I haven’t read Holes since probably sixth grade, but when I saw it for a dollar at a big library book sale, I couldn’t pass it up (I got a really cool edition, too–the cover is full of holes). I was surprised and pleased to find that it held up quite well to my memory of it. In case you’re unfamiliar with the plot, Holes stars an unlucky young man named Stanley Yelnats (Yelnats = Stanley in reverse), who descends from a long line of unlucky Stanley […]
The Cotton Queen by Pamela Morsi
A cute, fluffy little story that came as a breath of fresh air after the weighty (but still excellent) Allende book I read just before it. The Cotton Queen, which takes place in McKinney, Texas (about 10 minutes from where I was born, raised and living still!) is a story told primarily as a flashback. When Laney Hoffman’s daughter comes home as that year’s Cotton Queen and wants her mother to ride in the parade, Laney reflects on her relationship with her mother, the Cotton Queen […]
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House of the Spirits was Isabel Allende’s first novel, but it contains a lot of the elements that made me love her other books: strong women, political turmoil and wonderful, subtle magic. “At times I feel as if I had lived all this before and that I have already written these very words, but I know it was not I: it was another woman, who kept her notebooks so that one day I could use them.” The story of three generations of women: Clara […]
Sickened by Julie Gregory
Man, this was a hard book to read. But it was well-written and told an important story, and I’m glad I did read it. Gregory’s account of how she overcame her horrifying, abusive upbringing was inspiring and informative, as well as disturbing. *Review is kind of spoiler-y* “I am going to shrink and shrink until I am a dry fall leaf, complete with a translucent spine and brittle veins, blowing away in a stiff wind, up, up, up into a crisp blue sky.” Munchhausen’s, for […]
The Excursion Train by Edward Marston
Sometimes, you go to a library book sale and grab something for $1 that turns out the be awesome, like The Mexican Mafia by Tony Rafael that I found at last year’s sale, or the big pile of Isabel Allende books I hauled home. Other times, you spend $1 on a book like The Excursion Train, which despite its semi-decent Goodreads reviews was one of the dullest, most poorly written books I have read all year. Set in England in the 1800s, The Excursion Train is about a […]
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I read The Outsiders in high school. We didn’t have it as assigned reading for class, but I distinctly remember sitting in my eight grade Spanish class, ignoring my teacher while reading it under my desk (I did quite a bit of that). I remember thinking it was good, and getting sad at the sad bits, but that’s about it. After it was mentioned in great detail in Fangirl, then I saw it at a book sale for $1, I thought it might be worth a reread. […]
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