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The Bookly Bulletin: June 2015

Published by Katharine S.

A few months ago, I announced a new post titled “The Bookly Bulletin” where I’d be sharing book-related tidbits from around the web… And then I didn’t do anything. Life, as it does, had me a bit distracted. BUT, I’m back and with the very first Bookly Bulletin installment. So let’s not wait any longer and get right to it!

If you’re like me (ahem, a book hoarder), you might be running out of shelf space. Thankfully, The Everygirl provided some ideas to use them as home decor.

Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and On Beauty, wrote a piece on Oprah.com about what it means to be addicted to reading.

I can’t get enough of these two Instagram accounts.

Did you know All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction? Have you read it?

It can be hit or miss (depending on your taste in pop culture), but The New York Times’ “By the Book” column is one of my favorites.

As an Aziz Ansari fan, I’m intrigued by his new book and loved the interview he did with NPR.

I can never (ever ever ever ever ever) get enough book lists. I particularly enjoyed this one from APW (one of my very favorite blogs).

Bookly Recommends {YA}

Published by The Bookly Club

Maybe you’ve already read Ender’s Game. Maybe you want to wait and read Ender’s Game later this month. Whatever your reason, we’ve got you covered with more {School’s Out} recommendations to get you through May and June.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: Does this actually need an explanation? Read the books!

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins: If you haven’t read these books yet, you need to! They’re fast, action-packed, and thought provoking. And who doesn’t love a powerful and strong female lead?

Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer: If you’re as into YA novels as we are, you’ve also probably already read this series. If you haven’t, it’s worth a read. These books have been very hyped and highly criticized since their release, and we aren’t here to take sides. Give them a read and decide for yourself.

The Lorien Legacies Series by Pittacus Lore: The first book in the series, I Am Number Four, was made into a movie a few years ago. Rest assured, the books are SO much better. If you start now, you’ll definitely be done in time to read the sixth book when it’s released in September.

The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth: A great story about love, strength, family, and identity wrapped up in a larger mystery… what lies beyond the gates? This is another great YA series, and there’s still time to catch-up before the third movie comes out.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio: This is the story of August, a fifth-grade boy born with severe facial deformities, and his first year in school. August, his sister, and a few friends serve as narrators in this beautiful, heartwarming novel about acceptance, love, and friendship.

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie: It’s a dystopian future in Ally Condie’s trilogy (WHAT? Dystopian YA novels?), and main character Cassia is learning the truth about her society. If the premise sounds familiar, it should. These books may not be the next Hunger Games, but they are entertaining and present a bit of a different twist than what we’ve seen in HG and Divergent.

The Real Real by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus: A stand-alone novel from the authors of The Nanny Diaries, this book is like a behind-the-scenes, novel-ified version of “Laguna Beach.” An under-the-radar high school girl is chosen to be on a documentary about her high school and drama unfolds! It’s a perfect beach read for the beginning of summer.

The Giver by Lois Lowry: One of the original dystopian (utopian?) young adult fiction novels, The Giver introduced the reader to Jonas and the society in which he lives in the future. It’s a little bit 1984, a little bit Divergent, and a lot of amazing – there’s a reason it was recommended reading when we were in elementary school!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: This book is everything you could want in a coming-of-age young adult book. It’s touching, it’s sad, it feels real, and it runs the gamut of emotional experiences. After you read the book, watch the movie and marvel at Logan Lerman’s portrayal of Charlie.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: Admittedly, it’s been awhile since any of us have read this book, but it holds a fond place in our hearts and memories. Another book from the required reading list, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the childhood and adolescence of Francie, a young girl living in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. The book touches on several important themes, provides a glimpse into life in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, and gives readers a heroine they can’t help but root for and relate to.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan: This is basically YYA, young young adult fiction. It’s an easy to read, adventurous story with ties to Greek mythology. Plus, reading about Percy and his friends will take you back to those awkward, but lovable, middle school days.

Heroes of Olympus Series by Rick Riordan: You finished the Percy Jackson series and want more? You’re in luck! Here’s a second series of the same ilk. This time with new characters and ties to Greek and Roman mythology.

May & June Book

Published by The Bookly Club

This month’s theme is …. Schooooooool’s OUT. For. The summer! (Get ready for that song to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day)

Spring is here, school’s almost out, and summer’s on it’s way. Now begins those few precious months all of us post-grads miss so desperately… Summer Break (excluding the teachers in the group). So forget required reading for awhile and enjoy! In honor of school days past, we’re reading the young adult classic Ender’s Game!

Written by American author Orson Scott Card in 1985, Ender’s Game is a scifi novel set in Earth’s future, when mankind is about to face a third attack from alien life. The main character, Ender, is one of the many children trained from an early age to fight in this ongoing war. But apparently there’s a certain genius to Ender’s tactics… we’ll have to read to see what that is exactly.

Some of you might remember the movie that came out in 2013 with Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley. Yes? No? It looked pretty awful and it didn’t seem to do very well considering the book’s existing fan base… can’t say for sure if it was any good or not, but like the saying goes; apparently the book is way better than the movie, so we’ll give it a try.

The Bookly Club wants to keep reading new and different books, so we’re excited to keep the trend going with Ender’s Game! We hope you’ll read along with us. And share your progress/thoughts with us on Instagram or Twitter using #BooklyMark.

Oh, one last thing… check out our playlist for May/June:

Humility, Humor, and Hyperbole

Published by Katharine S.

Right around the time this book was coming out, I heard an interview with Allie Brosh on NPR. Not being familiar with her blog or her story at the time, I was intrigued and enjoyed the personality she conveyed in the interview. I intended to pick up her book, but never got around to it.

So when we picked this book as our April read, I was eager to get my hands on a copy, especially because the format she chose is a new one for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I found her sense of humor both endearing and relatable, often laughing out loud or reading certain snippets to my husband. My favorite stories were by far “The God of Cake” and “Motivation,” mostly because I found myself nodding my head in solidarity. My two weakness: sweets and my tendency to procrastinate. “I had tasted the cake and there was no going back” and “Most people can motivate themselves to do things simply by knowing that those things need to be done. But not me. For me, motivation is this horrible, scary game where I try to make myself do something while I actively avoid doing it.” Those quotes should be included in my obituary. (Or maybe not… they don’t necessarily put me in the best light…)

However, I did find it hard to get engaged. Because the stories were short and there was no actual story to become attached to, it wasn’t a book that had me eager to pick it up. Still, when I did sit down to read it went quickly.

As a whole it was a light, easy read that got me laughing even as she wrote about difficult subjects – like depression – and I appreciated her honesty and humor in both. Definitely pick it up, especially if you’re interested in trying a graphic novel.

A Girl I Can Relate to…

Published by katemhny

I’ve been reading Allie’s blog since June 2010. A friend sent her post, “This Is Why I’ll Never Be an Adult” to me and I think I snorted water out of my nose and exclaimed, “THIS IS SO TRUE!” I followed her blog regularly after that and was disappointed when it seemed to stop. When she returned with the post on depression, I was so taken with how honest and how self-aware she was.

Needless to say, I was excited to read Hyperbole and a Half and wasn’t entirely sure why I didn’t already own it. It was great to revisit some of my favorite stories and wonderful to read some of the new ones. I continue to be impressed with how self-aware Allie is and how well she can describe her life, feelings, and situations.

These stories are all so relatable. Even if you haven’t lived through what she’s describing, you understand where she’s coming from. She makes her life accessible and that’s not necessarily an easy thing to do.

Of course, her illustrations are just so hilarious and adorable, and it’s worth reading if only to get a chuckle out of her renditions of the people and animals in her life.

This is not a book you need to dedicate any significant amount of time to reading, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend time with it. I know I will certainly be revisiting most of these stories again and again.

The Joys of Exploring Your Inner Nerd

Published by katee

We are an exhausting generation full of instagrams, facebook posts, and selfies (don’t you dare tell me that I’m too old for selfies…I would like to reserve the opportunity to “selfie” should I fancy…but I digress). There is a brilliant article by Tim Urban from a while back entitled “Why Generation Yuppies are Unhappy.” It basically describes how our delusional expectations are on a crash course with far less awesome reality. The net effect is that we are an entire generation of bummed out, woulda, coulda-ers with a serious case of FOMO. Now, while this is somewhat drastic, a lot of the article rings true.

The people who truly succeed in this always plugged-in and turned-on generation, or at least so says I, are those who can look above the haze and proudly proclaim “holy cow, I’m a nerd.” Do not fall into the rabbit hole – the bottom of which is littered with people with selfie sticks who have lost track of themselves. Self awareness is a characteristic lost on far too many these days. Self awareness and killer sense of comedic timing is a gift. David Sedaris is really one of the first autobiographers to elevate this gift to a higher art form. Then came Allie Brosh.

Everything about the book is “flawed” from the lime green pages to the amplified stick figure drawings. That is the point. Despite our best efforts, we are generally not the best versions of ourselves. We are weirdos running around in pink dresses and weird yellow dunce hats. Usually we are the post-op dingbats, lit up like Christmas trees, running through fields with kites (Yes, readers that was me). Rarely are we the faces we project out to others (#wokeuplikethismyass).

I loved Brosch’s writing style. It felt like your funniest friend telling you a story about nothing and it was the best damn thing you heard all day. That is the best way I can describe it and perhaps the only way I have to describe it.

The drawings, which are hysterical as is, brought the book to a different place. Somehow, that wide eyed, no necked, curlycue armed self portrait captured a wider range of emotions than honestly any high fallootin’ piece of art I’ve seen in a long while.

So A+ from Kathryn D. Take it with a grain of salt though – I did once run through a field cracked out on anesthesia dragging a kite on the ground behind me.

Excuse me while I put on my pink tunic and yellow cap…

Fast and Fun!

Published by Katherine C.

Motivation… a fickle beast. In Allie’s case it was a Blockbuster rental (sigh, I miss those). In my case it’s that pile of clean clothes that taunts me from my bedroom floor, “fold me, please!” No matter how much I bargain, guilt, or abuse my subconscious, those clothes just sit there. On the floor. FOREVER.

So many of Allie Brosh’s stories in were so relatable and funny. Hyperbole and a Half did not disappoint. And it was a SUPER fast read. If I’d had a few uninterrupted hours one afternoon I could have finished it in one sitting. But interruptions aplenty, it still took less than a week reading only during my 15 minute subway commute.

Brosh’s sense of humor is self-deprecating and silly. She finds the humor in everyday shenanigans. And the combination of text and illustrations adds to her anecdotes. Her drawing style might be juvenile, but it does a great job of getting the point across. Every bend of an eyebrow and down-turn of the mouth give her characters the perfect expression. I’d be reading along, and then one look at the paired illustration and I’d be laughing to myself among perfect strangers on the train.

I loved each of the stories she shared. But probably my favorite moments were the stories she shared from childhood, specifically The Parrot and The Party. In fact, The Party reminded me of a story one of our fellow authors could share… involving oral surgery and the overwhelming urge to fly a kite. But that’s her story to tell. My worst (and only) experience with such a surgery was when I got my wisdom teeth out and the Novocaine reached the nerves controlling the positioning of my left eye. So everything was blurry for the next few hours as my left eye went rogue swimming all over the place. I just remember covering my left eye for the rest of the day and refusing pictures. Thankfully there’s no photographic evidence.

But I digress.

Overall I thought this was a fun read! Whether or not you’ve ever read a graphic novel. or whether or not you like that format, I think you’d like this book. It’s so quick and entertaining you can’t help but enjoy it. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a good laugh.

I can’t help but wonder… where’s Allie now? She hasn’t posted anything recently and I couldn’t find much else out there about her… I wonder what her next move is.

Chicago’s Oldest & Largest

Published by The Bookly Club

If you’re a fellow bibliophile, and you’re in Chicago (for whatever reason), you have to visit Myopic Books! True to our title, it’s Chicago’s oldest and largest used bookstore. Packed tight into an old brownstone on Milwaukee Avenue in the heart of Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, Myopic has three floors fully-loaded with used books. They seem to cover every possible surface, which makes sense considering they boast over 80,000 editions.

Google Street View

The staff is very friendly, always greeting visitors with a happy hello and available to answer questions. And if you visit you may have a question or two, since it’s a bit of a book maze inside. But that’s part of the fun! You weave through tight, makeshift hallways lined with books and the air smells like well-loved paperbacks. There’s nothing better, right?

And you’re likely to find a great deal. Myopic is pretty particular about the books they buy. Most of their selection ends up looking fairly unused since they weed-out any books that have taken too much damage.

But even though they’re choosy, they have a great selection! They carry a variety of choices in fiction, art, architecture, music, film, philosophy, science, religion, psychology, literary criticism, mythology, children’s, cooking, sci-fi, biography and local history/interest… and tons more. And if you visit during walk-in buying hours (Friday evenings or all-day Saturday) you can sell one, and buy one… so you can walk-out guilt-free and conserving space on that over-flowing bookshelf.

They’re open 7 days a week from 9am to 11pm, so next time you’re in the neighborhood make sure to stop in and let us know what you thought!

Illustrating Adventures

Published by The Bookly Club

Since this month we’re reading a graphic novel of sorts (Hyperbole and a Half ), we thought it’d be a great time to learn more about the genre. And who better to learn from than an illustrator and comic book author? Introducing, Dan Hood!

Read on to learn about his Illustrating Adventures, comic books, and be one of the first to see Dan’s latest comic, The Green Bowl…

Tell us a little about yourself and your work…

I grew up drawing, creating, doodling. It’s really the only thing that never gets boring to me and is definitely a driving force in my life. I graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a degree in comic books, which is funny to tell people. I enjoy making comics, but I also enjoy animation and painting as well.

What do you love about graphic novels and comics?

The way story and art are in harmony achieving something more than what they can accomplish individually! It’s a very beautiful thing.

What are some facts people might not know about this genre?

Great question! The strips of emptiness in-between the panels are technically called “gutters”! Also, ComicCons are cool, but there are also really neat smaller publishing expos to check out like CAKE in Chicago, it’s FREE!

Do you have any favorites you might recommend?

Winsor McCay is a big-time inspiration to me. He wrote and drew the Little Nemo comic strip in the early 1900’s and was a pioneer in animation as well. A newer release I really like is Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. It’s got this “reality or fantasy” theme that is super disturbing. Gus & His Gang by Christophe Blain has cool wild west adventures. Also, my friend got me hooked on reading the manga One Piece by Eiichiro Oda, which is a lot of fun!

Have you read Hyperbole and a Half, what did you think?

I’m not as familiar with reading blogs, especially in a sort of diary format combining comic strips and narrative text, but I really enjoyed it. There is some serious subject matter in there, but it’s spoken to in a really empowering and humorous way. If anything, Allie Brosh seems really honest about herself, and that’s really inspiring.

Tell us a little about your comic, The Green Bowl…

The Green Bowl is my self-published comic about a superhero who loves smoking weed. It’s pretty silly, but that’s kind of the idea. It has jokes, romance, villainy. All of the things that make superhero comics rad. The first issue is completed and is expected to hit shelves/cyberspace soon!

To read more about The Green Bowl’s adventures, click here!

Bookly Recommends {Humor}

Published by The Bookly Club

Are you already finished with Hyperbole and a Half and looking for another read that will tickle your funny bone? Here are a few recommendations from the Bookly Club that will keeping you laughing all the way through the month of April.

Yes Please! by Amy Poehler: A quick read, Amy’s journey and career so far are full of laughs. Though on more than one occasion the story might not make her sound so great, you have to respect the fact that she keeps it real.

Bossypants by Tina Fey: If you’re a fan of Tina Fey’s writing (SNL, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), you’ll be a fan of this book. If you’re not a fan of Tina Fey’s writing, then, well, we are very different.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling: Mindy is a girl’s girl and she wrote a book for girls. She says things you might be afraid to say, and she’s got her finger on the pulse of what it’s like to be a young woman right now.

5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth by Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal): A book of comic strips about everything ranging from text message etiquette to the titular “good reasons to punch a dolphin in the mouth,” this book can be used to brighten your day and doesn’t need to be read cover-to-cover! The humor is, admittedly, not necessarily dinner party appropriate, but there’s nothing that is outright offensive (unless you really hate mayonnaise).

This is a Book by Demetri Martin: A sucker punch of comedy written by an ex-Daily Show and Conan writer. The perfect book for someone who doesn’t really want to read as this is crafted out of largely a series of one liners. If anything just read it for Martin’s wonderfully weird drawings of a pony with a second ponytail or the highly accurate line chart of the dangers of when having to sneeze and pee intersect.

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris: Take equal parts cookbook, etiquette guide, and humor. Mix them together and you’ve got I Like You. Amy’s recipes are nearly all delicious and simple and she presents them with genuinely helpful, though sometimes obvious, tips for hosting and living. It’s the perfect book for your coffee table, your kitchen, or just your bookshelf.

Bookly Recommends will return each month with suggestions for you based on books we’ve read and loved. All the recommendations will be in line with the current month’s theme. So, if you’ve already read the Book of the Month or you finish early – we’ve got you covered!