It's Monday and I am loving A Little Life

 

This week was a lot of catch-up for me after my sister's wedding weekend, so the blog was pretty quiet. I did write a post to check in about what I had been reading and raved about the awesomeness of Saga.

Reading-wise, I've been immersed in A Little Life. At 720 pages, it's taking me a while but I can already tell that I will be sad when my time with Jude, Willem, Malcolm, J.B. and the rest is over. If you haven't read it yet, get to your library or bookstore already! But be warned that it is some very heartbreaking stuff.

Reading Now:

A Little Life
By Hanya Yanagihara

Up Next:
          
Tiffany Girl                                       The Folded Clock
By Deeanne Gist                               By Heidi Julavits

What are you reading this week? 

5 Reasons to Read Saga

Saga, Book One

By Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Image Comics November 2014

504 pages

From the library 

1. This story is all about family.
Saga may be set in the middle of an intergalactic conflict, but the characters are devoted to their families. We see parents coming to the aid of their adult children, spouses supporting each other, and people grieving the loss of their loved ones. But this story also subtly suggests that families can be created when people come together to fight for what is right.

2. Awesome women
Hello cover of a nursing mother! This might be my favorite cover ever. The story in fact opens with a birth as a Marko and Alana, a couple from opposite sides of the war, bring their baby Hazel into the world while danger is literally knocking at the door. This story is full of women fighting for what they believe in and generally being awesome, all the while being nurturing mothers, wives, and friends.

3. It's impossible to put down
I confess I picked up the collection intending to read one issue and then put it down for a while. That did not happen. I read this straight through, all 18 issues of goodness. Vaughan and Staples drop the readers right into the middle of action and it doesn't let up. When I finished this collection, I went right to my computer to request the next volume from the library. 

4. The world building is amazing.

You can't set a story in far-off planets and not explore other places and species, right? We travel with Marko and Alana around the galaxy, sometimes in a ship that grew out of a tree, and encounter royals with tvs for heads, ruthless bounty hunters, and a world populated entirely by brothels (have I mentioned this is definitely not a series for kids?)

5. Fun and thought-provoking
Saga is a blast to read. It's clever, beautifully drawn, and has characters you have to adore. But it is also written to make you think about issues that exist both on the page and real life. Vaughan is taking a hard look at war, slavery, and power and reading this awesome collection will make you do the same. 

Checking In

Well, I'm a little late to meet up with everyone for the "It's Monday, What Are You Reading" posts, but here I am. It's been a whirlwind weekend as my sister got married on Saturday and I haven't been home since Friday morning. It's been a really great to spend lots of time with my entire family these past few days.

Last week on the blog, I shared some thoughts on two graphic novels I read during the 24 Hour Readathon, and reviewed The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly. Reading-wise, I started off with The Memory Painter but it wasn't really working for me. I put it aside for now (which is not really my strong suit) and sat down and read straight through Volume 4 of Saga instead. Then I spent some time with a Catholic family in Massachusetts in Inside the O'Briens. I brought The Girl on the Train with me for the wedding weekend and managed to finish it on Monday night. I promise some posts will appear on this blog again soon!


                                       
                                        Inside the O'Briens                Saga: Volume 4

                                                          
                                                          The Girl on the Train

Up Next:
                 
Royal Wedding                                     A Little Life
By Meg Cabot                                       By Hanya Yanagihara


What are you reading this week?

Review: The Bullet

The Bullet

By Mary Louise Kelly

Gallery Books March 2015

368 pages

Read for review via Netgalley

Caroline Cashion has a certain order to her days. She teaches her classes at Georgetown University, she visits her parents, and she has lots of time to read the books that she loves. When she gets an MRI, she is stunned to learn that there is a bullet at the base of her skull. She has no memory of ever being shot. Caroline soon discovers that everything she thought she knew about her childhood was false. Her beloved parents adopted her as a three year old after her biological parents were brutally murdered. She heads down South to her hometown, determined to find answers about what happened to her parents that night. But the bullet lodged in her skull is from that terrible night - will it help her find the truth or bring the killer back to finish what he started 33 years ago?

Thrillers are not my usual cup of tea, but something about the description of an ordinary professor drawn into intrigue drew me into the story. Caroline was a very believable protagonist. I am often frustrated by books and movies where an ordinary Joe or Jane suddenly is able to beat up all the bad guys and shoot with perfect aim and win in a car chase. That's not the case here. Caroline is a professor of French literature and so she goes looking for the story. She starts at the local newspaper and ends up talking to the cop who worked the case and her old neighbors. She certainly picks up some skills as she goes and evolves, but it is a gradual change. 

This novel is dark in places because it is about knowing ourselves. Caroline adores her family and thinks that she knows her history, but finding out new things about her past makes her question who she is, what she wants, and just what she is capable of doing. She is heartbroken that her parents and brothers have been lying to her for her entire life and must learn to trust them again after a lifetime of lies by omission.

Ms. Kelly does a wonderful job of portraying place. We begin in Washington D. C. as we travel in and around Georgetown. Caroline travels to Georgia to find answers and readers are treated to a totally different landscape and a group of people who are very different from Caroline's usual big city companions. I don't want to spoil anything, but Caroline travels to one more place during this book and the attention to detail makes the reader feel as if they have been instantly transported.

The Bullet is a great fast-paced read that will have you flipping pages late into the night, all the while wondering just what you would be capable of if your life changed forever in one terrifying moment. 

Readathon Mini-Reviews: Seconds and The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

Katie is a talented young chef with her own successful restaurant and plans to open another one. But she doesn't always make the best decisions. When Katie reignites a tryst with the sous chef in order to feel better about the reappearance of her old boyfriend, disaster strikes. A waitress is terribly burned and Katie wishes she had a chance to do that day all over again. In the middle of the night, a girl appears in her room and instructs her to write down her mistake, eat a magical mushroom, and relive the day in question. So she does. She fixes her mistake. But Katie soon discovers that fixing one thing isn't enough - she wants to fix everything. As Katie rewrites her life, things quickly become complicated. Has she created a mess she can't get out of?

For a reader who doesn't often dip into graphic novels, this was a perfect pick. The story draws the reader right in - who doesn't imagine what they would do differently if they had a do over? The premise of the story is magical, of course, as Katie uses magic to live days over and finds herself on the bad side of an angry and powerful house elf. But at its core, it's about the responsibility of being a grownup and the knowledge that success in our professional and personal lives comes from hard work. There are no shortcuts or magic mushrooms. There is only putting in the time and the love and waiting to see what delicious combinations we can cook up.


Seconds
By Bryan Lee O'Malley
Ballantine Books July 2014
323 pages
From the library

In ye olde 19th century, eccentric inventor Charles Babbage and sheltered mathematician Ada Lovelace invented plans for the first computer. Sadly, their machine was never built but it did go on to inspire more modern incarnations. Sydney Padua imagines what might have happened if Charles and Ada had brought their plans to fruition. How might they have used the machine? To save the economy? To finally get rid of street music? To fight crime? This book is jam packed with lots thrilling adventures and a good dose of Victorian history.

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is one of those books I desperately wanted to love, but found a little flat. I appreciate so much that Sydney Padua is bringing science and history to life in a really fun way. The comics themselves and the accompanying footnotes are often chuckle-worthy as the author reveals the disparities between what she imagines and the realities of history. But I found myself having a tough time transitioning between the stories and the notes. Padua has included copious notes and she obviously understands her science. I oscillated between trying to understand the machinery (so maybe not the greatest pick for the wee hours of the morning on Readathon day) and wishing that the comics themselves were longer. I wanted more zany adventures with Lovelace and Babbage and I wanted the ones I did experience to be more fleshed out.

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage:
The Mostly True Story of the First Computer
By Sydney Padua
Pantheon April 2015
320 pages
From the library

It's Monday and I bought more books. Whoops.

So our library's book sale was this week. I was sort of good. I only bought three books for me and four for D. And in my defense, I took several bags for our books to the library as donations. But my Thursday night purchases were not so helpful to my toppling tbr shelf.

I played the piano for the entire Sunday morning service at our church. I am pleased to report that there were no major catastrophes. Then I came home and feel asleep on the couch for the afternoon. Making music is hard work!

This week on the blog,  I reviewed Neil Patrick Harris' quirky autobiography and shared mini-reviews of Tiger Lily and Glaciers, two books I read during the April Readathon.

Read This Week:

     
Scary Close                               Americanah
By Donald Miller                   By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Up Next:

      
The Memory Painter                  Inside the O'Briens
By Gwendolyn Womack            By Lisa Genova 

What are you reading this week? 

Readathon Mini-Reviews: Glaciers and Tiger Lily

I picked up this book because I love Peter Pan and I wanted to read a YA book during the 24 Hour Readathon. I was excited to read it, but I had no idea how much I would like it!

Tiger Lily is the story of Tiger Lily and Peter Pan told from the perspective of Tinker Bell. But this version is different from any you've read before. Tiger Lily is a sort of outsider in her own tribe. She was discovered by her tribe's shaman as a baby and the people's respect for him protects her even as her neighbors watch her with suspicion. When Tiger Lily encounters the boy behind the terrifying legend of Peter Pan, she finds someone who might actually understand her. Their growing relationship is threatened when Tiger Lily is promised in marriage to the village brute, but their greatest danger will be in the form of a group shipwrecked on their island...and one girl named Wendy.

This book is not a fluffy love story. It's a dark tale about coming to terms with being a grownup and taking responsibility for the difficult choices we have to make. The characters in this book have been broken by their circumstances and by their loneliness. They don't really know how to make good choices. Even the villains aren't truly villains in this tale. People you think you should despise (Captain Hook, anyone?) turn out to have tragedies of their own to shape them into the people they become. The characters are so well-written that I am still thinking and wondering about even the most minor of them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a new spin on Peter Pan's story or readers who appreciate a dark, well-written story.

Tiger Lily
By Jodi Lynn Anderson
HarperCollins July 2012
292 pages
From the library

Isabel is not the kind of person you would notice out on the street. She is a quiet young woman who works as an archivist at her local library and likes to wear vintage clothing. Glaciers take you into her life for just one day. On this particular day, Isabel is thinking about the guy who works down the hall and wondering if she has the nerve to invite him to a party that night.

This book is short and not many things happen in its pages. We are just following one woman on one day, where nothing particularly catastrophic happens. And yet the story is utterly captivating due to Smith's gorgeous writing. Isabel wonders about what it means to be home and what it is like to travel. She grew up in Alaska and now lives in Portland. But she dreams of traveling the world, especially through her collection of vintage postcards.

Glaciers is a tiny jewel of a novel. The story is gentle and lovely and the perfect read for a rainy evening or quiet weekend. Witnessing Isabel's examination of her past and her hopes and dreams for the future can only cause readers to do the same.


Glaciers
By Alexis M. Smith
Tin House Books January 2012
174 pages
From the library