So I read Girls on Fire immediately after the lovely summer romance of Aristotle & Dante, and while listening to the audiobook of The Rest of Us Just Live Here (which I’m about to review, but let me just say here that it featured some of my favorite YA characters/relationships EVER). So maybe those warm and fuzzy feelings just accentuated the awfulness of the girls in this novel. But really — I totally wanted to actually set these bitches on fire. “I took up space. I was a collection […]
A brief grown up book before I post 3 more YA reviews
There’s a lot of bitching in this memoir, but the writing is funny enough to balance out the more curmudgeonly bits. And the author’s message is important enough to make it all worth it in the end. “You don’t get rewarded for creating great technology, not anymore,” says a friend of mine who has worked in tech since the 1980s, a former investment banker who now advises start-ups. “It’s all about the business model. The market pays you to have a company that scales quickly. […]
A really good story trapped behind some not so great writing
I read some article the other day (Buzzfeed? Bookriot) that listed books with really great opening lines. I got a few from the library, and finished this one first. The opening line isn’t really that stellar — “One summer I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke.” — but the book itself has a really beautiful story. “I wanted to tell them that I’d never had a friend, not ever, not a real one. Until Dante.” Aristotle and Dante, two teenage boys in El Paso […]
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand, I’ve been standing on the edge with you for years.”
I’ve only read one other book by Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak), but this woman definitely knows how to write effective, moving YA. I feel the need to go get everything she’s ever written after finishing The Impossible Knife of Memory. “Leaning against my father, the sadness finally broke open inside me, hollowing out my heart and leaving me bleeding. My feet felt rooted in the dirt. There were more than two bodies buried here. Pieces of me that I didn’t even know were under the ground. Pieces of […]
I’d like to nominate Fisher to Go Fug Yourself’s Drinks with Broads club
Look, Carrie Fisher is awesome, right? We can all agree on that? This book is a meandering mess of stories, with no clear thread to connect them and some pretty crazy turns towards the end. But Carrie Fisher is awesome, so you should read it anyway — for all of its hot mess-ness, it’s still pretty freaking funny. “You see, even after decades of therapy and workshops and retreats and twelve-steps and meditation and even experiencing a very weird session of rebirthings, even after rappeling down […]
Gotta watch out for that lizard brain
I’ve never read anything by Sophie Kinsella — I mostly associate her with the Shopaholic series, which isn’t really my thing. But I kept seeing great reviews for this one — plus the cover is so freaking cute — so I downloaded the audiobook from the library and tried it out. I’m glad I did — it was really a good story. “I think what I’ve realized is, life is all about climbing up, slipping down, and picking yourself up again. And it doesn’t matter if you slip […]
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