I read Shibuyama’s review of The Merry Spinster before I got into the book and braced myself for horror. I don’t like horror (I get nightmares easily, apparently) but I’d heard good things and still wanted to read it. This was a case of bracing myself and then it really not being as bad as I was thinking so yay! Played the expectations game and won. It helped that the book opens with a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid, the OG little mermaid which is […]
You’ve really got a hold on me
As I have mentioned before, fairy tales were my jam when I was younger. I also love some good remixes — musical or cultural — and humor, so things like Texts from Jane Eyre were absolutely delightful to me. When I heard that Daniel Mallory Ortberg was putting out a book of retold fairy tails (as Mallory Ortberg), I immediately put in a pre-order. In my haste and my assumptions based on the humor of Ortberg’s other work, having missed the “Children’s Stories Made Horrific” […]
does he have a horse? is that what this is about? does he have a sword gun or a railroad or a ..a nice hat or something?
I stumbled upon Ortberg’s hilarious “How to Tell if You are in a Jane Austen Novel” a while back on The Toast web site so when this popped up as a Goodreads recommendation I took it to heart. A quick search of the CBR site tells me that quite a few of you have laugh snorted through this one. It’s a difficult one to review and I’m very tempted to just say, it’s very funny so go read it, but there is that pesky 250 word […]
IDK my BFF Jane?
I went back and forth about reviewing this book. Considering I spend most of my times reviewing nonfiction tomes, it felt weird to review such a short, fun bookette. But Texts From Jane Eyre has become one of my go-to recommendations. It’s an inside joke to all of my fellow book nerds, that yeah, Scarlett O’Hara would totally have texted that annoying crap. The premise is simple enough-what if classic characters from fiction were able to text? Although it seems like a one-note joke, I […]
No One Is Safe
I don’t think I can reach the 250 word quota for this review. Just go read this book. It’s hilarious. No book is safe, no character left unscathed. Ortberg’s ability to hone in on the character’s personality and then twist it into the 21st century is ridiculously brilliant and packs a punch that shades between laughing out loud and the irresistible urge to shout “BURN!” to the character on the page. My two all-time favorite sections are her rip on the American Girl series and […]
DID YOU LEAVE BECAUSE OF MY ATTIC WIFE IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
If you’re ever having a bad day, you could do worse than self-medicating with maybe a hot bath or some hot cocoa or ice cream or soft pajamas or episodes of Gilmore Girls, but maybe also think about adding Texts From Jane Eyre in there as well. There were parts of this book that made me laugh until tears squeezed out of my eyeholes. There were also other parts, mostly to do with classics and mythology, that made me glad I have my friendly Google […]