I am 4 down. 96 to go. This is actually kind of a bummer. I feel like I need to be deeper into this by now to make the goal. Luckily, we took a trip to the Used Book Superstore as well as Barnes and Noble last weekend where I hit the crazy sale section and got a few things to hold me over.
I have decided that while I am reading these books, I might as well review them as well. Follow the read more link below to see the reviews.
The List (so far):
- Six Train to Wisconsin by Kourtney Heintz (fiction, occult)
- The Diviners by Libba Bray (YA fiction, occult)
- An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (fiction, art)
- The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro (humor, memoir/essays)
In Progress:
- How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (humor, memoir, women's studies)
- Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (economics)
- The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (fiction, fantasy)
On Deck:
- Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards (Women's Studies)
- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (fiction, historical-fantasy, occult)
- Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good by Kevin Smith (humor)
Some of these have been in progress for a while *cough*Avalon*cough*. I have my work cut out for me, for sure.
Good thing I like reading, huh?
Reviews!
Six Train to Wisconsin by Kourtney Heintz
**This was marked on Goodreads as a spoiler alert although I don't think anything is spoiled.** The Six Train to Wisconsin transports the reader into the world Kai and Oliver share in a unique way. Ms. Heintz has taken two locations with nothing in common except two characters and has made them feel completely opposite (which Manhattan and Butternut, Wisconsin should be) but somehow similar at the core. In Manhattan, the reader feels as cramped and confined as Kai does when her shield is down and the world tumbles into her mind. Butternut, conversely, is less cramped than Manhattan with less for Kai to hear but it is just as confined--this time by lack of people, loneliness, and lack of purpose. This unexpected juxtaposition of duality enriches the already wonderful story Ms. Heintz has created.
Character development takes the stage in this novel, with extraordinary attention to detail. From the ways dialogue is written (both the spoken and projected) to how each person deals with betrayal, loss, and forgiveness differently speaks to how we function as humans--each with a unique way of phrasing and coping. Ms. Heintz has taken many perspectives of the human experience and woven them into her characters with the skill of an artisan working a loom. The research put in to this novel to accurately portray those with abilities that are often seen as other-worldly (like telepathy, dreamwalking, etc) is tremendous as is the characterization of the geography. The dedication to get things write, even down to the geology of a location, is too often overlooked but in Six Train it is layered throughout the novel giving her words an extra level of fullness.
Ms. Heintz has given readers a novel with soul. It unabashedly explores love, life, relationships, and the occult without dumbing them down for easy digestion or moving through them too quickly. She has created a story that one can easily relate to and hard to put down.
Character development takes the stage in this novel, with extraordinary attention to detail. From the ways dialogue is written (both the spoken and projected) to how each person deals with betrayal, loss, and forgiveness differently speaks to how we function as humans--each with a unique way of phrasing and coping. Ms. Heintz has taken many perspectives of the human experience and woven them into her characters with the skill of an artisan working a loom. The research put in to this novel to accurately portray those with abilities that are often seen as other-worldly (like telepathy, dreamwalking, etc) is tremendous as is the characterization of the geography. The dedication to get things write, even down to the geology of a location, is too often overlooked but in Six Train it is layered throughout the novel giving her words an extra level of fullness.
Ms. Heintz has given readers a novel with soul. It unabashedly explores love, life, relationships, and the occult without dumbing them down for easy digestion or moving through them too quickly. She has created a story that one can easily relate to and hard to put down.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
LORD. Good Lord. Everything this woman touches is friggin' gold. I have a YA literature problem and 95% of it is Libba Bray's fault.
In The Diviners, Bray paints a picture of life in New York in the 1920s with perfection. The varying vernacular between races and classes as well as outfit discriptions are as exquistie as they are true to the times. Bray does not slouch when it comes to research! The book follows Evie O'Neill as her parents ship her out to New York to live with her uncle as punishment. Her uncle is the curator of an occult museum (at this point, I am sold.). Evie has... abilities and the more you read the more other people around her start presenting their abilities too. But those are for later novels in the series, I assume. You follow Evie as she helps her uncle and his assistant try to crack the mystery of serial occult murders. The pacing is fabulous. The variety of characters, their circumstances, and how they all enter each others' lives is mesmerizing. The murder scenes can be a little unsettling if you are sensitive to fictional gore but keep in mind it is for teens so it isn't too gruesome. Seriously, stop reading this and go by everything she has written. Now. Do it. The next in this series comes out in August. BONE UP ON HER WORK. I can't even write a good review because I don't want to give anything away. #nerdproblems
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
I love Steve Martin. I have read all of his fiction. All of his plays. His autobiography. His tweets. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd above, his tweets. He is one of my comedy icons. That being said, I still don't know how I feel about this book.
This is NOT a funny book, nor do I think it was supposed be. The book is a fictional memoir of sorts, from the point of view of a man who is remembering a woman he knew from college through adulthood. Both characters are figures in the art world, the woman (Lacey) much prominent than the man. You follow Lacey as she builds a name for herself in the New York art scene from working at an auction house through gallery work. The story is intriguing enough as it covers all the juicy things in life: sex, drugs, booze, theft, and general assholery. Intermittently, Martin has placed pictures of the paintings they discuss which is a great help to a reader who isn't fluent in art. The language itself, they way Martin carefully crafts his words is as beautiful as always. I liked the book. There were parts I truly enjoyed and parts where I was left feeling...blah about the whole thing. Perhaps that is his point. Maybe he wants the reader to love but question Lacey as she makes decisions and obsesses over her career, to feel as the narrator feels: a magnetic connection and fascination with a beautiful creature who's dealing with beautiful things can be quite ugly.
The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro
I have been reading Laurie Notaro's books since I was in high school. She is immensley funny and has the ability to make the most mundane things hilarious. In Potty Mouth she does it again, taking things like Facebook, Pinterest, and Yelp! and putting them ON BLAST. She is clever and scathing but always entertaining. She is everything I want to be as a writer. Her crosshairs don't just find social media targets but also point at her family, neighbors, and even herself... Leaving readers laughing out loud and possibly peeing their pants in the wake. In a departure from her normal rib tickling, knee slapping style, the last chapter is a beautifully written and soul bearing piece about what it was like when one of her best friends found out they had an aggressive form of brain cancer. In this piece, Notaro drops her usual tone for one that is brutally honest, hopeful, and poetic all at once. It was a surprise when I came across it but the Q and A at the end of the book explained it well. Notaro talks about how humor helped them through it, from the time they found out she had it through treatments. Humor helped to heal and helped them deal.
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