes was about Frank
McCourt and his brothers returning to Ireland as adults and fumbling about as they tried to decide
how to dispose of their cremated mother's ashes.

It's not.

Angela's Ashes
is actually a memoir essentially detailing Frank McCourt's life from the age of three through
nineteen.

Born into a life of poverty, McCourt's immigrant parents decide to return
to Ireland. Unfortunately, conditions are actually worse for them in Ireland. Add to the equation
that McCourt's father is an alcoholic who thinks nothing of drinking away what little money they
come across while his family starves ... well, the book gets more than a little depressing. />
And that's the real magic of McCourt's writing. For as awful as things are (and they get
pretty awful), McCourt's wicked sense of humor has you laughing at things that shouldn't be the
least bit funny. I actually felt guilty at times as I couldn't help but chuckle at McCourt's
description or use of dialogue.

Make no mistake, however, like in his memoir Teacher
Man, McCourt does not try to deceive us into thinking he's the hero of the story. He's tough on
everyone, but he's toughest on himself. He reports to us misdeeds and lewd thoughts that most of us
would never dream of sharing, and that sort of honesty is quite refreshing.

Though
funny, the book was also so disturbing (especially McCourt's father) that I really wanted to get
through it as fast as I could. I absolutely appreciate both McCourt's humor and charismatic
writing, but I won't lie to you and say this was one of my favorite reads. But, life is hard and
disturbing for many people, and my perspective of the world improved thanks to the Pulitzer Prize
winning Angela's Ashes.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good, not great
Comment: Angela's Ashes is a heartbreaking story about growing up desperately poor. It is a story about the
underside of Irish Catholicism. It is a story of growing up in a totally dysfunctional family. It
is an easy read and captures the reader.

I question the validity of this as a memoir.
It seems too harsh and too detailed on early life experiences. How much of this memoir consist of
family stories that have been filtered by numerous retellings? How much of is diatribe against the
English and organized religion? We will never know, but his seems to be the case.

The
book is a good and worthwhile read, but I really did not feel that it is too slanted by political
correctness.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Not as amazing as made out to be.
Comment: I was required to read this book for a school projet, and I took my teachers advice and came to the
book with an open mind and high expectations based upon his praise. The first chapters are
interesting and fun, as you feel for the character and his life struggles. But as time trudges on, I
began to realise that this book was written by either a mentally challanged person or someone who is
just plain dumb. While the lack of conventional grammar and punctuation is sometimes regarded as
'genious' I found it annoying and childish. I heard in his other book he became an English teacher?
I hope not. That's embarrasing to be an English teacher and write like that.
Call me what you
will for insulting one of the 'best written books of our century', as my English professor called
it, but I found it childish, immature, and highly unbelievable from the point of a allegeded memior.

Back to Angela's Ashes

Showing page 2 of 364
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |
46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 |
61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 |
76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 |
91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 |
106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 |
121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 |
136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 |
151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 | 164 | 165 |
166 | 167 | 168 | 169 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 | 174 | 175 | 176 | 177 | 178 | 179 | 180 |
181 | 182 | 183 | 184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | 193 | 194 | 195 |
196 | 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | 201 | 202 | 203 | 204 | 205 | 206 | 207 | 208 | 209 | 210 |
211 | 212 | 213 | 214 | 215 | 216 | 217 | 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | 223 | 224 | 225 |
226 | 227 | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | 233 | 234 | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | 239 | 240 |
241 | 242 | 243 | 244 | 245 | 246 | 247 | 248 | 249 | 250 | 251 | 252 | 253 | 254 | 255 |
256 | 257 | 258 | 259 | 260 | 261 | 262 | 263 | 264 | 265 | 266 | 267 | 268 | 269 | 270 |
271 | 272 | 273 | 274 | 275 | 276 | 277 | 278 | 279 | 280 | 281 | 282 | 283 | 284 | 285 |
286 | 287 | 288 | 289 | 290 | 291 | 292 | 293 | 294 | 295 | 296 | 297 | 298 | 299 | 300 |
301 | 302 | 303 | 304 | 305 | 306 | 307 | 308 | 309 | 310 | 311 | 312 | 313 | 314 | 315 |
316 | 317 | 318 | 319 | 320 | 321 | 322 | 323 | 324 | 325 | 326 | 327 | 328 | 329 | 330 |
331 | 332 | 333 | 334 | 335 | 336 | 337 | 338 | 339 | 340 | 341 | 342 | 343 | 344 | 345 |
346 | 347 | 348 | 349 | 350 | 351 | 352 | 353 | 354 | 355 | 356 | 357 | 358 | 359 | 360 |
361 | 362 | 363 | 364 |