White Oleander

Well, what was I supposed to rate it? I did work awfully hard on W.O.... still like it. Sad to think Oprah's book club is all over, it was quite an experience. {n.b.--Oprah Book Club 2.0 is alive and well!]......more

If nothing else, read this book for the language. White Oleander reads like a poem. It's so beautifully crafted.......more

Dark, depressing, disturbing, and so beautiful! When the author described the August summer heat I felt it, like hot breath on my neck. I fell in love with Ingrid and her beauty and ideas of the world. Then I became Astrid, and I felt how much she loved her and how bad it hurt to also hate her, but......more

Magnificent. Yes. Yes, I am about to pull a basic reader b move by starting off a book review with self-centered commentary on the movie version, but what can I say? I'm a basic b. But anyway. I saw this movie when it came out it 2002. And I loved it. I was 19 or 20 years old at the time and I just a......more

This is Astrid’s story. We meet her first when she is twelve and in Ingrid’s (her mother) care. Ingrid is a woman of such rare, unearthly beauty as to be most likely found in dreams. Fitch describes her through Astrid’s eyes, gradually, poetically, using very sparse language, as the story unfolds, wit......more