This may seem like a weird connection to make because of their very different background settings, but I feel like if you liked the movie Boyhood, you would like the novel Arcadia. Both stories have a very loose story structure surrounding the coming of age of a boy, and both prefer to offer seemingly random glimpses of moments, most rather innocuous, rather than focus on the most dramatic possible events in life. As such, depending on your attention span and personal preferences, some might see […]
Nada, a.k.a What Happens when A Family Lives Too Long Together Under One Roof
One of my reading goals for this year is to read one book written in Spanish by an Iberian-American author, for every book I read in English. I’ve been pretty bad at keeping up with reading in Spanish and I figure why not start something new? So where to start? I decided to start with a list of award winners from several of Spain’s publishing firms. I figure why not start with the best? Well due to the limitations of my library system, the newest […]
An uneven, anti-climactic but still thought-provoking read about teenage sexuality and friendship.
This is more like 3.5 stars for me, mostly for the ending, which just fizzled out, after a strong beginning, strong middle, even strong leading up to the end . . . but the end was a nope. Rounding up though, because I’m just magnamimous like that. The Bermudez Triangle (I refuse to ackowledge its new title) follows Nina, Avery, and Mel, who have been best friends since they were small children. In the summer before their senior year, Nina goes away to a college […]
“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”
“There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.” I’ve been sitting on this one for about a month and a half now, maybe longer, and I think I’m ready to admit something. I rated The Fault in Our Stars five stars immediately after finishing it, and I only rated Paper Towns four and a half stars . . . and yet, I’m fairly certain I actually like Paper Towns […]
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
Benoîte-Marie (Berie) is our narrator. We start with her in Paris, where she’s traveling with her husband, who is lecturing on Tay-Sachs disease. Berie is vaguely dissatisfied, filled with ennui about her marriage. She muses about her teenage-hood in Horsehearts, upstate NY, and her deep friendship with Silsby Chaussée. It’s a story told in wonderfully crafted, evocative prose, that captures not so much a story arc, but rather the feeling of being almost grown up, wandering, being consumed by a friendship, finding an identity while losing your innocence, feeling lost […]
Light on perks, heavy on wallflower
In honor of National Banned Books week I wanted to read something in the top 10 most banned books of 2013. Perks of Being a Wallflower was on the list, could be read in a short period of time and was available at my local library, the trifecta! I didn’t get a chance to see the film when it came out but I knew that it had received positive reviews. Even though I had heard good things I thought it was maybe going to be […]