I read the first third of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (the last in the trilogy) directly off the heels of the first and second books a couple years ago, but then lost interest. I started the final book over for CBR 6, but I was still a little worried that I’d forgotten too much of the story (or the sometimes-very-Swedishly-named characters) to jump right back in. The only thing I’d really forgotten was that Stieg Larsson was the king of brief recaps—so many of […]
This Author’s Note is the Twistiest of Twist Endings, Mind Blown
I finished this book this morning, got to the end and thought, sure, I’ll read the author’s note, and therein I found out that this story–about life and death and poverty and corruption and justice and injustice and good luck and bad luck in a Mumbai slum–is totally, COMPLETELY TRUE. It blew my mind, you guys, because it reads like fiction: the characters are so well-documented in their thoughts and dreams (and sometimes even in the listed cause of death in official records and police […]
This Star Won’t Go Out
It’s difficult to think critically about a book like This Star Won’t Go Out, because it was clearly put together with lots of love by the grieving friends and family of a charming, precocious, and kind sixteen-year-old girl who died from complications with thyroid cancer. So instead I’ll try to give you an idea what it’s like. The book revolves around Ester Earl, who was about as lovely as any fictional book heroine you could imagine. She was funny, thoughtful, self-depricating, creative, kind, friendly, uncomplaining, […]
Paper Towns and Paper Girls: Manic Pixie Ideals Hurt Everyone
I bought Paper Towns by John Green because I’m mildly obsessed with him and I loved The Fault in Our Stars. I very unfairly thought I’d be a little disappointed by Paper Towns because I was aware of my high expectations, but I was wrong. It’s fantastic. The Fault in Our Stars is about losing someone you love totally unfairly to cancer. Paper Towns is about losing someone you love out of the blue, not knowing what happened to her, and slowly figuring out that […]
Or, “My Personal Opinions on Death and Friendship”
I was raised as a conservative Christian. My boyfriend has been an atheist his entire life. There are other reasons that our childhoods seem totally alien to each other, mostly because he grew up having outdoor adventures in Alaska and I grew up watching movies in New Mexico. He is the person you want on your team for a zombie apocalypse. I am the person you want on your team for Trivial Pursuit. The religion difference is significant. I believed, up until only several years […]
Think “Brokeback Trojan War,” only BETTER
Maybe because I grew up in Christian private school, or because I’m just oblivious, or because Hollywood has succeeded in shaping my view of classical literature, I did not know until reading this book that many scholars agree that Achilles and Patroclus were not friends, or cousins, or brothers-in-arms, but lovers. Ooh la la! In fact, most of the time I was reading this book, I thought that the author, Madeline Miller, had taken a modern artistic liberty that was an interesting spin on the source material […]