Review: The Fault in our Stars by John Green

(4.5 out of 5 stars)

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

Hello, I think I just fell in love with that sentence. So sweet, so simple, and so true. The rest of John Green’s The Fault in our Stars does not disappoint either. Green’s novel is a shining example of a young adult book that caters to all ages. As NPR so eloquently stated, “Green writes books for young adults, but his voice is so compulsively readable that it defies categorization. He writes for youth, rather than to them, and the difference is palpable…” A-GREED.

Basic plot - a sixteen year old girl named Hazel Lancaster has terminal cancer. Through a miracle drug, Philanxiphor, Hazel is able to extend her life for an indefinite amount of time. Her life is changed when she meets a boy named Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group. What begins as a mutual hatred of Support Group slowly evolves into a love story between two of the wittiest teenagers in Indiana that just happen to have cancer as well.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is beautifully written, honest and funny. Funny is hard to do when the two main characters are  cancer patients, but Green hits it out of the park, finding the perfect balance between self-deprecating humor and vulnerability. Green actually got the idea for the characters in the novel after working as a student chaplain at a children’s hospital for five months at one point in his life. It definitely shows.

Read this book ASAP so we can discuss how wonderful it is! Some of my favorite passages to entice you…

“My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.”

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout in to the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

“That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt” 

Review: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

(4 out of 5 stars)

Wild is an amazing true story about a woman named Cheryl Strayed, who goes on an 1100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest trail… ALONE. Talk about ballsy. Her journey begins in the arid Mojave Desert in Southern California and ends at the appropriately named Bridge of the Gods at the Oregon/Washington state line. (The actual Pacific Crest trail starts at the Mexico/California border and reaches all the way to Canada).

Cheryl begins the hike four years after her mother’s death. She is 26 years old, depressed and still struggling with her mother’s passing. She is living a life she is not happy with or proud of, experimenting with heroine, continuing to engage in one-night stands with a number of strangers, divorced (voluntarily) from her husband who is still the love of her life, and just plain miserable. Cheryl sees this hike as a possible solution for piecing her life back together, and decides to just go for it. She has zero experience as a long-distance hiker. She has just an idea.

I really enjoyed this memoir. It was painfully honest and vulnerable, and I, like most readers I’m sure, was cheering for Cheryl the entire way. Imagine a 26-year old girl that is so unprepared for the hike that she cannot even lift her backpack off the ground of the motel floor to begin her first day. Her feet are a constant source of pain, blisters becoming the norm rather than exception, and blackened toenails fall off gradually throughout the hike. Cheryl encounters rattlesnakes and bears, sleeps alone each night, hikes on days as hot as 110 degrees and as cold as 34 degrees, and is completely alone. She crosses ice and snow. Each car ride that she hitches, each individual that she meets, all situations are approached with extreme caution. She gets lost… a lot. She struggles with carrying too much water, not having enough water, not having enough food, and not having enough money. She is broken physically and emotionally. Yet Cheryl prevails.

A truly inspiring story. GIRL POWER is what I’m talking about. Thanks for sharing your story, Cheryl. 

Review: Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

(4 out of 5 stars)

My, my, Christopher Hitchens, what beautiful words you speak. That acerbic wit and unrelenting charm is palpable even in your last written words. Mortality is a collection of pieces written by Hitchens during his 18-month battle with esophageal cancer. Most notable is Hitchens’ unwavering view of religion as he is dying; an atheist to the end, Hitchens bravely takes an objective view of death, refusing the solace of religion that so many turn to in their final hours. I found Mortality smart, courageous, witty and honest. Highly recommend, even for those who have a different stance on religion than Hitchens.

Some quotes:

“If I convert it’s because it’s better that a believer dies than that an atheist does.” 

“To the dumb question “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: why not?” 

“I love the imagery of struggle. I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient. Allow me to inform you, though, that when you sit in a room with a set of other finalists, and kindly people bring a huge transparent bag of poison and plug it into your arm, and you either read or don’t read a book while the venom sack gradually empties itself into your system, the image of the ardent solider is the very last one that will occur to you. You feel swamped with passivity and impotence: dissolving in powerlessness like a sugar lump in water.” 

About Christopher Hitchens (from back cover of Mortality): Hitchens was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Slate, and the Atlantic, and the author of numerous books, including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and George Orwell. He also wrote the international bestsellers god Is Not Great: How Religions Poisons Everything; Hitch-22: A memoir, and Arguably. He died in 2011.

Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

(2 out of 5 stars)

I had high hopes for The Age of Miracles, but it just didn’t do the trick for me. I think the sixth grade me would’ve enjoyed it a lot. The premise is fascinating - the rotation of the earth has suddenly slowed, the days and nights grow longer, gravity is affected, plants and animals are dying, people are getting sick. All the while, life goes on and main character Julia has to face middle school, making friends, not making friends, and figuring out the boy that she likes. Perfect book for a twelve year old, right? Unfortunately, not quite there for adults. Most of the time I felt like I was doing a reading assignment for a child. It’s rare when young adult books are able to make the leap across the age boundary and appeal to readers of all ages (see The Hunger Games, Eleanor and Park). The Age of Miracles is not one of them.

Review: She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb

(2 out of 5 stars) 

I think a more appropriate title would have been “Yes, Life Can Get Shittier”. Talk about one lousy situation after another, goodness gracious. When we meet the main character in She’s Come Undone, Dolores Price, Dolores is a young girl that has witnessed her father abuse her mother on multiple occasions, both mentally and physically. Shortly after, her parents divorce, her mother is sent to a depression clinic, and Dolores ends up living with her strict and very devout Catholic grandmother in her mother’s childhood home. And that is only the beginning. We are with Dolores as she is raped by her upstairs neighbor, is mocked at school, and as she battles the stigma that comes with being obese. We are with her when her mother is killed in a freak accident, as she struggles to be accepted by her peers in college, when she quits college, considers suicide, spends a decade in a mental institution, and eventually gets married to the wrong (WRONG) guy. There are a number of other tragedies along the way, and surprise, surprise — Dolores is still depressed. Depressed for 95% of this 550+ page novel. I am wiped out just writing that summary,not to mention reading the darn thing. And since I’ve given the entire plot away, I hope I have saved you hours and hours of frustration as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a depressing book every now and then. Heck, I just wrote about how much I loved Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You last week and that one was a real tearjerker. The biggest difference between Me Before You and She’s Come Undone is that I truly connected with the main character in Me Before You. I cried because I felt emotionally attached and could feel the pain the characters were feeling. I did not cry once in She’s Come Undone. Not when Dolores’ mother died, not when her grandmother died, not even when she had her abortion (okay, now I’ve really given away everything!). Connectedness, that is the difference, and that is what She’s Come Undone lacked.

Review: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

(3 out of 5 stars)

I had high expectations for this book, I really did. A book about books? META. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is about a young man in his mid-twenties (Clay Jannon) living in San Francisco. After losing his job as a web designer (for a bagel shop!), Clay lands a gig working the night shift at a book store that is, you guessed it, open 24 hours a day. After a few nights on the job it becomes clear that this is no ordinary bookstore - the customers are few and far between, and the ones that do arrive in the middle of the night are all very strange and seem to have a peculiar agreement with Mr. Penumbra where they borrow instead of buy their books books. Clay decides to figure out what is going on with the help of some curious friends.

Perhaps my expectations for the book were too high, but the novel just fell flat for me. I was never terribly engaged, especially after (SPOILER ALERT) I found out that all the customers were trying to solve a mystery in the borrowed volumes that… dun dun dun: would reveal the secret to immortality. IMMORTALITY. Guys, I knew I was reading a fiction book. I just didn’t realize it was THAT kind of fiction. Also, the article goes into excruciating detail about all the “geniuses” at Google, which I didn’t enjoy. It felt like I was talking to an entitled douchebag at a bar that loved to brag about his job at Google. Yes, I’ve met your type before, no need to meet you again. (No offense to the many non-douche-y Googlers out there!)

Overall, not amazing but not terrible either. If you do plan on reading this book, word of advice straight from the novel: borrow, don’t buy. You will not be re-reading it.

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

(4 out of 5 stars)

Divergent is the first installment of a trilogy from Veronica Roth set within a dystopian version of Chicago. As with most young adult books, I approached with some apprehension — turns out, not necessary. Divergent was fast-paced, interesting, and ended up keeping me up past my bedtime. 

The novel centers around Beatrice Prior who lives in a society where everyone is divided into one of five factions: Abnegation (for the selfless), Amity (for the peaceful), Candor (for the honest), Dauntless (for the brave), and Erudite (for the scholars). On a certain day every year, all 16-year olds are given the option to choose which faction they’d like to join for the remainder of their lives — that is, stay in the faction with the family that raised them, or join another. Beatrice makes the tough decision to follow her heart, leaving her family and joining another faction. Once she makes that decision, she begins an extremely difficult and trying initiation process. Through it all, Beatrice is hiding a deadly secret which she later learns could save her loved ones, as unrest unravels in their five-faction society.

Divergent was a real page turner, I couldn’t put it down. Was it as good as The Hunger Games? For me, not quite. But was it worth reading? Definitely yes. I’ll probably read the second installment, Insurgent, this summer as the third book comes out in the fall. And the biggest question you have, I’m sure: will I be dressing up as Beatrice “Tris” Prior for Halloween this year? Most likely no… (See Halloween 2011 post here).

“Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.” 

“Maybe there’s more we all could have done, but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.” 

(Almost) Crime and punishment to read “Crime and Punishment”

When your favorite book series ends

From my favorite new website…

(Source: dearpaula, via whatshouldwecallme)

Review: 1Q84

I think my last post made it pretty clear that I was not a fan of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. Actually, “not a fan” would be an understatement, I’d say “flat out disliked” would be more accurate.

I approached reading 1Q84 in much the same way I approach exercising before an upcoming beach vacation. I dreaded it every day, constantly questioned whether the results were worth the pain, and instead of marking my progress, I counted down till the finish. The only difference? Finishing 1Q84 didn’t make me any skinnier.

The most frustrating part about 1Q84 was that it was so extremely long and drawn-out. Those 944 pages could have easily been cut in half, maybe even more. And can someone please address the excessive number of sexual fantasy occurrences? Oh yea, that one, hot steamy night of lesbian experimentation? Cool, I got it the first time, no need to remind me of it every 50 pages. And oh yea, Tengo’s first erection? Didn’t need to know that the consistency was “somewhat thicker than urine.” DID NOT. And really, is it okay that Murakami rambled on for nearly a thousand pages without explaining anything at the end of the novel? Where were his editors?!

If 1Q84 were a movie, I’d ask for my money back.

Flavorwire: The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

Shakespeare & Company, Paris, France


Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht, Holland


Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina


Livraria da Vila, Sao Paulo, Brazil


Cook & Book, Brussels, Belgium

 
Corso Como Bookshop, Milan, Italy


Plural Bookshop, Bratislava, Slovakia


The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA


The Bookàbar Bookshop, Rome, Italy


The American Book Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Source: Flavorwire

Runway DIY: Book Clutch

So sweet, but I could never take an exacto knife to my copy of Pride and Prejudice…

(Thanks Em for the forward!)

Source: http://runwaydiy.com/2012/02/02/diy-book-clutch/

Craving this Book Table…

Meet the Designer: An SF Architect’s Approach to Book Shelves

By Dara Kerr / 01/16/12 at 5:00 am

Instead of a coffee table book, what about a book coffee table? Bay Area architect, artist and fabricator Lisa Finster is now custom creating what she calls the “Book Table.” She takes people’s favorite and different sized books and precisely fits them between panels of poplar—much like putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

“I love incorporating things into my work that have significance to me – it’s like I am building a home for something I love while giving it a reason to live on display, or to become something useful,” Finster says. “For me, the book table is like a functional memory capsule – it is a table made complete by a series of books from a formative time in my life.”