I read The Fever and was drawn in to the dark underworld of female adolescence. In this earlier novel, Megan Abbott deftly explores the sexual tensions, hierarchy, and desire for power that undergird female relationships in high school. This time, Dare Me is about cheer squads. It’s no sassy Bring It On pep rally, either. Rather, it focuses on Addy Hanlon, a second-in-command to cheer captain Beth Cassidy, whose reign of terror has brought her power and glory throughout grade school, JV, and now through […]
Marian Foster and Holly Golightly are not so different from each other
I’m doing that thing again where I read all the books by my favorite author. It’s okay, though, I really like being an expert in my favorites. And Willa Cather is definitely a new favorite. Now that I’ve read her most famous stuff, I’m hoping to read all her less known novels. A Lost Lady is about the enigmatic but charismatic Marian Forrester, a beautiful woman married to a much older man and living in the somewhat remote railroad town of Sweet Water. As a […]
A gorgeous short story collection
It seems that most, if not all, of my favorite contemporary authors are putting out books in the next year. I feel grateful, and also a little nervous that it’s going to be a drought for the next two years. Oh, who am I kidding? I have so much to read anyway. My sister alerted me to the release of Stone Mattress, and I immediately put myself on the library waitlist, hoping to get it when it was first released. Sure enough, luck was with […]
A Portrait of the Artist as a Chef
Food is one of my favorite things in the world (but you all knew that). I love to cook it, to eat it, to read about it. So I was delighted that my book club decided on The Hundred-Foot Journey for our October selection. This also means that when we do meet, we’ll be eating a selection of Indian/French foods. YUM. The story itself is also tantalizing and delicious. Young Hassan Haji grows up in India where his parents run a successful restaurant, until tragedy […]
Matty is now the Messenger
In happier news, I’m reading a different YA series that is well-plotted, well-characterized, and somehow…gentler…on the human spirit. I’d always heard of The Giver but never really knew about the sequence of novels that came later. I’m really glad to be reading them. Let’s talk about Messenger. Lowry weaves together plots from The Giver and Gathering Blue with the story of Matty, now a teenager and living in Village, a haven for broken/destitute/discarded people of outlying villages. Protected by Leader and mentored by Seer, a […]
Scorch Trials? Try half-baked zombie writing, Dashner.
Despite my reservations about The Maze Runner (namely, poor plotting and lots of really gratuitous VIOLENCE), I decided to keep reading. And then, despite my reservations about The Scorch Trials, I have requested and received The Death Cure from my library. Apparently, my interest is enough to keep me going. So: Thomas and his band of Maze cohorts, including his friend Teresa, are out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak. Without giving too much away, for those of you who […]
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