You must never feel badly about making mistakes, as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.
…things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.
Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
(via weltenwellen)
Family member: So the holidays are coming up, is there anything you want for Christmas?
Me: Oh, no, not really...
Family member: Come on, there must be SOMETHING-
Me: *produces and unravels twelve-foot TBR list from pocket, written in ink drawn from a wild cephalopod, on a papyrus scroll* Ok, sit down. Let's start at the top.
Well, due to family things and general business, I fell way behind on book reviews in August and September, but I still wanted to do a brief roundup of some of the books I didn’t get to talk about. Because, you know, I always need an excuse to talk about books.
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (4/5 stars) — This nonfiction book recounts the true story of a whaleship sunk by a whale, as well as giving some really interesting background on the Nantucket whaling industry in the 1800s. This is one of the most engaging and informative nonfiction books I’ve read in a long time.
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (3/5 stars) — The Buried Giant follows an elderly couple in a mythical kingdom who get wrapped up in a quest to lift a spell that’s clouding everyone’s memories. I typically love Ishiguro’s work, but this one didn’t wow me. The writing was beautiful, of course, and the moral dilemma of whether to lift the spell was interesting, but I found it a little hard to get through.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (2/5 stars) — An alcoholic is swept up in a mystery when one of the people she watches from the train every morning goes missing. Despite the hype, I had a hard time getting into this book. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters or care where it was going.
Local Girls by Caroline Zancan (3/5 stars) — A group of friends in a small Florida town meets a famous actor in a dive bar on the last night of his life. A parallel storyline shows how the girls fell out with another member of their group years before. I found the writing a bit long-winded at times, but overall I enjoyed the book. Zancan does a great job depicting the group’s complicated dynamic, and she draws you right into the characters’ world. A great summer read.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (3/5 stars) — This is a retelling (of sorts) of the Iliad that follows Achilles and Patroclus from adolescence to the end of the Trojan War as they fall in love and have to face Achilles’ prophesied death. I think I just heard so many great things about this book that it couldn’t live up to my expectations; I wanted it to tear my heart out of my chest. Still, Miller is a wonderful writer, the characters have great depth, and it is an overall beautiful story.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (4/5 stars) — When the favorite daughter of the Lee family is found dead in a local lake, each member of her family reflects on the years leading up to her death. It’s an intimate look at the inner workings of a family that has always been on the outside because of the parents’ interracial relationship (it takes place in 1970s small town Ohio). Ng masterfully alternates between the perspectives of the remaining family members and even Lydia herself, gradually painting a picture so vivid, it’s hard to believe this book is under 300 pages.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (4/5 stars) — A man returns to his hometown for a funeral and begins to recall a disturbing incident from his childhood involving monsters, magic, and a very nasty nanny (sort of). I don’t really know what to say about this book except that it is really magical. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it isn’t Neverwhere or Good Omens, my two favorite Gaiman books. I know he only co-wrote Good Omens, but the point stands — the bar has been set too high.
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
blakekathryn
gamechangershow
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
