Jolissa

Like Shakespeare's works, I thought this was a real work of art. I loved the way Winterson reimagines The Winter's Tale, and/but the theme of time is...for lack of better words, intense. If I were to compare this book to a painting, I'd definitely choose a more impressionistic work. Like Shakespeare, this isn't really something you'd pick up for a fun read. It's a bit of a challenge to get through at points, much like Shakespeare, due to thematic passages that are beautiful yet incredibly literary. Having not read The Winter's Tale before, I felt a little lost in the twisted and complicated story at points.

For a longer review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/07/review-gap-time-jeanette-winterson/

For some reason, I'm really attracted to novels from this same time period - a time of western expansion, when life was constant work. Work to keep a house, to make a living, to grow and slaughter your own food. It's just so different from how we live today (at least, a lot of us). These stories always have such romance to them; romance for nature, growth and hard work.

It's for this reason, coupled with Chevalier's unique way of crafting a story, that I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I gobbled it up, page by heart-wrenching, romantic page. Although the main narrator of the book was tough for me to connect with (a life-hardened young man), she expertly pulled me into his head, and I understood him. I could feel how conflicted he was throughout, and how affected he was by his scandalous, difficult and life-wrenching childhood.

Full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/06/review-edge-orchard/

Furiously Happy is, in my humble opinion, something that should be read by anyone who struggles with any kind of depression, anxiety, or other mental illness, as well as those close to someone who does. Lawson uses absurd and hilarious stories along with some really serious truth nuggets to shine a light on the stigma of mental illness, and what it's really like to live with it.

The daughter of a taxidermist, Lawson loves taxidermied animals (mostly the craziest looking ones she can find). That's why the cover of the book features a taxidermied raccoon with a crazy look on his face and his hands in the air :D. The premise behind the term “furiously happy” is this: Lawson is determined to make the good days of her life so furiously happy that they carry her right through the bad ones. She takes those good days and she fills them with moments to remember, and that's what she thinks about during the next week when she's too anxious and depressed to leave her bed. No matter how dark the current day, she knows that those moments will come again on the next good day.

One of my favorite paragraphs:

“Without the dark there isn't light. Without the pain there is no relief. And I remind myself that I'm lucky to be able to feel such great sorrow, and also such great happiness. I can grab on to each moment of joy and live in those moments because I have seen the bright contrast from dark to light and back again. I am privileged to be able to recognize that the sound of laughter is a blessing and a song, and to realize that the bright hours spent with my family and friends are extraordinary treasures to be saved, because those same moments are a medicine, a balm. Those moments are a promise that life is worth fighting for, and that promise is what pulls me through when depression distorts reality and tries to convince me otherwise.”

That passage is so beautiful, I can't even come up with the words to describe it.

Read my full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/04/review-furiously-happy-by-jenny-lawson/

This was a wonderful read!! If you're a fan of coming-of-age stories, I definitely suggest picking this one up. It's a family drama story, with a pre-teen girl narrator. I found the relationships between the characters ridiculously well done, and so real. I could feel the protaganist's teenage angst and rebellion and recognized it as pieces of my own pre-teen struggles. She's mortified several times throughout the story, and I really felt for her, and knew that feeling exactly. This story was really engaging and made it hard to put the book down. I hope Carol Rifka Brunt is working on another novel! 4.5 stars.

For my full review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/04/mini-reviews/

I honestly don't think I would have finished this book if it hadn't been for book club. The premise was interesting at first – a 20-something woman picks up a hit novel, only to discover it's about her and her life, written by her childhood friend and first love. It was interesting, until it turned into a totally cliche romance. The “chance” meetings were much too perfect, the dialogue was cheesy, and the characters were annoying. My favorite characters were actually the lesbian aunt and her partner, and they had a regrettably small part in the book! I'm giving this on 2 stars. It would be one if it wasn't for the interesting premise.

Find my full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/04/mini-reviews/

This was such a fun and original read! Kitchens of the Great Midwest pulled me in right away, and I loved it the whole way through.

I had heard about this book in a couple different ways. I'm not sure how I originally found it and added it to my list (I think I saw it locally, in Minneapolis somewhere), but then I heard about it when Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy recommended it in her podcast. Luckily for me, when I added it on Goodreads, my friend and fellow LQ contrib Janna let me know she had the book and would lend it to me. Huzzah!

So, thanks to Janna, I got my hands on this one and dove in.

Each chapter is a short story, narrated by a different character. The characters all have something in common – they're somehow connected to Eva Thorvald. She's born in the first chapter and narrates the second chapter, and then we follow her life's trajectory through the characters around her in the following chapters. I've never read something quite like this before, where all the stories are different but fit together so well.

It was hard to believe each story was written by the same author, put in the same book, and still fit perfectly with each other. Each character had such a different voice – there was a really unique feel to each chapter. Some of them made me giggle, some of them made me gasp. Some of the characters I loved, some of them I thought were terrible people. I think that's how the author wanted it to be...at least, I hope 😉

Read the full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/08/review-kitchens-great-midwest/

My full review is on Literary Quicksand: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/08/book-review-solito-by-javier-zamora/

This book is incredible. Before I even get into any of my review: this is an important memoir, it's impeccably well written, and I so highly suggest putting it on your radar if reading about a child migrant's perilous journey all the way from El Salvador to La USA intrigues you.

In the beginning of Solito, we get to know Javier as he is in the time between when both his parents have migrated to the USA, and he's still in El Salvador. He lived a normal kid life in El Salvador, besides his parents being gone. He went to school, he helped his grandmother and grandfather, and he spent a lot of time with his aunt, Mali. I loved his relationship with her and I'm so glad it was included in the book, so the reader can really get to know him before his “trip”. They snuggle to sleep and are just so loving.

When it's finally time for Javier to make the journey to his parents, he has to just leave school without even saying goodbye to his friends. Nobody can know what he plans to do. How hard would that have to be for a 9-year-old? I'm sure it was just so difficult.

The first bit of Javier's journey, he gets to take a bus up through Guatemala with his grandpa. His relationship with his grandpa was not very deep before the trip, but they end up growing so close as they spend hours taking multiple busses through Guatemala. Their goodbye was rather heartbreaking, and the way Javier describes the love that grew between them was just beautiful. His grandfather can only go to the Mexican border, then has to leave Javier in the care of others (and a coyote who will lead them all the way through Mexico) and return to El Salvador.

Just imagine that. You're on a journey that's perilous, but you don't really know what might happen, or even what could happen. At 9 years old, you're just going along and hoping for the best, and that's really what Javier ends up doing. He relies a lot on the group he ends up travelling with, and they end up growing very close, like a family, as they try to make it across the border.

When Javier has to cross the desert on foot...these scenes are difficult to read, and I'm sure were incredibly difficult for Javier to write and recount. He does mention in his author note having help from his therapist to access and revisit all those feelings, and I can see why. He walked for HOURS and so many miles across the desert, only to be captured by border patrol. And then? He does it all over again.

You can tell Javier is a poet, as he writes so much about the scenes, smells, and textures associated with his time in the desert. The way he names the different types of cacti to give himself something to do, something concrete to take note of, is amazing. He was NINE. And through the whole ordeal, the love that grows between him and his fake family is just...oh my heart. So good.

By about page 200, I really wanted to abandon this book. It took a full 200 pages to identify that the main character, Frances, is lesbian, and that she and her “paying guest”, Lilian, were about to have an affair under Lilian's husband's nose. There are a couple important details to the arc of the story in there, but it's way too much character development for me. 200 pages of awkward tea parties, a telling brush of a hand, a blossoming friendship...I was so bored.

There are three parts of the story: pre-affair, affair, game-changer. Each part could have been about half the length, and this book would have been much more enjoyable for me. There were parts that just didn't matter that much overall, and didn't really need to be there.

Read the rest of this review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/01/the-paying-guests-by-sarah-waters/.

Eskens is a great storywriter - I definitely felt the need to go on to the next chapter immediately after finishing one, which is ultimately what you want in a suspense novel such as The Life We Bury. This is not my favorite genre, but my book club will be able to meet the author this month, which is really awesome! I'm very much looking forward to meeting Eskens. Despite the need to keep turning the pages, I gave the book 3 stars because I felt that some of the details were just a little to easy and too predictable. The premise of the book is basically an investigation into a 30-year-old murder case, taken on by a college student. Without giving too much away, I felt like some of the clues he came upon were just a bit too convenient. All-in-all, though, I'd call this one a page-turner.

For more (and longer) book reviews of mine, visit www.literaryquicksand.com.

This book was both easy and difficult to read at the same time. It was easy because the writing style was simple, but the jumping around in the story and following so many different story lines was difficult. It was sort of like a big puzzle that you put together really slowly. There were also approximately a gagillion characters, and I had problems keeping them all straight and remembering who they were. After I had a whole half page in my reading journal filled with a list of characters, I just stopped writing them down.

The story, though, was interesting and enjoyable to read. It held my attention, and I was definitely excited about what might happen next. However, I felt like I didn't have any time to connect with any of the characters. I liked a couple of them, but there was too little time spent on each one. So you'd be reading a part of the story about a character you loved, but then you'd be jerked away to another part of the story, possibly in a whole other decade, before or after the collapse of civilization.

Read my full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/05/review-station-eleven-by-emily-st-john-mandel/

Overall, I found this book insightful and enlightening, and I really enjoyed reading it. My only criticism is that the synopsis could be a bit more clear about how the book reads almost like a reference book with some memoir mixed in. I would have loved this book more if it had been more about Petersen's own life and anxiety battle.

Read my full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/08/review-on-edge/

I think this would have been much better for me if the ending wasn't the only really interesting part - I was pretty bored through a good chunk of it. Full review to be posted on literaryquicksand.com!

Wow, this was incredible. It's safe to say I have a new favorite author! I was enthralled with this book. I thought about it when I wasn't reading it, and almost wanted to slow down and savor it, but I couldn't. I needed to know what happened next. It's just the perfect storm of a family not communicating, not connecting, parent projecting their own selves onto their children.

Full review to come soon on http://www.literaryquicksand.com.

Magic. Pure magic.

This book...I'm almost at a loss for words! If you haven't yet read All the Light We Cannot See, it's imperative that you put it on your TBR list this instant.

Anthony Doerr's brilliant and captivating style of writing and story-telling blew me away. I was enthralled with the story and the characters from the moment I started reading, and couldn't put this book down!

The story is a World War II story, but it's so much more than that. It's so deeply human...cares, loves, curiosities, passions, yearnings, growing up. All of this is weaved into the parallel stories of two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner. One French, one German, both swept up in opposite sides of the war in life-altering ways. Both children, both forced to grow up before they should have. The stories start in parallel, and then you get these expertly crafted wisps of the stories being somehow connected, and you watch as they slowly inch their way toward intersecting.

The way Doerr uses light throughout the book captivated me. It's the visible light that Marie-Laure can only see inside her brain due to her blindness, the creative spark of light inside the minds of children, the way a character near the end turns on all her lights to look as if she's expecting someone, rather then being lonely – all of this and so many more uses of light were just brilliant. If I was still in college and writing a paper on this book, I would have gone all sorts of crazy with post-its and underlining, and it would have been awesome.

Read the rest of this review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/02/review-all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr/

When this book popped up as the next to be read in my book club, I had no idea what to expect.

See, I like jumping into book club books without reading about them first. I don't read the synopsis on the inside cover if there is one, and I don't look up any details online. Is that nuts? There's just something about not having to lift a finger to choose a book, then being totally surprised at what happens. My fun was spoiled slightly this time, though, when our fearless book club leader mentioned that she had started, and that there were...dun dun dunnnn...zombies.

Zombies?? Oh no. I leave all the apocalyptic, dystopian, zombie story reading to LQ contributor Whit. But, with a desire to be able to talk about the book at book club, I dove in, expecting to not enjoy it much.

However, against all odds, I began to enjoy the book, from page 1 until the end. In fact, I really liked it!

All of you out there who think you don't like zombie books, listen up. This story was such a whirlwind of an adventure. The writing was good, the story exciting, and the characters well-developed. It's such a different side to traditional zombie stories. M.R. Carey takes zombies (“hungries”) and gives them such an enthralling human element. Of course there's the crazy mad scientist, the buff protector man, a romance element, several strong female leads...this book has a little bit of everything.

Read the rest of this review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/02/the-girl-with-all-the-gifts-by-m-r-carey/

This was my second experience with Neil Gaiman. However, my first experience wasn't finished (oops) – my husband and I were listening to Anansi Boys on a car trip, and didn't end up finishing when we got home. It was such an enthralling story, it kept our attention for hours in the car. So, I thought that this book would do more of the same for me.

American Gods, though, was a hard read for me. It's undeniably a fantastic, fantasticAL story, written with amazing attention to detail, beautiful turns of phrase and just overall impeccable creativity. If I was more of a fantasy story lover, I know I would have enjoyed this book. I did enjoy parts of it – I definitely got sucked in several times. It's just so out of my wheelhouse, though, that I had a hard time getting through the whole thing.

In a nutshell, the story is about gods living in America. Yes, we're talking Odin, Loki, and all the rest. However, these “old” gods are in a strange battle with the “new” gods that Americans worship, such as Media, World, and Time. (If you like to read books in an English major sort of way, enjoying the themes, you'll love dissecting this one.) Our main character, Shadow, leaves prison to find he gets sucked into a crazy world of gods and battles and craziness.

It's long. It's really long. I don't think I would cut anything out of it, because it all makes sense for the story, but I just had a hard time making it through. Many of the chapters were super long, too – luckily, there are breaks to stop at, but I don't often stop reading in the middle of a chapter, so I felt compelled to keep going, even when I felt like stopping because my attention was waning.

I also got a little confused about all the characters in this book – there are many of them, and they have some pretty strange names. I had a hard time keeping a lot of them straight. Perhaps it's just because I don't usually read fantasy stories with lots of characters and strange names and such, but I had a difficult time with it. A couple of the names, I didn't bother trying to figure out how to say and just sort of mumbled in my head when I got to them.

All of that said, I would definitely try watching the series that's on Starz. Unfortunately, I don't have cable, so I don't have the means to watch it currently. After reading the book, though, I think the series would be a total trip.

In conclusion, this is a dark fantasy story that, for me, would be best listened to or watched, because it was hard for me to keep my attention on the book. If you're a fantasy fan, though, have at it – I'm sure you'll love it.

Read my full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/05/review-american-gods-neil-gaiman-coloring-book/

These are real, beautiful, human stories about grief. The writers in this book have been affected by grief in so many different ways, and their stories are an intimate look into how their lives have changed as a result of that grief. I highly recommend this book for both those who know grief and for those who just want to understand grief a little better.

This was an interesting read. I definitely enjoyed the adventure aspect of traveling the world – such a crazy and exhilarating tour Wade took! I also loved learning the differences between how each culture trains and how they eat. There are even recipes from each country.

Although I did enjoy reading Run the World, I did get a little bored at times, because there are certain aspects of the running world I didn't know or care so much about. There's a lot of name dropping in this book, as Wade meets some of the most famous and successful runners in the world. I did recognize some of the names (like Usain Bolt, for instance), but she would go on tangents about how amazing certain runners were and what their times were for certain races, and these parts were a little snooze-ish for me.

If you like running and/or running culture, you'll enjoy this read. I found myself skimming through some of the parts I found boring, and enjoying the parts that were interesting to me. I would definitely like to try the ugali recipe!

Full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/07/book-tour-review-run-world-becky-wade/

“Throughout her life, Elizabeth Lesser has sought understanding about what it means to be true to oneself and, at the same time, truly connected to the ones we love. But when her sister, Maggie, needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life, and Lesser learns that she is the perfect match, she faces a far more immediate and complex question about what it really means to love – honestly, generously, and authentically.”

When I dove into Marrow, despite that intriguing and descriptive paragraph, I wasn't sure what to expect. At first, to be totally honest, I really wasn't sure I was going to like this at all. You see, I tend to be the sort of person who just...sees things the way they are. You're not going to see me meditating in order to find myself. To find peace? Sure, that's a possibility. Calm and peace are two things that tend to elude me, and yoga and relaxation techniques have helped me reduce some of my anxiety in the past. When Lesser starts diving into things like the real and true finding of your own soul, I started wondering what I had gotten myself into.

However, I decided to give it a try and keep going. The chapters where Lesser is describing her childhood and introducing the reader to her family, I loved. I enjoyed her writing style, and the story held my attention. When she interjects with a chapter or several that dive into the soul finding, I do think that what she says is thought-provoking and often beautiful. I definitely became enthralled in a couple of those instances, and began applying what she was saying to my own life, and my own self...my own soul.

Read my entire review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/09/review-marrow-elizabeth-lesser/

This is the kind of story I love to read, and this one was really well done. Needless to say, I'm really excited to read A Piece of the World! Stay tuned for that review. For Orphan Train, 4 stars.

Read my full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/01/review-orphan-train/

All in all, the book was interesting. I didn't know much at all about the Lindberghs, so I enjoyed reading about their lives. However, this novel was incredibly frustrating for me to read, being a strong-willed and independent woman in the year 2016. Full review on my blog: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/03/review-the-aviators-wife-by-melanie-benjamin/

Where'd You Go, Bernadette is one of the best books I've read all year!

The story is a quirky one, and for me, it was the perfect amount of quirky. I read this on the train when I was returning from vacation, and it was wonderfully entertaining for a stretch of hours that could otherwise be considered boring!

The story is, in a nutshell, about family. Bernadette is the mom of the family, and she's definitely not a normal, run-of-the-mill kind of mom. She's a hilariously whacky used-to-be architect living in Seattle with her husband, Elgin (who's a bigwig at Microsoft), and daughter Bee. The story unfolds through a series of correspondences between the main and secondary characters, plus Bee's interjections and narrations at points.

Read the rest of my review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/07/review-whered-go-bernadette-maria-semple/

I've read reviews by those who thought that Cheryl Strayed was just a silly young woman who decided to hike the PCT with no experience and received special treatment on the trail because she was a young woman, hiking alone.

To all of those people, I have to respectfully disagree. If that's what you think about this book, I think maybe you haven't been through something as profoundly life-changing as suddenly losing someone in your life who's extremely important to your own identity.

I identified with Cheryl so completely - it felt like she was saying exactly what I feel. I lost my mom suddenly and unexpectedly in 2014, when I was 27 years old and she was only 54. Then, in January of this year, I lost my unborn son, Jonah, to a heart condition. He was stillborn.

Finding yourself and re-learning who you are after something so life-altering is a huge, difficult experience. You know you've changed...you're hardened by life's hardships. You know this, but you don't know HOW you've changed. It's like going through adolescence all over again, awkwardly figuring out who you are, what you want from life, what's important to you, and what you believe.

Wild is an amazing and truthful account of struggling with that finding of yourself, and of going on a journey to do so. My heart, broken and changed by my losses, felt a kinship with Cheryl as she navigated the trail, her thoughts, and her (new) life.

I recommend this book for anyone who's experienced a momentous change in your life - one that makes you feel like you're no longer you. I don't often give books 5 stars, but this one, I had to. I'm in love with Cheryl Strayed, now, and I can't wait to read more of her books.

This book is dripping with glitz, glamour, sex, seduction and opulence. Under all that, though, is family, modern love, and war. The plot follows Marlene Dietrich (a real actress born in 1901) as she goes from awkward pre-teen (with a crush on a female teacher) to world-famous actress.

Marlene was super entertaining. I found myself getting really wrapped up in what was going to happen next in her life. The book is separated into acts and chapters. Each act is a number of years in Marlene's life, and the book encompasses much of her life. Born and raised in Germany, World War II plays a significant role in the lives of Marlene and her family members and friends.

I really haven't read a book like this one before, and I admit that I really liked the glitz and glamour. The story was enthralling and the characters were well done, but I did think that the book started to get really quite long around halfway through. Smooshing such an interesting life into 400 pages is no doubt a challenge, and I think Gortner did what he could to put all of the facts from Marlene's life into a tantalizing story. However, I just started to feel like there was far too much crammed into this story. It was a ridiculously ambitious attempt at capturing Marlene's entire life into one book, and it was really enjoyable, but the huge cast of characters and Marlene's entire life was too huge of an undertaking for one novel, in my opinion.

Read my full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/12/review-marlene-c-w-gortner/

I flew through this book in a morning. I loved all the stories Lahti has to share about her life, and about going into something (acting) that was so incredibly male-dominated. Overall a great, quick read that inspires.