i miss your face like hell
It's another 'once in a blue moon' book posts! These are from Oct through now, with a huge gap for December; working seven days a week meant a lot of tv (a LOT of Top Gear) and much fic, but no actual books. Let's get to it -
Why Read Moby Dick, by Nathaniel Philbrick - eh. One of the strangest things I've ever read. It was basically like reading someone's long, disjointed book review of Moby Dick. Though the chapter on the sperm was HILARIOUS. It also didn't make me want to read Moby Dick, so.
Mr Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi - also really strange, but the way it is written elevates it. It's about a writer whose muse comes to life. Recommended just for the language, really.
Drop Dead Healthy, by AJ Jacobs - Just looking at the title, you can all suss what this is about. *g* I enjoyed this one much more than Year of Living Biblically but not as much as The Know-It-All. He's still hilarious, though and I'm a giant geek in the way that he is, so I love all the factoids and trivia scattered in his stuff.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins - I think we all know how I felt about this. Suffice it to say, I read all three in a weekend, then reread them over and over for about three weeks. Long story short - ♥
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins - More hearts. And who do we think will be cast as Finnick?!
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins - I was ao terribly impressed that she actually WENT THERE, you know? It was hard to read and pretty much unrelenting bleakness, but gorgeous for all that. And I love love LOVE that Katniss, Peeta and Gale all got what they wanted.
American Dervish, by Ayad Akhtar - this was excellent. Terribly hard to read at points, but brilliant. About a Muslim boy growing up in Wisconsin in the late eighties; it's about his...spiritual awakening, which gets all tied up with his sexual awakening. It is great and the end, oh, the end made me cry.
The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green - speaking of crying. Jesus. I have NEVER cried this much over a book before. I'm talking snotty, gross, Ugly Cry sobbing for at least half of the book; however, I was also laughing at the same time. I've tried to be semi-level headed about this, but I keep veering into 'rapturous' territory. It is a book about cancer, but it's not a Cancer Book, you know? Like how Thirteen Reasons Why was a Suicide Book - as in, it's really really not. Other things to love about this book - the protagonist is female! As much as I adore John Green, I too got sick of the 'dorky boy falls in love with manic pixie dream girl' thing he had going on in Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. It is lovely and heartbreaking and funny and read it. Read it NOW.
Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker - I'm...not quite sure what to say about this one. I was not terribly invested, but I couldn't put it down. Premise is - days begin to get longer. Six minutes at first, then an hour, and then two hours and then, etc. But it's from the perspective of a middle school girl, which is where the title comes from, which I thought was just lovely (specifically 'This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove.') So the premise is intriguing and you love Julia (the protagonist) and the way that I was not terribly invested? I think was intentional in a way and the last paragraph made me cry. Not just tear up but actual tears.
Perfect Escape, by Jennifer Brown - girl and her brother run away. Sort-of. He has severe OCD and is just back from treatment and she is the perfect student, daughter, etc whose cheating ring in calc has just been uncovered. It's...fine, I guess? I really enjoyed the relationship between them and the fact that it really was about their relationship. I mean, I'm a sucker for romance, but it was nice to have no romance in this one.
I'm currently trying to get into Bright's Passage, which is Josh Ritter's first novel. But since I'm still sick, I'm thinking the backlog on my DVR might be more the order of the day. Making chicken soup, shortbread and watching tv.
Why Read Moby Dick, by Nathaniel Philbrick - eh. One of the strangest things I've ever read. It was basically like reading someone's long, disjointed book review of Moby Dick. Though the chapter on the sperm was HILARIOUS. It also didn't make me want to read Moby Dick, so.
Mr Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi - also really strange, but the way it is written elevates it. It's about a writer whose muse comes to life. Recommended just for the language, really.
Drop Dead Healthy, by AJ Jacobs - Just looking at the title, you can all suss what this is about. *g* I enjoyed this one much more than Year of Living Biblically but not as much as The Know-It-All. He's still hilarious, though and I'm a giant geek in the way that he is, so I love all the factoids and trivia scattered in his stuff.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins - I think we all know how I felt about this. Suffice it to say, I read all three in a weekend, then reread them over and over for about three weeks. Long story short - ♥
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins - More hearts. And who do we think will be cast as Finnick?!
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins - I was ao terribly impressed that she actually WENT THERE, you know? It was hard to read and pretty much unrelenting bleakness, but gorgeous for all that. And I love love LOVE that Katniss, Peeta and Gale all got what they wanted.
American Dervish, by Ayad Akhtar - this was excellent. Terribly hard to read at points, but brilliant. About a Muslim boy growing up in Wisconsin in the late eighties; it's about his...spiritual awakening, which gets all tied up with his sexual awakening. It is great and the end, oh, the end made me cry.
The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green - speaking of crying. Jesus. I have NEVER cried this much over a book before. I'm talking snotty, gross, Ugly Cry sobbing for at least half of the book; however, I was also laughing at the same time. I've tried to be semi-level headed about this, but I keep veering into 'rapturous' territory. It is a book about cancer, but it's not a Cancer Book, you know? Like how Thirteen Reasons Why was a Suicide Book - as in, it's really really not. Other things to love about this book - the protagonist is female! As much as I adore John Green, I too got sick of the 'dorky boy falls in love with manic pixie dream girl' thing he had going on in Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. It is lovely and heartbreaking and funny and read it. Read it NOW.
Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker - I'm...not quite sure what to say about this one. I was not terribly invested, but I couldn't put it down. Premise is - days begin to get longer. Six minutes at first, then an hour, and then two hours and then, etc. But it's from the perspective of a middle school girl, which is where the title comes from, which I thought was just lovely (specifically 'This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove.') So the premise is intriguing and you love Julia (the protagonist) and the way that I was not terribly invested? I think was intentional in a way and the last paragraph made me cry. Not just tear up but actual tears.
Perfect Escape, by Jennifer Brown - girl and her brother run away. Sort-of. He has severe OCD and is just back from treatment and she is the perfect student, daughter, etc whose cheating ring in calc has just been uncovered. It's...fine, I guess? I really enjoyed the relationship between them and the fact that it really was about their relationship. I mean, I'm a sucker for romance, but it was nice to have no romance in this one.
I'm currently trying to get into Bright's Passage, which is Josh Ritter's first novel. But since I'm still sick, I'm thinking the backlog on my DVR might be more the order of the day. Making chicken soup, shortbread and watching tv.