for those of you who are mercifully new here, here's what that means: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplmy becoming-a-genius project, part 9!
for those of you who are mercifully new here, here's what that means: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
this is doubly helpful because this book has been LANGUISHING on my shelves for four years. and also because i love roald dahl's children's fiction and have been meaning to read his adult stuff.
DAY 1: MADAME ROSETTE this is reminding me that somehow in my childhood collection of Roald Dahl books, not only his memoir of his childhood, but his later military memoir was mixed in - so between reading about bookworms with low-grade superpowers and fantastical chocolate factories, i was also reading about pilots shooting down airplanes and killing people. very normal. this is also reminding me that i did enjoy that book. even if this is just a way worse version of it. rating: 3
DAY 2: MAN FROM THE SOUTH in order for this story to work, you have to be able to imagine that the majority of people value their own fingers less than a fancy rich person car. as someone who doesn't drive and doesn't appreciate cars, i can't tell whether this is absurd or whether i'm just better than everyone else. rating: 2.5
DAY 3: THE SOUND MACHINE very frightened of the idea that every time a flower is picked or a tree is chopped down or a vegetable is pulled it screams bloody murder. going to delete that thought from my brain straightaway. rating: 3
DAY 4: TASTE not sure if i'm entering a reading slump or am simply busy, but it's actually day 6, so either way...let's play catch up! this is a little predictable but also satisfying. sometimes even clichéd stories are fun if they're the best possible version of the cliché. rating: 3.5
DAY 5: DIP IN THE POOL this is a spooky one. roald dahl's brain contains multitudes. rating: 4
DAY 6: SKIN caught up! look at us go. the title of this one is a lil creepy so i am predisposed to be frightened. just the word skin? no other words? come on. upon finishing this: see above description of day 5. rating: 3.5
DAY 7: EDWARD THE CONQUEROR eek. i loved this one. rating: 4.5
DAY 8: LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER i read this in an eighth-grade specialized english class (it was called Young Playwrights and we had to write a play by the end of it - i think i wrote mine in 3 days and it was possibly one of the worst pieces of writing ever to be taken seriously by a teacher). it was extremely badass at the time and we were also all like roald dahl? mr willy wonka? he wrote this? the coolest thing to a group of fourteen year old nerds is a children's fiction writer also having a crazy crime murder situation happening on the side. anyway, it's even better than i remember it being. rating: 5
DAY 9: GALLOPING FOXLEY immediately i'm thinking about Fantastic Mr. Fox, simultaneously the most underrated Roald Dahl book and the most underrated Wes Anderson movie. think i'm due for a reread/rewatch combo. the other day i was talking with a friend about how working is way better remotely, and the only sad loss when it comes to office life is commuting. this made me feel that 10x harder. then i kept reading and promptly didn't feel that way anymore. rating: 3
DAY 10: THE WAY UP TO HEAVEN i have a huge soft spot for the name "idlewild," due to reasons i will not disclose in order to avoid doxxing myself. big girlboss energy on this one. rating: 4.5
DAY 11: PARSON'S PLEASURE so two stories ago there's a title with Fox in it and now there's one about a Mr. Boggis? you're killing me, Dahl. i got so overly invested in this one, i can't even explain to you. might f*ck around and move to rural new england and be the kind of person who eats scones and goes antiquing now that i've discovered this. rating: 4
DAY 12: THE LANDLADY in the grand tradition of this genius project, i forgot about this on a saturday and am now playing catch up on a sunday. a good old-fashioned creeper! rating: 3.5
DAY 13: WILLIAM AND MARY not for me, this one. rating: 2
DAY 14: MRS. BIXBY AND THE COLONEL'S COAT reading this story felt like when i found out that Midsommar is a gender-swapped retelling of Ari Aster's relationship problems. i'm always on team woman. rating: 2.5
DAY 15: ROYAL JELLY BEE BABY BEE BABY BEE BABY rating: 3
DAY 16: GEORGY PORGY immediately i am thinking what a plague to be named georgy porgy. i do not know if that is someone's name but the mere thought of something even tangentially similar...debilitating. there is something so creepy about adult men who are obsessed with their mothers. i don't even like thinking about it. anyway, as i read more and more of this book i'm finding it difficult to believe roald dahl wasn't something of a misogynist, which is a pretty huge bummer. rating: 2
DAY 17: GENESIS AND CATASTROPHE ya girl got vaccine round 1 today! i am tired and grumpy and my arm kinda hurts and i don't want to do this, but at the same time, in a much more real way, i'm addicted to posting so i'm in. this is the dumbest sh*t IMAGINABLE. it's about hitler's birth, and his parents are all praying for his survival and being like "pleaaaase god be merciful to him" but like...what is deep about that? genuinely? a whole lot of nothing. like, whoa, once upon a time, hitler was born. mind blown. a thought that could only come from the intrepid mind of roald dahl. like i said. i'm grumpy. but this would be laughable on a good day. "fraulein hitler your baby is born" give me a break rating: 1
DAY 18: PIG uh...this is a long one and i feel slumpy. sounds like a problem for future me. this actually isn't that long. it just fooled me by having chapters. (what kind of a short story has chapters??) anyway now i've sentenced myself to playing catch-up on a saturday, when usually i skip saturday altogether. my life is so hard. this one is just completely bizarre. not scary. not particularly well-written or interesting. just weird. rating: 2
DAY 19: THE VISITOR now, this one...this one is long. and it sucked. there is truly no more boring story than one about a sexist, racist white guy. rating: 1
DAY 20: CLAUD'S DOG this one is the longest of all AND is coming when i have the least enthusiasm for this project. almost impressive timing. this was just very boring and also kind of gross and depressing. it's also not one story, it's like 5, and the first few have nothing at all to do with the last couple. i call that Unnecessary. AND, to make matters worse, the last micro-short-story in this set is called The Champion of the World and it's literally a worse version of Danny, the Champion of the World. it's as if the collection itself set out to prove my opinion that roald dahl is just way better at children's fiction. UGH. i'm grumpy as hell. rating: 2
DAY 21: THE GREAT SWITCHEROO folks...we are so close to being done with this. the word "switcheroo" is fun and childlike and whimsical, so maybe this will be a good one. ... okay, immediately no. any protagonist with an internal monologue that refers to a woman as "my gorgeous and juicy little jewel" is no friend of mine. aaaand this whole thing is about sexual assault. rating: 1
DAY 22: THE BOY WHO TALKED WITH ANIMALS only three days after this one, y'all. mercy nears. i actually liked this one quite a bit. it was nice. rating: 4.5
DAY 23: THE HITCHHIKER who would have ever expected how badly this project would go? devastating stuff. also how do i go from having 7 successes in a row to 2 failures in a row??? the universe is no fan of mine. any story that feels like it could have been written for children, like this one, is a 10/10. but the trouble is roald dahl keeps feeling the need to flesh out these characters, and he does so by making them misogynistic racist creeps with nightmare brains. not so in this one, though! rating: 4
DAY 24: THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR well, roald, it's our penultimate day together! if time doesn't go by so fast...and by fast i mean achingly, unrelentingly slow. (on a sidenote, can you imagine looking another human being in the eyes and calling them "roald"? seems cruel and unusual.) i am extraordinarily excited for this one (and at this point in this project, mild enthusiasm would rank as extraordinary, but still) because another entry in my childhood collection of roald dahl books was entitled The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. are you impressed i remember even the number of stories? because i am. anyway, i recollect this as being a delight, and therefore i'm not even that mad that this "short story" is 52 pages long. great news: i still love this. rating: 5
DAY 25: THE BOOKSELLER everyone knows that i, like every reader, am ready to love every book about books, so i feel optimistic about this. also i'm bound to feel optimistic, because this project is DONE TODAY. or this installment of it. don't think you're getting off that easy. aaaaand nope. nope nope nope. rating: 1.5
OVERALL there are a few good ones in here - or okay more than a few - but overall roald dahl's fiction when it isn't for children is filled with creeps and grossos and sex criminals and racists and more often than not all of them combined. what a bummer. rating: 2.5...more
my greatest achievement in this life - and something i still bring up literally every time i have the chance - is that i read this book for a freshmanmy greatest achievement in this life - and something i still bring up literally every time i have the chance - is that i read this book for a freshman-year college lit class and was constantly bugging everyone by talking about how much the text itself really seemed to hate women.
i may not have been as capable then as now of separating the narrator from the author, but i had the ability. and i was like...something is off here.
everyone disagreed with me all the time forever.
and then junot díaz got #MeToo'd.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago...more
Everyone said it. Everyone in the whole world agreed: this book is lovable as hell. Everyone stated, in unison, “It is impossible noFINE. I’M CHARMED.
Everyone said it. Everyone in the whole world agreed: this book is lovable as hell. Everyone stated, in unison, “It is impossible not to fall in love with A Man Called Ove.”
I, the queen of unpopular opinions (yes people definitely call me that, and not just me, in an attempt to get people to think it’s a nickname and start using it), thought I knew better.
I did not know better.
This book sneaks right into your heart. Even if you think you have a heart of stone, surrounded by a tall wall and lava and three moats with sea monsters in them, this story will crawl in when you’re not paying attention and it WILL NOT LEAVE. It will use its wittiness and its likable Scandinavian style and its grumpy protagonist and its ragtag cast of characters and its unsentimentally related moments of pure sadness, and it will make you love it. If aliens wanted to invade the world, and they wanted to take over through the sheer power of affection and charm, they could do it with A Man Called Ove and we would all be powerless to stop it.
My recommendation: Don’t try to stop it. Read this book.
(And HELP ME THE ALIENS HAVE GOT ME they’ve got everyone they’re COMIGN FOR YOU NEXT DON’T READ THIS BOOK--IT’S HOW THEY GET YOU--IT’S HOW THEY INVADEEEFGJHSEGFSHJDFSHHFS///////////////////////
Bottom line: I, Emma, recommend this book and have definitely not been taken over by aliens!
------------ pre-review
okay FINE so maybe everyone was right.
review to come
------------ currently-reading updates
if I don't like this book, I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to sue the whole world...more
I put reviews off for as long as humanly possible. Consistently.
It’s what I do! I procrastinate. And then I finally post a review and I’m adorably likI put reviews off for as long as humanly possible. Consistently.
It’s what I do! I procrastinate. And then I finally post a review and I’m adorably like “look at me post this three months after I read it lolol” and everyone loves it and we all hug and drink tea or whatever.
That’s a usual occurrence.
But I have now outdone even myself.
I am writing this review a year after I read the book.
Yes, you read that correctly. One calendar year after I read this book, I am attempting to share my thoughts on it with you.
All that I remember about this at this point is the circumstances in which I read it and the overall feeling it gave me. So let’s talk about those two scintillating things.
This is, in its simplest terms, a book about the Vietnam War. Its protagonist and most of its characters are Vietnamese, and portions of it take place in Vietnam.
I read the majority of this on the thirty-six hour plane voyage it takes to get to and from Vietnam. So honestly I don’t think I could’ve given this book a better chance to be totally goddamn awesome, other than if I had read it while I wasn’t getting up from my window seat every hour on the hour for the dual purpose of having cute, classy panic attacks while sitting on a plane toilet and escaping the guy next to me, who was actively having a mental breakdown and hadn’t stopped talking in three hours.
That is actually true. I know I love to exaggerate for the sake of humor, but some of the worst moments of my life took place while I was trapped in a tin can for eighteen hours with only the first five movies of the Fast and Furious franchise to keep me company. (Great film selection on that plane, too.)
Anyway.
We covered circumstances: let’s talk Overall Emotion.
This book made me feel Bad. Mainly uncomfortable. It’s incredibly violent, with moments of really strange humor. Despite being told from the perspective of a spy (what’s the name for a spy who’s pretending to be one side but is really on the other? DOUBLE AGENT. Nailed it) it’s not very thrilling or sneaky or spooky. There’s a lot of talk of alcohol.
But overall, I see the Literary Appeal (capital letters very important) of this book. It just wasn’t myyyy kind of literary appeal.
I spent a lot more time talking about a plane ride I took once than the actual book in this review. Seems about right.
Bottom line: Not for me!!! For you, maybe??? ...more
Guys, I have a huge favor to ask you. Putnam asked me to review this book way back a few months ago, and now IThis book = THE ME I’M TRYNA BE IN 2017.
Guys, I have a huge favor to ask you. Putnam asked me to review this book way back a few months ago, and now I finally got to do it! But could you guys please check out the full review on my blog? It's right here: https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co.... I'm so honored they asked me and I'd love for them to want to work with me in the future so please give that a like!
[image]
Although given the silliness of this review, that probably won't happen. You can take the girl out of the proper situation for a goofy review, but you can't take the tendency to write goofy reviews out of the girl.
[image]
God, I love Ryan Gosling. Anyway, please check out that review!! Thanks, guys. Wouldn't be here without ya :P...more
I bought this book on November 8, 2016, and then I somehow picked it up by sheer coincidence precisely on November 8, 2020.
In spite of this divine coiI bought this book on November 8, 2016, and then I somehow picked it up by sheer coincidence precisely on November 8, 2020.
In spite of this divine coincidence, I did not like the read much.
If I had read it when I actually bought it, I probably would have, but I think I've evolved past this kind of unilateral-view things-are-sad white-woman-book-club energy. Societally, we all have. In the early 2000s, maybe we only had room for 1 feeling about Afghanistan (or okay, 1 in addition to War), but now we can have complex views of places. And I wish this were a more complex narrative than Suffering.
Also, the treatment of hijabs and burqas in this book explains why white women thought their sole quest on this earth was to """free""" Muslim women from """having""" to wear them.
This was not a terrible book at all, but it just is no longer my cup of tea.
I can count clearing it off of my incredibly aged owned TBR as a win, though.
Bottom line: Good! Just not for me.
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the hits keep coming and they don't stop coming
review to come / 2.5 stars
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my passions include: owning books for years before even considering picking them up...more
I am not even talking about the cover - although actually, let’s take a second to talk about the cover. LOOK AT THIS COVER! This book is so beautiful.
I am not even talking about the cover - although actually, let’s take a second to talk about the cover. LOOK AT THIS COVER! Are you seeing it? So lovely. So so pretty. Looooook aaaaaaattttt itttttttt.
Okay, now that we’ve done that.
This book is so beautiful.
I don’t know what I expected. I honestly don’t really know why I picked this up, besides the aforementioned pretty-cover thing. I’m not a huge sci-fi person. I’m definitely not a huge post-apocalyptic dystopian person. (We all lived through the time when YA just seemed like different iterations of the exact same dystopian plotline. Like, were there not at least two years in which every YA book was the Hunger Games and Divergent under a different title, but somehow increasingly bland? Anyway.)
I don’t know what tempted me to pick this up, but good golly am I glad I did. (And good golly am I sorry I just used the term “good golly.”)
Because, again, this book is so, so beautiful.
It’s gorgeously written. Every time I stumble across a beautifully written book, I feel so lucky about it. It’s hard to stumble upon truly lovely prose, and I certainly never expected it from an Apocalypse Book, but holy sh*t is it what I received. The writing is enchanting.
It’s also gorgeously characterized. There are a lot of characters in this book, many of whom are introduced all at once, and many of whom get very little coverage in the book. But somehow……..none of them feel flat. They’re not easy to confuse with one another. Somehow, without your noticing, this book will get you to care about a dozen or so people. (And they really feel like people.)
And its themes are gorgeous, too. I can’t imagine anyone coming out of this story and not feeling newly in love with life and with the world. Civilization just seems so wondrous after this. I looked at so many commonplace things in a whole new light.
This book is sad, and lovely, and exciting, and slow, and true, and earnest, and caring, and sweet, and cruel, and real, and above all it is so, so beautiful.
Bottom line: Everything about this is an unexpected gift.
---------------- pre-review i am Overwhelmed by Beauty and Meaning and Good Things and there is simply no way i can really rate this at this time, let alone review it.
review (& final rating) to come, when i've redeveloped some semblance of personhood
---------------- tbr review
honestly can't believe i've waited so long to read a book with a cover this pretty...more
I’ve never read anything like this book before!! And I’m also pretty certain I never will again. It didn’t drip with gaudy description, but I could picture everything. I can’t remember the last time I felt that way. Also, I loved that like, the most insanely background characters were fuller than most YA protagonists. Because y’all know I’m a sucker for a good character.
I like to think I’m a pretty smart person, but I was pretty much confused for the entirety of those 388 pages. Granted, I’m not really an expert on space or math or anything (English, you may not be surprised to learn, is my main schtick) but I did feel stupid every once in awhile (usually when I felt like my lack of understanding was making me miss a major plot point). Sometimes that was fine, and sometimes it was too much.
388 pages may not seem like a lot, but they were huge pages and a fairly small font and this book did drag a bit sometimes. (May have to do with how hard it could be to read.)
But I’m still givin’ it the big 4, because it’s so insane and imaginative and unique and really more of an Experience than a book. And you can’t undermine that.
Bottom line: if you have a lot of energy, a not-too-busy week, and confidence in your own intelligence that can withstand this, get your hands on a copy!!
P.S. How'd I forget to mention how much I love this guy's writing style?! Like:
Dear Mr. Scott Hawkins, Do you have any grocery lists I can read? Also: thank you for your book. Also also: how in the hell did you come up with ANY of it. Much love, respect, gratitude, etc., Some idiot...more
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 boowelcome to...PROJECT 5 STAR.
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 books), and so part of that will include revisiting every book i've ever rated as perfect!
please join me in praying that this project is whimsical and optimistic instead of a devastating loss of all my favorites.
this is one of my earliest favorites, and i remember it almost not at all, and i am nearly certain it won't hold up.
but life is about adventure.
and ultimately this is just as simple and lovely as i remember, and just as much a part of my favorite cross-media subgenre (Everyday Life Is So Stunning And Magical In Its Mundanity), but it does have some weirdnesses i didn't recall.
still an enjoyable read!
bottom line: from a five star fav to a four star fav!
-------------------- original review
i love translated books and i read this in one sitting. i also love character-driven novels. i love this man, this happiest man on earth, and his simple story. initially i gave this 3.5, but i'm dumb. this is a 5 star read....more
welcome back to project 5 star, in which i ill-advisedly pick up books i remember fondly and put them to the test of my current evil mind.
and, well.
i'welcome back to project 5 star, in which i ill-advisedly pick up books i remember fondly and put them to the test of my current evil mind.
and, well.
i'd like to apologize for 18 year old me. she knew not what she'd wrought.
this does have moments of true loveliness and piercing observations of the human experience, but it is so weighed down in pretension and gimmicks that it's almost impossible to see to them.
it was actually all i could do to get through this book, which shifts between three perspectives that each manage to be as unreadable as the last. our characters — 18th century residents of a shtetl, a metafiction JSF, and a pathetic tour guide named alex — have the power to be memorable and real, but are only the former.
and not in a nice way.
sorry to the ex-boyfriend who bought me a signed first edition of this.
bottom line: people change! it's a bummer. kinda.
2.5
----------------- original review
(view spoiler)[when it's 1:20 a.m. and you're thinking about your favorite book of the year (so far) again and you realize you never posted your review and you just havetohavetohaveto let everyone know how much you loved it.
This book was incredible. Truly. I’ve taken the last hour or two to just kind of continue with my life and try to absorb that experience. Because even though I’ve been reading this book for almost three weeks (bananas long for me), it still feels like one cohesive experience.
I just want to quote this book to you, if that’s okay. Just for a hot sec.
“There is no love--only the end of love.”
Between a grandfather and a grandson: “(You have ghosts?) (Of course I have ghosts.) (What are your ghosts like?) (They are on the inside of the lids of my eyes.) (This is also where my ghosts reside.) (You have ghosts?) (Of course I have ghosts.) (But you are a child.) (I am not a child.) (But you have not known love.) (These are my ghosts. The spaces amid love.)”
Maybe quoting it wasn’t a good idea, because I want to give swaths of it to you all. I’ll end up trying to trick you into reading by including ever-lengthening passages.
These characters may very well stay with me for the rest of my life. Lovely Alex, with his love for his brother and his grandiose lies and his dashed dreams and his wonderfully terrible English (“Did you manufacture any Zs?”). The metafiction how-much-is-real Jonathan Safran Foer, dedicated to his notebook, staunch vegetarian. Brod and her 613 sadnesses, her love for everyone and everything and no one and nothing. The Gypsy girl whose heart broke for Safran, whom she did not love, and his books organized by the colors of their spines. The shtetl of Trachimbrod, its Trachimday and the Time of Dyed Hands and surname-initialed residents (Bitzl Bitzl R was my favorite).
This book sometimes gave me a feeling like my heart was swelling up. My hand twitched for a pencil or a Post-It while I read these lovely words, but I was always too absorbed and soon forgot what I was trying to remember to do. That feeling is why I read.
This was slow to start, and I almost--god forbid--DNFed it. Can you imagine? Even two-thirds in I contemplated three stars, sadly reminiscing on my vast love of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
I know this review isn’t of YA, or a book that’s “in” right now, or a new release. I still hope you guys read this and will consider picking it up, though. Because I want to live inside this book.
Bottom line: I don’t even know what to say. I so badly want you to read it. But if you do and you don’t like it, even when you get to the beautiful, beautiful last seventy-five pages, please don’t tell me.
this is true even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (shoutout to that natalie portman i have a soft spot for jonathan safran foer.
this is true even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (shoutout to that natalie portman email correspondence, cringe both in content and in the fact that he thought they were in love because of it and left his poor wife (if she has a gofundme i'll truly donate. talk about a fate worse than death)).
it's true even though i've only read two of his books and will probably never know more than that.
and it's true in spite of the fact that in both books, his writing has been heavy-handed, and self-indulgent, and generally of the type of unrelenting style that makes it very difficult to lose yourself in the act of reading.
in short, this book is unbelievably, almost disarmingly pretentious, which is better at some points than others, but if you allow yourself to look past it and ignore certain perspectives entirely (yes that does mean half the book), it can still be a good time.
the flaws of safran foer's books — characters and scenes that border on the fantastical, a pervasive feeling of try-hard-iness (to coin a word) — are also their greatest strengths. in this book, this culminates in our dual points of view. oskar is so unforgettable, even if he is completely unrealistic, that it seems like an unforgivable crime that this book has other (far worse) perspectives.
but if you can ignore them, this book is a treat.
bottom line: this book is corny, and overwrought, and silly, and unrealistic, and i have a fondness for at least half of it anyway.
3.5
-------------------- original review
i reread this book as part of project five star, in which i reread old favorites and see if they're still favorites. the review from when this was one is below.
(view spoiler)[WARNING: EARNEST REVIEW AHEAD. Very genuine and emotional and generally gross.
I love Jonathan Safran Foer. I love him even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (have you read that New York Times piece made up of email correspondence between Natalie Portman and himself? Perma-cringe). I love him even though I’ve only read two of his books and may never read more than that. I love him even though absolutely the only thing I care to know about him is his writing.
When someone writes the way he does, there’s no response to have, for me, other than that.
The flaws of his books - characters and scenes that can border on the fantastical, a pervasive feeling of try-hard-iness (to coin a word) - are so easily overlooked. Not even, actually. I fell and fall so deeply in love with his writing that these things seem like positives too.
I like that our main character, Oskar Schell, feels a tad too big and vibrant for the world. It makes me love him harder, experience his too-big feelings more. I especially like his unbelievability because he’s surrounded by lovely mundanity: flawed but loving parents, countless beautiful and unremarkable people of New York.
I love, love, love his quest through the city to meet everyone he can with the last name Black. I like the impossibility of it, the various things that come together to make it “possible” when even those various things seem deeply unrealistic.
I like the sometimes-eye-rolly ways that the author plays with formatting and perspective and language. It doesn’t take me out. It wraps me up more.
Bottom line: I like all the things that make this book beautiful and completely one of a kind. Even the over-the-top things. (hide spoiler)]...more
this is one of those books that every semi-young male high school english teacher that everyone has a crush on, not because he's hot particularly but this is one of those books that every semi-young male high school english teacher that everyone has a crush on, not because he's hot particularly but just because it's a desperate times / desperate measures scenario, is invariably obsessed with.
but in this case, that aging 6 with slightly too long hair is correct. because this book is so good.
i have been assigned this book in either 2 or 3 classes and definitely read it at least 1.5 of those times, which is saying a lot, since i ascribe to the belief that if i read a book once in school it stays permanently in my brain forever and i am a genius from then on, never needing to so much as think about it again.
this one actually is memorable to me, even though i read it 6 years ago when i was seventeen years old and waking up at 6 a.m. on a regular basis, a lifestyle i find unimaginable now.
anyway. this is both a standout in the War genre (not my favorite) and in the radical-and-somewhat-experimental-look-how-cool-literature-can-be genre (which i just made up and is my favorite).
long way of saying this is good stuff.
this is part of a project i am doing sometimes, as in three times every two years or so, where i review a book i read a long time ago. how fun for us all....more
among the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-pamong the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-plus since i read it....more
this was pretty badass, for being a high school english class reading assignment.
however, i had exactly 0 critical thoughts about it. if there is anytthis was pretty badass, for being a high school english class reading assignment.
however, i had exactly 0 critical thoughts about it. if there is anything wrong with this book, i would not know. or anything particularly right, for that matter.
you take the wins with the losses, i guess.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago...more
one time i was reading this in the hallway before high school started, and my AP english teacher (who we called "the business pirate" due to his overaone time i was reading this in the hallway before high school started, and my AP english teacher (who we called "the business pirate" due to his overall aesthetic) stopped me to ask what i was reading. he asked me what it was about and i said it was the collected stories of a very promising writer who had died tragically and unexpectedly in a car accident just after graduating from Yale, to which he replied that that must make a very interesting theme for the stories.
so it is thus that i have been cursed for the last six years to wonder whether my AP english teacher knows how and when he will die, and just assumes everyone else knows too.
besides the overall memorable quality that haunting interaction lended this story, this is very memorable in and of itself. it's an excellent collection and i want to reread it and it's a huge loss for us all that marina keegan will not have a prolific literary career.
this is part of a project i am doing where i review books i read a long time ago, and also spend a lot of time reflecting on high school....more
the worst thing that can happen to you is liking a book fine, then letting years pass, then remembering there are sequels.
what do i do here?! do i drthe worst thing that can happen to you is liking a book fine, then letting years pass, then remembering there are sequels.
what do i do here?! do i drop everything and restart? do i keep ignoring it and pretend nothing happened? am i physically capable of leaving a series unfinished?
help.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago, but it's more of a cry for help usually. of the literal and the figurative varieties...more
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