I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long, long time. Finally, I galloped through it this afternoon, and already I want to read it over again. It’s what Eric Gansworth’s If I Ever Get Out of Here wanted to be. It’s what so many young adult novels want to be. Junior (aka Arnold Spirit) has 99 problems, and extra cerebral fluid in the brain is just one of them. He also is part of the Spokane Reservation, which means he’s super poor. And […]
A Retelling of Great Gatsby That Works
I first learned about Ms. Benincasa in 2008, when her Sarah Palin videos were making the rounds online. I can’t recall what happened to bring her to my attention a couple of years later, but I started listening to her “Sex and Other Human Activities” podcast (R.I.P.). Thankfully that led me to “Radio Dispatch” and my now-favorite daily news/cat stories/activism show “Citizen Radio”. In 2012, her first book, Agorafabulous!, was the first book I purchased for my first e-reader. So what I’m saying is, I […]
I Caved In – And It Was Worth It
Still on vacation, a friend mentioned this book and I was reminded that I wanted to read it. I’d heard about it a lot (although wasn’t clear on what it was exactly about), and much like the Hunger Games trilogy, I figure if I’m going to end up seeing the movie, maybe I should read the book. I started it at 10AM, and with the exceptions of stopping for lunch and a trip to the pioneer cemetery, I read non-stop until 6PM, when I finished […]
“That’s when I decide that shoveling elephant shit would be better than this.”
So the key to good fiction is that it feels real, yes? That whatever you’re reading – from some space alien wandering the galaxies afraid of the unending space, to a little boy with a purple crayon that can create his own moon if he chooses to – seems as real to as you are, sitting in your chair, or stretching out across your bed turning pages, or running for the bus, listening to the words in your headphones. That’s all I’m ever looking for, […]
Running Mazes, Scorching Trials, and Curing Death. Of course it’s a YA trilogy!
Thomas wakes up one day to find himself in a field with other boys surrounding him. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Same as the others before him. He soon learns he is trapped in a maze and joins their quest to find a way out. This series starts as many YA series do. Strong, compelling, slightly twisted. But by book three, I find myself back to 2006, watching the third season of LOST – frusterated, confused, and […]
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