Kalliope
This was my first Austen book, so the writing style took a bit of getting used to. However, I really grew to enjoy it! The story and characters really represented the time period and setting Austen chose, and it was easy for me to become immersed in the world of the story. I've been told Pride and Prejudice is the “worst one” of Austen's books, so I'm definitely looking forward to reading others! Now I'm off to watch the BBC miniseries. :)
This book has the most grabbing synopsis I've ever seen. As soon as I read the synopsis, I ran to my library to get it, absorbing it in two nights. I went into it honestly expecting a somewhat exploitative dark comedy. And in some ways, that's what I got–but it was wrapped in a safety blanket of standard YA fare. The characters (aside from the main character, who is called Butter throughout) are largely indistinguishable from those in other YA books. They all speak in that not-quite-true-to-life-but-close-enough way. Butter, however, has quite a unique voice as the narrator. I enjoyed the fact that Butter was an imperfect character, and that Lange didn't make him an untouchable martyr. He makes mistakes, he does awful things, he's sometimes mean and a liar and misogynistic. But he's unique; I knew it was him talking throughout the story. Where the other high school characters were interchangeable, Butter stood out from the crowd in how he was written. The was quite a bit less preachy than I thought it would be. I didn't walk away thinking the message was “Don't be mean to fat people!” If anyone learned a lesson in this book, it was Butter himself. I would have given the book that extra star if it'd hadn't been so “YA predictable.” Despite its dark premise, the book isn't that shocking. It has elements of dark comedy (the other students rallying around Butter to kill himself), but I'd enjoy it more if the author had gone all the way with the humor. It's like she was trying to shock the reader only halfway. Other than that, I enjoyed the book. I'm a seasoned horror consumer, so this didn't come close to turning my stomach. But, of course, not everyone is me. It's an easy book to get through and I'd recommend it.
I listened to this book on an audiobook from my library. I don't know much about Roxane Gay, but I must admit I went into this expecting something similar to Yes Means Yes, which I liked but was hotly, fiercely written and chock full of rather tiresome rhetorical questions related to feminism. Bad Feminist surprised me in how gently and wisely it was written. It isn't just a book about Gay's insights on feminist topics; it is also about her forays in competitive Scrabble and her first year as a college professor. Interwoven through these stories are her opinions on race and gender issues. She has attitude, but is not hard to swallow. She has personality and a distinct voice. I liked this book a lot.
I liked this better than The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortune Telling. The author's voice was more inviting and sincere. I really liked the fact that she used three different decks (not just the Rider Waite, which is still a deck I like) to illustrate meanings. It also went in detail about the artwork on each card, showing how the message was communicated through imagery.
This is a pretty solid introduction to the world of Tarot. After reading this, I know enough to do a reading for myself. There was information included in the book that didn't really relate to Tarot, but was interesting to read. I liked reading about the connections between Tarot and numerology/I Ching/astrology. The only complaint I have is the author wrote that drawing certain cards means specific events will–not might–happen to you (e.g. new baby, new job, etc). She used very certain language, and I think that can be misleading.
I really enjoy Phoebe's podcast 2 Dope Queens so I thought I'd give her book a shot. It's not quite a Bossypants or a Let's Pretend This Never Happened on the level of laughs. It's more reminiscent of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” but with more snappy speech, more cultural references (a lot of cultural references) and social/racial commentary. Phoebe's tone, even when discussing heavy topics like profiling, is cheerful and young. I found the references a bit overkill at times, and that they took away from the message a bit. This is a short book, but I still feel like it could have been tightened up even more. The best part of this book are her thoughts on topics I take for granted but that Black women have to deal with every day. They are written maturely, but not morosely. I'd recommend this to someone who also listens to 2 Dope Queens, or someone who doesn't but loves books by female comics.
Yes. This is great writing. This is how I want to write. I related very much to Ifemelu, since we are both writers and we are sometimes insecure about writing and what others will think of it. I could not point to enough passages in this that resonated with me and feelings/thoughts I've had, but here's an example of one:
...a part of her always stiffened with apprenhension, expecting the person on the other end to realize that she was play-acting this professional, this negotiator of terms, to see that she was, in fact, an unemployed person who wore a rumpled nightshirt all day, to call her “Fraud!” and hang up.
A student I tutor introduced me to this story and we read it together. I found it reminiscent of West Side Story. It has a surprising amount of suspense and tension, considering how ridiculously short it is. Seriously, I finished this in less than ten minutes. It is very much dialogue-driven, leaving much of the backdrop of the story to the reader's imagination.
I loved this! This is another Blume book I didn't read when I was younger, but I know I would have loved it then. Blume's writing is ever charming and relatable, more so here than in Forever for me. Margaret's comments about her friends, school, and growing up hearken back to when I was that age, when I was having very similar thoughts. I was never the kind of preteen who hoped and hoped to get my period or to wear a bra (wise beyond my years!). I loved all the characters and the things they talked about, especially Margaret's friends and their breast obsession. I pretty much knew going in that I would love the book, but what surprised me were the religious themes. They weren't heavy-handed or partisan at all; they presented themselves naturally, the way a real child would think about them. I'd definitely recommend this to female readers young and old!
Like many other people, I'm sure, I picked this up because I saw the movie and liked it. The movie is quite charming and charismatic, and the book shares these traits. It has a rather Gilmore Girls feel: cozy, feminine-driven, romantic. For the most part I like how Hoffman has written this. By that I mean I like the words she uses, the sweetness and wonder with which she constructs the world of the story. But Hoffman narrates a LOT. I'd say the entire book is 85% narration, 15% dialogue. I am not talking about standard narration. And when I say she narrates a lot, I mean she explains everything you'd possibly need to know in any given scene in order to understand it. Hoffman introduces a character in a scene, and narrates what the character is doing, why they are doing it, how they are feeling, and why they are feeling that way. And I don't mean she explains it through character introspection or symbolism. She lists all the information the reader needs, and it gets very, very tedious the longer you read. Here is an example:
“Sally thought long and hard each time she hung up the phone. She thought about the girl in the drugstore and the sound of Antonia's footsteps on the stairs when she went to bed without a good-night hug. She thought about Michael's life and his death, and about every second they had spent together. She considered each of his kisses and all the words he had ever said to her. Everything was still gray— the paintings Antonia brought home from school and slipped beneath her door, the flannel pajamas Kylie wore on chilly mornings, the velvet curtains that kept the world at bay. But now Sally began to order things in her mind— grief and joy, dollars and cents, a baby's cry and the look on her face when you blew her a kiss on a windy afternoon. Such things might be worth something, a glance, a peek, a deeper look.”
Practical Magic
This book came out in 1975, yet it's amazingly honest, comfortable, and sex-positive. Judy Blume presents sex not as a foreign thing or a sinful thing, but as a thing real teenagers do and talk about. It is neither preachy nor lenient, neither lewd nor prudish. In this story, sex just is what it is. She covers birth control, Planned Parenthood, pregnancy, abortion, and the emotional side to a physical relationship. Blume also does not pretend that a girl's first time is the way it is in other books (unbearably painful or unimaginably blissful, take your pick), nor is her first sexual partner the only one she will ever have in her life. Honest is the best way to describe this book. The main character, Katherine, becomes sexually active in a natural way, and makes real, natural decisions. I didn't read anything that was unrealistic or cliche. This was my first time reading it, and I definitely think this should be something girls read before making decisions about their bodies and their relationships.
This is a pretty solid primer for those who don't know much about astrology. It taught me quite a lot, even though this is not my first astrological read. The jargon can get repetitious at times, but I think that benefits the newbie because it helps form associations between the planets/signs and their corresponding energies. I certainly don't think this is the be-all-end-all of astrology books. It's a pretty good starting point, but there's a LOT out there that goes a bit deeper than Orion does.
This started out as a heartbreaking look into a woman's life under Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Parts 1 and 2 were poignant, touching, and often very sad. Part 3 didn't quite have the same effect. In fact, I skimmed quite a bit in Part 3. I had a problem with the writing as well. Some of her passages were romantic and tearjerking, especially those dealing with her love for Yan. However, she doesn't use quotation marks, which made reading dialogue often confusing and awkward. I cried a couple times reading this book, and I think it will sit on my heart for a while. It could have been better written, though.
Checked this out in a effort to further my knowledge of the birth chart and its elements. I was slightly confused/disappointed when I first started reading this. My North Node is in the sign Scorpio. I read what Spiller had to say about tendencies of Scorpio North Node people and found them less than resonant. However, a quick check of my chart showed me that my North Node is also in the 4th house (which is associated with the sign Cancer–unrelated in this instance). I found this section of the book much more representative of my tendencies. I think that this is a compassionately written book, always reminding the reader that the North Node is not indicative of your set-in-stone destiny. It is indicative of things you probably struggle with right now, and can hinder your growth. I think anyone interested in astrology should check this out.
Spotted this on the bookshelf at the library and decided to take a look. Since it's a heavy book meant to be used as reference material, I didn't find it necessary to read each page. I just read the information that was most relevant for me. I think that this would be a neat addition to my bookshelf, as it contains quite a bit of information about ruling planets and the signs associated with them. I could see myself using this book to learn more about other people in my life. It is set up in a way that lets the reader go from chapter to chapter and find their birthday planet's corresponding sign. I found out a bit about my own personality reading about Venus, which happened to be in Gemini when I was born. I don't consider this book's information to be the “whole story” of my personality and soul, just as I don't consider any one element of esoterica to be the whole story. I consider ruling planets to be an equal-sized puzzle piece to be reflected on along with other pieces in one's birth chart. A picture cannot be seen by viewing only one puzzle piece; they have to be put together!
This was a fairly entertaining little book in the same vein as Lemony Snicket. It's dark enough to be striking and mysterious, yet it isn't overly macabre. It deals with topics like death and loss in a mature, optimistic way. Something was missing, though. The characterization was missing that special quality that would help me remember these colorful folks after closing the book. It also lacked suspense, an important quality in a story about murder, ghosts, and graveyards. It is clear that Gaiman is skillful with prose, and I would probably enjoy some of his adult works much more.
I didn't finish this. Similarly to The Road of Lost Innocence, I recognize that this is a good story. However, it was monotone and even and bereft of personality. If I cannot connect to the speaker as a person and not as words on a page, it is difficult for me to connect with the story. If nothing else, the book introduced me to the Hmong people and their strife during the late 1970s and 1980s in Laos.