Name All the Animals: A Memoir

I am a graduate student and have been in school for the past 20 years, but I am not a big reader. Yes, I read textbooks and all readings required by my professors, but I rarely take the time to sit down and read a book. I saw Name All the Animals at Barnes and Noble the other day and thought I'd read the first few chapters to get a feel for it. All of the books I've purchased over the past few years have ended up half-read because they didn't grab me. This book not only grabbed me but it also opened my eyes. I read it in one day! Do yourself a favor and read this fascinating and well-told life story.

As a childhood friend of the author and classmate in high school, I ran right out to buy her book because I thought it would be interesting to read about the author's childhood and events surrounding her brother's death as I remember it well. Well, not only was it interesting it was OUTSTANDING. I could not put this book down and read it in one day. Even if I had not known the author I would have have to say it was one of the best books I have read in a long time. Anyone who has grown up Catholic, lost a loved one or has children or even a family for that matter will not be able to put his book down without taking time to reflect on relationships, love and spirituality in their lives. It is a book that makes you think and that asks some big questions but leaves you to come up with answers. I would highly reccommend this for book club discussions.My only regret about readng this book is that it really leaves you wondering - How is the author doing today? Did she get help? How did her life turn out?I hope that we will have more to read in the future from Alison. Also - as an aside to a previous reviewer who also attended Mercy High School - I though it was in fact a VERY accurate portrayal of Mercy and the nuns did most certainly make us do push-ups and sit-ups there if we got in trouble- I did them!

This is a true story, which is why it's described as a memoir. But it could just as easily have been published as a novel. It has all the character development, suspense, narrative arc, and beautiful writing of the best literary fiction. So don't dismiss it if you're not a big memoir fan. It should appeal to fiction and nonfiction readers equally. But regardless of how it's categorized, I could NOT put this book down. I read it every second I could and couldn't bear to be away from it when I was at work. The grief made my heart break, but the love story, and Alison's success in figuring out who she is, just made my heart swell. It's such a gorgeous, moving portrait of a family, both in grief and in love. It's told through the 15-year-old eyes of the author, and she just GETS adolescence. I was sent spiralling back to my own memories of high school, and the unique, electric, unforgettable experience of first love. It's one of those unforgettable books that only come along every so often. I highly recommend it to readers everywhere.

I LOVED this book and can't wait until it is my turn to select the book for my book group to read. This will definitely be my choice -- there is so much to discuss in it. It is a book of despair and hope, family, friends and society's expectations, and above all, love and isolation. I found it very much more uplifting than The Lovely Bones, to which it will inevitably be compared.

Like an earlier reviewer, I too read this book in one sitting. Unlike that reviewer, I found the writing remarkable. Readers will want to keep picking it up, not so much because the book is "gripping", but because it is inviting - you will just want to spend more time with her. The book is a moving memoir that reads like a novel. Ms. Smith has seamlessly woven together pieces of her story in a manner reminiscent of a new friend describing her family to you over a period of time - memories that may seem disjointed and out of focus at first begin to take shape until, in the end, the reader realizes a relationship has been formed. Yes, religion is the backbone of this young girl's family but readers are not beaten over the head with it, it simply is. "Hot button" issues are treated with the subtlety of adolesence and thankfully, never labeled. They too are just part of growing up. I don't think this book was ever meant to address how to deal with the painful aftermath of the death of a sibling. Rather it is a tribute to childhood and growing up in spite of it all.Recommendation? Read it and decide for yourself!