Not finished yet, but was inspired to get this after watching the kathleen hanna documentary "the punk singer." Marcus' writing is simple, and a littl...moreNot finished yet, but was inspired to get this after watching the kathleen hanna documentary "the punk singer." Marcus' writing is simple, and a little juvenile, but it's colloquial, and relatable, and a book about riot grrrl could never be anything else. It doesn't matter that they didn't play their instruments perfectly. It was never about making music, fundamentally. It was about revolution, radical feminism, and expressions of female experience on our own terms. It was about making the space for ourselves that got taken up and taken away, instead of waiting for a piece of the pie. It was about getting the girls to the front. Of everything.(less)
I loved this book. It's set in a small logging town in southwestern Washington, and it's about trees, poets, and young women figuring out who they are...moreI loved this book. It's set in a small logging town in southwestern Washington, and it's about trees, poets, and young women figuring out who they are. WHAT WOULD I POSSIBLY NOT LIKE ABOUT IT. Brenda is still reeling from the death of her brother, basketball star and town darling Benny, one year ago. She plays basketball to drown out her feelings; her fear of what comes after her senior year, her uncertainty about her parents' relationship in the wake of their tragedy, and her cluelessness about how to make a life outside of her older brother's shadow. Not answers, really, but new questions, paired with compassionate advice and ridiculous recommendations (eg. recite poetry at the foul line) from the team's new coach Mr. Hobbes are what get her through this, the most important year of her life so far. Plus, reading this book means you also get to sneak-attack read Emily Dickinson, Vachel Lindsay and Edna St. Vincent Millay. SCORE!(less)
Do not ever read this book. I am re-reading it because i read it as a child and it horrified me and i needed to find closure. It's awful in every way...moreDo not ever read this book. I am re-reading it because i read it as a child and it horrified me and i needed to find closure. It's awful in every way a book can be awful. BOOOO this book.(less)
Meh. Byrne is not a very compelling writer, and he had some alarming prejudices show up throughout the book. (eg. He totally understands using skinny...moreMeh. Byrne is not a very compelling writer, and he had some alarming prejudices show up throughout the book. (eg. He totally understands using skinny pretty people to lip sync when original opera singer "looks like an elephant.") chapter on finances was useful, and his honesty seems earnest, but this book could have been 150 pages shorter AT LEAST. Did not need an entire chapter on his choice to wear black t shirts in early Talking Heads days. he doesn't come across as cocky, just unedited. Rambling. Picture of his bleach-blonde, seductively-sprawled on greenery- self in 70s makes up for a lot, though...(less)
The mom in this story knocks it out of the park. Her sons ask which is better at everything, and which one does she love most, and she shifts the lens...moreThe mom in this story knocks it out of the park. Her sons ask which is better at everything, and which one does she love most, and she shifts the lens and answers wisely about their unique skills and her unique love and appreciation for them. Bonus points for a title that only reveals its cleverness when you've finished the book and considered color theory.(less)
Mary Oliver is my favorite poet. This collection is looser, funnier, a little less precise than her earlier work. I enjoy the poems less, but love her...moreMary Oliver is my favorite poet. This collection is looser, funnier, a little less precise than her earlier work. I enjoy the poems less, but love her more for writing them. For a lifetime she has been the most watchful pair of eyes we have, and now if she wants to write about falling out of trees and dancing to break the rules, so be it. Her love of the water, her memories, her love and yearning for her dog Percy; all feature prominently here. Also snakes, thrushes, wrens, prayers, a woman in the Ganges, and very early mornings. The poems don't suit me as much, but the poet is still perfect.(less)
I read this sweet, philosophical dog's-eye-view in one sitting this afternoon. Enzo is ready to die, because he saw on a documentary once (he loves tv...moreI read this sweet, philosophical dog's-eye-view in one sitting this afternoon. Enzo is ready to die, because he saw on a documentary once (he loves tv, though he knows he watches too much) that dogs become humans when they die. His story of watching his family struggle with death, custody, false accusations, betrayal, hope, fear, and love is melodramatic, but effective. Questionable handling of homosexuality, teenage sexuality, and portrayals of femininity, not to mention some pretty heavy-handed spirituality, but overall pretty impossible to put down. With the stuff i cringed at came also a love letter to Seattle and some irresistible hippie questioning of police, lawyers, and western medicine. The car goes where the eyes go.(less)
Levertov's style in this collection is too conversational for my taste. Her poems remind me of ginsberg's, actually. They're sideways stories more tha...moreLevertov's style in this collection is too conversational for my taste. Her poems remind me of ginsberg's, actually. They're sideways stories more than linguistically precise distillations. My favorites were her clearly soul-wrenching explorations during and after her visits to vietnam during the war, schadenfreudistic as that sounds, her "prayer for revolutionary love" (that our love for each other's work give us love for one another/ that our love for each other give us love for each other's work.), and "libation," about toasting an old lover, "wishing each other/ the luck not to need luck."(less)
Not depressing, not patronizing. Just bolstering, in the way that only bracing, honest poetry can be. And Keillor's impassioned paean to the craft in...moreNot depressing, not patronizing. Just bolstering, in the way that only bracing, honest poetry can be. And Keillor's impassioned paean to the craft in the introduction is perhaps the book's highlight: Poetry as journalism, as friend, as historian, as one of the last few places where people are still telling and being told the truth. And it's all clear enough that it could be read on the radio, to someone doing three things at once. Welcome back to my life, poetry.(less)
Much shorter than "homeland security," and ends on a cliffhanger. Is Thor really delusional, or is Loki distorting reality? Will The Defenders train u...moreMuch shorter than "homeland security," and ends on a cliffhanger. Is Thor really delusional, or is Loki distorting reality? Will The Defenders train up and become human heroes? Did Bruce Banner really die? Who outed him as Hulk? Why was Natasha's only job in this story arc to get proposed to by Iron Man? That said, conversations on mental illness are hopefully up next. Just have to get my hands on the next issue...(less)
I like how consistently the women kick ass (wasp and widow, namely), and i'm intrigued about how the spousal abuse between wasp and giant man will pla...moreI like how consistently the women kick ass (wasp and widow, namely), and i'm intrigued about how the spousal abuse between wasp and giant man will play out. As is, she won't take his calls. We'll see how marvel handles potential victim-blaming and going back (or not) to an abuser. also: nick fury's lines bordered on shaft-esque blaxploitation at times, just as captain america used france as a symbol of ultimate surrender. Superhero one-liners are not particularly conducive to progressive thinking. Sigh. And the hulk flipping out about being called a sissy boy, and screaming "HULK STRAIGHT!"? I had hoped a giant green biological anomaly would be a little more open-minded. Maybe it's patty of his character arc...(less)
What I like most about this short, pithy YA novel chronicling a fat high schooler's experiences in and out of an alternate education class is that it...moreWhat I like most about this short, pithy YA novel chronicling a fat high schooler's experiences in and out of an alternate education class is that it doesn't resolve nicely. Because, SURPRISE! Neither does real life. Progress is made, as Susan inches toward confronting Kale, who tortures her over her weight, but relationships between high schoolers who hate each other are tenuous. It's unclear whether or not Kale will actually stop bullying and abusing Susan and her friend Brendan, who is gay. And who knows if Tracee will ever get off her high WWJD horse and do the work of loving and forgiving she talks about so often. And Susan's dad, who may or may not ever be ready to talk about his late wife, and her brother, who can't quite bear up under the pressures facing him at school and at home... but for all that, this is a hopeful book. Maybe that's actually the lesson in it; a person can be ok, and growing, and getting better, even when the future is unclear. (less)
I love these books. This one is a little too long, but I forgive Fforde for thinking his ideas deserve extra pages. He's hilarious as ever in this, th...moreI love these books. This one is a little too long, but I forgive Fforde for thinking his ideas deserve extra pages. He's hilarious as ever in this, the 3rd Thursday Next novel. Thursday is living in an unpublished novel of questionable quality, "Caversham Heights," in order to relax into her pregnancy and plan her attempt to rescue her eradicated husband, Landen. But, because she's Thursday, 'relax' means something different. This books sees her become a Jurisfiction agent, which is essentially a policing officer within the BookWorld. She's apprenticed to Miss Havisham, from Great Expectations, and she hits the ground running. Missing minotaurs, murder by mispeling vyrus, a blooming romance between two Generics living with Thursday, an unexpected visit from Gran, and a raging (mental) battle with Aornis Hades, mnemonomorph (memory distorter) and jilted sister of Eyre Affair baddy Acheron, all keep Thursday busy. To put it lightly. Thursday is an excellent character. She's confident, morally stalwart, incredibly smart, funny, kind, and, above all, an avid-to-the-extreme lover of literature. These books are novel-length in-jokes for bibliophiles, and I understand a few new jokes with each re-reading, as I read more of the books referenced, or get double entendres I missed as a 14-year-old. There are currently 4 more published, with a 5th slated for 2014 release. Yum. (less)
One of the downsides to reading these books, which are essentially book-length inside jokes for lit people, is that they remind me how many books I wa...moreOne of the downsides to reading these books, which are essentially book-length inside jokes for lit people, is that they remind me how many books I want to read in my lifetime. Thursday is so well-read! And she can recite poetry and prose passages! And she can read herself into books, and talk to fictional characters! Sigh. I want to be like Thursday when I grow up. "Lost in a Good Book" is a quintessential middle story- conflicts left unresolved at story's end, characters introduced at the last second, more questions than answers. But the writing is leaps and bounds more developed than Fforde's first book; sillier, which is to say more confident, smarter, and more tightly wound. I like a series where saving the world from the Questing Beast, becoming pink goo, saving herself from assassination after the fact, and planning to save her husband from eradication are par for the course for the heroine. Add in neanderthal rights (thals should be allowed to reproduce and self-determine!), a missing Shakespeare play, and the appearance of Aornis, another marvelously-named character and one of my favorite fictional villains, and this book is pretty perfectly targeted to my taste. I'm so glad I'm revisiting them all! Maybe I'll make it a habit. Surely Fforde's seemingly endless allusions, hints, and puns will only continue to delight me as I unearth new ones every time.(less)
I appreciate that the ending was not particularly happy; i think it would have felt false if every conflict had been solved and all the princesses had...moreI appreciate that the ending was not particularly happy; i think it would have felt false if every conflict had been solved and all the princesses had emerged unscathed. I have very little tolerance for evil characters, it turns out, so i got exceedingly frustrated with snow and almost stopped reading a few times because i was so mad at her. But i did finish, and I'll miss living in a series wherein everyone noteworthy is female, and more than a couple are queer.(less)
A little less compelling than "The Mermaid's Madness," as it's a pretty straightforward "Find bad guy, destroy bad guy" plot, but there were also plen...moreA little less compelling than "The Mermaid's Madness," as it's a pretty straightforward "Find bad guy, destroy bad guy" plot, but there were also plenty of points worth praise. First, the plot is entirely Talia-centric, which is cool because she's the most secretive character AND probably my favorite. In this chapter of the princess' adventures, Talia has an open relationship (open as in not hidden, not as in polyamorous) with Faziya, her first love. Also most of the action takes place in her homeland of Arathea, which is clearly Arabia-based in language and scenery. ALSO, the word for thanks in Talia's language is something like "Khuran," which is a powerful pro-Muslim stance if ever I've heard one. And, as always, bless you Jim Hines, almost all the characters are female, down to the animals that pass by and the trolls guarding the fairy god's palace at the end. Gotta say, though, I'm worried about Snow, ever since the concussion and fracture in the last book. I don't think the last book in the series, which I'm reading now, is going to go terribly well for her. I also liked Roudette, violent as she was. She had drive, and she was an excellent adversary, and her motives were never all that unrelatable, even if she slaughtered people to express them. (less)
I was reading this book and watching Downton Abbey simultaneously, which was not on purpose but ended up furthering my appreciation of both. Mrs. Dall...moreI was reading this book and watching Downton Abbey simultaneously, which was not on purpose but ended up furthering my appreciation of both. Mrs. Dalloway takes place in London, over the course of barely 12 hours, and DA takes place over years at a massive country estate in Yorkshire; but they take place around the same time (1920s), and the same parts of their worlds, the Crawleys' and the Dalloways', are changing.
My edition of Mrs. Dalloway, the 1993 Everyman's Library one, has a fabulous introduction by Nadia Fusini which does what good introductions always do: Tell us what to look out for, without giving everything away. With a book like this one, the plot is not actually the driving force of the story. Very little happens. Clarissa prepares for a party, crossing paths with Londoners going about their morning business on a sublime summer morning, and then returns home to fix her dress and ready the house. Meanwhile Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of the recent World War, battles for his life against the ghosts of his past and his friends, on the same London streets on the same sublime morning. Clarissa and Septimus cross paths, but do not speak. Septimus throws himself from a window, after having an hour's happiness talking to his wife, Rezia, like they did before his illness, just before Clarissa's party begins. His therapist, who had planned to take Septimus to a country house to recuperate that same night, attends the party, and Clarissa, whose character is defined by her gratitude to be alive, spends her last paragraphs in control of the narrative thinking about suicide.
But those aren't the parts that make this novel sing. Mrs. Dalloway is a masterpiece because Virginia Woolf is a fearless writer, one who meticulously names the unnameable. A woman at the party hears laughter as she enters, and is "reassured...on a point which sometimes bothered her if she woke early in the morning and did not like to call her maid for a cup of tea: how it is certain we must die." Clarissa, a lady in society, a woman who throws parties which the Prime Minister attends, steps away from her hosting to think about suicide, and has the preternatural ability to accurately guess, and even more remarkably, relive, the nature of accidents that befall other people, without being told the details. Peter Walsh is in love with her, and plays with his penknife. Rezia misses her sisters in Italy. Richard Dalloway did not, for a moment, recognize his own daughter at his party.
Woolf's narrative is driven by the island of each of her characters. A royal car drives through London, and she follows the thoughts of several seemingly random passers-by as they wonder who it is. Her lens is a movie camera, but instead of close-ups on faces, we get close-ups on psychological makeup and innermost thoughts. Clarissa, her old friend and onetime lover Peter Walsh, her daughter Elizabeth and maid Kilman, her husband at lunch with Lady Bruton, drowning, desperate Septimus and his shackled, homesick, grieving wife Rezia... there are dozens of short stories in this novel, and as I revisit it over the years I'm sure I'll be surprised by some new insight or forgotten scene (and will cringe likewise at every racist, dated micro-aggression against Indian citizens) every single time. (less)
This was a very cheesy book full of things a human wants to think their pet is thinking about. Sure, our dogs love us SO MUCH that they dream about us...moreThis was a very cheesy book full of things a human wants to think their pet is thinking about. Sure, our dogs love us SO MUCH that they dream about us, and are thinking about us when we put them to sleep, and are never really in pain, because they love us so much, and they will remember us THREE LIFETIMES later, and they'll try to find us again through all eternity because we are the best thing that has ever happened. It was 319 pages of weapons-grade emotion manipulation, is what this book was. But it made my step-dad cry, so, like Toby/Bailey/Ellie/Buddy, it has its purpose. Plus, if you've ever put an animal down, you're probably going to cry, and that's just how things are going to be. No judgment. (less)
This book was a little more cinematic than the Stepsister Scheme, what with the mermaids and their "inhumanly wide eyes," but overall I didn't devour...moreThis book was a little more cinematic than the Stepsister Scheme, what with the mermaids and their "inhumanly wide eyes," but overall I didn't devour it as voraciously as I did its prequel. There were several points, particularly in describing Snow's magic at the end, as it captures air spirits, that could be translated rather as "Er...this problem needs to be solved, so...MAGIC!", but I didn't mind too much. The author is still writing feminist books for young adults (and adults who love YA books), and he'd have to mess up pretty badly for me to fault him. I'll keep going with the series in hopes that it picks back up. MISC NOTES: poor Lirea; I worry that the author was a little too tied to this idea of, go figure, The Mermaid's Madness. I wish the ending had gone a little differently, and frankly wonder why it didn't. Also, go Lannadae! Great name. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if it was another name rearranged. I don't *think* it is... is it? Also, I wish there had been more sexy scenes in the mermaid mating den. JUST SAYING. (less)
Newly interested in Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. A woman-dominated final chapter of the series, really, which made me happy. Rachel, Annabe...moreNewly interested in Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. A woman-dominated final chapter of the series, really, which made me happy. Rachel, Annabelle, Clarisse, Silena, Hestia. Glad to be done with this series, as it's redundant and not very well-written, but this book did make up for the last one, which I really didn't like. (less)
So many layers to this devastating book. I found myself angry with both women, at different points, and wondered what on EARTH I would do on a beach w...moreSo many layers to this devastating book. I found myself angry with both women, at different points, and wondered what on EARTH I would do on a beach with a machete, five men, two girls, and ten fingers. The cost of white guilt, the cost of choosing not to know the truth, or tell the truth. Affairs, suicide, refuge, terror, knowing in every room how to kill yourself before the men can get to you. Also a potty-training presechooler, and the United Kingdom, and the flavor of tea, and journalism. This is an exceptional book. Gorgeously written. The descriptions of sunlight, the way Little Bee speaks the Queen's English and Sarah is not embarrassed to be in love with her lover. Highly, highly recommend. (less)
my current favorite author and illustrator. every page contains a postcard home to the meerkat family, as sunny seeks out the perfect place. turns out...moremy current favorite author and illustrator. every page contains a postcard home to the meerkat family, as sunny seeks out the perfect place. turns out home looks a little better with every new adventure...(less)
FINE I'LL FINISH THE SERIES GEEZ. I liked this one because it features Rachel Elizabeth Dare, perhaps my favorite character, the Wild One Pan, and Her...moreFINE I'LL FINISH THE SERIES GEEZ. I liked this one because it features Rachel Elizabeth Dare, perhaps my favorite character, the Wild One Pan, and Hera.(less)
I loved the spooky black and white pictures, with spot color, and picking out the references to other fairy tales was fun, but the story was confusing...moreI loved the spooky black and white pictures, with spot color, and picking out the references to other fairy tales was fun, but the story was confusing. did mom really not know where Dad was? why didn't the narrator get in trouble for going through the woods? why the kid with a cow?(less)
mimi is a wee raccoon that is a pirate, knight, astronaut, and superhero by day. she gains a partner in adventure when she rescues beaver from a surpr...moremimi is a wee raccoon that is a pirate, knight, astronaut, and superhero by day. she gains a partner in adventure when she rescues beaver from a surprise shark attack in his backyard pool. yay a story where I needed to change no gender pronouns!(less)
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