Week 22: The Sculptor by Scott McCloud

I went to my local book store a few weeks ago with the intention of picking up something that would straight up murder me emotionally: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. I’d been told, by a very credible source, that it was one of the most powerful and emotional books I’d read this year, so I was prepared […]

Week 21: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

As ridiculous as this may be, I’m about to issue a spoiler alert for an 84-year-old book. If you don’t want to know the ending of Brave New World, read this ridiculous news story about Salman Rushdie rating classics low on Goodreads instead. In the final chapter of Aldous Huxley’s remarkably futuristic Brave New World, John the […]

Week 20: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

What’s more worthwhile, a captivating book whose charms prove fleeting, or a difficult, at times painful book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it? I’ve been asking myself this question for nearly a month, thanks to the shit kicking I took while reading Lauren Groff’s brilliant, yet aggravating, Fates and Furies. As lavish […]

A Harry Potter Virgin’s Year Long Read-Along

I apologize if this makes you hate me forever, but I haven’t read Harry Potter. As with swimming, skydiving, and movies starring the Wayans Brothers, I’m very much a virgin when it comes to Rowling’s classic series. Before you start readying your wands, know that this isn’t necessarily my fault. By the time the books became a cultural […]

Weeks 17-19: Ho Ho Holy Hell the Holidays Make Me Lazy

I contemplated doing weekly posts for my reading over the holidays, but now that it’s 2016 I kind of just want to turn the page and set my sights on a new year. My first real year with the blog. Up until now I was kind of playing around with stuff, figuring out formats I liked, […]

Week 16: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I’ve rewritten this paragraph eleven times now. The first ten attempts were a sickening brew of overindulgence and sentimentality, a collection of verbal vomit brought on by an overwhelming desire to accurately express a euphoria that can only be described as embarrassing. I have no confidence in my ability to put this to paper without […]

Week 15: The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678)

Author John Bunyan was born in Bedford, England, in 1628 to an illiterate tinker. As a wandering tradesman, Bunyan’s father had little money and barely a place to call home. Because of this, Bunyan often compared his meandering life to a pilgrim’s journey, heavy pack on back. Bunyan was largely self-educated, his biggest influence being […]

Weeks 13 and 14: The Stolen Throne and The Calling by David Gaider

I’m always abjectly terrified reluctant to write about the really nerdy stuff I read. I’m not talking about Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones here. That’s pop culture nerdy, the kind that even image-obsessed women can get away with. There’s no fear of judgment because they’re so widely accepted. What I’m talking about are Dragonlance novels. Star Wars “expanded […]

The Classics Spin #11: Going Rogue

If you’re a book blogger, you know how this works. If you’re not a blogger, I hereby introduce you to the Classics Spin. The Classics Spin is a semi-annual event run by The Classics Club. For each spin they ask bloggers to pick 20 classic novels from their Classics Club list (you can find mine here). […]

Novellas in November 2015: A Wrap Up

It would have been easy to consider this year’s Novellas in November event (ha!) a failure. Rather than the dozen or so books I’d planned on reading, I only read six. Rather than write a few update posts throughout the month, I wrote exactly one, that which you’re reading right now. I didn’t post a single thing […]