It’s a terrible feeling to hear praise heaped upon a new book, read it yourself and…not get it. Your mind starts playing games with itself: Everyone else liked this book, what’s wrong with you? Do you just not understand it? Is that it, you idiot? You focus on the book a little harder, maybe if you squint at the freaking book, all of this praise will make sense. But still…it’s just not there for you. That was my experience with Kelly Link’s collection of short […]
“The door opens with a rusted jingle, and an animatronic Santa insults my moral virtue three times. Ho, ho, ho.”
I definitely borrowed this book based solely on the presence of a short story by Rainbow Rowell, but I’ve read books by some of these other authors, too — David Levithan and Gayle Forman (Forman’s story in this was one of my favorites). And I know Holly Black’s name (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, which I will eventually get around to reading, I promise!). Basically, if you like young adult fiction, you’ve probably read at least one of these authors. And you should probably read this, […]
Simple Math Helped Me Rate This One.
I have a feeling that this book is a case of its not you, it’s me. In addition to my goal for Cannonball (65 books this year) I’m working on the Read Harder Challenge put on by Book Riot. As part of that challenge there are 24 tasks and one of them is a short story collection. I haven’t really done much in the way of reading short story collections so this was one of the tasks that truly felt like a challenge. Late last […]
Because There’s Enough Reality Already
Short stories have never been my cup of tea. It takes so much effort to get into the groove of a story that it seems pointless to have it end so quickly. After a friend suggested short stories via audiobook, I’m starting to change my mind. In audio form, short stories become podcast-like and I adore podcasts. Kelly Link’s Get In Trouble was a great starter collection. All of the stories could be classified as magical realism (which I love already) and are extremely well-written. […]
Holiday Love Stories to Make Feel You Warm and Fuzzy
I love Stephanie Perkins. Seriously, in my eyes she can do no wrong. In fact (spoiler alert), one of you may be getting a book by her for Christmas this year. Ahem. When I first read that she was editing a collection of romantic holiday-themed short stories, I was thrilled. And then I read the author list and pretty much camped out at the bookstore waiting for it to show up. And you know what? I wasn’t disappointed. These twelve stories all center around relationships […]
Just writing this makes me want to go and listen to Miss Piggy singing “Five Gold Rings….ba-dum-dum-dum”
Usually, I review my 52 books and then take a break for the rest of the year. And after this review, I plan to do so. But since this is a holiday-themed book, I figured I would write something up. My True Love Gave to Me is a book of short stories, all Christmas themed. The stories are written by an all-star team of YA champions: Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow […]