This book was totally getting 5 stars because it’s beyond good. It’s one of those books that makes you smell the horse droppings on the dirty London street and see the smog building in the chilly morning air as Oliver Twist wanders by with his grubby little face begging for more gruel. But then Faber decided he was tired of writing and the conclusion of this book literally gets into a hackney carriage and clip clops away into oblivion. And then I was angry. But […]
The Great Alaskan Memoir
Leigh Newman is hysterical, and also heartbreaking, and also insightful, and also unexpected, and so very, very human. I devoured this memoir in two days because I just kept needing to know what happened to her. “Still Points North” chronicles Newman’s life growing up between the Alaskan wilderness with her dad, and the wealthy suburbs of Maryland with her mom. Her prose is at once funny to the point of hilarity and heart wrenching as you watch her middle school self struggle with her parents’ […]
Aliens?
I will admit I had serious reservations about this book going in. And even into the first three chapters, the only thing that kept going through my head was: But for the most part, this book blew my socks off in the best possible way, and I’m really glad I didn’t DNF it after those first few chapters. “Gods without Men” has a very “Station 11” feel to its structure, and if you liked “Station 11”, I would highly suggest this book. Centered around a […]
Everyone Just LOVED Each Other
This was my first experience with YA non-fiction, and while this was incredibly well researched, interesting, and at times even heartbreaking, I found myself slightly annoyed at the word choice for much of this book. “Charles and Emma” chronicles an exceptionally detailed account of Charles and Emma Darwin’s life both professionally and familial from right before their wedding in 1839 to Emma’s death in 1896. It’s beautifully researched, with quotations from articles, diaries, personal letters, and an abundance of primary documentation. But the language….As usual, […]
The Dangers of Biographical Non-fiction
This was an excellent book that is part journalistic inquiry, part court-room drama, and part social discourse. Janet Malcolm is an experienced journalist who receives a mysterious letter from a lawyer suggesting that a libel court case may ruin the entire professional sphere of journalism. Malcolm takes the bait and begins investigating the already exhaustively investigated murder trial of a Dr. Jeff MacDonald and his follow up libel case with his court-biographer, Joseph McGrinnis. Throughout her book, Malcolm chronicles how Dr. MacDonald came to be […]
Never Rate a Book By Your Professor
Being objective is much harder when you know the author and she happens to be your professor. I decided to read Rene Steinke’s book as part of a ‘teaching early composition’ class I’m taking over the summer since “Friendswood” has been adopted as our official ‘college book’ for the year. It was good. There were even parts that made me feel things, and that’s really the whole goal of any book; to stir the emotions enough to make the reader feel something. But this wasn’t […]
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