This book was pretty good. It had a very interesting plot consisting of a 26 year old mother of a 13 year old son held in the early 1960's. There were a couple of sex scenes consisting of the son with his interest that I kind of thought were a little disturbing. However, I still think it was a good book. Besides that part!

I thought this book was well-written, but also felt that the treatment of underage pregnancy in this story is, well, completely unrealistic. It is written from the boy's perspective, and the reader gets a sense that he really doesn't see the situation as it really is, but at the same time, I felt that there should have been more obstacles and more reality about the consequences to make the story seem more realistic. I liked the character development in the story very much, and I did come away feeling something for each character.

ON THE BANAL SIDE OF RAUNCHY.

“Children laugh at pain. It’s what makes them children.”—page 13

There were many parts of Tim Sandlin’s novel, ‘Skipped Parts,’ that I wish I had skipped. This novel came to me as a ‘free’ eBook from Barnes & Noble as part of their ‘Free Fridays’ promo (the hook) and when I read: “Skipped Parts is somewhere between The Catcher in the Rye and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues."
-Los Angeles Times Book Review” (the line and sinker) I couldn’t wait to read it.

There were times, during the reading, I thought that even at ‘free’ this book was overpriced; and that the L.A. Times book reviewer who compared it to two of my favorite classics must surely have be vastly impaired at the time. This novel has very few, if any, redeeming values—social or otherwise—and even two-stars seems a bit generous.

Recommendation: ‘Skipped Parts’ is no ‘Catcher in the Rye’. ‘Skipped Parts’ is nowhere near an ‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues’. If you skip reading it, you will have skipped very little of reading value.

“I want a Fudgsicle first.”—page 105

A Barnes & Noble NOOKbook, 308 pages

In the interest of being completely honest, I thought this book to be quite disturbing. I downloaded the book a while back on a Free Friday and let it stew on my NOOK for several months. I finally decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did because it was a good book. The story tended to drag on at times and the authors style of writing threw me off in a few places. However, this is the first book that I have used the highlighting tool because there are some really funny phrases that made me laugh. All in all I liked the book, and I would be interested to see the movie (considering the very offensive nature of the book). Not sure how they would have pulled it off! Especially back in 1999!!!! Its got to be Rated R!

The start to this book seemed very slow and laboured, and nothing appeared to make much sense. There is the annoying habit from Sam, one of the main characters, to insert small stories which tended to upset the flow of the book. It is basically the story of a dysfunctional family, set during the early 60s. Lydia and her son Sam are banished to the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, by Lydia's father. Although we are not made privvy to the reason behind this banishment, you are left to guess by the ensuing behaviour. There is plenty of humour, and it deals with various matters, coming of age, dysfunctionality, alcoholism, and a teenage pregnancy. Maybe not so rare in present day life, but put into the existing timeline of 1960s America it makes for an engaging read, and is worth persevering with.

Another novel that has been made into a movie. I saw the movie first and, as normal, the book was superior. A delightful little yarn of growing up and maturing, which don’t always coincide. Maurey and Sam are too young to really know what sex is, but determined to learn. Soon Maurey is pregnant, yet she still declares Sam is just a friend and continues to date another. Sam and Maurey grow up and mature at different rates, but it’s all hilarious .

A Great read

Skipped Parts takes place in the mid 1960s and is told from the perspective of a 13 year old boy who along with his single mother has been banished from North Caroline to western Wyoming by his grandfather. The name comes from the fact that the narrator and his new found friend Maury want to learn about sex but all the novels they read seem to skip the truly informative parts.

The plot of the story goes from extreme highs, precipitously drop to deep and dark lows and eventually climb back up to highs again. This my biggest complaint about the book. There is very little in between.

The writing style and sense of humor is where Skipped Parts shined the most for me. The naiveté, strange situations, and frequent segues into the internal short stories the narrator tells himself where he is always the hero provide wonderful comic relief, even in some of the darkest parts of the book.

Because the entire book is narrated by Sam we know from the start that he is not necessarily a trustworthy narrator. Even so, I felt sorry for Sam throughout much of the book because things happen to him, people make decisions for him, and his life is almost completely controlled by others and he rarely understands why. One of the most poignant lines in the book takes place where a major life decision has been made which effects him and which he should have had a say so and he bemoans the fact that while he would have made a different decision, it would have been nice if anyone bothered to ask him what he thought.

I highly recommend this book to almost any reader unless you are uncomfortable with graphic descriptions of teenage sex (Sandlin doesn't skip those parts).

Why did I wait so long to re-read this? As amusing now as it was when first published although from a more mature viewpoint it's also more sad as a story of prolonged family trauma.

i usually select books based on gut reaction and usually this works in my favor. i'm frequently surprised by wonderful bits of fiction that i would never have discovered otherwise. in this case, however, my gut lied to me. this book was a drag from start to finish. why it was ever picked up for a film adaptation, i'll never know. whether the film adaptation was any good, i'll also never know, because i detested the book so much that i couldn't bring myself to sit through a visual interpretation of the blandness.

This book was surprising and delightful and also a little more light-hearted than I expected.

As written in the summary, the story follows the sexual explorations of 13-year-olds Sam Callahan and Maurey Pierce. Under the not-so-vigilant eye of Sam's mother, Lydia, the barely-teens take a clinical and methodical approach to learning about the "skipped parts" in the books they read: what happens between the first magical kiss, and the happily ever after.

Sam and Lydia Callahan are new in town; southerners exiled to GroVont, Wyoming as punishment for Lydia's latest "indiscretion" and the final chance before Caspar (the villainous grandfather) banishes Sam to military school, and Lydia to her alcoholic, promiscuous whims. Sam and Lydia do not fit in, but while Lydia proudly maintains her holier-than-thou attitude, Sam yearns to find his place in the town, to not stand out the the sore thumb he is.

In Maurey, Sam finds a kindred spirit of curiosity, quick wit and quicker intelligence. Fueled by intellectual exploration by way of avid reading, the teens set off on their journey of mutually learning about the mysterious, and never-talked-about world of sex. Lydia, being the young and thoroughly unequipped for parenting mother, invites a refreshingly open dialogue with both young teens; she answers questions honestly and with no effort to use delicate language or double entendres. When Sam wakes up from his first wet-dream, Lydia is the one to tell him what happens. At experiencing her first orgasm, Maurey turns to Lydia for an explanation of what just happened. And when Maurey winds up pregnant before having her first period, it is Lydia who provides the young girl options and safe harbor.

The characters are all portraits in extremes: Lydia, the alcoholic abrasive friend-mother figure; Sam, the awkward but charming nerdy boy; Maurey, the steely unemotional cowgirl. These extremes lend the book an air of the absurd; the humor often drawing from cleverly concealed satire and character juxtaposition.

The only thing I was vaguely disappointed about was the flippancy ascribed to the teenagers about what would happen after the child is born. Both these young people have been built up to be avid readers and highly intelligent, resourceful children; however, at each juncture where Maurey and Sam begin to discuss the "what then" question the characters are forced into a less-than-believable ignorant dialog.

Overall, i thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be reading the follow-up novels--I hear they paint a more rounded picture of the rest of the story.

So this whole Sandlin kick of things I've already read is cuz I'm rereading the last of the trilogy I think. I can't remember if I got to the last and it's time I found out!

This cover is the movie tie in cover and the movie looks shitty so I'm afraid to read it cuz the book was so good. Sandlin writing from a kid's point of view. A kid with an alchy mother and who gets picked on in a crappy new town, but it's hard to explain how engaging and hilarious this is. All these after school special themes but it's never dramatic in that way. It's got a laugh and bear it sort of attitude, close to black comedy but not ironic at all. Whatevs. It's good stuff.

I don't know how to label this book other than fiction. It was weird, but it sucked me in. I finished it in a night. It's a gritty, in-your-face look into the lives of a children too grown up for their ages. It was so interesting to look at life through the eyes of children that are learning too much too fast. I had no idea this was part of a trilogy. I'll have to check out the next two for sure.